Ryoura, Mille-Feuille Mistral

Finally got back Ryoura a while back for a new cake. I can get their one (available) remaining great cake at Tokyo Midtown, but the selection there is fairly limited so I did a bicycle ride. I wasn't quite as crazy there as last time. They have actually been limiting the number of people inside, but probably I can't remember well. Anyway, even at the main shop, I've pretty much had all their standards already, so it's touch choice. On the grounds that Mille-feuille are a fairly safe choice and I have had one excellent one from there (and one just good), I tried the Mille-feuille Mistral, which is F.Cassel like in having a gelatin layer for the flavor, which honestly I'm not that convince is a good ideal but is a reasonable simple variation. A Japanese source reminds me (not that I probably read in this detail at the time) that its passion fruit and mango mousseline and the gelatin is rhubarb and strawberry, which sounds about right. It was good, but I'm more convinced that gelatin in my mille-feuille is not optimal, but not the worst, as I've found out.

En Vedette, Annette

Monday night, even though I did exactly the same thing Friday, I ran down to Viron in Shibuya to see whether they had a new cake, which they didn't. From there, I went to En Vedette, since they were close and I'm coming up on wanting another new cake from them (and several other quite exceptional shops). As it happened, they had one that tempted me, so I went for it: Annette. Unfortunately, I've already forgotten what the fruit was, but the picture shows strawberry, which I can believe. It wasn't so strong, obviously, nor would I want it to be in this kind of cake. Also inside was pistachio cake, but again, mild, so not my kind of cake so much. But the outside was white chocolate, and that is a fine taste, with the others just there to accent it. So even if it's not along my usual lines, it was a high quality item that I enjoyed, so I can say it was excellent.

While I'm blogging, I'll admit that I was lazy and walked back, protecting my cake. Tuesday, I did a run just out to Tokyo Midtown for my favorite grocery chocolate, also stopping for some Lindt chocolate that was 63% discounted at the local supermarket. Wednesday, I got up early and ran before work (which I wasn't taking the morning off). A little more crowded on the streets than my evening runs around there, but felt good. I stopped by Pierre Gagnaire and confirmed that the folks working there aren't actually told about the cakes (green tea is the theme, but one of the cakes on the posters I haven't actually seen in person). In the evening was rain and Thursday I am taking off the morning (though the rain is predicted to be even heavier then, so probably just walking for cake), so I worked out indoors, more than I usually do, which means three rather than two NHK muscle training clips (but the level 2 ones, so...) and a couple sets of curls, which is a couple more than I usually do lately.

Éclat des Jours, Tropicot

Last Monday, besides the cake for the cake-off, I got one extra cake from Éclat des Jours, for efficiency in the era of virus, long work hours, and short store hours: Tropicot. This has been around for a relatively long time, though not as far back as the first visit. It's a mango, passion fruit, and banana tart, with some shredded coconut. I knew it wasn't really my thing, but I was running out of choices as a 20th cake, but it was their turn or a new cake as one of the quite exceptional shops, at least until this one, which was only good. Betting cakes from here and with tropical fruit coming up, so I didn't give up on either. For some reason, blogger has gone back to the old interface, now that I've figured out the new one. There's probably some way to toggle between them.

I realize, I should really get some pictures of things other than cakes, because there are actually a couple people besides me that read this blog. I'll see if I can come up with at least some shops or pictures of the returned crowds, with more masks than typically this time of year (it's getting too hot for my surgical masks, which I already don't run or bicycle with, but I have other options).

Au bon Vieux Temps, La Môme

Finally, to the other cake of Monday (since not much cake during the week, before or after), La Môme from Au Bon Vieux Temps. This is meringue (raw) on top, rosemary-flavored apricot jelly and confiture, and apricot cream. The biscuits apparently use olive oil. It's all very mild though and not my thing, so this just rates good, which in no way reflect how poor a job I did keeping it intact.

Now, actually, I had a lot more running after that, just around the near neighborhood, doing or practicing updated loops, taking pictures, which I'm not caught up on uploading, 4 days later. So another snack, to give Caffe Veloce another chance their little baumkuchen, which seems to be generic, but it gets a pass, as a substitute for a packet of calorie mate.

Finally, another Yotsu shop I hadn't visited before was Amaguri Tarou (basically, Sweet Chestnuts Guy). They had other little snacks, but I figured I should try the chestnuts at least once. They are okay, but not my thing and really too much trouble to shell for me.

Toshi Yoroizuka, Hitachihime

Today I wasn't working so late, so, to get a new Toshi Yoroizuka cake, I ran to the Kyoubashi shop, which is a little farther than the Midtown one, but convenient to Viron as a backup. Not much selection that close to closing (there's a cafe, as well as a salon, so seems like pretty steady business). I went with the shortcake Hitachihime (which is a registered brand of strawberries). I asked for no ice packs , since its cold (though with a strong wind, not as cold as it feels), and I got 8 little ones: I brought a bag with a giant ice pack already in it, but the young person packing the cake put two little ones in the box and then dumped 6 inside, maybe to fill up the space? This made it rather heavy, besides being rather wasteful (as far as I know, no one wants to recycling my ice packs). However, a heavy bag was useful in the strong wind.

Well, the strawberry was definitely good and the cake was fine as standard Japanese strawberry cake, but didn't stand out, so Bien-Étre remains at the top of the quite exceptional group, challenging Pierre Hermé, except the latter as more cakes under it's belt and Bien-Étre already has almost enough even for a superb shop, so I'm not sure what I'll do. I should get another cake from Bien-Étre soon, but it's not a huge priority (and I haven't actually seen new cakes there for a long time). Besides En Vedette, though, I'm not sure I have any place that's a priority that also has new cakes, so maybe next week, as well as finally starting to hit some new shops.

Origines Cacao: Tarte Citron

Worried about (or despite worrying about) various health issues, I ran not so fast to Ginza to get another cake from Origines Cacao (and seem to be okay for it). It wasn't a fast run and I walked a lot of the way home, because I had time and cake. I think there were two cakes I hadn't had at Origines Cacao and I made the obvious choice and took the one that wasn't pumpkin-based: the Tarte Citron. Note, that this is lemon (I assume, though there could be other things in there) meringue and in no way resembles a tart (or pie) in terms of shape and crust. Nevertheless, it seems to be the perfect lemon meringue whatever, with just the right amount of crust, so I'm not suggesting it would have been better in a tart shell (though I'm not saying it wouldn't, because it is good crust). I'm going to go with great for this one, which is a little dangerous, as it probably reflects the lack of any other active great citron cakes (one of the inactive ones is also Origines Cacao, from almost 4 years ago, with other from Viron about 2.5 years ago, both citron noisette cakes). I could pit this against the seasonal JPH cake next, rather than the planned Mont-Blanc, but there's another JPH cake I can use for this one and not have it twice in four days, so I'll hold off at least a week.

L'Abricotier, Fromage Cru

Tried the Daita--Daizawa--Hatagaya--Kamiyama-chou--Kitazawa--Motoyoyogi-chou--Nishihara--Ooyama-chou--Shouto--Tomigaya--Uehara loop again, starting at about 7:40 am. I realized that I would actually feel bad if I was successful, because I've gotten used to running it, or at least starting to run it. No danger: I got the new part added for the shrine I discovered last time, corrected the mistake from last time, and made (after reaching the far west edge of the loop) the following turn that I was worried about late time and found that I couldn't remember what to do after that. Not what I did, as it happens, so I wrapped things up around 9:40 am.

From there, I set off for cake from L'Abricotier, which was closer than I expected, so I around more than half an your early (under their recent business hours). It wouldn't have been bad to wait, except, I was wet from the rain. Running and wet isn't so bad, but it's not warm enough for standing and wet. I went to Kouenji Stn., which isn't actually very interesting, and read news on my phone before returning. It was still raining and I was still a little early (though now there were people waiting), so I ran for about ten minutes to keep warm. I decided to eat out (and let someone go ahead of me, who took the last seat, while I was deciding what to get) so I got takeout. My spreadsheet showed I had never had Fromage Cru (rare cheesecake), which surprised me, though it's not something I usually go for, so I got that as my 20th type of cake from them. Obviously, there is fruit on it, and and a little of the inside was fruit-flavored, but it is not obvious what. Probably a red fruit mixture. As it happens, I was in the mood for Fromage Cru, which apparently I should get more of. I'll need to remember how today's was and compare it to Dalloyau's, which is still hanging on the greats list. This one hit me right, so I can call it excellent.