Viron, Menton

In a rare (though repeated the following day) event, I did not have to work late and went out to try to score a cake from one of the two three-excellent-cakes shops on the neighborhood running map. It occurred to me that I hadn't checked in at Viron, though, so I did that was was pleasantly surprised to find that they had a new cake, Menton. Like the only other Menton I've had, lemon was the main flavor, so I assume that's what Menton, France is famous for. Can't remember what the card said or tell for eating it what else is there besides custard, which seems to be the lemon part. There is thicker lighter area above it (and a nice nutty biscuit below it, almond I assume from the top) that's light brown; can you make just the burnt part of crème brulée, since this was uniform and mousse-like? Guess I need to swing by there again, though they won't have another new thing. Great cake! This works a lot better for me than a lemon tart in terms of balancing the texture of the custard against mousse, reasonably solid biscuit and some solid nuts and coating. I was looking for a great cake especially since I just had a new one from JPH, so this determines the next cake-off.

Bien-être, Verrine Tropique

As one of three shops battling for the bottom slot of the superb shops, I visited Bien-être for cake. This is Verrine Tropique, but unlike other verrines I've had, there is no token sponge in there, so really it's a straight out glass dessert. It was good, with mango and passion fruit, obviously, but forces me to start creating different rankings for with and without verrines. So no more verrines from here based on the with verrine rank, but if they actually got another new cake, I could still get it. At the same time, I feel free to work on the other shops that do have cakes.

Dalloyau, Triangle Citron

The other cake I got last Sunday, also at Ginza Mitsukoshi, was Triangle Citron. According to the brief description on Facebook, it's lemon mousse, solidified, which I guess is possible, though mousse and solidified doesn't really go together in my mind. Anyway, the resulting texture is not so exciting and lemon mousse by itself is apparently really weak, so I can't recommend this cake for anyone. It doesn't taste bad (so it's okay), but I regret eating it, much less buying it. Still, Dalloyau had one great cake recently, just is enough to give them one more chance to stay in play for promotion.

Dalloyau, Fromage Frais

The other cake I got while I was a Mitsukoshi on Saturday as a cake from a challenger to the quite superb category, Dalloyau. Of course, they are an old shop depending on a reputation from a few years back, but they are getting their chance to make their mark again. The old main cheesecake (at least excellent) was retired and replaced by Fromage Frais. Unfortunately, the freshness doesn't really come through enough to make up for the general blandness. It is good, but in keeping with the cakes that have kept me away in recent years.

Pierre Hermé: Paris-Brest Classique, Carré Blanc, and Cheesecake Céleste

New Year's holidays are almost over, so I should catch up, though there was less cake and running than usual. Monday (Dec 30), I ran to Paris S'éveille, where I expected and found two reasonable cake substitutes. One, however, includes coffee gelatin, which I'm pretty sure would not agree with my mouth or stomach, so I'm going to ignore that. The other was Crème Molle, which seems to be a (custard) crème brulée, so I went with that and ate it in the shop (didn't have to wait). It was excellent, as a change, but I'm recording it as "other", not cake or pastry. Future visits will probably be either for cake-offs or pastries, but I'll watch for the rare new cake, since this is a superb shop.

The next actual cake was New Year's Eve, when I visited Pierre Hermé at Isetan to get new cake because of a recent cake-off win.

I was particularly interested in the Paris-Brest Classique, but it was cake for two, so there were two more cakes that I had half of: Carré Blanc and Cheesecake Céleste.

The Paris-Brest was standard, as expected, with choux pastry and praliné cream. Carré Blanc was very fresh tasting, based on mascarpone cheese with I can't remember what kind of herbs and spices--maybe this had ginger, though I'm also thinking something more herb-like. What I do remember was it was not trying to be subtle about the herbs/spices, nor should it, since mascarpone by itself would be quite blank. The cheesecake followed the featured "fetish", céleste, which is strawberry and rhubarb. All three cakes were good, though none of them stood out, so this shop will probably remain a cake-off only visit going forward, as it will probably have to give up its place in the superb category, where it's already had more than it's share of cakes anyway.