Ginza Senbikiya, Chocolat Orange

While already next door, I made an attempt to get more cakes from a shop that was on the path to be a fine shop, Ginza Senbikiya, Chocolat Orange. The orange (or mikan) was seemly high quality, the combination of chocolate and orange wasn't really harmonizing in any useful way. Still good. Note, on a Thursday, no short cake. Guess it's too high-end for a weekend.

Atsushi Hatae, Griotte Pistache

Last Sunday, which was my most recent cake, from a relatively new place, Atsushi Hatae in Sarugaku-chou. Since the first two were excellent, I decided to take a chance on something a little different from what I might usually choose or the several nutty or chocolaty cakes and get the Griotte Pistache, which of course has nuts but pistachios are the fruity nuts and I've not particularly appreciated cherry cakes, but this one looked like a good bet as far as having a lot of structural aspects in its favor. Half the inside is actually white semi-solid, which I'm guessing was mascarpone cheese, just because it shows up in cakes a lot and has no particular taste of its own. It was choice dilute the pistachio and cherry. In general, I want a strong taste, but I can see where that might not be the correct choice and here I respect the balance struck and say that this bet paid off, as it was excellent, so it's going to stay pretty safely among the quite fine shops, regardless of how the fourth cake is, but hopefully that will be great. Many other shops to visit, so I might not rush it.  

Le Pan, Yasutomi Yuzu and Praliné Paris-Bres, Gateau Le Pan, & Chocolat Orange

My first choice was Yasutomi Yuzu and Praliné Paris-Brest. The choux pastry was typical. The Yuzu cream was fine. The pâte pralinée was quite dense, like the chestnut paste of a mont-blanc, which I don't have any problem with in general. The cake was good and did balance some different good tastes, though maybe the whole wasn't exceptional compared to the parts. Still, a good cake that increases my confidence in this shop.

The second cake, which I only had one forkful of, is called just Gateau Le Pan and is a standard Japanese strawberry shortcake. It seemed good to me and was confirmed by the other partaker.

The third cake we could agree was the best, the Chocolat Orange. While a traditional combination, the balance is not automatic. This was a very rich chocolate which went with what was like a mikan orange, though I don't know the details. I say rich, but it was not dark chocolate, but rather Valrhona milk chocolate mousse, apparently (I found their whole cake ad). Anyway, it works for me. I'm going to label this was great, as I'd like to have it again, which makes my first great Kobe cake, though that's from a small sample that isn't likely to get that much bigger, as I don't get down here so much as I might have first expected. What I can I say: Tokyo is more comfortable for all evolved. Anyway, next time I come back this shop should be my top priority, as I think I've visited all the main ones that aren't available in Tokyo. I'm curious about the main shops of a couple of those, which might have something to explain their longevity despite the low level of good they exhibit in Tokyo. 

Dandelion Chocolate, Sierra Leone Opera: Pistache

Left work on time and went looking for a new cake at a new neighborhood shop. I had been thinking that Cafe Casa had a couple cakes, but the apple turned out to be just baked apple, versus a tarte tatin, and I suspect that the banana tart is a bakery tart rather than a fresh tart, so it was just as well that it was sold out. I had other business that I had to get home for, so after leaving, I went for Dandelion Chocolate, where I've had two excellent cakes in a category where the rest have 3 cakes and I'm working on raising them to 4 cakes (28 of 49 done). I had the hazelnut opera last time, so this time I went with pistachio. I'm still not confident about what kind of chocolate that one had, but in this case there was a hint on the receipt, so I'm confident calling it Sierra Leone Opera: Pistache, though it was the only opera on display, so I'm not sure what chocolate any opera are now, and the bars online have already changed from last time I looked. It's a small cake, but dense, and I was quite satisfied with this definitely excellent cake.

Pomology, Pomology Shine Muscat & Tarte Tatin

Sunday, got cake for two from Pomology, a fine shop, at Isetan. Obviously fruit is their thing, which is not my thing particularly, so I won't be returning there just for myself (especially at those prices), but didn't mind an excuse to give them another chance (can't immediately find the post on the first two cakes, which were also for two, so maybe I never posted, though it was this year). From the choices given, I went with Tarte Tatin, because tatin can be very nice sometimes. In this case, I thought it was excellent, finally raising this shop above average, though the fruits were always obviously above average.

The other cake selected was Pomology Shine Muscat. Though I'm all about the cake, not the fruit, these high-quality fancy grapes made this a definitely good cake.

Repos, Fromage Vanille & Fraisier (Muscat)

Got cake for two on Saturday from Repos (a.k.a. P. Ease), a fine shop that had given me one excellent cake from their new counter at Isetan. This time, I chose the cheesecake, Fromage Vanille, and a Fraisier, though with Muscat grapes substituted for traditional strawberries (also cheese based, but mascarpone is tasteless, so it doesn't really count; it's just a medium). 

While more soufflé-like than my preferred cheesecake, it was still definitely good. 

The interesting thing about the Fraisier, besides the contradictory name, is that it comes with olive oil that you pour over it (though I guess that's a standard thing with them for this type of cake, Muscat or not). It also was good, and interesting, but I was less convinced. This will remain a fine shop in my list.

Camélia: Chocolate Cake

Wednesday, I worked the latest I had for some time, but since the plan was to go to Camélia in Ginza, which closes at 2 am (the shop that is; I'm sure Ginza is open for business much later), no problem. Also, it was an indoor workout day, so I went by bicycle. This time I remembered to bring my own (insulated, zipper) bag, so I didn't have to waste another super fancy one of theirs for my one piece of cake. Since this was my third cake, after two excellent ones, I figured it was my last try to get a great one from this new shop for a while, so I went for the Chocolate Cake (the Japanese name didn't include Cake, but I can't remember whether it was just the Japanese "Choco" or like the French, "Chocolat"; also, the actual Latin name was written without a space and I'm not sure whether it "Chocolatcake" or "Chocolatecake"). This is chocolate glaze over chocolate mousse over probably chocolate cream or ganache over a chocolate sponge/biscuit. Very simple, but nice chocolate, so I can say that this was excellent two. This shop is firmly in the quite fine category of shops, so I hope to get back to it in about a year.

I'll need to find a new, new shop and I've realized that I can't ignore the one in Meiji Memorial Hall any more (on the groups that it seemed more of a restaurant and the building smells bad to me), because I realize now that they have a dessert counter at Ginza Mitsukoshi. That means I have to breakup revise my neighborhood map near there, so now I've got three loops that I thought I had memorized that need to be re-verified.

Pièce Montée, Mont-Blanc

Getting to the last of the quite fine shops with only two cakes, I ran to Pièce Montée in Ginza. The selection is small, maybe only the few cakes shown online. I went with the Mont-Blanc. It's is small and not cheap, but that is what I expect for the neighborhood (though it's not that far to the nearest Mr. Donut, which is under an overpass on the Ginza border). I toured shops in Marunouchi and did not find anything I needed to get back to. Tomorrow I expect to visit Mitsukoshi, so I left that and Ginza 6 for then.

At more than an hour after starting, I was in Hibiya Park, having doubled back from Shin-Marunouchi Building rather than completing the loop around the imperial grounds. I was hungry so I need to decide whether I would try to eat cake outside, always difficult, to just have energy cookies. I went for the cake and was glad I did. First of all, it was loose in the box, so I don't know kind of shape it would have been if I had run it home, though it was going good for about 30 minutes of walking, mostly in tunnels. The chestnut paste was well sprinkled with sugar, so it wasn't too bitter for me, but the cream inside was also not just plain cream. Even in the dark, it was obviously brown. There wasn't really a chocolate taste, at least combined with the chestnut, so maybe it was also flavored with chestnuts. I'll ask next time I go. The base was meringue, but I just had to eat that last by itself. I'll be going back because I decided that, simple as it was, it was perfect as itself, so great cake. Terrible picture, so I think I'll keep it off Twitter.

Left hip started hurting again after about 10 km. Hope that's not going to stay a thing.

As I review, I miscounted before and I have 50 quite fine shops, compared to a target of 32, which means 18 of them are actually just fine, leaving only 46 shops for the current fine shop list, which is up to 111. That's a probably for a different year, though if I get enough new shops that are reasonably good, I could start shifting those down to just other visited shops.