Cake-off: Rue de Passy "Opera Pistache" over Fraoula "Angers St Laud"

This time my side trip to Fraoula looking for "Angers St Laud" paid off. My original plan in looking for it was to see it through the window and go on to get the second cake, picking this one up on the way back, but the the usual counter person spotted me and pointed to the cake, so I had to come in and buy it, especially since they said that they had specifically made it because I had been asking about it (the patisserie was also out front). They are very friendly and I'm very recognizable, but also not that many people probably come asking about a specific cake and then stalk them over the next few months looking for it. I decided to take it home first rather than carry it 13 km, most of that with a second cake. Actually, I was faster going home, 10 km/h versus 9 km/h, both 4+ km.

I was equally successful for my first choice of a match for this, as Rue de Passy still had their Pistache Opera. This time I was faster going (10 km/h) than coming back (9 km/h), both 8+ km, which is reasonable for a second run where I'm not trying to make a particular pace, but rather trying not to over do it. Just watched a show on two "talents" trying to do sub 3.5 marathons, which requires a 12+ km/h average speed. Neither made it, though each was close in his way. I'm just not enough of an athlete, but at my speeds, I never have trouble with specifically muscle pain stopping me, like they did, so I'm not sure that I really need more training. Instead, I'll try to use my capacity to get where I want to go without causing any tendon or joint failures, or compromising my immune system.

These were both early evaluations of shops I've mostly moved on from (though Fraoula has great pastries). This Angers St Laud is a little different from the one two years ago. On the plus side, it has a great pistachio flavor and is well complimented by the almonds and biscuit. On the downside, it has somewhat gelatinous parts that slide off each other (you can see the white top and green bottom) when you cut into them. I still think it's excellent, but I have a hard time saying that it's great. In contrast, the Pistache Opera is a standard layered cake of biscuit and thick praliné/ganache, so in that way it's not exciting, but I like the taste and like the structure of this type of cake, so maybe those are why I am choosing it over Fraoula, at least today.

So I guess Yu Sasage is for next Saturday. In the meantime, I need a shopping run or research run with no cake to balance out the extra cake today. I also want to get to JPH for a Verrine this week, since they only have these and summer and classify them as cake; I don't consider them cake or like them much, but I should give them another chance while I have the chance: they have three varieties per month for 4 months, so they would keep me busy if it turns out that they are worth trying. Also, I want to work in a new shop and now I owe both Sadaharu Aoki and Rue de Passy another sampling, though I definitely won't get to the later this week. Not sure whether I'll take a rest tomorrow (probably not, as I'm not that tired or sore) or whether I'll need a rest Friday before my Saturday run (again, greed/obsession will probably prevent that). I'll probably keep the Saturday run to only 30 km, which is easily done but I'd like to stop by some other shops on the way for research purposes, though I'll also need a snack for that long a run, as Yu Sasage doesn't have eat-in space to eat my cake there and I'd rather avoid eating outdoors.

Cycling from Au Bon Vieux Temp (Tentation Chocolat) to Faraoula (Angers st Laud)

To rest my feet, I went out with my granny bike to what I think of as the Jiyugaoka (自由が丘) area, which includes within a couple stations. As usual, having okay cake yesterday made me crave really good cake, so I went where I knew I could find some.

I started with my far point, which was Au Bon Vieux Temps (オー ボン ヴュー タン), which recently moved around the block to the wide street from the narrow shopping street that runs to the station (Oyamadai Station; 尾山台駅), though it's actually on the Todoroki side, not Oyamadai. No picture because I demonstrated to myself again that you can't carry cake on a bicycle (but I can run several kilometers carrying it), at least not operating it (the bicycle) in a legal manner. My cake was decapitated, but still quite edible, so no problem. The cake was a Tentation Chocolat ("chocolate temptation"; タンタシオンショコラ) for 650 yen. It had a not quite solid block dense chocolate tart-like base of about 1 cm (3 to 4 cm diameter), a middle slightly thicker layer of still fairly dense chocolate mousse, and was topped by chocolate whipped cream. Great cake (which is why I go to this shop). I need to go to the cafe/restaurant and have one of their frozen desserts, which are slightly more expensive.

Next, I searched for one new place among the many cake places listed on the local area website but that I had never heard anything particular about. m.koide, who I've seen open and with customers, was unexpectedly closed with a "help wanted" sign on the door. I had already gone past where Patisserie R Okasawa used to be and seen that it had moved, but since I knew that I also had also passed the new shop somewhere though was not sure where, I figured that it was better to look online later (which I've done) rather than go back and search. Patisserie Rikyuu (where I might have gotten cheesecake as maybe the only thing of much interest listed on the menu out front) had a tiny note on the door saying "back at 1:40". Merger-sasa (?) was no where to be found, although I did find an empty storefront with an awning at about the right place that would fit for a patisserie. So I ended up visiting Patisserie de la Loire, which is a tiny Mom (and I think I heard Pop in the back) place that admitted that they didn't have any specialty, which pretty much sums them up. They looked completely basic, but a little sachertorte for 300 yen tasted about like what one would expect, in a good enough way. If you need to buy a bunch of little cakes for students/children/underlings, they have a few basic varieties, and the lady was very nice. No reason for me to go back again.

Okay, back to the greats that bring me to Jiyugaoka: Tarte Tentation (タルト タンタシオン) at Patisserie Paris S'éveille (パティスリー・パリセヴェイユ). This was also chocolate, but a little wider and only about 5 mm thick of chocolate flavored with citrus (with a few orange pieces on top). It was high quality, but the orange (or whatever specifically it was) overpowered the chocolate, so it did not work for me, although not bad tasting. Still, I'll be back until I've sampled everything and then go through the one's I think that I like again (the main purpose of this blog is as a record, since I can't remember all these cakes and shops in detail).

Finally, a shop that just recently moved and came to my attention, Fraoula, hidden between stations at the southwest corner of Yoyogi Park, sold me one of the below (518 yen): Angers st Laud (アンジェ サン ロー)、which is pistachio flavored with vanilla Bavarois (Bavarian cream), but notice that there are little biscuits (English spelling is such a pain, I write as I try to figure out French from phonetic Japanese every day for this blog, although in this case, I didn't need to) in there, as well as almonds: great cake (or whatever you want to call it). Not disappointed with this place yet, so I expect more last stops there (if I can get there by when they close, 5 pm!).