Atelier Kohta, Shortcake and Tarte Tatin

After verifying that Pierre Gagnaire wasn't going to give me a new cake Wednesday morning, I walked and ran with an umbrella down to Paris S'éveille Thursday morning (this time taking half-day off work), which hasn't changed it's new cakes, though the recent new cakes are excellent. I came back by train to Atelier Kohta, but I went to the wrong location and had another 1.5 km to walk, plus it isn't close to the station I wanted to come back, so maybe half that again, besides the final walk, so I had an active morning. 

I actually owed them for a cake-off, plus the whole category is about to get reviewed, so I got two cakes to be efficient. Actually, there wasn't much choice, though there was also a tiny tart that I suppose would count as a cake. When I got was the Shortcake and the Tarte Tatan. I've learned to appreciate shortcake, and I guess I was in the mood for whipped cream, as I decided that it deserved an excellent rating.

The Tarte Tatin had so much cinnamon on top, that I could really see how to eat it to balance that out without a lot of drink, but I don't want to rate it too low, because I accidently left it out on the counter for a few hours (and put it back for a couple hours before eating), so it obviously wasn't in peak condition. Still, I can't see how that would change my appreciation of the amount of cinnamon, so I'm going to rate it as good, which sort of balances out the first. This shop should remain in the quite fine category, I think.

Cake-off: Aigre-Douce's Tarte au Caramel Salé over Atelier Kohta's Classic Chocolat

Two Sunday's ago, I did a cake-off between the next cakes ready for fourth-round, both with two wins to one loss. That said, all their wins were against cakes that got bumped from the greats list. This holds true this time, as expected. While Atelier Kohta's Classic Chocolat is excellent, it doesn't really deserve such repeated attention. Aigre-Douce's Tarte au Caramel Sale I have more confidence in, so it doesn't just win by default but maintains its great position.

Cake-off: Atelier Kohta's Classic Chocolat over Ryoura's Mont-Blanc

Saturday, I ran out to Yoga again for a cake-off, this time for the Mont-Blanc for a third round between two one-and-one cakes. On the way, the stopped at Bigarreaux for a pastry, though they don't have much, instead making breads and meat pies. But they did have a Croissant, so I got that. It's on the bread side rather than pastry, but still well made and it was substantive rather than a soft hotel buffet style morning croissant, as I think of that type, so just good isn't so bad, if you're not looking for something sweet (though I am).

The other cake for this time was Atelier Kohta, which I first got 5 years ago, and it's probably been a couple years since it's cake-off (I have records, but don't bother to look). This is a Classic Chocolat (or at least that's how I recorded it), but if a different kind that my lass one. This is like a classic chocolate layer cake, but small. It was raining, so I walked, but it was enough.

Actually, these are both weak members of the great cakes (I didn't before the comparison, but wasn't surprised) who have one non-great evaluation. The Mont-Blanc is excellent, so I enjoyed having it again, but I still can't detect why I thought it was great. There was a period when I was just starting to get Mont-Blancs and I probably overcompensated then. Certainly, if Ryoura is in your neighborhood, it's a good choice, but I don't need in on my list. The Classic Chocolat makes me think of chocolate layer cake in the American mid-west. I manages to capture and probably improve on the basic taste in a tiny elegant form. I can't say that it is the style of cake I appreciate now, but it still has a place in my heart, so I'm keeping it in the greats list and giving it the win this time. Not sure Atelier Kohta actually has a new cake for me, though I've only had 4 from there: the shop only has about 4 cakes. I might end up giving something a second try.

Cake-off: Jean-Paul Hévin's Mont-blanc over Atelier Kohta's Classic Chocolat

This cake-off involved running to get a Classic Chocolat from Atelier Kohta in the evening of Friday April 20th and waiting until the next morning to get a Mont-blanc from JPH before they ended their season on the following day. I'll also acknowledge that I was a little rushed and I had to judge the cakes based on only half a piece. Given the lopsided nature of the source brands, it should not be a shock that I am going with the Mont-blanc or even that I'm not sure that the Classic Chocolat deserves to be called great (it was an early choice and I've found other similar cakes that I've called great, I think), though I'll give it another chance next year, if it continues.

Atelier Kohta: Mont-Blanc

In response to their winning a round of cake-off, I finally got back to Atelier. My best option for a new cake was Mont-Blanc, again, for 470 yen. This one was definitely good. It's a chestnut on top, French chestnut paste which was sweeter than average (reminding me of frosting), rum-flavored cream, which was good, on a nice almond tart. I was happy with it, but did not find it special (besides being sweet, which does not impress me, even if it appeals to my sweet tooth). Still a fairly good shop.

The run was fine. I seem to have been slow lately, so I tried to push it a little harder and averaged 11 km/h going out and 10 km/h coming back, for only about 6 km total. I don't have any short runs for next week's weekday runs, so I might only be able to reach one new shop, due to running budget constraints (104 km at 12 km/h is expected to be the maximum for 7 days) unless I take a rest day, which might happen just from spring weather.

Cake-off: Classic Chocolat over Rhône-Alpes

Yesterday, I tried to catch Plaisir at home, which is apparently impossible. Since I was so close, I tried La Base Secrète du GAMIN and found out that Wednesday was its closed day, which is good to know and information that was not available from my other sources. I chose to swing back through Hikarie at Shibuya Station for research purposes rather than go somewhere new for cake, such as Lui's cafe. About 16 km at 10 km/h. So that left me down one cake, meaning today I could do cake-off.

I thought I was going to get cake at Jean-Paul Hévin, but apparently White Day rules still apply and there was a huge line at Isetan. Since I already reserved a Classic Chocolate from Atelier Kohta and needed to get it by 8 pm, I didn't stick around. Instead, I went to Amitié, which is within 400 m of Atelier Kohta, and got the Rhône-Alpes and took both home before going out again for some non-cake errands (well, mainly I needed a new fastener for my running backpack, which is related to cake). Another 10 km at almost exactly 10 km/h average, despite the kills and cake-running.

These were both cakes from small shops that I've not visited so much but made a strong impression at the time. I've had a lot of chocolate cakes since then, though, so maybe I wouldn't rate either as great now, but they are still definitely excellent. The Classic Chocolate has layers of chocolate whipped cream, as well as the whipped cream on top between chocolate biscuit, whereas the Rhône-Alpes has meringue tubes on top which, I still think are nice, and ganache, maybe, between thicker biscuit layers, . But I have to give this match to the Classic Chocolate: I'm warming to whipped cream over time. Actually, I've only had one other cake from Atelier Kohta, so a third cake would level it up with it's neighbor Amitié, which I'm not quite ready to drop from the excellent list, although it probably will end up sliding down to a quite good list eventually, when I get around to needing that. All depends on several newer shops, of course.

Atelier Kohta: Opera Pistachio

Managed to sleep without making my back worse. Still bad, but it's localized to the right side and doesn't hurt if I don't need to pull forward on the right (so I need to keep upright sitting; also sneezing is not recommended). I'll rest from running today, but maybe try to do simple stretching inside later, after dinner settles.

Went back to Isetan and got the Opera Pistachio for 540 yen from Atelier Kohta. I don't have any special information, but it seemed to be a butter cream layer cake. Not really much taste, or maybe that's really what pistachios taste like, but not great. I might still get to their shop some time for a tart, the classic chocolate again, or some other cake, if they rotate the line-up, as something different, but its not a high priority, so probably not this year. I'd like to get to Ginza next and get something from one of the three great (stand alone) shops, if I'm up to it.

Saturday run around central Tokyo

Did a classic wandering route, more wandering than the map shows (I actually stopped to ask a cop, since I had no map, but not on any street shown there). Was more than 16 km, but it was difficult to jog parts of it because of pedestrian density, such as the east part, but I could do some even there. Was doing 1 min alternating intervals of slow fast for more than an hour of running, although it is all relative. No pack because of my back, and felt a little sick from the pain and from having had my eyes dilated at the eye doctor (no problems detected) which was not much returned to normal even after 3 hours, but at least it was darker outside then and I was running east to begin with, so I didn't wait any longer.

I got a cake from Patisserie Yamamuro first (actually, I got that right after the eye doctor, which is a couple doors down, but ran past there again when I went out running). This is a little neighborhood shop with fairly limited selection but no other competition in the Shinanomachi area. I got the Chocolat Pistachio for 480 yen, which is the chef's recommendation and probably the only thing I'm interested in there, although there is nothing wrong with the Pare (?) Chocolat and maybe other things, but not that exciting. This cake is standard chocolate over chocolate mousse with some pistachio mousse inside, but there is also a little berry (not sure whether it is raspberry or strawberry) compote or something, and the balance is good. Definitely one of the better of this standard cake that I've had.

Somehow, Seiyo Ginza got bookmarked, so I looked for it at Matsuya but failed to find it there. I thought about swinging by Hidemi Sugino, but decided I really wanted to go to somewhere new to me. I did stop at the Nihonbashi Mitsukoshi and there I found Seiyo Ginza (which their website says will close after Tuesday) and saw that there was a reason that I've never noticed them before (not a lot of cake, and not what I'm interested in), so that was taken care of. Next, instead I went to find Atelier Kohta, who are at Shinjuku Isetan now, I think, so their eat-in counter is closed. Very small shop really. Actually, it's in an alley, so I went past it and knew I had gone too far and went back and had to search again to find it. Only maybe six types of cakes, include standard items I never want like mont-blanc, opera, and (strawberry) short cake. I got the Classic Chocolat for 515 yen, which was great, although just layered chocolate cake with whipped cream. The only other cake of interest in the selection (which was sold out) was an opera pistachio, but that is something I'm particularly interested in so it's hard to forget about it. I have to go back or get over to Isetan before Wednesday and see if they have it. Their webpage doesn't actually list the pistachio and they list several others, so maybe there is a high rate of rotation. I've add them to the map, along with the Le Pommier, which basically across from them on a different side street, but it is also tiny and I've never really found anything thing there that was special, although it's okay, so they don't really make a cluster of interest, and Anniversary down the street is not much better (notice that I've finished adding all my "A" cake shops to the map).