Bien-être, Chiboust au Pistache Framboise

Back in April (not sure whether I'll ever get caught up with no running to speak of to write about), I got a cake-off reward from Bien-être, Chiboust au Pistache Framboise. I had seen this when I was last there. Two other chiboust au pistache cakes are among my favorites, but they already changed the base recipe in a way that I like less, so I wasn't raising my hopes up too high. It was good, but I was correct that I'm not that into this new version, also the ones I liked most went with sourer fruits.

Cake-off: Bien-être's Mont-Blanc over Viron's Gateau Chocolat

This is about two weeks behind, as worsening conditions naturally drain my enthusiasm, but still these were great cakes I had in a cake-off. These were the the last (until enough new great cakes advance) of the 5th round cake-offs for cakes with 3 wins to one loss. Getting the cake was pretty easy. Viron in Shibuya opens at 10:00 and always has their Gateau Chocolat. Matching against this was the best cake of Viron's biggest rival in terms of my own ranking, Bien-être's Mont-Blanc, which was among the few types of cakes for sale from 11:00. 

Today, maybe I wanted something softer with more texture variation, even though I love chocolate, so the underdog shop won with the Mont-Blanc. While there, I noticed a new cake I wanted, which hopefully didn't influence me.

Actually, I lied. I remember now that I was running late and went to B-E first and then to Viron. Viron open's earlier, but B-E is more likely to sell out and there was less certainty that they would have what I wanted. In pursuit efficiency, I also stopped at Scramble Square building to get a cake from a counter, which is how I suddenly remembered the order. More about that in the next post. 

 

Bien-être, Chocolate Roll

Last Saturday afternoon,
I went out by bicycle (since I can't run so much) checking a few places. For example, at Tokyo Midtown, I checked whether I could get a new Ryoura cake, but they only had one from that shop at the Dean & Deluca. I've seen more other times, so maybe I shouldn't give up, but I don't need to be in a hurry now as I am going through the many lower rated (but still good) shops seeing who to keep and who to cut, which is likely to take a lot of months. Last stop was Bien-être, which was due another visit by virtue of several successful visits to Viron as far as getting new cakes, which were mostly excellent but not great, so not enough to separate the two shops. Unfortunately, Bien-être almost never has new cakes. Saturday, they had two, both roll cakes, lemon and chocolate. I got the chocolate. It qualifies as good but doesn't belong in quite exceptional shop (though a shop in my top three regularly has roll cake, so can't hold that against other shops too much). I'm glad I didn't get greedy and get the lemon too. On the positive side, it was cheap, but I'd still say the local minimarket is the best place to satisfy a desire for roll cake. And still they have a slight edge over L'Abricotier, but only because I'm willing to ignore the one verrine. 

Cake-off: Bien-être's Chocolat Cuit over Paris S'éveille's Saint Honoré Caramel

I started out the weekend with a two-cake deficit from the previous week, which was immediately filled by successfully scoring two cakes for a 5th-round cake-off for cakes from the three-wins one-loss group. Paris S'éveille opened first, so I went there by bicycle (which is why the top of the cake on the left has sagged backward. Actually, they have three cakes that could have fit the bill, but I got the highest priority one. I wasn't too worried about being able to get Chocolat Cuit from Bien-être even though I couldn't get it earlier in the year since I can confirmed more recently and it seemed unlikely that they would cut it coming up on the Valentine's Day, which is peak chocolate season. Being both great to begin with and having similar records, it's not surprising that I can't say definitely that one is better than another. About halfway through, I decided that the Saint Honoré Caramel had more going for it, but too much bitter caramel and not enough tea meant that at the last bite I preferred the Chocolat Cuit, which I'm giving the win. Also, I need to get a bigger tea pot. (I have a French press that would make three cups, but I don't like to use it.)

Full disclosure, I finally tried a Mont-Blanc from Pronto, the chain café and bar, during the week. It was cake-shop priced but grocery store shape and quality, which is good enough for a chain coffee shop, I imagine, but not for me. I won't waste time reviewing it in detail and, should I ever get running again more than a dozen intervals of 1 minute, it won't be on a cake running map.

Cake-off: Bien-être's Mont-blanc over Pierre Hermé's Deux Mille Feuille

I'm working through the last cake-offs of the year. Saturday's was expected to be the last, a fourth round for two more two-of-three winners, both regular year-round cakes, so were never a priority until the end. One I could get at Isetan, which opens at 10am, so I did that one first: Pierre Hermé's Deux Mille Feuille, their praliné mille-feuille. Getting the other at Bien-être required a little waiting in line (only two customers at a time for ordering, though the café is available with a reservation. I ended up being lazy and going by bicycle. I can note that I went to Isetan the long way, running down the Shibuya Sta. northeast area to check out a shop that turned out to be closed despite their posted hours (it was the Stream Coffee Company shop and I caught them later; they only had chiffon cake, which I've decided doesn't qualify as fresh cake; a brownie would suit me better). I did hit the nearby WeWork café (Foru Cafe) and had the croissant, which was good, if overly fluffy for my preference. Back to Bien-être: they didn't have the Mont-Blanc showing (I could see through the glass), but I was optimistic that even if they cut the lineup during the Christmas rush season, they wouldn't cut that one, which this is especially the season for. The service person was probably inexperienced, as they had to ask the person working at actually making things (they kitchen opens directly on the shop and isn't very big). Note sure what her exact answer was other than that it would come later, which was the answer passed back to me. Questioning further, she said all they had now was what was showing, but I asked how long I needed for wait for the Mont-Blanc. At this point someone who either knew more about how things worked, or recognized me and how I operate (I know what I come for and I don't buy anything else, but I'll wait or come back if I have to), asked the same kitchen person whether she had the Mont-Blanc ready and immediately got a tray of them and told the other clerk to ring one up, so I got what I came for. 

I was satisfied with both of these as great cakes. The Mont-blanc is a straight mont-blanc, no fruit or any other bells or whistles that need to be mentioned, just what you see, whipped cream in the middle (I can't remember already whether there was any additional chestnut in the middle, but if there was, not so much compared to the top), and some sort of softish sablé or hardish cake biscuit base supporting it. The mille-feuille, on the other hand, is already a pretty complex standard, this one including three thick layers (an advantage over FC's, excellent though they are) and lots of praliné. It's a tough choice, but I have to give it to the mont-blanc, that wins with simplicity. Not sure why it beats all the similar mont-blancs, but they've been dropping out one by one, which this one seems in no danger of doing.  

 

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.

Bien-être, Chiboust Earl Grey

First Thursday of the month, I completed a streak of four and scored an early cake for the next week by visiting Bien-être and finding a new cake at night, Chiboust Earl Grey (so no pistachio chiboust). I can't remember what fruit accent this had (and fruit accent is redundant with earl grey tea, but it wasn't anything strong), but it was excellent cake, which is what matters. 

Bien-Étre, Mangu

Sunday afternoon, went out by bicycle to see what was available at shops, as well as do some cross-training. The first stop was PS, where there was a line outside and nothing new visible through the window, so I didn't wait. No surprise there. The second stop was Bien-Étre, where I wasn't expecting anything, but mango had come into season, which included Mangu, so I used up my week's cake allotment. This cake was excellent, with the base sable's strong flavor memorable. BE remains at the top of the quite exceptional shops.

At the beginning of the trip, I stopped at Nikka Block Cafe and got their sable. I didn't stop and eat it until just after buying the above cake, but I really needed it. It was excellent, so I should try their eat-in cake some time. They still close fairly early for weekdays, but they are a neighborhood priority. Meant to do a long run in the evening, scaled it down, then found that I could keep to the route, so I gave up pretty early. My muscles felt energetic, but mentally perhaps I had had enough exercise for the day. If only rotating images was still an option with Blogger (or my phone or Google wouldn't automatically rotate them versus how I took them to begin with).

Cake-off: Bien-être's Mont-Blanc over Au Bon Vieux Temps' Chocolat Framboise

Sunday, I went out by bicycle, as a little cross-training is good, plus it was predicted to be around 30 degC, although it wasn't sunny, so it didn't seem especially hot on a bicycle. The goal was to get cakes for a third-round cake-off, which I'm still trying to finish off: I'm up to October at the same time I'm current on the fourth-round. This time was between two one and one cakes. I started by going to Au Bon Vieux Temps to get Chocolat Framboise, as the far point. I got few hundred meters and I was thinking I would visit Paris S. nearby, and realized that I hadn't actually looked carefully at ABVT, so I went back and confirmed that the two great cakes I haven't seen for a while there still aren't there, whereas the other one I have is there, ready for its next round. At PS, I saw they had a new cake, so I made a plan to visit Sunday, but kept to the schedule to go up to Bien-être to get their Mont-Blanc, which they always have (and it was early enough that they we're close to selling out). They seemed to have three new cakes, but (looking ahead) one had disappeared the next day and one turned out to be a known cake by a different name. Still, I should get the Melon Shortcake soon, before it's gone.

Got home and had lunched and then went out again, this to to Ginza Mitsukoshi to get what I missed the previous weekend, special croissants from Frédéric Cassel, by #2 shop. These just started last weekend, only on the weekend, don't start selling until noon, and were sold-out last Sunday before 3 pm. I got the regular Croissant and the Croissant aux Almondes. While I was there, and because I've been busy during the week and gotten into the habit of squeezing all my cakes into the weekend (plus I'll be busy next weekend), I also got a new cake, though I was surprised that they had two. My choice was two cakes similar to ones I just had, but that's not much of a problem with a shop this good. I went with the Roulé Pêche, though I'll get to that in a different post.

The croissants came with instructions for heating them up, so I followed them, even though usually I prefer not to, as I'm not so much into the soft croissant. I have a regular oven rather than a toaster over, so I went with 150 degC, which seemed about right. These were both excellent, I can say, and certainly high quality, but didn't convince me that FC's viennoiserie should be that high a priority, though these were only the 2nd and 3rd of those, since usually they stick with cake and packaged things (and macarons). Still, after their cakes, these are the best I've found from them so far, but usually (when they aren't closed for two months), I don't have trouble satisfying myself with just cakes from them.

Having put it off to the end, as my might have noticed from the photo, the Chocolat Framboise was a little worse for wear: the top of the brownie shifted off the rest of the base and circled, so I had to shift it back and break it up a little to get it back together. Probably not a big deal, since the different parts don't hold together under cutting anyway, so I don't think it affected the texture. Still, I have to acknowledge that, as I have having trouble feeling the greatness this time. It's appear is chocolate and raspberry, of course, a little strong on the raspberry and definitely rich with the chocolate on top, with the brownie base there to keep it grounded. Still excellent, but I'm not sure. The Mont-Blanc, which doesn't have any obvious tricks or accents, like currant or meringue, and yet still great. I think maybe there is liquor or something that vaporizes so that you get a lot of flavor in the back of your mouth. Despite moving to lose some excess mont-blanc from the greats list, this one definitely stays, and should see a fourth round this year, since it's only got one loss.

Cake-off: Bien-être's Chocolat Cuit over Très Calme's Mont-blanc

Saturday, I tried again and was successful at getting Bien-être's Chocolat Cuit. I wasn't quite as early as I intended, but it didn't look like they had sold much based on other items, even though they only had two of these out. It's was too light for the trip back, even though I was half running half walking. I did come back a longer way than I needed to because, in my confusion, I stopped at the newly opened Isetan, though the counter I wanted for the other cake-off cake was not available. Still, I bought the nonfood item I wanted. Once home, I took off by bicycling to get up to Très Calme and get their Mont-blanc, as a second two-wins-one-loss cake for a fourth-round cake-off. 

It was getting late at this point, so I also got a croissant there, as my first pastry and ate that first. It had a coating of syrup, I assume, or at least a coating that ended up sweet in the overall flavor, which is what I ask for in a pastry croissant versus a bakery croissant, so I can easily call this excellent. I'm back to the new interface on Blogger, which doesn't give me an option to rotate photos before uploading (whereas, somewhere something automatically decides to rotate long pictures so they are vertically oriented).

The Chocolat Cuit, despite the name, is pretty raw, being a very rich chocolate mass, which I'm giving the win. The Mont-Blanc is distinctive in being my favorite coffee cake, which adds coffee-flavored meringue to chestnut paste with cassis accent on whipped cream  in a way that you can taste all the flavors and yet the bitternesses of the chestnut and coffee cancel out and are together pacified by the sugar in a way that makes this acceptable to someone who doesn't like coffee (me) or chestnut (the chef). It stays among the greats, no problem.

Bien-être, Shimanami Lemon Fromage

Sunday, I visited some places I haven't been to for a while, first by running and then walking a loop. There was more running in the late afternoon. First, I visited Bien-être. I got a late start and arrived at noon, but no line fortunately (one person ahead of me and one person showed up just behind me). There was one new cake, Shimanami Lemon Fromage, Shimanami being a major (maybe the largest) lemon producer in Japan. This seems to be basically a lemon meringue tart, so I assume the cheese is the base for the lemon part.

On my route, as a last stop, I got a pastry for the road, my first from Atsushi Hatae. Rather than struggle on what to get, I went with my standard pastry, the Pain au Chocolat. It was tricky to find a place to eat it, but there is a kind of park-like area long Shibuya River; lighting wasn't idea, but my seat was precarious. I'm calling this excellent. It's fluffier than I consider ideal, but beautifully constructed, and it was fresh and had delicious chocolate, which they don't always have.

The Shiamanami Lemon Fromage cake was also excellent, after lunch. It was not particularly cheesy, but tasted like a normal lemon meringue tart. Among lemon tarts, though, it was less tart in flavor (and thus didn't need as much sugar to balance it) as the most traditional ones, but not as mild as ones that substitute Yuzu or something else, which are usually too mild for me. It is still challenging for a position in the superb group, so once they get a new cake, I can try another one, though how long that will take, I don't know. Maybe whenever they replace this one, since it's obviously seasonal. In other good news, their regular baked chocolate cake is back, so I can do a cake-off with it.

Sadly, Kantou remains under a state of emergency, so I'm not going to see department stores open up this weekend here. Kansai, on the other hand, is opening up, but I don't think I'm going to get to Kyoto or Osaka.

Bien-être: Anzu Fraise Chocolat

It's been a while, but its been a busy week. First, Monday and Tuesday I tried to get the new cake from Bien-être (the last time I had a new cake from there was more than 11 months ago, though I haven't been looked so frequently of late) and failed, though I was fairly late. Wednesday, I had the afternoon off, so I reserved a piece to pick up in the afternoon. I also tried to get the new cake from JPH, but I dallied elsewhere, and so the last piece disappear in front of me. One place a dallied was the quite superb shop Sadaharu Aoki, which does not have a new cake, so I resorted to trying something else again. I prefer to get fresh baked goods in the morning, so I went with the Sablé Choco Chocolat. It's a chocolate covered chocolate sablé-type cookie and was excellent.

I got my ordered cake, passing through the Takeshita area, which I've completed the neighborhood running course clump and by now I have done both the new loops, clockwise and counterclockwise, though I was still working on them then (not necessarily successfully). As expected, the shop was full for eating in, so I brought back my cake for later. Then I went out by bicycle to see if, by chance, I could score the JPH cake at either the Marunouchi or Ginza shops, but no such luck. At Ginza Mitsukoshi, I did hit another quite superb shop which doesn't have enough new cakes to satisfy me, Frédéric Cassel, where I got one of their moelleux, Moelleux Pistache Figue. It was good, I'll say, but I don't need to try others in that line. Still looking for other good types of things from them.

For my second run, I did another neighborhood course, the Suga Shrine clump. I'm mention now that Monday and Tuesday I decided to start sampling the bottom-layer of cake purveyors in that neighborhood. I started with a cheese tart from Lawson 100 and a chuu cream from the Family Mart, both ok to bad (not sure which one left the nasty after taste, because I ate them on the same night): just tasteless. The Waguri Mont-Blanc from the Ministop on Tuesday was definitely bad whipped dairy with a bad aftertaste. Wednesday, though, I got a Chuu Cream from the 7-Eleven, and it was relatively good.

The main event, of course was Bien-être's Anzu Fraise Chocolat. They have this instead of the Cuit Chocolat that had been looking for last weekend, so I thought it might be just that with a different topping, but it's not a baked chocolate cake. I'm sure it's as designed, but it was not working for me at all, so I can't rate it higher than ok (which isn't as devastating to my rating of them as it used to be, but still they were only marginally open to promotion, but not any more, though another shop among the quite excellent shops is, so that should be at least one of my destinations Monday). I should say that this does not reflect what I assume were azuki beans on top, which were fine (though not particularly strong in taste, so maybe not azuki beans, or just ones soaked in anzu juice).

Thursday, I did the large loop of the Suga Shrine course counterclockwise to confirm my memory of it. I didn't try to get real cake, but instead got the Whipped Cream Roll Cake from the grocer My Basket, and it was reasonably good (which is the best any roll cake as been for me).

Friday, even though they failed on the tart, I got a Chuu Cream pack from Lawson 100, because I used to buy these probably years ago now, and found them reasonable. They still are reasonably good.

Looking forward to the weekend, when I can get to shops early enough to get good cake. Actually, based on my reconnaissance Wednesday, I'm planning two cake-offs this weekend, to take advantage of limited availability. 

Cake-off: Frédéric Cassel's Choux Vanille over Bien-être's Pistachio and American Cherry Chiboust

Sunday, I collected cakes for a cake-off. I've something going in my throat that's probably from a sinus drip, so took it slow by bicycle to collect cakes and will skip running. Not that I have a fever or anything (I'm not that crazy about cake), but I'm being cautious. I went to Frédéric Cassel first to get their Choux Vanille, but I went out late enough that I could have revered the order of the visits. By the time I could visit Bien-être for their limit-time Pistachio and American Cherry Chiboust, it was 12:30 pm and their were only two pieces left. But they were in the back of the case, so it looked more like they were selling off the tail-end of this season's run. I was lucky to get it, though my backup cake was nearby. Both these cakes are one and one going into a third-round cake-off. Actually, I couldn't choose between these based on taste, so I'm going by simplicity, my overall shop evaluation, and distinctiveness of the type with my greats list to give the win to Frédéric Cassel's Choux Vanille.

Cake-off: Michalak's Paris-Brest over Bien-être's Pistachio and American Cherry Chiboust

Monday, I did prep work for today's cake-off by going to Bien-être and reserving a Pistachio and American Cherry Chiboust (to use the first name I recorded this under, though I think the name has been permuted since). This was by running, which I did in intervals of 3 min walking/1 min slow running/ 3 min running/ 1 min fast running. Next running watch will have more than time intervals, now that I know why I would want more. After Bien-être, I ran to Jinguumae to try the new Jinguumae 5&6 loop, though I messed up the end, which is not surprising since I had never even walked it before. Also, I'm not sure that I took the planned path to climb east from Cat Street, but I've decided that it's worth lengthening the route a little to avoid cutting between buildings like that. I stopped at a couple shops before I found one open and with something sub-cake as a snack (at the 1 hour point). I got Cheese Cake from the Roastery by Nozy Coffee Cafe, which you can see is a stick, sort of a half-size cake. It was definitely good, in an enough sugar kind of way. I ended up doing 9 intervals of running, which is the longest I've gone recently and enough fast running to leave me a little sore the next day, so I hope I'm building up some running muscles now.

For the other cake in the cake-off, I went with a recent one that also won its first round, Michalak's Paris-Brest. The chiboust is the new style again, but I think I'm over worrying about the change. Until there are more pistachio chiboust, or any kind of chiboust, from the good shops, I'd like to keep this on the great's list, but I can't resist the super sugar bomb that is Michalak's Paris-Brest. And it has seriously dark praline with a strong caramel taste, in a good way, so it gets it's second win. However, the chiboust will be gone soon, so if I can get it in a third-round cake-off over the weekend, I'll do that.

Cake-off: Pierre Hermé's Carrément Chocolat over Bien-être's Chiboust au Pistache

Tried walking to cake, to see how that would go. On the way, I stopped at some shops that showed up on a Tabelog search of the top 100 cake shops in Tokyo. #1 is actually a "hidden" French restaurant (there's a small sign, but it's a residential area and it's not clear what business the sign is for). Even the couple cakes they have are by pre-order only, so it doesn't count as a full running course site, so I'm not going to alter the enclosing course to include it.

Got the new version of the Bien-être's Chiboust au Pistache (grapefruit accented), which is less tart/pie-like and more traditional cake, which means more chiboust and less pastry base. My first choice (and next on the one-one after two cake-offs list) was Soyeux from Ryoura, but but they no longer had it at Tokyo Midtown's Dean and Deluca. I'll have to swing by the main shop and see whether it still exists, though I'm planning to do a first round next week, which may lead to a second round, depending on whether the season cake survives.
So I wasted a trip to Tokyo Midtown. I had an afternoon appoint, so I went for the easy substitute and went to Shinjuku Isetan and got Carrément Chocolat from Pierre Hermé, which has been a standard for a long time (though I had further backups to choose from at Isetan). That was too much walking. After about 1 hour, the weak points were letting me know that they were there, but not hurting, but even though time after that involved as much train (mostly standing) as walking, it was feeling less good by the time I got home 2 hours later. Then after my appointment, which was about 1 km each way and a stop for grocery shopping, I was definitely wanting to get off my feet. I'll try to avoid that much for the next couple weeks and not expect to run in June either.

As far as I can remember, I liked the old Chiboust au Pistache better, with more pastry base. The pistachio chiboust is still nice, and no one else is providing me with this good of chiboust cake, so it's staying on the great list, but it loses to Carrément Chocolat, which is somewhat standard, but still a great rich chocolate cake, which some variation in texture accents. It's been a while since I've had a new cake from Pierre Hermé (they've dropped a category in ranking since their peak), so it will be nice to get something new; I don't think I saw anything new at Bien-être). However, I saw something new at Sadaharu, which I'm behind on (after raising them a category), and yet I want to work on the huge quite good group of cake shops and busy at the end of the week, so I think I'll just make one trip to Isetan for new cake. If only I had a sponsor...

Bien-être: Mille-Feuille au Fraises

Monday, in light rain, I went to Bien-être (double points) in response to a cake-off win for a new cake. There wasn't actually a new variety, but I had never had the Mille-Feuille au Fraises, which is much like theother five mille-feuille cakes I've had there, except with strawberries (not sure which one was the best, so I'll guess mango). All the ones previous had been excellent, though my appreciation was diminishing. This time, it dipped below excellent, though it's still pretty, and good, but not one I'm interested in having again. The run was my first attempt to verify the revised Tomigaya--Yoyogi loop. I could do the main parts but missed a sharp turn to take in AfterHours, an early turn to reach the main road to run past the pedestrian bridge next to the Cosmo Hatsudai Service Station, and a detour away from Sanguubashi Park to hook around Flotto, all fairly new additions. The second deviation was at least was an improvement and I've updated the map, but I need to fix the other too for next time.

Tuesday, with a break in the rain, I did a short run down to Tokyo Midtown and successfully got the Croissant Matcha from Sadaharu Aoki. The eating space was occupied by a promotional event for some communication company, so I ran it home. As part of the run, I reconfirmed clockwise the Minami-Aoyama east loop with a minor variation to take in NinoCaffe. They'll be a good backup in the future, since they have relatively late hours, such as for Viking Bakery F, which requires me to get off work on time and not spend too much time changing and stretching. The croissant was very nice, and matcha is an interesting change (the inside is quite green), so I can say that it was excellent.

Cake-off: Bien-être's Chocolat Cuit over L'Abricotier's L'Abricotier

Monday, I got a late start and ran to Ginza Mitsukoshi. There was a visiting shop there that I thought I'd sample while they were somewhat convenient, but when I asked, the two cakes remaining were special for Mitsukoshi (weren't found at the main shop), so my interest dropped below the necessary threshold. I've put them on the list of places to visit, but I don't often visit new places these days and I've got a lot of nearby targets, though not with this distinction of having been a visiting Mitsukoshi shop. I should have checked whether the sign said who's next, as Mitsukoshi doesn't list the Ginza Chocolat visiting shops under events on the homepage. In general, there is a White Day event starting, so maybe no visiting shop.

Tuesday, I took the afternoon off. It's not the best day of the week for that, but it had the advantage that the dry cleaners is open, so I took something big over. For cake, I ran to L'Abricotier (whose closed day is Monday) and got their namesake cake, the last one at about 3 pm. My navigation was not great (I know the shortest route, but am not patient at the lights and then don't recognize when i cross it later). For the second cake, I wanted Bien-être's Chocolat Cuit, but tried to cheat a look for it at Floto (which has the pictured bread place near it), their sister store, which they share a tart with and I thought that cake, but maybe not today. That store is closer and on the JR line. I walked and ran down to the main shop, which is open seven days a week, and they were well stocked (they're open later hours, so I would expect them to sell out later).

Both of these cakes have advantages. Fruity partially gelatinous cakes like the L'Abricotier are a major category that I generally don't appreciate, so this one holds a special place. In the case of Chocolat Cuit, though I like a lot of chocolate cakes, this might be the best simple, non-layered, baked chocolate cake that I know. I enjoyed both and plan to keep them on the great list, but it's hard to say that one stands above the other. I'm going to let simplicity be a tie-breaker and give the win to Chocolat Cuit, but actually they harmonized with each other very well.

Bien-être: Tarte aux Abricots et Pistaches

Still behind, because I keep fiddling with the map instead of writing. Monday, I ran down to Bien-être, where I got the Tarte aux Abricots et Pistaches. For a baked tart, this is pretty moist. I liked it more than the pistachio and strawberry one, though I'd rather have a chiboust. Anyway, excellent cake. I did some neighborhood running, around Takeshita Street in Harajuku I think, though I only got one loop correct and I've since changed it so I have to do it again. So now I've finally caught Bien-être up to my designated number of cakes for superb shops, so I just need to stop in enough to check on the chiboust. Eventually I'll want more cakes from superb shops, but I'm got a lot of excellent and quite good shops that I'm now behind on, so it's not a priority.

Bien-être: Martinique

Did a run to Bien-être, since I knew they had new cakes as of last Saturday, so I hoped the Christmas cakes would be over and I could get something my size. New things included a tart, a couple roll cakes, and one fancy cake, the Martinique. This is a thick banana, raisin, and rum tart on the bottom and an ample amount of white chocolate ganache flavored with vanilla. My first impression was that it was probably excellent. Certainly, its a lot of cake for its size, since it's dense. I was hoping for great, since JPH's pistachio mont-blanc is back and I haven't done a first-round cake-off with it. I've got a little more than two weeks to find something, and of course I'd like to do second and third rounds after that, before it disappears again. Unfortunately, this was not the great cake. It was excellent when I was eating it, so I'm sticking with that, but I think especially paired with rum, the banana taste lingers, which I'm really not fond of. Maybe I should have gone with the pastachio and apricot tart. I'm almost caught up with this shop, or at least It's now one of many that I'm ready to get one cake from.

Running back, I worked in some neighborhood course loops on the west side, so I've now got both ways for the Sendagaya west loop and clockwise for the Jinguumae northwest and west loops. Yesterday (Christmas) I messed up again on the west side of Yotsuya, but at least I got clockwise for Sendagaya central and southeast right. That was not a very long run, less than 60 minutes, though intense running up and down stairs cutting through the nation stadium station tunnels and then going through Wakaba and Suga in Yotsuya. I repeated the subway route today in a 90+ minute run, but didn't need to get groceries, so I didn't have to go as far as Suga Shrine.

Cake-off: Bien-être's Framboisier over Cacao Store (Théobroma)'s San Juaquin Dos

Thursday, having already had three weekday cakes, I ran again for cake-off research, this time to the Yoyogi area, where I had more success. Cacao Store promised to have their (actually, Théobroma's) San Juaquin Dos through Saturday. Bien-être admitted the possibility of something, but probably not Framboisier, which they had in stock at that time, but it was too late to go back to Cacao Store. 

So Friday after, after failing again elsewhere, I visited both and got the desired cakes, moving up the cake off by one day. I suspect that the Framboisier was left over from the previous day, but some cakes age better. No running Friday, just cycling. These are both pretty standard cakes, which is why I designated them great to begin with, but this time I was not convinced that San Juaquin Dos really belongs, though it is excellent as a dense chocolate cake that probably also can survive more than one day. More importantly, Bien-être had several new cakes on Friday, so I hope they will still have them when Christmas cake season ends.

Saturday I got my flu shot, so I took it easy. I still went out by bicycle to buy some chocolate for baking, take a picture Lotus, a café in Jinguumae that does cakes until 4 am, and got a Pain au Chocolat from Shibuichi Bakery. The pastry wasn't that impressive, though it was still somewhat good.

Sunday, I had repeats of cakes and no running. JPH cakes are still excellent.

Monday, I went for a long run to add a bunch of loops to my neighborhood course by doing a one-way neighborhood course run, which is taking a lot of time to update (partially because I found mistakes from last time I updated it to add loops). I don't usually try to combine photo-taking with the first such run, but I wanted to make use of the opportunity. I'm working on the path west from Roppongi Hills to connect up to loops that I previously thought I could only get to by a longer way circling around from the north. It was about 2 hours of running, plus walking and taking pictures. At L'Atelier du Pain, there just south of Roppongi Hills, I got a Pain au Chocolat. Though it's not looking so symmetric, you can see on the left that it's got proper layering and that it's well baked, so actually it was excellent. Usually I never go to Roppongi Hills, so it's not that convenient a shop, but it's at about the 1 hour mark, so next time I go out for a neighborhood run along that route, I can stop there again.