Albida Lounge, Chocolat Fondant

Tried a new shop as my second/last weekday cake. This was a spontaneous decision, though I had noticed the shop before, but the next neighbor running course shops was planned to be Citron, on the Minami-Aoyama loop in the Gaien clump, both of which I'm up to date on. But I was doing the Minami-Aoyama--Nishi-Azabu on the other side of the main north-south road and noticed that the hotel lounge/cafe had cake, so I went in there, and sure enough they have a few types and if was available for take-out (at least during corona times). This is Albida Lounge, for the record. I went with the Chocolat Fondant, which came with whipped cream, though I didn't take good care of it. The cake isn't cheap but pretty large as fondant go and quite a fine texture, so I think it's reasonable to call it excellent. That's not enough to take me back immediately, but its enough for it to keep its place in the fine shops long enough to get a second try when I get around to getting second cakes from similar shops.

As a result, I had to revised the loop. Actually, this shop is on an outside corner with sites on the two interior sides, so I had to make the block its own loop, but the clump stays together. I didn't feel a need to re-practice the whole think, just this slit loop.

Actually, I had one more weekday thing, but it counts of a pastry. Friday at lunch time, I got an Apple Pie from Yatsudoki in Shinjuku 1, on the grounds that it looks like a Chauson aux Pommes. It really is more of an apple pie. On the plus side, the inside is well cooked. On the minus side, though it might because I heated it up (3 minutes at 120 degC), but it seemed overly greasy. It was good, but it doesn't give me an incentive to explore there further.

Cake-off: Bubó Barcelona's Choco Deluxe over Paris S'éveille's Chocolat Fondant

Not too much to say about today's cakes. Cycled down to Paris S'éveille to get their Chocolat Fondant, which for purposes of this blog I am treating as fresh cake (versus gateau de voyage, like a weekend or pound cake, which are not my focus), though it does not require refrigeration and actually they recommend microwaving it for 20 s (my microwave is large, so I should probably have done longer), and then swung back to Bubó Barcelona to get their Choco Deluxe, a battle of the last two pure chocolate cakes in this round/year's cake-offs.

Neither cake stood out, but both were worthy chocolate cakes, which I enjoyed revisiting, the main purpose of cake-offs. I decided ultimately to give the contest to the underdog, Bubó Barcelona. I'd like to compare theirs to something more similar to it, but the main similar thing to the Fondant is not available (due to Ryoco being too busy to bother with the little stuff, apparently).

Au Bon Vieux Temps: Chocolat Fondant

Had a long run today down to Au Bon Vieux Temps again, last time being Dec. 18. As predicted, I was faster, just at the bottom of 12 km/h going out (12+ km). I walked to the park this time, so that cut out 650 m of running, but then ran 11 km/h to the Jiyugaoka Station Couca and then home at 10 km/h, again maybe both just barely within +/-0.5 km/h. So I haven't increased my distance, but I definitely increased my speed, by too much. I need to work on my consistency, which is where long training runs would be helpful, if I had time. I would have overrun my running budget but this makes the weighted amount of 12+ km/h running more than half, so I normalized 12 km/h. Still, I don't have much left for tomorrow and the day after that, so I might have to wait until Wednesday for more running and cake. In the meantime, I decided that I wanted to go by bicycle to the Mitsukoshi Cuoca rather than try to jog with 2 km of sugar and chocolate (which might not be great for the chocolate, against my back).

On the way, I stopped for energy at the Minamiaoyama Anderson and got Pain au Chocolat (パンオショコラ, 280 yen) again. It was softer inside than Maison Kayser's, which I don't think I prefer, but it was fresh baked and definitely good (as well as a little cheaper).

At Au Bon Vieux Temps, I reviewed the cakes and found that the one I thought I was going to get included coffee, so I went for Chocolat Fondant (チョコラフォンダン), though why it's called that, I'm not sure, since it was basically a block of raw chocolate. It is soft, so I suppose you could make it melt easily; maybe I should have taken it home and microwaved it a little. I know you can buy pieces of chocolate like this, but I'm not sure what that's usually called besides just chocolate. Anyway, this in no way resembles Fondant au Chocolate (which was obvious when I got it). It was still definitely good, but I'm not that interested in this type of chocolate. This bumps off this shop out my 2nd-tier "Superb" category, which comes as no surprise. At some point when I find another excellent shop, I'll split the excellent ones into top and bottom groups so it can stand out again as at least being at least among the top 20 Tokyo patisseries.


On the way back, I stopped in the Dean & Deluca Bakery under the tracks next to Himonya Park (which finally reopened recently). I got the seasonal Croissant Chocolat (クロワッサンショコラ, 224 yen), which is not that much different from Pain au Chocolat. It was cheaper, but only because everything was discounted for some reason (not because it was late in the day), which maybe they always are at that place. It was too much food, though, and only 30 min running after the cake, so I felt more full than I liked. Maybe I should have waited for Perch (coffee stand just above Nakamekuro on old Yamanote Road), but I was okay and that was probably not why I was much slower than going out.