Cake-off: Jean-Paul Hévin's Feuilletine Praliné over Bigarreaux's Le Plaisir

As planned, I took advantage of Bigarreaux's simultaneous reintroduction of their Le Plaisir and their visit at Isetan to do a midweek cake-off. I took a chance, in that I didn't confirm that Bigarreaux even had their Le Plaisir at Isetan or that it was not sold out before buying the  Feuilletine Praliné at Jean-Paul Hévin because I saw that there was only one of the latter left. Fortunately, it worked out fine (Bigarreaux's was not mobbed on a Thursday; Friday would be harder day, but I would have asked to reserve me a cake for tomorrow if either had been sold out and I hope that it would have been possible, though I've never tried it).

The run was to try my neighborhood run around Omotesando Hills. I had included some more little parks, including one I've now just labeled as No-name Shibuya-ku Park, since it is maintained by that park system but does not seem to merit a name (which is understandable). Also, I expanded my runs farther into the interial, which I'm less thrilled with. Narrow dark streets are not so fun (it was nice to reach the temple and graveyard, as that is a lot less creepy than in interial road going by a dark educational institute---at least that as much as the sign told me) and streets with fast moving taxis are also no fun, so I'm bumping my made back to the main street and shrinking a new loop back to just running around the block. It was 8+ km at about 9 km/h.


Cake-off: these were both definitely great cakes, so I'm completely satisfied with no cake tomorrow and heading out to explore a new place Saturday morning. Both are chocolate, but the Le Plaisir has caramel and orange, whereas Feuilletine Praliné has, obviously praliné, as well as meringue. The Le Plaisir would probably win against an average great cake, if there is such a think, but the Feuilletine Praliné is so great and so much of what I like that it is not hard to select it as the winner. I high recommend getting either both before they stop being available.

I'll probably wait at least a week before the next cake-off, but I can justify the high frequency back a backlog of JPH cakes and hope that more ones will appear in December (though I'm not sure what will be left to match them against unless I find some more great cakes soon: November hasn't been very productive in that way. 

Jean-Paul Hévin: Macaron Chocolat a l'Ancienne, Feuilletine Praliné

Was at Tokyo Midtown and picked up pieces of the two cakes I haven't blogged yet (but I've had multiple times before): Macaron Chocolat a l'Ancienne (マカロン ショコラ　ア ランシエンヌ, 699 yen) and Feuilletine Praliné (フィユティーヌ プラリネ, 624 yen). These are "Saisonnier", but regulars. The first is just what it sounds like, a cake-sized macaron of dark chocolate with extra dark chocolate around it as decoration. As a macaron, it is on the dry side, both the filling, which is pretty solid, and the shell part, but as cake it is decadently chocolaty. I'm going to say this is great, but I can't be objective about it and actually I've had times when I was tired of it from getting it too often. I really need to compare it to something else.

But the second doesn't really help, because I like it about the same. It's similar in being meringue, though is very airy (it's hard to cut and keep the dome intact when you're trying to split it with someone) compared to the crisp shell of the macaron ancienne and it's milk chocolate, along with the obvious nuts, but one has the same impression of eating something more decadent than a usual cake, though still more substantial than a mousse cake. I'll also say this is great and look forward to comparing with other great cakes. These put me at 26 cakes posted for JPH, so it's going to take a while for me to catch up with other shops, probably next year, but I'm getting close. I don't recall there being that many more regular seasonal cakes. Perhaps there will be a couple new weekend-only specials for the holidays. Still, there's the one coffee-flavored cake over at Marunouchi, which I will give a try for the sake of completeness.

I ran later, over to the imperial moat and around once. Not many people at 8 pm on a Sunday night. Passed one couple going the other way twice, which is a first, I think, and means they presumably left the course on the north end and ran on the other side of the road for that part, since it's narrow and marked as one way, the one part that is. Also on the north end, it was a little unsettling having someone running behind me, matching my pace, for about the last quarter of the 5 km loop, but the north end is pretty lonely (though there are police stationed a couple places along there), so I don't blame her for preferring to have someone else in sight. I'm rotating through my injuries and have come around to having some foot pain (and I walked a lot today, thus Tokyo Midtown), so I was focusing on rolling heel to toe rather than just straight-legging it pendulum-like. My first kilometer might actually have been closest to only 7 km/h, but the average to the course was 8 km/h, and the course and coming back made it into 9 km/h territory. I've having to adjust my planned course down to remain within my budget. I'm going to try a 16 km run on Wednesday, which is a holiday, but still want to get back to Asterisque this week. Tomorrow I'll hit Isetan for a second Le Jardin Bleu cake and do some training running, which is relatively short distance, if there isn't heavy rain.