Ryoura, Fromage Cru

Friday night was a neighborhood run. I only managed the revised Minami-Motomachi--Wakaba--Yotsuya--Sugachou--Shinanomachi loop, which itself is just 4.17 km.

Saturday, I had some time before a 10 am Skype appointment, so I went out before 8 am. At the last minutes, I decided that I'd try the updated Tomigaya--Yoyogi loop, which I hadn't reviewed and failed. Still, I went around to the new sites I had added that prompted the update and confirmed and photographs them (one of which I decided was a mistake to add). Since it nearby, next to route, and famous, I tried looking in on Path Cafe, which was full and had people waiting and eating take-out outside. The freshly made Croissants and Pain au Chocolat were already spoken for, so I would have had to wait 30 minutes. I could buy a Cannele immediately, so I went with that. On one hand, it seem perfect, not like my fake ones (which don't replicate the outside coating). On the other hand, in the end, they were too strong for me, at least without some sort appropriate beverage. Maybe I'll not that into real canelé. If I get by there nearer 8 am (when they open), I'd still like to try their Pain au Chocolat. Coming back, I could do the updated Jinguumae east and Minami-Motomachi--Moto-Akasaka loops clockwise.

The cake run came from after 11 am. I went to Yoga and visited Ryoura for a 16th cake. I've had the least luck with seasonal variations there and recent good look else with Fromage Cru, so I got that from Ryoura and brought it back for eating at home. It's two layers, so I suspect it's actually a rare/baked cheesecake combo, but whatever it was, it was definitely excellent. Not sure what a great one would be like, but I'll have to consider that when I get to a third-round cake-off with my favorite cheesecake.

L'Abricotier, Fromage Cru

Tried the Daita--Daizawa--Hatagaya--Kamiyama-chou--Kitazawa--Motoyoyogi-chou--Nishihara--Ooyama-chou--Shouto--Tomigaya--Uehara loop again, starting at about 7:40 am. I realized that I would actually feel bad if I was successful, because I've gotten used to running it, or at least starting to run it. No danger: I got the new part added for the shrine I discovered last time, corrected the mistake from last time, and made (after reaching the far west edge of the loop) the following turn that I was worried about late time and found that I couldn't remember what to do after that. Not what I did, as it happens, so I wrapped things up around 9:40 am.

From there, I set off for cake from L'Abricotier, which was closer than I expected, so I around more than half an your early (under their recent business hours). It wouldn't have been bad to wait, except, I was wet from the rain. Running and wet isn't so bad, but it's not warm enough for standing and wet. I went to Kouenji Stn., which isn't actually very interesting, and read news on my phone before returning. It was still raining and I was still a little early (though now there were people waiting), so I ran for about ten minutes to keep warm. I decided to eat out (and let someone go ahead of me, who took the last seat, while I was deciding what to get) so I got takeout. My spreadsheet showed I had never had Fromage Cru (rare cheesecake), which surprised me, though it's not something I usually go for, so I got that as my 20th type of cake from them. Obviously, there is fruit on it, and and a little of the inside was fruit-flavored, but it is not obvious what. Probably a red fruit mixture. As it happens, I was in the mood for Fromage Cru, which apparently I should get more of. I'll need to remember how today's was and compare it to Dalloyau's, which is still hanging on the greats list. This one hit me right, so I can call it excellent.

Cake-off: Pierre Hermé's Tarte Infiniment Vanille over Dalloyau's Fromage Cru

Let me first say that there was a good deal of running Friday night, when the desert was a Croissant from Le Pain Quotidien at Tokyo Midtown. As the shop name suggests, this is more of a bakery, with really only this croissant and a pricey apricot (?) tart to count as pastries. The croissant was good, but very bready, even as croissants go, so not really what I'm looking for. The run was exploring loops of my neighborhood course in Roppongi, where I encountered more missing roads (relative to my interpretation of Google Maps). On the plus side, now that I've decided that pedestrian underpasses are allowable, I found a way across a main street and have merged three Roppongi loops and some of the old links to make a shorter simpler map. The little part just north of the US Embassy remains it's own loop, which I still haven't practiced yet. This is all expanding one side of the Tokyo neighborhood map.

Woke up early and hungry Saturday morning, so I got up despite not having had enough sleep. This time, I went and explored Yoyogi, taking lots of pictures, which I've added to the map. This is the other (East) side of the neighborhood map, specifically the north or counterclockwise end that I'm trying to expand. There is lots more on the southeast end, so its too big a puzzle to figure out the optimal course covering everything all at once. I left off Yoyogi and headed down to Dalloyau for Fromage Cru, stopping at a shop along the way to catch that a cake for next week was still in the line-up, which it was. From Dalloyau, I came back by train and got Pierre Hermé's Tarte Infiniment Vanille.

Both of these are losers from the first round but good enough to stay in. Also, these are pretty early in the list, so my criterion has evolved. At this point, though still excellent, the Fromage Cru is just too basic a rare cheese cake to get me excited. I'm more into double forms, with a rare layer and a baked layer, and this particular cheese flavor is good by not so special that I need it again regular. Still, I don't want to bump it down from Great based on one review, so it should make at least one more appearance. Tarte Infiniment Vanille still remains an exemplary tart and example of a "cake" with vanilla as the prominent flavor, so it's easier for me to recognize this as a great, despite my strong chocolate bias.

Cake-off: Sadaharu Aoki "Cheese Cake Citronné" over Dalloyau "Fromage Cru"

Started off by going to Aigre-Douce, so naturally I got a little lost trying to take a shortcut. They still did not have Fraise Framboise, but they still had Tarte au Caramel Salé. Also, they had Miroir Cassis, which I'm not sure whether it's great, so I've decided I should try it again, especially since I can put it in a cake-off with a hard to match blueberry chocolate cake.

Then I did the same thing (getting lost on back streets) trying to go to Ikebukuro Station, but it's not far. I checked out both Tobu and Seibu and found at least a couple that I could imagine visiting (or have visited in the past but not blogged), but nothing high in priority and the same can be said of the Ginza area, which I prefer. I was disappointed, though that they did not have what I came for at the Dalloyau, which was the Fromage Cru (they had about 6 other types of cakes).

As I result, I headed back without cake, at least as far as Isetan, where I got Cheese Cake Citronné. This was about 12 km that I can figure out at about 9 km/h.

After a rest, I headed out to Ginza to get the Fromage Cru, going not a very direct way and using more tunnels and bridges than normal and I stopped for groceries on the way back. It was another 9 km at 9 km/h.

As my heading shows, I chose the Sadaharu Aoki over the Dalloyau, although I don't think I've changed my mind about either. The Fromage Cru is just pure, creamy rare cheesecake, but I appreciate the nuances of citrus and hazelnut crust of the Cheese Cake Citronné.

Maison g Tokyo: Fromage Cru and Manjari

Had some time in the middle of the day, so I wanted to do a training run of two laps around the imperial moat course at 11.0 km/h, but was still feeling tired from yesterday's run (when I was still tired from the day before's sprints). It ended up being one lap (5 km) at 12.0 km/h, just barely (by a few seconds seconds). I got 30 seconds ahead early on (from the 3.5 km), on the downhill part and need them on the back end.

For cake, I visited Isetan again and took advantage of Maison g Tokyo's special cakes (so many, that I'm suspecting the actual shop has a small selection). These were their Fromage Cru and Manjari (for 540 and 648 yen). The first is rare cheese cake, and had a thin fruit layer that looked like fig, though I couldn't tell. The other is named for chocolate of the famous brand Vorhona and was chocolate mousse, cream, and buiscuit (I think; the memory is fading) that was raspberry flavored, but much better balanced than my recent macaron ganache. Both of these were excellent, I think. Sorry for the shadow; I was in a hurry, as I was also heating water for coffee and tea (I didn't each two pieces alone).

So finally I have another candidate shop for the "excellent" Tokyo Patisserie list that could stay past the first cake (which I'm willing to accept, though I had been going for getting three cakes each). Still need Octobre or 14 Juillet Tokyo to pan out to really have 30 excellent shops from which I can select about 10 to be my third-tier Tokyo cake shops, after "supreme" and "superb".

Cycling to Au Bon Vieux Temp

Went cycling, which in theory should be faster but I also tend to not follow known routes or check the map often, so I end up going way out of my way, like today.

The destination was Au Bon Vieux Temp out by Ooyamadai Station on Toukyuu　Ooimachi Line, in Setagaya. They are on my great shop list, although I'm having my doubts. I've made excuses in the past for cakes that might be great, except for not holding up under the extreme heat. This time I got three cakes with not very good prospects (I don't know what to pick, so I just picked them in the order of the display, except that I skipped the seasonal mixed fruit tart, because it looked small and pathetic and I've never been impressed by mixed fruit tarts; in particular, citrus fruits don't go well with most other fruits). None of these had much inherit chance of being great and they were not, but other great shops have shown that they can surprise me, which these didn't really.

First is the Fromage Cru, rare cheese cake for 380 yen + tax. Like all the cakes in this set, it's very small (just a few centimeters wide). Definitely good flavor, so I'd say better than average for rare cheese cakes, although it was just a little more gelatinous than I like. I usually can't be bothered to read and remember the details, but online it says that they use white wine rather than lemon juice, so now I totally want to do that with my baked cheese cake, except I also want to do chocolate, which would sort of confuse the experiment.

Next was Biscuit aux Fruits for 400 yen + tax. For sponge cake with fruit, this was very good, especially considering that there is banana in the middle, which I don't generally care for or consider appropriate but worked fairly well here. But sponge cake even with mostly custard rather than simply whipped cream has pretty limited appeal for me, so I can't say that this is great, just very good.

Finally, the signature dessert of the shop was 420 yen + tax. This is a Brûlée of custard and pear. Very good, and very alcoholic (pear brandy).