Y par Potager, Komatsuna and Moringa Cheesecake

Working through the 2-cake quite fine shop list, I got to the last of the non-workday ones, Y par Potager (at the Nakameguro location, formerly Potager, though now in a new looking school). It's hot to run during the day, so I went by bicycle, which also allowed me to check a couple sites on the way to looking in on BE and DA to check lineups for great cakes (without any luck).

Since it was recommend out front, I went with the Komatsuna and Moringa Cheesecake at Y par Potager. Komatsuna is Japanese mustard spinach and moringa is a "superfood", though it's a tree, so I'm not sure what part they used, the leaves or the pods. It's not really suitable for Japan, since it prefers try soil. The cheesecake tasted like good cheese cake flavored with greens. Nothing wrong with that, but not something I particular need to look for, as I prefer sweets. The label shown indicates under 5 g carbs. So this shop gets banish to the fine list, probably never to be visited again. Three more 2-cake shops from the quite fine list to go.

In the late afternoon/evening, I went down to the area south of Roppongi Hills stretching down past Hiroo Station. For the main target, the Nishi-Azabu--Minami-Azabu loop, I failed again at the same second traffic signal bypass (although that bypass also serves to pass the entrance of Amida-ji, which is on a narrow lane). I kept going anyway and feel a lot more confident about the rest of the loop now. On the way, I tried two loops to the east of it and was able to do both of them correctly. The only problem is, reviewing the maps, the first one left out a temple, and looking for a way to correct that loop, I also found a church I had missed, so I'm moving the section with those sites over to a different loop. At least the Moto-Azabu south loop seems stable, and I was able to do clockwise without getting sucked into a dead end. I failed the Roppongi 6 north loop clockwise (wasn't sure how far south I needed to go after where I use a crosswalk to get over a major street), but at least the Roppongi 4 loop is finished, all 243 m of it.

18 km to Naoki

Today was 18 km, which I cleared, and then I walked back, so I needed a nap eventually. The route went first to Meguro River at Nakameguro Station. I followed Jakuzure River Green Way (蛇崩川緑道) to Highway 3 along Tamagawa Road, then down to connect to the Nomigawa Persimmon Tree Slope Tributary Border Road (呑川柿の木坂支流縁道) around to Sakurashinmachi (桜新町) Station, and then doubling back to get to Patisserie Naoki Laboratoire, which is on the northeast edge of the Jiyugaoka (自由が丘) cluster of cake shops, across from a Takagi, which I like very much.

As you can see, it all looked good, so I got four. Left to right, these are Chocolat Florence (ショコラ・フィレンツェ) for 464 yen, Tarte Noix (タルト・ノア), a walnut tart, for 389 yen, Framboise le Gel (?) for 454 yen, and Chocolat Noir (ショコラ・ノアール) for 464 yen. The first is pistachio mousse and chocolate mousse, a favorite combination of mine, which was good. The raspberry was good too, but a little strange: there was a kind of irregularly shaped nut cluster in the middle, which I was not expecting, but which worked as an anchor to let the cake hold its outer symmetrical shape, which is okay, I suppose, but it was hard not to think that it was a mistake. The "dark" chocolate was actually three layers of mouse under the glaze, maybe chocolate, white chocolate, and milk chocolate. This last was very good or at least very much my kind of thing, although not my favorite even of the type. The nut tart was also good. Overall, a good shop that I would visit again if it were convenient, but I don't need to. I didn't have any kind of recommendation, just I noticed it there from going to Takagi, so they may have some specialty that I don't know about.

Coming back, I wanted to try an Indian grocery (really just one little room) and didn't resisted checking out & Market. I had the best gateaux chocolat when they were at Isetan, but it is not something that they usually make. The carrot cake lost some frosting to the box (which I recovered) on the way, but was fine.