Il Pleut sur la Seine, Le Turin

No cake and little running during the short week, but indoor exercise. Saturday I had a couple appointments, so didn't try a cake-off, but went for the last two (simple) exceptional shops I wanted another new cake for. After the morning appointment, I went to Il Pleut sur la Seine. They are only open a short time every week and they are expensive, but their main thing is the school, so maybe they do best with the basics. I got Le Turin, which if not basic, at least uses basic elements. The biscuit is hazelnut, which gives a special flavor and a nice texture. As the name suggests, the main flavor is chestnut, in different kinds of cream. The chestnut flavor isn't so heavy and it harmonizes well with the hazelnut. So good quality, interesting combination, and solids basic elements make this an excellent cake.

Il Pleut sur la Seine, Today's Cake

Visiting exceptional shops, I hit Il Pleut sur la Seine second on Sunday, which opened after being closed from the beginning of the state of emergency being declared, I think. I got "Today's Cake", which was how it was labeled. I asked the name and they told me, but I've forgotten, something not helpful or original, 1 word, like "seduction" or "satisfaction", but neither of those, I think. Anyway, I don't think it's a regular, although it s standard type I've seen elsewhere and once thought was great: it's three layers of bitter, milk, and white chocolate. Really, my tastes have moved on, so I should no better. It's not cheap, either. Of course, it is well made with good ingredients, so it was good, but it didn't make me want to return soon.

Cake-off: Ryoura's Soyeux over Il Pleut sur la Seine's Le Saint Marc

As a third-round cake-off between two one-and-one cakes, I went by bicycle to Ryoura first to get their Soyeux, though I stopped a few places along the way to add pictures for sites on current or planned neighborhood running course. The Soyeux didn't care for the vibration I found later, though mainly some of the base crumbled off. As the second cake, I choose Le Saint Marc from the just returned Il Pleut sur la Seine, though I'll note that they've only returned in a small way. They are down to 4.5 hours a day, 3 days a week, and I think they had all of 4 types of fresh cake, including roll cake.

I went out again after lunch and did the Daikanyama-chou--Ebisunishi--Hachiyama-chou--Nanpeidai-chou--Sakuragaoka-chou--Sarugaku-chou--Shibuya--Uguisudani-chou loop sufficiently well counterclockwise by bicycle, so I have a basic grasp of the new course and its sites. I still have three other dead-end connecting loops in that clump of routes to do, though I might visit Akasaka first, and I also need to do the revised Shibuya east loop, which are both small. I might try out my feet walking to one, either before or after going for cake by bicycle.

Returning again, exhausted, I finally did the cake-off. Unfortunately, I wasn't feeling the greatness of Le Saint Marc today, though it passed through the first two rounds fine and I can't say that there was anything wrong with how it was made this time, just the chocolate and whipped cream wasn't impressing me and I definitely liked the Soyeux better.

Il Pleut sur la Seine, Chou à la Crème

Typhoon coming again, so there should be strong winds tonight and tomorrow, but it's crossing Japan on the west side, so should not be too bad in Tokyo away from the sea, rivers, mountains, and lowlands. Did a run out to Sarugakucho to visit Il Pleut sur la Seine, the most recent cake-off winner. Maybe because they had been closed a few days, the selection of cakes was pretty weak. The best I could do was a Chou à la Crème. Once in a while these are special, but this one was pretty much standard, which is what I would expect from this shop. That works for me with their saint-marc, but not for this. Still, it was good. It's smallish, but with a fairly complete but thin shell. The filling is whipped cream and custard cream, sort of lightly mixed, but thankfully no fruit. The only other new fresh "cake" was a banana version; I think I'll pass on that as long as there are other options.

Didn't say much about this week's running in the last post. Monday, I just went down to Tokyo Midtown, so just around 40 minutes of running, but I tried to do a good bit of it fast. As a result, I had a lot of foot pain Tuesday, which seems to be the routine. It didn't hurt so much by the time I ran again in the evening, but was tough every time I stood up from sitting at a desk for long. Did a lot of stretches through the day for my heel. So didn't run that fast Tuesday but was my more usual 60+ minutes (or 70+, I had to go to my back up). Wednesday, it was back to being a pretty hot run, as was Thursday. Wednesday I had already eaten my cake, so I could semi-sprint the last 400 m and actual build some muscle. Thursday, I was carrying cake and it was too hot to do that. Both days, I was tempted to walk home, but told myself that I could run as slowly as I wanted to, which worked. I'm actually more comfortable running and it's easier in a way to just fall forward and keep catching yourself running than walking. Once I get moving coming back, even on the hills, I'm okay plodding along. I'm missing the few cools days we had last week, though. It's going to be hot and humid after the typhoon.

Cake-off: Il Pleut sur la Seine's Le Saint-Marc over Paris S'éveille's Fondant Chocolat

Did a run to Jiyuugaoka by the long way, taking pictures for my neighborhood course map, finding a few new things requiring revisions and inciting me to simplify some parts of previously made courses. My goal was to get Paris S'éveille's Fondant Chocolat for a second-round cake-off in the first-round losers bracket. I realized about two-thirds of the way there that I had forgotten to put cash in my wallet case. Fortunately, I had taken my change, which was enough for the fondant, and I had my train pass (which works at some shops, but most require cash, so I wan't going waste time at a shop I wasn't sure about). My feet were tired from yesterday's almost 2 hour run and the about 80 minutes of running today, so maybe it's just as well that I took the train back home first and then went out by bicycle to get Le Saint-Marc from Il Pleut sur la Seine. The cake didn't seem to suffer any damage.

Both of these cakes are simple and chocolate. In the photo, you can see that I've already microwaved, as recommended by the shop, the Fondant Chocolat. Still, I'm not remembering why I liked this type of cake enough to mark it as great, but I'm give it one more chance before I drop it, since it survived the first round. The saint-mark was definitely great and deserves to be compared to other saint-marc some time, to figure out which is the best in Tokyo, though that's different type of project.

Among cakes (generally) available, I've only got three more cakes left for the second-round of the loser's bracket, so I'm going to have to be careful not to run out and not be ready if something suddenly becomes available, although I've got three that I've done a first-round, so, assume that they are actually great, I may be able to generate another relatively quickly. Next weekend I'm busy, though, so I'll worry about what I'll do next later, but eventually I'll get close enough to the end of the the second-year that I may try some pastry-offs, though my list of great pastries is pretty short.

Ryoura: Fondant Chocolat

Finally got back to Ryoura again, on the grounds that I promoted it to quite excellent, so it needs to have 10 cakes sampled (for one reason, to see whether it stands up to further scrutiny to deserve that designation, which basically means in bottom half of the top 15 Tokyo cake shops).

They don't open until 11 a.m., I didn't get up that late, and I'm not that patient, so I went out around 9:30 a.m. to fill in some holes in the neighborhood course running map, even though health issues and the current heat has limited my ability to make use of the map, but I'm starting to get back to it.


I had missed a shrine, a café with sufficient cake cred to deserve inclusion, and a Lindt (which maybe doesn't, but that ship has sailed).









I hit a churches that got left off on the other side of Shibuya Station, so I need to revisit my running course over there too, but I'll just post the pictures here from the shrine.

Fondant Chocolat, after several seconds of heat

I got to Ryoura soon after they opened. There were other customers, but no line. I came by bicycle, so I didn't want to try to take the cake all the way home that way, especially in the extreme heat. However, because of the heat, I had to be careful what I choose at least somewhat, though I'm not sure that that effected my choice. I went with the Fondant Chocolat, which seemed safe in various ways. Notice that they used real chocolate, so in the extreme heat, it wilted in seconds. Fortunately, the base is robust, almost fudge-like, so no further melting. This was excellent. Though standard in some ways, I don't really get this type of cake often and my favorite fondant (from Paris S'éveille) is of a different type, at least after you microwave it as recommended, which this type isn't set up for.

On the way back, I also stopped a couple places to confirm the availability of great cakes for near-future cake-offs. First I stopped at Il Pleut sur la Seine, where they did have their saint-marc, and got a Pain au Chocolat, which was excellent, I think; certainly I have no complaint about it. At Bubó Barcelona, I confirmed the Bubó Xoco Deluxe, though that's now I recorded it previously; I need to confirm and update. I also confirmed that they have pastries on the weekend that they don't have during the week, so I got a Croissant Marsipan, which was excellent, but a lot more Danish like than I expected (very fluffy with a sugar coating; not so much marzipan inside, but maybe the correct amount). I know I was greedy today, but I missed a week of cake and pastry from being sick. Also, this extreme heat is more physically draining than expected. I thought I would have put on weight from lack of exercise for a week (of course, no cake, but a lot more cheap discount grocery chocolate) and then limited exercise the following week, but the opposite was true.

Avranches Guesnay: Opera Figue Vin Rouge

Wednesday, got cake again at Isetan, this time from Avranches Guesnay as a fifth cake from an excellent shop. Did less cycling than other days, due to rain, but still went down to Midtown to check out the day's line up (I suppose I could just ask about the whole week all at once, but that's not very interesting and I perhaps wouldn't remember anyway). I went with Opera Figue Vin Rouge. Fig is good for dense cakes and I used to appreciate it more. This was definitely good and they did have a good harmony between the fig and red wine.

Thursday I went to Il Pleut sur la Seine and confirmed one good cake as available and got the Croissant aux Amandes, again, because I keep forgetting to rate it. This is the kind of almond croissant that seals in the filling by an outside layer. And this almond filling is deliciously moist and quite sugary. I'm going to say that it was excellent. I feel like being a sugar bomb is almost cheating, but it was not poorly done. My night photography, however, needs some work. Look at the phone manual is on the to do list.

Cake-off: Jean-Paul Hévin's Mont-Pomme Caramel over Il Pleut sur la Seine's Le Saint-Marc

Monday, which was a holiday, I did a cake-off. This month's special mont-blanc is at Jean-Paul Hévin is the Mont-Pomme Caramel. To match it, I ran to Il Pleut sur la Seine for the somewhat caramel Le Saint-Marc. Due to a post about medieval walking patterns, I did the run on the balls of my feet, versus heels, which is not the most efficient, but it's good for posture and seems good for my foot problems, so I did it again Tuesday, but I'm getting ahead of myself. The run was about 5 km each way, a low 9 km/h going out and a high 8 km/h coming back.

Another tough cake-off, though both were good enough that they don't need to be denoted, though It's hard to say whether I would rate them great, which always depends on the day. In the end, I have to go with the Mont-Pomme Caramel, which is more interesting and certainly there is more to it (for barely more money), both in terms of volume and interesting elements.

Les Cacaos: Chocolat Orange

I'm going through my list of Excellent shops and getting a fourth cake where needed. The Excellent group is a little bloated, but at the same time I'll like to promote one to Quite Excellent to fill the gap above left over from the withdrawal of Henri le Roux. There are a few Excellent shops that I can visit on a weekday, but Les Cacaos is not one of those, so I visited there today. I still get lost making the transition between the main streets radiating from Gotanda and Meguro, but it's not such a big area, so it's not such a big deal. Even though it was sunny, the temperature was forecast to peak at only 25 deg. Summer is over (and on a weekend, so no extra public holiday--bummer, but it averages out over time and holidays).

Les Cacaos seems to be expanding its lineup, though it still has the better two of the three cakes that I've had before. This time I went with Chocolat Orange. They have some non-chocolate ones now, but they are obviously first a chocolate shop, and I like chocolate, so I tried to stick with what they should do best. This is a somewhat traditional chocolate sponge layer cake with butter cream-based frosting, I think (though don't ask me to remember what the card said about it besides the obvious from the name). It was definitely good and at one point I considered rating it excellent, but I decided that this would probably not be my choice for this type of chocolate cake or for an orange chocolate cake, so I'm going to have to leave the evaluation at just good. I've demoted them down to Quite Good as a shop, but I've had one great cake from them, which will probably get used in a cake-off within this year (they're #9 of currently available cakes).

It's the weekend with two longish runs (compared to recent ones: I plan a near-marathon-length run for next Sunday, as part of a cake-off; wish me luck), so I got greedy and visited Il Pleut sur la Seine, partially to confirm currently available great cakes but also to sample their Bostock. It's of the soft variety with a relatively strong liquor taste. Definitely good but typical. The piece of matcha chiffon cake was okay.
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(Thur) Il Pleut sur la Seine: Croissant aux Amandes

In order to get the name of yesterday's cake, I went back to P. Il Pleut sur la Seine. I didn't get cake, though that would perhaps have been less decadent, as they did not have bostock, so I got Croissant aux Amandes (380 yen). As usually, this had almond paste inside, which makes it very heavy, but there was also almond paste (I assume) on top, like a layer of icing. When I bought cake yesterday, they gave me a sample Gallete Bretonne (which would normally be about 300 yen, so not a bad get), whereas today they gave me Baton Fromage (I was not really expecting anything with a pastry, but it cost almost as much as a cake, and I imagine at least double the calories). The latter two "secs" were definitely good, but I'm less interested in them than cakes and pastries (and demi-secs, like financiers). I had some shopping to do, stopping by Nikunohanamasa for roasted peanut pieces, so it was about 12 km total. Even with the temperature down, it was humid and not cool, and frankly I'm out of shape/practice for running fast, so I was still only 9 km/h.

Il Pleut sur la Seine: Deauville

Hottest day of the year so far, so even in the evening was hot, though not necessarily the worst night for running so far. It's about 5 km each way to Il Pleut sur la Seine by the shortest path, not that the shortest is exactly what I use, but not so different, and I was between 8 and 9 km/h. I also got a free baked good (as I often do from them), so maybe I'll go cake-free tomorrow in preparation for the next cake-off and just have that.

I was not initially sure what I got, as only parts of the name stuck in my head, but I've confirmed that it sounds like Deauville, which fits. I needed another run to confirm the name, but neglected to confirm the ingredients, so maybe there will be a further update. The cake is definitely a mousse dome and definitely has apple (which is as far as I read and remember), and I'm guessing cassis as the red part, though I couldn't identify what the other fruit flavor was. I think that they are big on healthy cakes, as well as classics, and this might fall into the former category (there was a lentil-biscuit cake on the other end of the case). My main meals are extreme healthy, so I don't need that in my cake. Still, this was good and competently made. However, just good is not enough to keep the shop among the Quite Excellent shops, so I'm finally bumping them down to Excellent. Still, they have had two great cakes and at least one is still in the line-up, so I'll probably be back for that again before too long for a cake-off, since I'm doing a good job of making my first pass through the available great cakes.

(Friday) Il Pleut sur la Seine: Relaxation

Ran to Il Pleut sur la Seine again, probably at closer to 9 km/h this time. The cake was, I think, Relaxation (my katakana transcription was a little shaky in the middle). It seems to be in the family of roll cake. The meringue on top is interesting and the cake is courser than just typical sponge, but beyond that it's basically fruit (can't remember what, maybe peach) with custard. It was definitely good but not something that I need, which leaves this shop not so different from many Excellent shops, so I'll have to consider who is more deserving of Quite Excellent status. Toshi Yoroizuka certainly seems to be, but I'll need one more to balance out Henri le Roux's exit from the fresh cake biz.

On the plus side, they also gave me a financier, which I certainly appreciate. As a non-fresh cake, particularly a wrapped one, I did not expect it to more than good, but it is definitely that.

Il Pleut sur la Seine: Polonaise

Finally got to Il Pleut sur la Seine again after upgrading it to the superb cake shop list to replace Abricotier. Today's cake brings me up to 5 cakes reviewed for here (so still 2 more to catch up). It was a slow after yesterday's long run following a training run the day before that. So I did not make any of the lights through Omotesando (I did stretches while I waited). I'm consider altering my path going that way on slow days to try to at least line up with a pedestrian bridge crossing the street between Omotesando Station and Harajuku Station. There and back, about 5 km each, were both at exactly the same speed, close to 9 km/h.

The "cake" for today is Polonaise, which is a brioche Polonaise, so perhaps actually a pastry, but I think the meringue is enough to push it over into the cake category, at least for me, especially after allowing Fondant Choc
olat yesterday. This is a brioche (which is a sweet bread) spiked with kirsch, filled with candied fruit (so it tasted like fruit cake), with a little bit of custard at the center and a lot of meringue (more than 1 cm thick) covering it, with sliced almonds. It sounds like a mess and not something I would be into, maybe, and actually it did become messy because my eating strategy was to cut out radial wedges, which obviously imbalances it, and it tastes like a baba, which I'm not excited about, but it all works well together and it was excellent.

Il Pleut sur la Seine: Chiboust Poire

Was feeling tired today, though less so (relative to other return runs) on the way back, so it all came about to about 9 km/h for around 10 km total. I am looking particularly at the excellent shops that I've only had three cakes from to see whether any are candidates as new potentially quite excellent shops. It could still wash out later, but I got another great cake, so Il Pleut sur la Seine gets promoted.

The cake was a Chiboust Poire (670 yen). I like a good chiboust, which not everyone makes. This shop seems to do best with the standards, probably related to them having their own school. Eventually I should compare this with other chibousts that I've said are great and see really stands out, but for now I'm just happy to have something different and something great. Basically, the base is like a pear tart, and then you have the eggy part and a top hard
caramelized layer.

I also received a Galette Noir, which was excellent, as far as I can tell from just one cookie.

Il Pleut sur la Seine: Mille-Feuille and Bouchon

Made another visit to Il Pleut sur la Seine on Sunday and ate in. We got the Bouchon, which may be an eat-in only option, but was not marked so this time, and Mille-Feuille, which is eat in only. The Mille-Feuille was great, I think. The clever bit was they pre-sliced the two and middle layers, so it was easy to eat while still retaining the "leaves". The Bouchon is the standard rum-soaked sponge cake (with some sort of glaze or something on the outside which didn't affect the taste or texture directly), which I don't really get, though it was good enough I suppose. So this shop is at least excellent. However, the service was not perfect, in terms of manners in terms of the café side, though that isn't really part of the calculations.

Actually, I haven't included eat-in only cake in the terms of Verron, but their take-out and eat-in are just completely separate, so it makes more sense to separate my evaluation there, whereas I'll include eat-in cakes for this shop and JPH, for example.

There was running, but not until Monday, which I took off. I've been having knee problems, so I'm working on new exercises (need to loosen up my thigh muscles, perhaps) and I didn't try to go fast, but did about 16 km at an average of 10 km/h. I was doing some non-cake shopping, but also visited Lettre d'Amour, investigating for future great cake cake-offs, but I might have simply looked online and seen that they finally closed last month (I always wondered how they stayed open with as little business as they seemed to do onsite), so that's two great cakes that I've lost, though they might reappear in some form at a future date. Instead of a pastry at Lettre d'Amour I got an overly dry cinnamon bum from the Dean and Deluce on Aoyama Avenue. I guess I should have microwaved or steamed it a little bit or something.

Il Pleut sur la Seine: Le Saint-Marc

Had a run down to Il Pleut sur la Seine in Daikanyama. It's about 5 km and outbound was 11 km/h, which is a little fast for the safety of pedestrians around Omotesando, but the patisserie/cafe/school closes at 19:30, so it's hard not to be in a hurry, and it is after all my target speed for general weekday cake runs.

The cake I got was Le (?) Saint-Marc (ラサンマルク; 616 yen), which is a standard cake. I've had cake from here more than once years ago but never found anything that I was thrilled with, more in terms of variety than quality. This time, as a bonus (maybe because they messed up my receipt; I didn't really understand the explanation) they gave me a couple of Sablé "Mimorettou" (サブレ・ミモレットゥ), which is a name only they use, but there's a link here explaining how it uses 12-month aged cheese and almonds. Presumably the cheese is Mimolette, so I should keep an eye out for that. This is sort of a salty, cheesy, almond cookie, which means I know someone who would really appreciate this, so maybe we should go down there together for cake and get some more. Certainly it was excellent, so I'm also keeping an eye out for a recipe, as well as the cheese.

The run back was 10 km/h, as planned. One nice thing about this shop is that they label their cakes (that's the green dot) and boxes so that you know what temperature to eat it at. In this case, they recommended 10 degC, so the whipped cream was the right consistency, which, they explained, means 10 minutes from the refrigerator. I followed this instruction, and it was great cake. Since this is mostly whipped cream (some chocolate), it can be light for me, but with the almond biscuits and caramel on top, it balanced out perfectly. Guess I'm going to have to get back there again next week (although I'm pre-warned that they are closed next Wednesday so as to be open on Valentines day).