(Sun) Franzè & Evans London: Pavlova Meringue Cake and White Berry (Mini Pavlova)

Walked a little through Naitoumachi (?) and then cut over to Gaien for Ichou Namiki Avenue. Even though the temperatures dropped down to mid-December levels, not all the leaves have turned yet, but enough for them to close off the street and the crowds to show up. This is not so bad, as crowds here go, though I was happy to escape.

The goal was to down the shopping street through Jinguumae and end up at Franzè & Evans London, where I've never eaten before. We had lunch, which was good and not unreasonably priced, considering, but the goal was desert. It's not patisserie cakes. I went for the Pavlova Meringue Cake as the most promising and my date went for the White Berry (Mini Pavalova). I almost switched to the NY Cheesecake, though it had Oreos sticking up out of it, which doesn't earn my respect. Fortunately, these two cakes were different beyond just the berries. I'm not sure whether the whole cake is the more traditional version, but the meringue was much softer. 

The outside of the mini is a sweet hard meringue shell inside which is the cream. I actually preferred the more sugary latter, so I'll say that it was excellent, and this café rates Quite Good so far; not that I'm that organized about my café visiting.  

Full disclosure, we also ended up at Doutur (because there were no seats at the Marui Starbucks) and someone wanted to try the Two-Layer Cheesecake, which is just ok, as one would expect.

Bubó Barcelona: Sacher Raspberry

Short run today, which is appropriate between yesterday's long Sunday run and tomorrows fairly long planned run. I know I already said that Bubó Barcelona wasn't look like it was going to get above the Excellent level, but they were still top of that group in some ways and the other most likely choice is closed Mondays. The run was fine, all on the high side of 9 km/h, but only a little over 6 km total (it would have been less, but I got a little creative on the way back).

The cake, Sacher Raspberry was definitely good. However, making a sacher raspberry sort of takes away it's one interesting point, and I've had a lot of chocolate raspberry cakes, including from the best, and this one doesn't really stand out. Still an Excellent shop, but I should probably search through the other Excellent to find one to promote, which is the plan for both Wednesday and Thursday.

(Sat.) Bubó Barcelona café: Pear Caramel and Xabina

Was busy an also generally very hot for running (sunny with a high of 35 degC), especially with cake, [for this entire three-day weekend]. Fortunately, it's not too far from Omotesando Station to Bubó Barcelona, especially if you stop at Crayonhouse for a vegetable-intensive (I skipped the chicken) organic buffet. Bubó Barcelona is very modern, though the second-floor space leaves the ceiling and walls bare rather than covering the pipes and things. We went fairly early, I suppose, between noon and 1 pm, and were the only customers when we arrived (in the café/salon; a guy was taking phone photos of the cakes on the first floor). Only a few people came in upstairs while we were there, so I'm a little worried about their longevity. The bakery café nearby was packed on both floors, with people waiting. There were a lot of foreigners specifically coming there (it's a back street with not a lot of things, so most people we saw were going there, but someone got the $200 haircut next door).  They must have a good promotion scheme going on somewhere.

Though at the café, the cake comes with extra bits, as shown (and cost 200 yen extra), but it's still the same as the take-out cake, so it's reasonable to dual list this as cake and café. I only had about half of each, but the Xabina was about the same as before. I was less excited about the Xabina the second time and the chocolate seemed a little watery to me initially, but I got past that and will stick to my original excellent rating. The Pear Caramel was also excellent. Actually, walnuts are more very prominent in this and it's not actually very caramel flavored, but rather more syrupy, which probably depends on how long/hot you coot the sugar for the caramel.

Bubó Barcelona: Bubó Malfi

Bubó Barcelona: Bubó Malfi

Sore again today, and maybe tired, so only managed 8 km/h for a round trip of 5.8 km. Guess I should rest tomorrow, since I won't have a lot of time Saturday and will need to run faster. Went back to Bubó Barcelona in Jingumae and got the Bubó Malfi (692 yen), which is white chocolate with a lemon center. It was definitely good, but not exciting, so it seems to be an excellent shop, but not among the top 15. I wouldn't need to go back soon, except I'd like to try their café.

Bubó Barcelona

Bubó Barcelona: Xabina

After a brisk walk to Isetan to find that they did not have the cake I needed for my next cake-off, I headed home and then set off for Bubó Barcelona. This time, I did not get lost and it did take only half the time. Total, it was just under 6 km, done at 9 km/h.

The shop and street were empty of customers when I went, though someone came in after me. They had 10 types of cakes, so I won't run out of things there soon. I got the Xabina, which is basically a familiar type: mousse chocolate cake with a little Bavarian cream inside (not sure why). In this case, though, there are spices and olive oil involved, and you can definitely taste that there is something different going one. These types of cakes pretty much depend on the quality of the chocolate and this was definitely not bad, and interesting, so I'll say it's excellent and move this shop up to the Quite Excellent category, which means I'll have to make frequent visits there, at least until they disappoint me.

Worth mentioning, before I ate my cake, I had to go out for regular groceries, and I noticed an animal running along the fence between housing units. It was cat-sized, but something wasn't quite right. It came back and couple times, popping and running along the top of the fence (the wire fence: there isn't flat top), and I saw it had a triangular face. Apparently, we have civets (https://japantoday.com/category/features/kuchikomi/whats-that-smell-could-a-civet-be-nearby). I was told Tokyo has feral "Tree civets", or maybe it was "Forest civets", but I'm not sure that's a real thing and the Japan Today article was less certain about whether they are invasive.

Pierre Hermé [Aoyama] (Heaven)

No running Thursday or Friday. Thursday, I enjoyed some cake, though not the fresh kind, though similar. This was Chiboust Vanille Fromage from Konditorei Kobe, brought from Kobe. I like chiboust and good vanille, as well as cheese cake, so this was definitely good.

Friday, we went to the Omotesando (the station)/ Aoyama (the road and official location)/Jingumae (actual address) Pierre Hermé. The Dessert Jasmine [Updated, from latest Facebook post] is financier on the bottom, cut into one centimeter intervals and layered, to create a solid but still easily eatable base, on top of which is a mango gelatin flavored with grapefruit. Then jasmine-flavored mascarpone cheese, topped with meringue leafs. On the plate are mango sauce and grapefruit gelatin. This was definitely excellent and definitely greater than the sum of its parts/ingredients. I'm not that into grapefruit, but it cuts through the mango, which can be overly thick, and adds a complementary citrus taste, and it would not have occurred to me to use financier as the base for a fresh-cake-like dessert or how to do that well, so now I know.

The other dessert is easy to get the name of because it's popular and featured on the official Facebook page. It ends up looking like my photo, but starts as a chocolate ball (well, two chocolate domes put together) and they pour hot chocolate sauce on it so that it melts and collapses. Ideally, one would take video to display this, but I can barely manage to frame a photo (though at least the phone camera does better with the focus). It's called Sensation Plaisir Sucré, and is filled with ice cream and hazelnut praliné. Some solid chocolate survives, but not a lot. It's very rich and definitely good for a chocolate and nut lover, though ice cream is never high on the list of things I want in my dessert, regardless of the season, so I was still happier with my fruity cake.

Jean-Paul Hévin: MOF2016

For New Year's Day, we went to the Omotesando Hills Jean-Paul Hévin, since they are open (many other places are quiet, but Harajuku to Omotesando was still full of crowds of people). Got both the cakes that are Jan. 1 to 10 only, the MOF2016 (714 yen + 8%) and the Mont(-Blanc) Fuji (637 yen + 8%). The new one, was the MOF2016, which got a little mangled trying to get it out of the box. There's still plastic around it that has to be peeled off, but as it took a little chocolate with it, it's just as well I took the photo first. It's got a top half of whipped cream and a bottom half that includes small pieces of maron (chestnut) confit and it's a nutty cake, generally, but what nut powders they used, I'm not sure. It's good, but not really special. The Mont Fuji, which I've blogged before, is confirmed to be special. Maybe by next year I'll get around to comparing it to other cakes that I've rated as great (surely, I'm getting close to running out of new/seasonal cakes, although I'm not sure what will appear Jan. 11 and I still need to get back to the Marunouchi Jean-Paul Hévin, which has a completely different selection of cakes).

The run was the Akasaka Palace course, with the goal of only a slight increase to 2 full laps (3.3 km/) at 11 km/h, since that's what fits in the budget. For this kind of training run, I'm trying to definitely get at least 11 km/h rather than just approximately, but I was above 11.5 km/h on the first lap, so it counts as 12 km/h for my budget. The next lap was a little slower, so walking home evened things out. This and the previous run indicate I need to up all my training speeds 1 km/h, although I'm not sure that I can actually get 12.0+ km/h for Akasaka Palace, but perhaps if I don't have to do a second lap I can make it. I should do the Imperial Moat course first, though: it's longer per lap, but definitely flatter (midway between Meiji Gingu Gaien and Akasaka Palace).