Cake-off: Viron's Menton over Jean-Paul Hévin's Maya

For the weekend, I started off
going to Isetan to get cake for a Cake-off at Isetan. It's the weekend of White Day, so even getting there at opening, there was a long line at Jean-Paul Hévin. Fortunately, they closed the bar and were using the space for people who didn't need to individually select chocolates, so I got my cake. For the cake-off, I needed Maya. I figured I had time, so I walked it home before setting out for Viron to get their new Menton, which involved a little waiting but was no problem. It's a rainy day, so no attempts at running were involved.

Both these new cakes stood up to evaluation. As much as I like chocolate, its a crowded field, which might be why I'm giving the Menton the win. It's lemon, but there seems to be a lot else going on, even if I'm not sure what, and a satisfying mix of textures.

Viron, Menton

In a rare (though repeated the following day) event, I did not have to work late and went out to try to score a cake from one of the two three-excellent-cakes shops on the neighborhood running map. It occurred to me that I hadn't checked in at Viron, though, so I did that was was pleasantly surprised to find that they had a new cake, Menton. Like the only other Menton I've had, lemon was the main flavor, so I assume that's what Menton, France is famous for. Can't remember what the card said or tell for eating it what else is there besides custard, which seems to be the lemon part. There is thicker lighter area above it (and a nice nutty biscuit below it, almond I assume from the top) that's light brown; can you make just the burnt part of crème brulée, since this was uniform and mousse-like? Guess I need to swing by there again, though they won't have another new thing. Great cake! This works a lot better for me than a lemon tart in terms of balancing the texture of the custard against mousse, reasonably solid biscuit and some solid nuts and coating. I was looking for a great cake especially since I just had a new one from JPH, so this determines the next cake-off.

Paris S'éveille: Menton

Sunday, I finally got, by bicycle, the new cake at Paris S'éveille, the Menton. They were busy to the point of asking someone to wait outside, but the tables were not full, so I could eat in. This is a very light lemon cake. The top is lemon flavored milk foam, but the inside is a very dry, very aerie meringue (or something similar) with space for some more lemon (compote or something; I still don't have those kinds of things straight in my head), but nothing to overpower the milk foam, so fairly milk tasting. I'm into stronger cakes, but can allow that this was excellent.

Afterward, I went to Dalloyau. I hadn't had any pastries the previous week, so I decided to make up for it by having my first pastry-off. My favorite shop for pastry is Fraoula, so I was looking for a match for their Croissant d'Almonde. I was open for an orange pastry, but Dalloyau didn't seem to know what I was talking about. My previous pastry purchases were mainly from the Mitsukoshi counter, and there may have been changes since the Ginza shop was closed. The other great pastry I've had from Dalloyau is their Croissant, which I've had more than once. But when I tried it this time, it seemed rather ordinary. I'll give it the benefit of the doubt and say it was excellent, so Fraoula wins the first pastry-off. There is no reward other than staying on the extremely short list of great pastries.

On the way, I ventured to grab a few pictures of sites along planned future parts of the neighborhood course. Hadn't known about this school/restaurant? They have a Tabelog entry, but there is only one comment, from 6 years ago, and no pictures, which I've never encountered. The homepage link gives an error message in Chinese and the Facebook page posts are from 2014. Maybe it really is just someone's house now.