Cake-off: Sadaharu Aoki's Mont D'or's over Jean-Paul Hévin's Macaron Chocolat a l'Ancienne

With today (Monday), finally catching up on blogging. I've been out sick, but today I went out and visited Isetan, among other errands. I believe this will be the last weekend for an indefinitely time for Jean-Paul Hévin's Macaron Chocolat a l'Ancienne, otherwise getting it in an 4th round cake-off would not be a priority, since I still have lower ranked 3rd rounds to do. I matched it against another two losses and one win limited-time (through February) cakes, Mont D'or from Sadaharu Aoki's. I'm planning something more challenging for next week.

The Macaron Chocolat a l'Ancienne had the usual problem of being over-engineered as a chocolate delivery device, though I remain fond of it as as an old classic. Mont D'or as a nice smooth chocolate with enough chestnut to give it a special flavor and an accept of cassis/currant and I give it the win.

Besides cake, I also proved my recovery by performing my standard non-weights (mostly upper body) muscle training and then doing a run taking in a neighborhood clump, my Shinanomachi Stn. one (just 3.577 km length by itself), and a counter clockwise confirmation of my revised Samon-chou loop, spending about an hour total, though there was some walking while I grabbed a candy snack and firmed the last loop before heading for grocery shopping.

Cake-off: Jean-Paul Hévin's Bergamot over Sadaharu Aoki's Mont D'or

Friday, I went for a long neighborhood run that combined practicing loops to confirm that I have them memorized and doing a one-way neighborhood run to and around a new loop, which means that it was really long neighborhood run, because I was doing full loops and then having to run back from the start point of the loop to the official link to the next loop rather than just use the part of the loop (once) that I needed. I was successful at doing clockwise runs on the Jinguumae east, Kita-Aoyama central, Minami-Aoyama north, Minami-Aoyama east, and Roppongi 7 loops. On the Minami-Aoyama north loop, I stopped at P. Takagi and got a Chausson Napolitain as my first pastry from there. Related, I made a decision to stop using the sidewalk that cuts through it as part of the loop, because it's really not somewhere where one should run and it's easy enough to go around, which still takes one by the signs saying what's inside. The pastry was definitely good. I've never seen such a flat chauson, though my experience is limited and this seems to be normal for this kind of chausson. It contained sufficient fruit for me (and apparently alcohol), so no complaint about that.

The new loop was the Azabu-Juuban--Moto-Azabu loop, which I'm going to add a little loop for to reach a Tully's. On that loop and coming back, I took some photos of places that I had missed or had second thoughts about leaving out, since as the photo at the right, which is a temple, though their business is pet memorials.

The cake was another cake-off (trying to get through the potentially soon to got out of season cakes from the majors): Jean-Paul Hévin's Bergamot and Sadaharu Aoki's Mont d'Or. The latter is scheduled through February; it's not clear when Bergamot was leave the line-up, but it's listed as seasonal and some sort of shake up is scheduled for mid-January. These were both working for me. The Bergamot is just one variation of a type of JPH cake that I think is great, but I haven't gotten tired of it yet and it takes the win in this third-round cake-off, where previously it had one win and one loss.

Cake-off: Sadaharu Aoki's Mont D'or over Dalloyau's L'echiquier

Friday and worked the latest this week, so I abandoned my plan to do a 20 km run. Instead I thought I'd get a pastry from someplace new on my neighborhood courses map and finally verify the loop going by the U.S. Tokyo Embassy, which is just to go by Zuckerbackerei Kayanuma, though there are some perhaps famous-brand cafés among the new big complex, which the loop also circles around.

I decided to try Hitotsugicho Club for the pastry, really at the last minute (another shop is nearby and I didn't expect it to close early). I've never been in here. When I've gone by, I see through the window that they are a bakery, but I also see people that are dressed up, so I'm not sure whether there is bakery time and an event time. It turns out that they are a jazz club, at least on the weekend. No one was sitting at the front Friday night, they were all in the back stage area, and it was between sets, so I felt okay going in and getting something. I got what I think was labeled as Croissant Almonde, though it had been sliced open and inside was custard and I think strawberry sauce. I probably would have chosen something different if I had noticed the custard before buying, as it doesn't really fit my image of a serious pastry. The pastry was definitely good, despite the bottom being weakened by the moisture from the custard. The base almond croissant seemed excellent, so I'll look forward to visiting again even if I didn't respect (but did enjoy) this pastry. They are, after all, the best jazz club bakery that I know.

At Roppongi-douri, I suddenly decided that I wanted end my uncertainty about Saturday's cake-off by swinging by Sadaharu Aoki and asking the whether they would have the Mont D'or Saturday morning, and if not, whether the home shop would (since Isetan already told me that they were on their last day on Thursday night). At this point, I think, it's a matter of when they run out of prepared cakes/materials (it's fresh cake, in theory, but you could keep the main wet and dry parts frozen until needed). Even though the loop I want to try is tiny, I only had a few minutes of margin before the shop closed. As it happens, they checked in back for me and they would be selling Mont D'or Saturday morning and ask me whether I wanted to reserve one, so I prepaid for one cake. Saturday morning, I went out by approximately the same route (though I didn't swing by Hitotsugicho Club) and did do the loop before proceeding to Ginza Mitsukoshi to get L'echiquier from Dalloyau (I had a Jean-Paul Hévin backup in case L'echiquier was not in their limited lineup, but it was, as was a new limited spring cake that I think I'll get next week). Then I ran back to Midtown with my one cake and mostly walked the two cakes home (since running with two cake boxes is awkward and I worry about my tendinitis).

Both these cakes lost their first cake-off rounds but remained in the great list (which many didn't, so actually I have a lot fewer choices when trying to match them up for the second round). L'echiquier represents a perfect representation of a kind of light chocolate and cream layer cake, and I've been questioning inclusions of cakes have similar credentials recently as I've started the second round. This is still something I appreciate and want again (i.e., great), even if my preference tend toward other kinds of cakes, such as the Mont D'or, which has a pound cake type base and a rich ganache-like upper part creating a harmony of textures and chocolate and chestnut flavors accented with cassis.

In the evening, I shared one more cake, which looked tiny in the store but was dense, so half or a third would have been enough. I'm not sure that this counts as fresh cake, seeming more like a weekend cake, but I won't worry about that now. this is the Caramel Apple Cake from Baked, an American brand with a counter at Isetan. The plate is the usual small plate I use for individual petites gâteaux, but the cake is three dense layers, so this is a lot of cake even for two people. It was very American, very dense in terms of flour and butter, and enough apple to give a taste. The shown amount of caramel barely registers. It's good for what it is but I'll keep sticking mostly to petites gâteaux.

(Fri) Bien-être's Mont-blanc over Sadaharu Aoki's Mont D'or

I squeezed in a cake-off on Friday. The Sadaharu Aoki cake, Mont D'or, just became available again this month and I got it when I was out running an errand. The Mont-blanc from Bien-être, held over from October, I got by bicycle, deciding that I needed every minute I could, though running would not have been so much longer, since the shop is close.

My impression of the Mont-blanc was the same as in October, that it was the best of the very heavy chestnut mont-blancs that I've had. Simple but effective. The Mont D'or is a very creamy chocolate cake accented with black (?) currant (anyway, cassis). I wish that I had had more time to linger over it, to sense what was special about it, but I spent at least the usual amount of time. I have to go with the Mont-blanc as the winner of the cake off, but the Mont D'or definitely was high quality and the fruit was a positive addition to the chocolate. Also, the texture of the cake is great, so it stays a Great cake and I contemplate it again next year.

Sadaharu Aoki: Mont d'Or

Okay, first with the running. I decided to time myself around Akasaka Palace again, aiming for just one lap at a moderate pace. Since this has hills, it's more difficult than Gaien, which is almost completely flat, but the hills are all during the second half (the way I run it), so I'm not sure how to pace it, and anyway, I haven't memorized enough points of specific distance yet.

Apparently, I did a very fast 1.75 km to get to the starting point (northwest corner), not by the shortest route for no go reason, but it was a good route. The actual loop then was 18'46''14 for 3.31 km, which was actually fast. As I said, it was hard to judge and I wasn't that committed to moderate.

Then a moderate speed 1.87 km to Midtown to visit Toshi Yoroizuka, who was closed for an event (at the bar area, I could see) for the first time I've seen. No problem: I went inside to Sadaharu Aoki, where they had cakes that I hadn't had before as a 10-year "festival" (which is almost over) of being in Japan. The cake, Mont d'Or is chocolate mouse and almond cream on top. The almond cream must have then the pencil line-sized part on top, with the chocolate mousse as the main body. The bottom was a dense and pound-cake like, and is reportedly chestnut and cassis. I suppose there must have been chestnut flour in the cake, as I didn't notice actual chestnut pieces. I would have guessed that the red fruit was raspberry from the taste (and the sense of seeds in my teeth afterwards), but it was just an accent and worked well with the cake. The cake was different from anything I've had before from them, but it was a great, high-quality piece, which it should be for 830 yen. It had been a while since I had cake from a great shop. Still need to get to Toshi Yoroizuka, though. Maybe Thursday.

There were multiple chromometer mishaps, but I seem to have run another 3.3 km slowly (with cake on a crowded sidewalk) coming back, so I hit a variety of speeds today.