Hard week at work. I ran the Minami-Motomachi--Samon-chou--Suga-chou--Shinanomachi--Wakaba--Yotsuya loop of the neighborhood course (successfully, but I'm revising it again) Tuesday late (ending about 10 pm). Wednesday, I was slightly less late and tried to go to Pierre Gagnaire, but arrived after 8 pm and they were sold out of all cakes. I'm still sampling snack places along the neighborhood course, so this time I hit NewDays and tried their little Baumkuchen Vanilla, which as the shown price indicates isn't the top of even their baumkuchen offerings. Actually, though, this was definitely good, better than either of the recent coffee shop baumkuchens.
At home, I also tried something from the organic grocery store Bio c' Bon. They actually have a fresh cake in the form of Benten-dou Cookie Choux from their "Gateau de nature du coeur" line. "Cookie", probably because it's a harder pastry than the soft ones usually found in convenience stores and the like, and maybe a little harder/less crisp than regular choux pasty, though not so different from Oyashiya Utchii's. The custard was a little different from that one, though it's not obvious that one was better than the other except that this one was sweeter, probably than it needed to me, whereas maybe the other would have been better sweeter. Anyway, this one was less than half the price for the same size, so I'm more satisfied with it.
Thursday, I managed to leave work by 7 pm and get to Pierre Gagnaire before 8 pm and they had a good selection. Since it was the end of the month, I figured the chances of a changeover Sunday is large (though maybe after White Day, March 14, is more reasonable; I can't remember the trend last year, but I'll maybe look around March 1 beyond just getting cake for that day). I went with a cake I've seen around for a while, the Mousse aux Chocolat et Yuzu. I keep avoiding it because it's easy to become tired of chocolate mousse and I've been disappointed by (usually dome) mousse cakes repeatedly. There is yuzu gelatine inside as well, so this really doesn't seem like something I should like, but the chef patisserie is not incompetent: the chocolate and yuzu are balanced: it's a true chocolate mousse taste with yuzu for flavor and it prevents one from getting overpowered by the mousse. This cake is fairly firm for mousse, but not gelatinous, which is why it's not trying to a dome, just lets gravity do it's thing. My complaint is they tape the bottom of the box and the bottom of the cake, so I'm in serious danger of destroying it when trying to pull it out, once I managed to cut the clear tape holding the paper cylinder around it and raise it exactly vertically to free it. I suppose a hot wire slid under the plastic try might cut the tape safely but there should be a better way. I decided that this cake was perfect and I had not substitute for it, so I can say its great. Looks like I'm going to be making regular trips to Pierre Gagnaire for at least a little while.
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Unfortunately, I'll have to admit, it turned out that I wasn't much in the mood for chocolate. Nevertheless, these were great cakes, so I did enjoy eating them. Neither is a top chocolate cake, but they each represent a type. In this case, maybe just because I was looking for something beyond chocolate, I had to go with the mousse cake. In some ways, the San Juaquin Dos is pretty plain, but it has a kind of advantage in that way, so I'm not willing to give it up. Still, with two losses, it will have to wait until next year to get it's fourth round.
