L'Abricotier, J'Adore le Chocolat

Over the weekend, when I was at L'Abricotier, I picked up a new cake in response to a previous cake-off win (not in anticipation of the win this weekend). I'm not completely sure of the exact name, but a reasonable guess is J'Adore le Chocolat. Lots of nice textures and rich chocolate, so I can say it's excellent. This shop is near the top of the quite exceptional shops, jockeying with another shop, but challenging Viron when it slips but so far haven't been able to overtake it. I guess the point is that I expect excellent cake from there but also that I'm already a little ahead of visiting them so I probably won't try to get another new cake soon, despite the last cake-off win, though maybe if they come to Isetan in the spring.

L'Abricotier, Duja Orange

 I wasn't intentionally being greedy, just sticking to plan and went to L'Abricotier for the new cake they should have gotten before the last Viron cake. It's only another 8 km after 5 km to Ginza, so less of a daily run than the previous day so I was expecting to come up empty and have to go on to Yu Sasage, which I assume would be as far, but actually there were two new cakes to choose from. For today, I skipped the raspberry chocolate cake and took the Duja Orange. This shop is big on pairing nutty with fruit, so even though orange is a difficult fruit, I was interested in how it would pair with Gianduja (chocolate and hazelnut). Once again, I got lost on the trains, so it took twice as long as it should have to get back. I liked this cake, which I can say is definitely excellent. Mainly, I like the Gianduja cut with enough other stuff not to be too strong, though maybe orange isn't the perfect fruit.

L'Abricotier, Choux a la Crème

Wednesday, I hit L'Abricotier for a new cake, since they are challenging the bottom of the superb shop category (taking turns with two other quite exceptional shops). I've run out of regular cakes that are coffee-based, so I went with Choux a la Crème. These are cheap (which should have told me something), so I got three, being equal to about one piece of cake, though as it turned out, I didn't need so many. Based on previous experience, after walking there, I ran the whole way home, since that's easier on at least certain parts of my body than walking.

These are the kind studded with nuts, which haven't been my favorite in the bast. It's a relatively solid pastry. Custard is fine, but nothing special, so this get's marked as good, and L'Abricotier loses it's place as top of the quite exception group again.

L'Abricotier, Fraisier

Sunday, my goal was just one cake, since I knew I'd have the coming Wednesday off, so I could get one cake during the week. As a challenger for promotion to superb, I got a 24th new cake from L'Abricotier; learning somewhat from the day before, I ran there and mostly walked it back, so it was mostly in good shape. Really, I need to walk my cakes back or use the trains (which are pretty empty these days, so they feel pretty safe, but I should still walk if I can) to maintain photo quality. This was another one of those I-can't-believe-I-haven't-had-this-yet cakes. It's a standard cake various places. On one hand, it's just a way to eat custard and strawberries in cake form, but on the other hand, there isn't anything wrong with that in principle, and I had to admit at the end that it was excellent. Still not the first thing I would go for elsewhere, but I respect it as a reliable standard.

The afternoon was me exploring/practicing the revised neighborhood course around Daikanyama, where there were way too many people out on the north side for a state of emergency, including a pack of about 7 elementary school kids, a procession of three foreign teens girls on bikes without masks, and a lot of people at the restaurants by the main area video/bookstore. I think I'll choose a different time of day than lunch time next time I run through there.

L'Abricotier, Dulcey

Sunday was lots a bicycling to hit a wide spread of shops. I think I ran in the evening, but it's been a while, so I don't actually remember. If I did, it would be neighborhood courses, getting my memory of the revised loops and their clumps confirmed. Anyway, I was busy in the morning, so it was a late start, about 11:30. First I went to L'Abricotier, since are the top challenger to Pierre Hermé, plus they're open. This time I got Dulcey. I did a search on my phone there, because I was surprised that I had no record of having had this cake before, but I believe it now. It's been a standard as long as I can remember. I've avoided until now because the main feature is banana, which doesn't impress me, though as I think about cakes I've had, there have only been a few banana ones and only one that would put me off them as a whole (banana and chocolate). Anyway, there were probably other flavors, and the typical banana flavor was not strong, which suited me, but it was certainly sweet in a fruity way. I'm surprised, but in the end I have to say this was excellent, so they remember a challenger to moving up a spot. 

L'Abricotier, Oriental

As a second shop and a reason to keep running on Sunday, once Rue de Passy had secured its place among the exceptional shops, it meant I knew which shop was facing the chop, so I didn't have to visit the bottom shop of the group. In stead, I went to the top of the quite exceptional group, L'Abricotier, to allow them to challenge the group above. It's about 10 km from Rue de Passy to L'Abricotier, so it wasn't the easy choice for running, and I was tired enough after I got there, having done 3 hours of running Saturday, that I knew I was going to take my cake home by train, unless I could eat in. However, they were quite busy and all seats were full, but I preferred to have lunch at home first anyway, so I wasn't disappointed. I though I'd have to go with cream puffs, but actually they were sold out and there were two other cakes I haven't had, though I've seen their strawberry tart before, so I surprised I hadn't had it yet. However, I went with Oriental, which is mikan/tangerine  and chestnut with a chocolate base, which sounded interesting at least. Interest I might have been, but I can't say that the combination worked for me. It wasn't poorly made though, and it was as promised, so I can say that it was good. Maybe someone who likes mikan or chestnut more than I would appreciate this more. I've gotten a few cakes ahead with L'Abricotier, so it might have to wait awhile for me trying to get another new cake.

Jun Honma: Waguri Mont-Blanc

Still trying to sort out the quite fine shops versus the exceptional shops, I ran to Jun Honma again. I didn't get turned around 180 degrees again, but I also didn't pick my route that well, so it took about the same time. Actually, coming back with cake took the same time, and I walked under Shinjuku as far as Isetan. Takes a couple hours total.

I went with the Waguri Mont-Blanc this time, very traditional. And it was very traditional tasting, so good but nothing special, so Jun Honma slips behind, giving a different shop a chance for the next day. I'll say that this had a sort of almond tart base, since besides using Japanese Chestnuts, the base classifies it within the Mont-Blanc family.

L'Abricotier: Pomme Caramel

Eighth try at the Daita--Daizawa--Hatagaya--Kamiyama-chou--Kitazawa--Motoyoyogi-chou--Nishihara--Ooyama-chou--Shouto--Tomigaya--Uehara loop counterclockwise got me another 800 meters farther before failure (turned one street to early). Also, I could include two revisions since the last run, no problem.

Decided that it was easier to go straight to L'Abricotier (chosen because they are challenging the bottom of the Superb group) rather than run home and then go by bicycle. It was still a little under 7 km after almost 3 hours of running, but I walked much of it (though I also didn't take the shortest, 7 km path, because I wanted to pick up some photos).

Today's new cake was Pomme Caramel, which uses green apple mousse. It was definitely good, but this layered cube cake was hard to eat with a fork (at home, I'm used to using a knife). I suppose I need to practice.

L'Abricotier, Fromage Cru

Tried the Daita--Daizawa--Hatagaya--Kamiyama-chou--Kitazawa--Motoyoyogi-chou--Nishihara--Ooyama-chou--Shouto--Tomigaya--Uehara loop again, starting at about 7:40 am. I realized that I would actually feel bad if I was successful, because I've gotten used to running it, or at least starting to run it. No danger: I got the new part added for the shrine I discovered last time, corrected the mistake from last time, and made (after reaching the far west edge of the loop) the following turn that I was worried about late time and found that I couldn't remember what to do after that. Not what I did, as it happens, so I wrapped things up around 9:40 am.

From there, I set off for cake from L'Abricotier, which was closer than I expected, so I around more than half an your early (under their recent business hours). It wouldn't have been bad to wait, except, I was wet from the rain. Running and wet isn't so bad, but it's not warm enough for standing and wet. I went to Kouenji Stn., which isn't actually very interesting, and read news on my phone before returning. It was still raining and I was still a little early (though now there were people waiting), so I ran for about ten minutes to keep warm. I decided to eat out (and let someone go ahead of me, who took the last seat, while I was deciding what to get) so I got takeout. My spreadsheet showed I had never had Fromage Cru (rare cheesecake), which surprised me, though it's not something I usually go for, so I got that as my 20th type of cake from them. Obviously, there is fruit on it, and and a little of the inside was fruit-flavored, but it is not obvious what. Probably a red fruit mixture. As it happens, I was in the mood for Fromage Cru, which apparently I should get more of. I'll need to remember how today's was and compare it to Dalloyau's, which is still hanging on the greats list. This one hit me right, so I can call it excellent.

L'Abricotier, Saint Honoré

Friday, I did an indoor workout. Before hand, I went to Isetan to get their Koonie Chocolat Pecan, since they won a cake-off but don't have any new cakes (in Japan). Koonie are their cookie-brownie hybrid, covered in chocolate, and there are several flavors. I approve of the combination, and can call this an excellent baked good. Hard to tell the size from the photo, but reported weight Koonies on the French website is 20 g each.

Saturday, as planned, I rode to L'Abricotier to get a new cake, also for a cake-off win. This makes the 19th cake type from them for me. This time I got Saint Honoré, which I was surprised to find as new to be from there. It's very traditional in construction. As Japanese choux pastry goes, this was fairly robust, which I appreciate. The caramel is bitter caramel, which I did not appreciate but can respect, so I don't have probably saying that this was excellent.

Other errands appeared that I was not expected, so I was actually pretty late getting back, but went out again at 4 pm to confirm neighborhood course loops in the south Jinguumae area. This time I could confirm my Jinguumae 5&6 and Jinguumae--Shibuya loops counterclockwise, and take care of clockwise for the Jinguumae 5 and Jinguumae--Kita-Aoyama south loops. Along the way, on the first of these four, I finally sampled Coco-Agepan, which is not open in the afternoon, though you'll still see the truck it's run out of parked in the same spot. Agepan means fried bread, and is a staple sweet to an extent. They fry it after you order it, but it doesn't take long. It's basically like a long yeast donut. I choose the Cinnamon Agepan rather than the Coco one (which I assume is chocolate, not coconut), one of several flavors. It was good and reasonable snack for runners, though photographing it in the rain was awkward.

L'Abricotier, Menthe Fraise

Had some business to take care of, so I took a full day off work, which was more than necessary. Coming back, I took the train all the way to Koenji to visit L'Abricotier  (two other also quite exceptional shops that getting a cake from are a priority are both closed today). I ate in and then walked home by a longer route than necessary that let me take some pictures of some sites from my neighborhood map, although these are all so far out that I may never need them. It was about two hours of walking (whereas I could walk there Sunday in about 80 minutes) and my business included maybe an hour of walking, so I was quite tired but seem okay. Maybe tomorrow I'll slip in some running with the walking and see how that goes. Just a few hundred meters would be enough as a test.

The cake was Menthe Fraise, which is a dome cake. Like another recent mint cake from JPH, they did a good job of balancing this so that the mint is an accent rather than dominating, to the point that I probably wouldn't have known that the accent was mint if they hadn't told me. I wouldn't have thought that mint and strawberry went together, but I think it improved it. It was definitely good cake, so no complaint. Also, now I'm definitely caught up with L'Abricotier, at least for a few weeks, when I'll want to put their Cicilien Figue in a cake-off. That should give me time to get to Ryoura and Éclat des Jours over the next couple weekends. And maybe I'll finally get to Origines Cacao as some place that deserves a chance to see whether it could be promoted.

L'Abricotier, Illanka

Once again, I was back in Nakano-ku to visit L'Abricotier. My excuse, besides that I can only visit on holidays, is that I planned to do a cake-off with their cake next week, so it's a priority not to get behind on them, even though otherwise Ryoura and Éclat des Jours (which doesn't require a holiday, but it's become harder to get something new late in the evening), which are also in the quite exceptional list, probably deserve turns first.

I ate in, as I usually do for new cakes there. I went with a new cake to the shop again, Illanka, but I was not that impressed. It was good, though a little melty, but not any more than advertised, cherry and chocolate mousse. Of course, that combination could have gone very wrong, so I'm not discounting that it was good, but I need something more at this point. Someone more into cherries might be able to better distinguish what's special about this cake, or maybe a more refined appreciation of chocolate.

The bicycling for the cake took a couple hours (I'll say that unconsciously I wanted more exercise, and that's how I got so offtrack on the way there). I ate a half-lunch and went out again walking to see how my feet are doing. I practiced too neighborhood running course loops from memory, the Akasaka 7 and 8 loops, which form their own clump of routes, though total they are only about 2 km, less than the one-way distance to reach them. I was successful (Akasaka 8 is trivial and 7 just has one tricky bit) and no great problem with my feet despite a fast pace and having already done bicycling, though I was pretty tired afterward (not running tired, but still). I might repeat tomorrow night, this time counterclockwise for each, since I plan to get cake from Isetan, though really I should do my indoor workout and maybe some cleaning to free up time later in the week.

L'Abricotier, Gateau Fraise

Took the afternoon off and rode around for about 2.5 hours. The first stop was L'Abricotier where I went with the standard Gateau Fraise. Nice strawberries in this and, as a cake structured for the enjoyment of strawberries and whipped cream, it seemed well made. It was a definitely good, but not my thing personally. This catches up this shop for the quite excellent category, at least until next cake-off. They still overlap with the above superb category, but they aren't the top of their current groups, so the honor of trying to move up will go to Origines Cacao for now.

Otherwise, I took another picture of a park or a picture of another park next to the first park, basically a linear strip used for parks along an old main road that how has a lot of old public housing buildings along it and tried again to get a name for a no name park on the way to Shibuya Station. I'm going to have to settle for Recycling Center Open Space.

I was going to try to confirm the main running course south of Shibuya Station, but I messed up immediately and anyway construction has changed things, so I'm having to revise the course anyway. A restoration of a pedestrian bridge exit allows me to combine one cul-de-sac loop back with the main look, but a big development project removed a road elsewhere, so I'll have to make a new cul-de-sac loop to reach those two churches (among the many in that neighborhood). Comping back, I confirmed that the Omotesando Michalak has the cake-like desert that disappeared from Isetan, so I'll be able to get one more cake.

L'Abricotier: Moulin Rouge

As a weekend visit, I went to L'Abricotier again, trying to catch it up to other top quite excellent shops so I can choose which one to challenge the current superb shops, which are vulnerable. Finding 3 hours on my feet too long yesterday, I went by bicycle. I was about about the same amount of time but my feet are much happier.

At L'Abricotier, I choose Moulin Rouge (other untried cakes are Fraiser and their cream puff) and ate in. This is a very soft fruity cake, so it was probably not a good choice, but it's been around there for a long time, so I figured I ought to try it. It has raspberry and jasmine tea mousse, separately I think. The macaron sandwich decoration I ate separately, but it was rather dry, so I should have cut it up and used it vary the texture of the cake, which was very soft. It was definitely good cake, with a good flavor balance, so it was not disappointing.

L'Abricotier, Montelimar

Montelimar from L'Abricotier

For the final, 10th day of GW, I choose one holiday-only shop and decided that, under the new shop ranking system, L'Abricotier was by far under-visited as a quite excellent shop with 4 cake-off wins so far. They had a new cake, Montelimar, which is a honey mousse with dried fruit and hazelnuts on top of a hazelnut and Japanese apricot tart. This combination of fruit and nuts is common to many of their cakes, especially my favorite ones from them. I wondering whether there are other nuts in, since some seemed green, suggesting pistachio, and the combination gave a taste that made me think of butter pecan.

Cross-sectional view

I didn't ask, since another customer had come in, but there is a center custard-like disk, but I couldn't distinguish the taste. This cake was great, unlike others I have. I'll match it against Paris-Brest in the next cake-off I think, which is also hazelnuts, but praliné, so completely different from the raw fruity nuts of today's cake, in keeping with the contrast between the trendy modern foreign Machalak and the neighborhood shop L'Abricotier. Less of a ride today. I'll probably rest from even bicycling tomorrow, which I was thinking would be easy because all my cakes during the week will be from Isetan, since I only have two more cakes this week and might eschew pastries (and definitely bread) for reasons of weight control under my current reduced level of activity. I was hoping for a new cake from Sadaharu Aoki, since they are are finishing their main seasonal cakes today, but I'm now thinking that the chance of something totally new is small, and it has not been that long since I had cake from Machalak, so I'm not sure what I was going to get from Isetan. At least I'll visit them to see what the situation is. Maybe I'll finally get to P. Très Calme or Jun Honma again this week, assuming that they aren't taking the week off.

L'Abricotier: Chataigne

Sunday, I put off doing the giant new loop as a one-way neighborhood course run (~45 km) or going to Maison Douce (~35 km) and instead went to P. L'Abricotier, but by a very long route, going by dozens of sites to add to my neighborhood course map, which is getting pretty out of control. I don't actually have much of the actual course plotted out where I was adding and I was still finding (or not finding) sites to include as I went.

At the shop, I ate in and was not alone, though just one couple, so I took the far table (there are only three tiny tables). I got the Chataigne and probably shouldn't have. The card warned me that it had bitter caramel, which turned out to mean the caramel of Japanese purin (pudding), which I hate (the caramel, that is). But then, it's not as bad as coffee, and I can accept a certain amount of that in cake sometimes. In this case, the base cake was mascarpone cheese flavored (in the inside) with the caramel, and chestnut supposedly for contrast, though it would take a lot more chestnut to balance the caramel for me. So I did not like this cake, but on the other hand, it was well constructed, as advertised, and the flavor of caramel seemed normal for its type. I'm putting it down as good and will try to avoid bitter caramel. However, good is not enough to save the shop from slipping from quite excellent to just excellent, which it was already doing, so I went ahead and finally made that change, swapping it with Clair de Lune, though I'm worried that it might not be able to keep the position.

That phase of running took about 3 hours, so I decided to save my strength and come back from train, after taking a few more pictures and running the extra kilometer or so to the more convenient train line (in terms of frequency of direct trains), and get lunch.

Possible cake source 

After a few hours break, I went out again the in evening and ran 1+ hours around Harajuku. It was a surprisingly comfortable run. I did an easy counterclockwise run around the Jinguumae east loop on the way and managed to get the Jinguumae--Kita-Aoyama loop clockwise correct without having to look it up. Also did some recon along Omotesandou and found another café worth adding, so I'm still fiddling with the Jinguumae--Kita-Aoyama--Shibuya loop. Also, although the current café in Gyre doesn't rate inclusion by itself, they are scheduled to get a bean-to-bar chocolate shop next month in time for Valentines Day, which is a better step toward the loss of the cake and bread shops that used to be in the basement.

Cake-off: Très Calme's Mont-Blanc over L'Abricotier's Le Piemont

Last day of the month and a Saturday. Can't ride a bicycle due to right arm and shouldn't type much, but tried even longer walks to see whether I'm ready to start running next month. My foot seems good enough.

Two walks: 8+ km to L'Abricotier to get Le Piemont (oddly, their signature cake wasn't out yet, even after 11 pm. They were just getting to putting out the Sicile. Came back by JR Chuuou line, so still had some walking to do at both ends. After lunch, walked to Très Calme by not the best route and got their Mont-Blanc, which is also their top cake with me and generally. Came back by a cheap but not close way, this time Toei lines, I think.

This was a battle of underdogs, both in terms of shops that are on the way down on my list and also cakes that lost the first round. Le Piemont is chocolate and nut cream, was well as chocolate and nuts, so good stuff. Still like it a lot, but not sure I need to keep in on the great list; will have to review in the third round. The Mont-Blanc was in a similar situation, though in the end I felt that it had a distinctive taste that I wanted to keep, so it remains safe, as well as the winner.

Yesterday, I failed: F. Cassel still did not have a cream puff for me and I've run out of pastries at Dalloyau (under my restricted definition, which calls certain things sweet breads and leaves them for a different evalutation, basically the completely soft stuff).

Thursday, I was successful at getting a pastry from Libertable for the first time. This was Feuilletée au Chocolat, where the first part just means a layered-type pastry, so pretty generic as a name. It sort of combines the best of croissant and pain au chocolat, so I completely approve and am calling it a great pasty. They are now my top priority for pastries. I might have tried to stop by there when I failed yesterday, but it was already going to be my longest walk of the month, so I didn't want the detour coming back from Ginza.

L'Abricotier: Cherie

It was time to get a 10th cake from Quite Excellent shops, so I cycled to L'Abricotier, which is at the top of the list, alphabetically. I had things to do in the afternoon, so I went early, which was a mistake. They open for business at 10 am, but only for take out and they did not have many cakes out for display yet. I went with a new one, Cherie, which is strawberry and cream on the outside and strawberry something on the inside. I took it to a nearby park. Unfortunately, the middle was slightly sherbet-like, so it may have still been to cold. But since the outside was just soft whipped cream, it would tricky to defrost it at room temperature, since the outside would get too warm first, I assume. On the other hand, if the middle was really just pudding that was semi-frozen unintentionally, I'm not sure what would hold it together anyway, so maybe it was just as designed. But that design does not work for me and I don't really like strawberry and cream aftertaste much (which affects a lot of cakes, though not every cake sticks with you; I didn't have tea, but I did have water). I'm going to have to rate this as just ok, which makes my rating for this shop down in just Excellent territory. However, it's hard to compare shops with different numbers of cakes sampled, so I won't actually move it down until an excellent shop with the same number of cakes bests it.

L'Abricotier: Mont-Blanc

Was off in the afternoon, so I did a run to L'Abricotier, had cake, and walked back. On the way back, I tried following the Chuuou Line, which I had not done for long enough that I had forgotten what it was like. The fastest route is along Waseda-doori, which I'm not fond of, but I'm not sure I like along the train line better, at least where cars are trying to use the same trick, since there is not that much space along the road (though it's common for people to walk there and there are fewer traffic signal stops). There is perhaps no perfect route.

For cake, I finally got the Mont-Blanc, as my 11th cake. I might not have thought of it if the person ahead of had not ordered one, since they are made to order, so there are no examples to attract my attention, just a little card with an explanation on the shelf with almost all the rest of the cakes. I ate in and this is almost a café desert rather than fresh cake, as they recommend eating within an hour of purchase rather than the usual same day.

In a way, this mont-blanc was perfect in its simplicity: just a biscuit, probably the traditional almond, but it seemed a little coarse for meringue, so maybe there was some flour in there; a light whipped cream center, and probably the reason for the one-hour limit, as this is going to collapse over time; and a thick covering of chestnut paste, which was not too heavy a taste for me. This was clearly assembled on the plate in this case, but you can get it as take-out. It was definitely good, but I'm not enough of a fan of just chestnut paste to rate this higher than that. Mont-blanc that I've though were great always had something else going on to balance the chestnut, such as cassis.

I walked back partially to conserve my strength and partially because I'm a little worried about my right ankle and I wanted maintain control. It seems okay and I'm still thinking an endurance run is possible Sunday. I was worried about the cold after today's few ours outside, just because I lost finger strength and was really hungry in the afternoon, but I'll be maintaining a continuous supply of pastries and energy cookies and not they are saying that Sunday will be a more reasonable temperature for being outside. I should mention that today was a low temperature advisory for being the coldest weather in Tokyo for 48 years, but running generates enough of its own heat as long as it's not cold and raining and today even walking I was fine except for my hands.

L'Abricotier: Sisile

Since I was free Sunday, I wanted to go somewhere I could not get elsewhere, even if it is a little out of order, so I went to L'Abricotier in Nakano-ku and got the Sisile (Sicile?), which I saw last time I was there and wanted to try. This time, I was tempted to get their Mont-Blanc, just because they make it for you special (from 11:00) and you're suppose to eat it without an hour, which makes it sound more like a café desert than take-out cake. Anyway, I got the Sisile, and I'm glad that I did. The green is pistachio, obviously from the name, and inside are both raspberry mousse and lychee mousse. I like this structure of cake and the tastes all went together. Not sure how it would stand up against great like such as I had yesterday, but I think it deserves the chance to try, so I'll say that it's great.

The afternoon was more pictures for the seventh neighborhood course, which I've already changed significantly: I'm going to have to relearn the last four courses. Lots of walking yesterday and today (some running today, just where convenient; the cake was actually by bicycle and I ate in), so some muscles are unexpectedly sore.