Noliette, Sicilian

Saturday, I hit one more remote potentially quite fine shops, Noliette out west in the north part (relative to where I usually go, anyway) of Setagaya. I went with the Sicilian. I went by cycle, since I can't run so far and didn't get up early enough to walk very early. Actually, I arrived at opening time and was second. I went with the Sicilian, which in this case was (milk?) chocolate with pistachio. This cake actually survived better by bicycle than I should have expected, but the weak point was the macaron on top, which caused the top to to crack and sag. Chocolate and pistachio is actually a difficult combination, but this was working well. It was definitely good, so I was satisfied. However, it means that I have too many shops with 2 good and 2 excellent cakes to make a cut. I've got a lot of fine shops to go through, so I might find a great cake among them, which is what it would take to make the jump to quite fine. I more likely way to add to the quite fine shops would be to find an excellent cake from some new shops. I've still got three more 3-cake fine shops, two that are really far out (so I'm willing to wait on the off chance that they'll visit a department store in central Tokyo) and one that's pausing on their cake, so one clearly quite fine shop might not be enough.    

Noliette, Noisettine

Due to a lingering health problem, I decided to get my cake more locally than I would have and a little out of order by going down to Shinjuku Takashimaya and visiting the Noliette counter (versus Patissieria, which also had 3 of their their cakes, but different ones). This brand is big on traditional forms and I chose Noisettine, which is hazelnut biscuit, hazelnut butter cream, and hazelnut praliné. I like nuts and this kind of tradition cake, so its not shock that I thought this was excellent, which keeps them in the quite fine category for now.

Noliette: Opera Révision

It's been raining off and off, but really I didn't run because I'm still babying my leg. I'm not babying it enough that I'm not walking fast on the commute, taking the stairs, and practicing some running stretches and "switches" (if that's the correct translation), although my left arm was not happy about one of those involving getting into a push-up position and shifting around laterally to loosing up things. I haven't given up on running this week, though, but the target is definitely not going to be over 10 km, and I'll be happy to get 5 km total (that is, another 2.5 km by Tuesday). However, I'm thinking I'll try for Paris S'éveille one day tomorrow cycling and use the other day to jog and walk to Avranches Guesnay.

For bought cake, I got Opera Révision (updated) from Noliette at Isetan, for 518 yen again. This is a pistachio opera (pistachio and chocolate). It was definitely good, but these cakes are maybe a little wet for my taste, although I'm not sure how I would change this specific cake. So Noliette is immediately back off the list of potentially excellent shops, at least until I have more cake from there that changes my mind, which is really hard to do with all the other places to visit.

I did get around to making creme brulée aux noisettes (?), though I didn't know how much to heat the sugar and water before adding to the egg, so I just cooked until it browned, and it's edible, so I'm satisfied. Now I've got a bowl of frosting, but no more hazelnut powder (expensive stuff) to repeat the cake, so I'm thinking of trying maracons instead. It's really humid, so I'll need to run the air conditioner while I do it, though I'm sure they would be edible if I made them like I make the pate maracon naturale, where I don't wait at all before baking once I've piped it.

Noliette: Gateau Marjolaine

This week's visiting shop at Isetan is P. Noliette, which I haven't posted on. I could not resist the Gateau Marjolaine for 518 yen. It was better than mine, I'll tentative say, so it must be excellent. Certainly, the cake was softer, although you can make Marjolaine with sponge rather than a Japonaise, like my recipe (which I should mention I really do need 180 deg C rather than 170 to get the middle properly caramelized), and I have to wonder whether this is buttercream filling rather than creme chantilly. Still, I'm somewhat inspired to try again soon. At the very least I'm inspired to get back to Isetan while Noliette is there and get their Opéra Révision, which is a pistachio opera.

My own cooking was to make a biscuit noisette, even without "bubble emulsifier" and without an oven that can be set for 225 deg C on top and 165 deg C on bottom (and fits a 40 x 60 cm pan). It worked, but I didn't spread the better thin enough in the pan (it needs to be pretty thin, like just a few millimeters). Tomorrow I plan to try making, I think, "creme brulée au praliné" (the recipe puts an extra "au" in there, "creme au") despite not having a candy thermometer to figure out whether the syrup is at 121 deg.