Cake-off: Au Bon Vieux Temps' Pourriture over Pierre Hermé's Tarte Infiniment Praliné Noisette

Saturday, I had a late morning appointment, so I set off at 8am for Au Bon Vieux Temps to get their Pourriture for a third-round cake-off of one-and-one cakes, matching it with the new Tarte Infiniment Praliné Noisette from Pierre Hermé. Maybe because this was my fourth time, but I appreciated the lighter and fruitier flavor of the Pourriture over the heavy tart this time. One little cup of tea really wasn't enough to cut the praliné. 

Cake-off: Jean-Paul Hévin's Longchamp Feuilleté over Au Bon Vieux Temps' Pourriture

I followed one cake-off by another for two reasons. The original reason for the plan was because I'll be busy next weekend and I like to keep to one a week. A new reason appears when Jean-Paul Hévin's Longchamp Feuilleté won the previous cake-off, because I don't have any new cakes, or even excellent cakes for a retry, from Jean-Paul Hévin. Also, I'm not sure how long Pourriture will stick around at Au Bon Vieux Temps and I've been waiting for a year for it to appear. I think the fruit is fig, which seems to be in season now, at least as far as cakes goes. 

It was rainy Saturday, which feels fairly redundant for the last few months. At least Sunday was better. I decided that it was rainy less hard than the last time I went out that way, so I didn't bring the big umbrella and ran about two thirds before I decided that I was wet enough and the rain was heavy enough that I wanted to pull out the portable. No problem getting the Pourriture. I came back by train as far as Isetan to get the Longchamp Feuilleté from JPH. I'm afraid the Paris-Brest isn't going to manage a first-round cake-off before it's gone again, but I'll survive that.

I must of been pretty jaded with JPH cakes when I first rated Longchamp Feuilleté as just excellent, because it didn't have any trouble eclipsing the pour Pourriture, which which has cheese and fig to impress me. This was only a second-round cake-off, so it might get a chance for a third round, if it can hang on until the beginning of November. 

Cake-off: Au Bon Vieux Temps' Pourriture over Pierre Gagnaire's Finger Ruby Fig Framboise

Saturday as a series of failure: Route 99 does not have fresh cake, I don't know Daita--Daizawa--Hatagaya--Kamiyama-chou--Kitazawa--Motoyoyogi-chou--Nishihara--Ooyama-chou--Shouto--Tomigaya--Uehara loop well enough to run (remembered where and why I changed part, but not how exactly and it wasn't obvious on the fly), and 1 pm is too late to get a cake at Au Bon Vieux Temps'.

Also I fell early on, so I'm got road rash and some clothes that will have to be replaced sooner. I did get a couple fresh viennoiseries, Kouign Amann and Chauson aux Pommes Caramélisées (I think) from Paris S'éveille and Sadaharu Aoki, respectively, both great.

Sunday, I had a comfortable run to Au Bon Vieux Temps, arriving at about 10:30 a.m, which is early enough, at least on a rainy Sunday, to get the cake I wanted, the Pourriture. I matched it with another recent fig cake by taking the train to Pierre Gagnaire and getting Figner Ruby Fig Framboise and coming back. After lunch I compared these and was happy to keep them on the great list (we'll see how I feel when they have to match established cakes). I decided I liked the simplicity of the Pourriture, though that means the other cake is the one that's available from a cake-off against the JPH late-October traditional cake, which is was a little worried about, since I didn't have anything else available for that role. I also expect a first-round cake off next week, so that might produce another candidate.

Afternoon was riding around, verifying no great cakes as a couple shops and taking a few pictures and verifying a few shops around the southeast periphery of the established course. Evening was a full indoor workout.

Au Bon Vieux Temps, Pourriture and Michalak, Tarte Chocolat Pecan

Saturday, I woke early and was out running by about 6 am. I was planning to take rest from cake, so I started by working on the neighborhood course and was able to do the revised Moto-Azabu--Azabu-Juuban loop clockwise, getting a lot of missing photos of sites on that loop along the way, though I missed one. Of course, most of the shops were closed, which is not ideal, but since otherwise it's dark, I'm okay with that. Unfortunately, or fortunately, I noticed a shrine along the way that should have been on the Roppongi 6 loop, so I modified it (making it the Roppongi 5&6 loop), so it was one step forward and two steps back. After that, I reviewed the course on the west side of Hiroo, ruling out some coffee shops as unworthy and figuring out where I need to double-back to get near something sites. I added a bunch of photos there two. I was waiting for Hikarie to open at 10 am, so I also went over and tried to run the Ebisu-Nishi east and west loops, but only managed the easy east one (so at least I'm even for the day: two directs completed but two directions on one loop that need redoing). I had wanted to get a pastry I saw at Hikarie a couple weeks back, but it was already gone, so I went completely without fancy sweets. I more than made up for it the next day.

Sunday, I was busy in the middle of the day, so I decided to get cake for two in the morning. I went to Au Bon Vieux Temps because I owe them for a cake-off win and got a new cake, Pourriture. Then I took the train back and got the new tart from Michalak, who I want more new cakes than the line-up has quickly supplied. This time Tarte Chocolat Pican, perhaps (they don't keep an updated Internet presence for me to check about new cakes). I also got a Picnic Maron from Sadaharu Aoki, which I consider a pastry and I half-intended to get Saturday but decided that there was not hurry.

Au Bon Vieux Temps is maybe not the best choice for a cake to share, but their cakes are so small: half of one is two small bites. I'm going to say that Pourriture was great and see if a cake-off proves me wrong. It's a blue cheese and honey mousse over roasted fig on a semi-dry fig tart, or that's how I'm parsing the Japanese card.

The chocolate pecan tart was the best Michalak tart I've had. We both agreed that it was excellent. I've turned the stop on top where I damaged it after getting it safely in the refrigerator to the back, and that might be a fingerprint on the front.

The pastry, which has custard inside, as well as the chestnut cream, was also excellent. It's only around for a short time, exclusively at Shinjuku Isetan.

In the evening, I finished off the Moto-Azabu--Azabu-Juuban loop, again, and got the Roppongi 5&6 loop. I wet as far as Tokyo Midtown by bicycle, so it was only about 45 minutes of running.