A. Lecomte, Gateau au Muguet

Since I was nearby and shop hours were about to be shortened (but not closed, unlike the first emergency restriction period), I stopped at Shibuya Scramble to get a second cake from on of the (possible) fine shops. Not that this is really on the second, since the main shop is near an highly frequented area before I starting blogging. This is pretty standard cake from them and attractive to me, so it's probably not my first time I've had it, though it would have been several years ago at least since the previous time.

The name is Gateau au Muguet, from the A. Lecomte counter at Shibuya Scramble Square, and the inside is just pralin cream, which was good, but not so exciting. This cake won't overshadow your tea but it's not interesting enough to keep this shop in the fine category. At least it's good enough to keep from wanting a pause in visiting such shops.

Viron, Tarte au Chocolat Framboise

Saturday, between appointments and walking back from getting a cake from an excellent shop, I took the path by Viron. Actually, I was looking for scones, though the French-style bakeries don't usually have them, so I wasn't surprised that Viron didn't, however, I'm still several cakes short from them, so when I found they had something new, I got it: Tarte au Chocolat Framboise (which might have lost a particle in transliteration). It was definitely good, but the limitations on chocolate tarts as cakes I mentioned recently extend to ones that include fruit flavoring. Still, a high quality product for those looking for a chocolate tart, so my respect for Viron as superb shop remains, though it's getting close to it's challengers at the top of the quite exceptional group.
 

En Vedette, Annette

Monday night, even though I did exactly the same thing Friday, I ran down to Viron in Shibuya to see whether they had a new cake, which they didn't. From there, I went to En Vedette, since they were close and I'm coming up on wanting another new cake from them (and several other quite exceptional shops). As it happened, they had one that tempted me, so I went for it: Annette. Unfortunately, I've already forgotten what the fruit was, but the picture shows strawberry, which I can believe. It wasn't so strong, obviously, nor would I want it to be in this kind of cake. Also inside was pistachio cake, but again, mild, so not my kind of cake so much. But the outside was white chocolate, and that is a fine taste, with the others just there to accent it. So even if it's not along my usual lines, it was a high quality item that I enjoyed, so I can say it was excellent.

While I'm blogging, I'll admit that I was lazy and walked back, protecting my cake. Tuesday, I did a run just out to Tokyo Midtown for my favorite grocery chocolate, also stopping for some Lindt chocolate that was 63% discounted at the local supermarket. Wednesday, I got up early and ran before work (which I wasn't taking the morning off). A little more crowded on the streets than my evening runs around there, but felt good. I stopped by Pierre Gagnaire and confirmed that the folks working there aren't actually told about the cakes (green tea is the theme, but one of the cakes on the posters I haven't actually seen in person). In the evening was rain and Thursday I am taking off the morning (though the rain is predicted to be even heavier then, so probably just walking for cake), so I worked out indoors, more than I usually do, which means three rather than two NHK muscle training clips (but the level 2 ones, so...) and a couple sets of curls, which is a couple more than I usually do lately.

En Vedette, Tarte Pamplemousse

After a disappointing coffee shop cake after a long day of running around the north Omote-Sandou Stn. area, I went down to Shibuya to get Tarte Pamplemousse from En Vedette. Grapefruit is a tough sell for me, but I've exhausted the other options at En Vedette. Unfortunately, it remains a hard sell, though I'll allow that it was good.

En Vedette, Citronné

Saturday, after a morning appointment, I ran down to Shibuya Scramble Square (the building) and visited En Vedette, where I got Citronné. I had had a cake similar to this, so I worried that I was working with an out-of-date list, but I was right to remember that the other one was strawberry, not lemon (I assume from the shape and name). the cake inside is fairly dense and is layered, despite the round appearance on the outside, so not a mousse or a typical lemon tart. In the end, I decided it was a nice change in lemon and rated it excellent. This brings En Vedette up to the level of a quite exceptional shop, so I can finally promote them, which means that Ryoura gets demoted down to just exceptional and they'll have to wait for a cake-off win probably for another visit from me, since I've had a good sample from them.

On the way BE from there, I stopped at Path and got a Croissant, since the Pain au Chocolat was great. The Croissant, however, didn't seem like anything special, though it suffered from not being as freshly baked as the former (though it was still warm).

En Vedette, Cocoanana

After a long week of mostly long work days (except Monday and Friday, which is the reverse of usual), I took advantage of the reopening of Shibuya Scramble Square and its relatively late hours even under pandemic conditions (compared to local department stores), and got a new cake from En Vedette, which is challenging the quite exceptional shop list. This time I got new cake Cocoanana as (maybe, I'm suspecting I'm overlooking one) the 16th cake from there. Note to parse as Coco+Anana, as in coconut and pineapple, though there is also, I think some passion fruit sauce. The coconut aspect was fine, but pineapple cake isn't so exciting. Good, but it's starting to look doubtful that the shop will get a promotion. Still, they have a great cake that's only done one round, so I'd probably get back there soon regardless, if I can get two new great cakes available and the same time.

En Vedette, Fragola

Monday or Tuesday (can't remember which), I took advantage of the fact that, during the week, the food floors kept their regular hours, so I could go after work for another new cake from En Vedette, which is heading for promotion. I've run through most of their line-up, so I went for the shape cake this time, Fragola (which is Italian for strawberry). The outside is white chocolate and the inside is lemon cream and strawberry jelly. The cake provides some texture variation, but I think it needs something more on that front. It's good, but weak for me, maybe because I'm not a big strawberry fan.

En Vedette, Tarte Fraise

Thursday, I made the last visit to bring En Vedette up to enough cakes to promote them to the exceptional list. Previous cakes were good enough that were was no chance of them failing to be promoted. Remaining choices of new cakes were 3 strawberry cakes and a unique-looking mont-blanc. Though I'd like to the try the mont-blanc, I figured one of the strawberry cakes deserved a try, so I went with the Tarte Fraise, which is pistachio. I appreciated strawberry and pistachio in a number of cakes, so it was perhaps the safest choice none the less. And it was definitely excellent. The interesting point is perhaps the tart, which was relatively soft for a tart but more like a butter/nut tart than, for example, a dacquoise. Very nice.

Since it was on the way, I tried to do the Takeshita clump of my neighborhood running course, but failed completely to make the correct turn on the revised Jinguumae northwest loop. In the usual spirit of sour grapes, I found one new site for the map (Sweets Paradise [Harajuku]), which nullified the previous loop. Actually, I'm going to have to split the loop to cover more of Shitatake Street (which is I'd actually like to avoid as much as a possible). Maybe next week when I'm running southwest, I'll try the clump with the two new loops again.

No running Friday, as I was busy, but I swung by the the Sadaharu Aoki counter at Isetan (which Sadaharu Aoki himself of signing, but I didn't buy that high level an item), and got a baked sweet: Cake au Chocolat Pistache. It's small, but excellent, as far as baked sweets go, versus fresh cakes. Hoping they'll have more fresh cakes, but I also wouldn't mind trying the matcha version.

En Vedette, Marron Vanille

Ended up at En Vedette again, after first striking out at Viron for their apple tart, going northwest up to Bien-être for the chance of something new (they do have something maybe new in the lineup---I needed to ask a more detailed question about what was in the chocolate chiboust besides the obvious, since I've had the chocolate raspberry)---but it was sold out) and back down south, past Viron to Shibuya Scramble Square. This time I went for the Marron Vanille, which is chestnut brulée, and lemon cream surrounded by vanilla mousse. It's very soft (except for the chestnut) and fairly mild, and my first reaction was that it was just good but not my kind of thing, but really its a nice change, like the last cake I got from them, and it qualifies as excellent. I'm going through their cakes pretty fast, but I just need one more to promote them and finally have a clear boundary between the quite fine and exceptional shops.

En Vedette, Miel

Every day working later, but Shibuya Scramble Square is open until 21:00, I think, and the nearby Viron is open later, so no problem today. Like yesterday, today was to reward a cake-off winner, or at least that's my excuse for visiting En Vedette slightly early, though this time I ran, but no time for an indoor workout. They still recognized me, and pointed out that I was getting a different cake this time, after getting the same cake just a few days apart. I went with Miel, which means honey, which this had with apricot. Apricot is not a sweet fruit and they did not use as much sweetener maybe as other apricot cakes I had, so this was a little tougher for me to like. Also, it's a dome with gelatin inside. Yet, there were different textures, from the soft meringue on top to a coarse/nutty base biscuit, so I definitely respect this, and like it, so I think excellent isn't not just the prejudice of the moment for this shop. It's not a huge counter, though, and I've had 7 cakes from them now, so getting the next two new ones to catch them up for promotion to exceptional is going to be with limited choices. But that's next week's problem.

En Vedette, Rocher

Tuesday, under the threat of heavy rain and wind (and during medium rain, but not so cold), I went down to Shibuya Scramble Square (the building) to visit the En Vedette counter, since they are one of three candidates among quite fine shops vying for two possible spots in the exceptional group. I didn't try to any a neighborhood clump because of the rain, and because I wanted to do a weights workout when I got back, which I did. I chose the Rocher, though there were other tempting cakes. On the way home, I noticed that they were taking down the pedestrian bridge over Meiji-dori Ave. that crosses in Jinguumae and gets me to all those big loops to the west. I think I can cross further south (though it will probably become more convenient when the construction north of Shibuya Stn. finishes, since now it takes two bridges), but it's going to shift all those west loops down in priority slightly. I'll need to recalculate. I should also mention, though I had noticed Monday, that Nana Gâteaux is now Amiri, though they're still selling cake during the day, actually from earlier than before, just they're a bar restaurant as well.

I really liked the Rocher. Top and bottom is nut-based "biscuit" sandwiching an equal (combined) width of almond and hazelnut flavored butter cream. This is accented by lemon ganache. It's fairly simple, but the text and balance are just right, so I'm going to call it great, which should guarantee them a spot among the exceptional shops, though I'll wait until I've had at least two more cakes from them. It also means this will be one of the cakes in the next cake-off, unless the PH cake I just saw disappears again (it's been almost three years since I last saw it).

Cake-off: Jean-Paul Hévin's Saint Honoré over Sadaharu Aoki's Éclair Caramel Salé

Got an early start (from having slept most of Sunday) on the Monday holiday, leaving at about 6 in the morning to try loops in the Azabu area. I was successful in 3 out of 4 cases, leaving a split: I did the very recently revised Nishi-Azabu--Minami-Azabu loop clockwise, and then finished off the Minami-Azabu west loop. Of course, the Azabu-Juuban loops was trivial to complete, the the tricky Moto-Azabu--Azabu-Juuban loop defeated me two places, both which I can put down to fatigue, since it was in execution rather than knowledge that I failed, though the latter was not perfect overall either, just it was not necessarily what tripped me up.

I had time before shops opened, so I went back over to the big loop circling Shimo-Kitazawa that I haven't updated the name for. I spent not much more than an hour, so I only traced about half what I did last time with only slightly better knowledge. I did find one place where a seemingly unneeded detour could be removed. I feel that I've forgotten another place that needs correctly, but perhaps I was just thinking of a Starbucks that I need to add (I should also find out of the next nearest one closed) on a loop I passed coming back.

For cake, I was not planning to do a cake-off, but just get two cakes from top shops that will only be round for a couple weeks. First I went to Hikarie close to opening time and got the Éclair Caramel Salé. For the second, I went to the Jean-Paul Hévin Marunouchi shop, since they open later than Isetan, so I figured I would have a better chance of getting the new cake starting today, and I was right. The danger there was the small supply, but rain probably was keeping people away and I had Ginza Mitsukoshi as a back-up, which also probably has a smaller demand than Isetan.

I ate Sadaharu Aoki's Éclair Caramel Salé first and decided it was great, both in terms of the caramel filling and the pastry. Of course, Jean-Paul Hévin's Saint Honoré is very similar in both, but I decide that it had more complexity, which was working for it, so I selected it as the winner, since they both seemed to be great. These two are probably going to dominate cake-offs for a while, which I may have to do extra ones for. I'm consider my cake budget for this month.

Sadaharu Aoki, Saint Honoré aux Fraises

On the 8th day of GW, I went to Shibuya Hikarie ShinQs and finally got the 7th anniversary (of the location) Saint Honoré aux Fraises from Sadaharu Aoki. I'm not sure what the rules are for saint-honoré cakes, but this one is heavy on strawberries an light on pastry, as well as cream and custard. It was good by not a combination of indigence that excites me. I went by bicycle, after a lot of problems with my feet from too much time on them early in GW walking around Tokyo (I rested in Kobe). Even the next day (when I'm writing) after another 20 km ride, they aren't noticeably worse than a couple months ago. I think I'll still avoid being on them more than an hour, at least until the next weekend end, and then set 2 hours as the limit.

Kouhii Chakan Shuu Gâteaux Naturels Shuu: Mont-blanc

This week, I'm trying to get a 7th anniversary cake from the Hikarie Shinqs Sadaharu Aoki, with not a lot of hope, at least during the week (and I'm busy over the Golden Week holiday, but I could get over there). Monday, I walked and ran a little (probably 1.5 km total running) and they were sold out. I went to the top-priority shop for cake on the neighborhood map, but they were renting out their space to promote beer (not the first time for that sort of thing), so I finally got to the new counter in the basement of Gyre, Dandelion Chocolate, a beans to bar place that I had seen went I last (perhaps) went out to the main shop of P. Clair de Lune, though they were closed. Besides chocolate bars, the biggest thing they sell are macarons. They have "cake", but its less than bite-sized. The macarons are several bites-size, though, bigger than average. I got the Anamalai, India one, which I was told was fruity chocolate, versus sort of standard and white chocolate, as the other options. It had the perfect texture, in my opinion and was a little fruity, as chocolate. It was great, certainly as satisfying as most cakes, so I was not disappointed. I don't have plan for buying macarons, so I don't know when I'll get back, but it will be a good backup, other than they are not open that late. The running, as it turned out, was premature. My feet hurt a lot the next day (actually both, which was disturbing, though the problem one lingered more), other it subsided fairly quickly. I'll still to other forms of exercise probably for the next few weeks and start smaller with running next time I try.

My second try, on Tuesday, was by bicycle. It was my first time to use the bicycle parking, which was pretty empty, so useful for visiting that area, if I can finish within 2 hours. No cake, so I walked around to Kouhii Chakan Shuu Gâteaux Naturels Shuu and got the Mont-blanc. I would have eaten in, but the tobacco smell suggested that would not be a good idea (they have separate seating for smoking, but apparently not separated enough). This was way too soft for a bicycle ride, so it collapsed, but was still edible. There was not much more to it than a pile of whipped cream under chestnut paste with some chestnut pieces inside, like many other mont-blanc. Nothing special, but it qualifies as good. Still, disappointing as a new place that might secretly have had great cakes.

The third try (Wednesday), was just walking. No cake again at Sadaharu Aoki, so I walked back first to What a Tart! where they did not have any tarts left (but I could see the crumbs). They did have some little cake squares that reminded me of something I bought at Doutor once. I choose the Chocolate Orange. It was good, as dense (like pound cake, but with icing) cake goes, but not fresh cake and not worth going back for. In this batch, only Dandelion Chocolate has come through. I should mention that Fabrice Gillotte has, at least temporarily, closed their Aoyama shop as of March.

Le Chocolat de H/Paul Bassett, Tarte Banana

Wednesday, I had to work late, but did a run down past Tokyo Midtown from 8 pm trying to get Sadaharu Aoki's Matcha Croissant, unsuccessfully. I did a counterclockwise run to confirm the Roppongi 7 east loop neighborhood course loop, which completes the National Art Center clump of loops. There was rain, but not heavy enough that everyone carrying an umbrella opened them.

I also tried to do the Nishi-Azabu--Minami-Azabu loop and I might have been successful if I followed my intuition, but doubted and checked my map early on. Anyway, I know I'll be able to get it next time, maybe Friday. On the way, I stopped at Café 3206 and got something like Croissant d'Almonde Custard. Not that there was much almond or custard, but the latter doesn't belong inside a croissant. It was good at least, but I don't need to return there soon. The run was about 80 minutes.

Thursday, I also had to work late but could run sooner. This time I went the opposite direction go to Shibuya Hikarie ShinQs to visit the Le Chocolat de H/Paul Bassett café. I arrived by 8 pm, but didn't need to. The eat-in places seem to stay open until 9 pm. This time I got the Tarte Banana. This is pretty thick and heavy, I assume with walnuts, because it reminded me of coffee cake (though that could mean just cinnamon). I should ask next time and update my label. Anyway, it got the balance right, not too moist or dry. I can easily say that it's best banana tart I've ever had, since I usually avoid banana in the my cakes. I might be being generous, but I'll say that it was excellent. Unfortunately, I forget to take a picture.

This shop is currently at the top of the excellent group and higher than some quite excellent shops, but with the advantage that I haven't had to dig as need into the line-up. I'm down to a seasonal Mont-Blanc (not available to me today) and a regular Tiramisu (which was, but banana seemed the lesser or two evils compared to coffee). For running, I finished confirming the new version of the Shibuya east loop. The next one in order is over by Yoyogi, so not so convenient.

Maison D'ahni, Béret Pistache

Wednesday, I had pretty sore feet all morning and knew it was time to take a rest day, which I hadn't this week. And yet, I'm an addict, so by evening I wanted to run and didn't stop myself. I ran to Shibuya Hikarie ShinQs again, hoping from something from Sadaharu Aoki, but instead of 4 people in line, there were more than 14, so I gave up. Instead, I went for a third pastry from Le Pain de Joel Robuchon, this time choosing the Kouign Amann. It was the usual but excellent, so no complaints (I didn't eat it then, obviously, but after dinner, after which I was really full).

I worked on confirming my knowledge of the neighborhood course. I failed on the Minami-Aoyama--Shibuya loop but succeeded on the Minami-Aoyama south loop. However, it was a net loss in that, on the way back, I recognized a shop that should be added to the Minami-Aoyama 3&4 loop, though what kind of chocolate shop is empty of customers February 13? I won't be surprised to find it closed next time I go by, as it seems a hopeless case. Nevertheless, for now, I need to relearn that loop and I'll probably keep the new loop even if it does close.

Thursday, February 14, I followed by plan to rest. I had pain in my left thigh, which was new. Now sure how that happened or how to avoid it.

Friday, a tentatively good shop that I've only had one cake from visited Isetan, so I decided to give them a second chance early. I got the Béret Pistache, which is a pistache mousse dome with a milk chocolate center. It was reasonably good, but definitely not anything that excited me, so that will probably be my list trip there.

In good news, Blondir in the next visiting shop. They are only potentially quite good, but I've reviewing the quite good shops and they are one of the less conveniently located (I took care of the worse last weekend and plan to handle the next most distant one this weekend). Now if Ces Jours would just visit.

Actually, before eating my cake Friday, I did another neighborhood course run. This time I did the Minami-Aoyama--Nishi-Azabu and Nishi-Azabu northwest loops counterclockwise, but successfully, so that puts me over 40 km of loops confirmed both directions. I still want another 10 km before any major additions, though I might fill in the Shibuya east loop before that, and while I'm at it go for some more loops in the Shibuya area.

Le Chocolat de H/Paul Bassett: Chocolat Framboise

Ran down to Shibuya Hikarie ShinQs to visit the Le Chocolat de H/Paul Bassett café again. I promoted this shop to excellent already, but it's also challenging some quite excellent shops by giving nothing but excellent cakes. Nothing I need again, but still there is potential to find a great cake there. Today I had a few choices but went with the Chocolat Framboise as this seemed to be seasonal. It was very fruity, which is not my favorite. Still, the quality is difficult to deny. I'm not sure that this was not just as good as JPH's cake, though different. The raspberry is definitely foremost compared to the chocolate, and actually there is a cream layer rather than stacking in more chocolate to compete with the raspberry. In the end, I think I'm going to have to say this also was excellent, the fifth in the row. It looks like I'm going to be continuing frequent visits until I run through their line up, though I'm close to doing that. Probably won't finish this month, though. Still waiting to see how frequently the seasonal ones change.

Did lots of little neighborhood loops, including east Shibuya (not even officially added, since I discovered I need it), Minami-Aoyama 5, Minami-Aoyama--Shibuya, and Minami-Aoyama south loops. Just adds up to a few kilometers (plus the kilometers to get there and back, so it was more than 1 hour of running). Since I'd like to go to Sadaharu Aoki at ShinQs next or hotel pastry shop further along the same road, I'll probably do the same loops tomorrow (though I finished confirming both directions on Mianami-Aoyama 5).

Le Chocolat de H/Paul Bassett: Tarte Fromage

Did another run down to Shibuya Hikarie ShinQs. I was trying to get something from Sadaharu Aoki, but I guess I should have been more efficient about leaving home, as it sold out just ahead of me, so I went for a fourth cake from Le Chocolate de H at Paul Bassett. They only had one variety left that I hadn't had, but I didn't mind getting the Tarte Fromage. It's simply baked cheesecake in a tart shell with whipped cream on top. But it's better cheesecake than I've been able to make (I've given up on the old recipes and haven't been looking for anything new) and keeping it simple avoided ruining it, so I'm going to say it's excellent. Actually, that's four excellent cakes in a row, so I'm going to go ahead and promote it to the excellent group, as the 15th member (still space for one more).

I did counterclockwise runs on a lot of little loops on the way back: Shibuya west and north loops and the Jinnan and Jinguumae-Jinnan loops. That brings me past 37 km in successfully reviewed loops. I need another 13 km before I'll allow myself to add a new loop, though I might make an exception for the newly created one that expands on an old link.

Le Chocolat de H/Paul Bassett: Chocolat Earl Grey

Did a run combining various purposes. First, I ran to Il Pleut sur la Seine, where Saint-Marc is still in the line-up but Chiboust Poire has not returned (probably I need to wait for pear season is, whenever that is). Also, on the way, I notice Landtmann in the Ao building along Aoyama-doori, so that's another cake place on my neighborhood map to get to.

Then I went to Le Chocolat de H/Paul Bassett at Shibuya Hikarie ShinQs (my current newly visited neighborhood shop) and got, I think, the Chocolat Earl Grey (a seasonal cake). Like the previous cake, this was very much a café cake versus a patisserie cake. It was not solid like a torte, but softish biscuit or a coarse sponge, not sure which (it's somewhat spongy but not the spherical bubbles of a sponge cake, more a bread-like weave). The chocolate is also not dense, but enough for flavor and it is balanced by the small amount of fruit. I was completely ready to just call this good and keep this place firmly in the quite good category, but I ate in and had it with just water, so there was an after taste: I really nice harmony of chocolate and raspberry, it's inconvenient, but even though it's not what I look for, this was an excellent cake, so I'll probably back back soon, since now it's challenging a lot of my excellent shops.

Next, was a visit to the Shibuya Seibu, which I had overlooked. In stretches over a few buildings and the food section is tiny and fairly empty of customers. I wouldn't be surprised to see them go out of business, although I was probably going minutes before closing. Isetan or Mitsukoshi would have several times the density of people. Anyway, they have two places with cake Factory Shin, which I've visited in Kobe, so I've blogged them, but not as Tokyo cake. The other is Kihachi, which is at Isetan.

Lastly, it did the Jinnan loop of my neighborhood course correctly this time, so I can do it and the other loop in that clump counterclockwise next, though I'm maybe not going to get time until Saturday night.

Le Chocolat de H/Paul Bassett, Chocolata

Tuesday, I mostly took a rest. I did some running, trying to pick off the clockwise run of the Jinguumae Northwest route, but I knew when I started that I didn't really know it. I just changed the route and need a turn at a particular alley along Takeshita Street, which is crowded and filled with similar shops: lots of crepe and lots of youth fashions. Now I remember that the convenience store marks where to turn to link up to the next loop and the turn after that is to continue on the Jinguumae Northwest route. For a snack, I stopped for the first time at The Deck Coffee&Pie. By pie, they mean in the sense of a fruit pastry pocket, though I actually got a slight variation in the form of the Chocolate Nuts Stick Pie, which is a chocolate and peanut pastry, so it's a little oily with peanut oil (it's hot pot). I'm not making it sound good, but it was. I wouldn't mind trying one of the fruit ones, though it's not a priority.

Wednesday, JPH finally updated their webpage, so I see that they have a longchamp cake that I haven't blogged yet, so I'll try to get that tomorrow, and the Tonka is back, so I'll tentatively plan for that as the cake-off entrant to go against Saint-Mark Praliné from Sadaharu Aoki, who've announced pistachio ice cream for Tokyo Midtown and Shibuya Hikarie ShinQs, but not what the new exclusives will be at the other locations. Related to the latter, today's run was down to Hikarie ShinQs, but not for ice cream. I wanted to visit the Le Chocolat de H/Paul Bassett café. This time, I got the Chocolata, which features orange peal and walnut. Not sure where the walnut is, since it's not obviously nutty, but I would guess that the biscuit uses walnut flour. My first thought was that it was not that exciting, since I usually like a heavier cake or light in sense of mousse, whereas this cake is very much a café style cake, being a like a torte, with just ganache between layers of biscuit. The biscuit is very light and thick, but it's not short-cake like sponge, but neither is it one of the tougher cakes. As I ate it thought, "good" did not seem sufficient; even if I usually go for something more decadent, I can enjoy this and it's a nice change and among such cakes, this might be what I would choose, which is sort of my definition of excellent: if I could make it, it would be worth making. So that's too excellent chocolate cakes (my bias). They have third, a raspberry as the seasonal cake, I think, so should go for that before it disappears.

For running, I finished off verifying my memory of the trivial Shibuya central loop, and the similarly tiny Shibuya west loop, though I did expand it slight, so it now reaches the northeast corner of the famous Shibuya scramble intersection. I've also noticed that I've never gone and looped at what's in the Seibu basement food area, which is the northwest corner. They might not have any cake, but they have counters of a few brands I like, so I should check. They have a Factory Shin, which I know from Tokyo as good or quite good, but that doesn't mean they have cake there (it's not like they're going to import fresh cake from Kobe). On big loops, I failed on the Shibuya north loop counterclockwise, but I can get that when I do the west loop again. I did get the Jinguumae northwest loop, which was my priority, as far as being the closest in not confirmed. Tomorrow I should work on the east area around Gaien.