Libre: Fleure Pomme and Paris-Brest Marron

Friday afternoon, I took off, so I visited P. Libre down in Shirokane, which is peripherally connected to the neighborhood running course, but requires a long detour, so I haven't plotted out the specific path that would include it. This is the first shop recommendation taken from Sweets Magic! (see your local NHK Premium listings). The eat-in capacity is 11 or 13 people, and it's hard to image that many people there. Besides the chef (who took my order) and three other underlings there was a man and woman in black who were also staff, which was more than really fit in a place not that much bigger than my living room. They were busy though, so I suppose they were preparing for the night French restaurant time, as cake time was about over. The guy in front of me ordered 5 packs of 3 large bonbon-sized chocolate "pyramids" for >4,000 yen.

The closest thing they have for cake are the "fleure", which are mousse or sauce in a shell in a jar. I saw him make just little balls like that by dipping frozen mousse or sauce in the coating. If you eat in, you can probably see him do it, because the bar counter is both the eating and preparation surface. I asked for the apple version, Fleure Pomme.

The other like that I allow as cake is their Paris-Brest. They only had the Marron, but I didn't have a strong preference, so no problem. They both survived the train ride home. These are certainly interesting, and good. They were nice as something different, and excellent as art, but maybe too far from what I'm looking for in cake to take me back unless it is for the restaurant, which I bet would also be interesting.

Maison D'ahni: Iéna

Got down to Maison D'ahni for the first time (at least going inside). Had a little trouble, since streets around there tend to split and merge a lot, though the reason for all the cops is all the embassies (also lots of foreigners), particularly families that time of day (around noon). My point is I am somewhat guessing where I mistook my timing due to crossing the wrong way and an intersection and needing to wait for an extra light change. Still, I'm pretty sure I was averaging 11 km/h there (and definitely 10 km/h back). On the way back, a (American) guy who had just said "hey" or something to a family cycling out of a building that Google Maps doesn't identify or give street views for ran after me a bit and asked whether I was exercising and doing delivery at time same time, so I explained that it was my own cake. He said that was "awesome", which was nice and maybe I should have directed him to my blog, but I realized afterward that he could be weird guy just chatting with anyone who came buy, since it wasn't clear whether the family that he had said something to him actually knew him (they and I were both busy). Not that he seemed weird otherwise, maybe just curious about what weird stuff goes on in Japan.


The cake I chose was Iéna (イエナ; 561 yen), which was layered chocolate (-almond?) biscuit with chocolate and plain whipped cream layers as filling and the whole thing covered with a chocolate coating with nuts. The same chocolate whipped cream appears on top, along with some caramelized hazelnuts. It was definitely good, but the whipped cream layers were much thinker than the biscuit layers, which is not my idea of cake (too light). The chocolate coating just gave it more of a snack cake feel, though it probably helped keep it together on the run. Still, good cake that looks nice, just not enough to get me back there soon.

Passion de Rose: Mille-Feuille Gianduja

Got my cake first. I had completely forgot that I had already posted about one cake from Passion de Rose (パッション ドゥ ローズ), also via Isetan, but that's okay, since this was a special Isetan-only cake, so I'm happy to have taken advantage of it.

The run was down to Aoyama Dori/Avenue to the Inner Moat, which I took from Mitakesaka ("three mansion hill", I think) to Boeniriguchi (with is cemetery entrance, though the pronunciation might not be right) and then back to Yotsuya. It was 10.6 km total and averaged almost 10 km/h, so now I don't have enough running budget left to be tempted to run again tomorrow. I'll go out again Wednesday and try training with a couple laps at exactly 10 km/h and a couple short 11 km/h stretches on a (reasonably) level track, though I'll probably stick to homemade cake.

The cake today was the Mille-Feuille Gianduja (ミルフィーユ ジャンドゥージャ; 679 yen), which presumably you can still get Tuesday (last day) at Isetan. The name pretty much explains it. The top filling is denser, but the fillings are are both gianduja (chocolate and hazelnuts). According to the Isetan site, one layer is gianduja buttercream and the other is crema gianduja maison (judging from the Japanese), though whose "maison", I don't know: lost in translation. I'm interested in gianduja, but not universally sold on it. The taste of very good, and I especially liked that the fillings were firm enough that you could cut through the mille-feuille layers without crushing the cake too much. I'll call this cake excellent.

Passion de Rose: Mille-Feuille Gianduja