Très Calme, Printemps

Started Sunday (today!) with a cake-off win inspired visit to Très Calme, where among the new cakes I went with the Printemps, which seemed a longshot, but something different appealed to me more than just something with my favorite flavors. Not that it was obvious what flavor a pinkish mont-blanc-shaped cake named 'spring' from the shop of someone on the record for not liking mont-blanc in general, due to the taste and texture of chestnuts. This particular cake was strawberry flavored, with the, I assume, chestnut paste used to cut that and vice versus (wasn't any distinctive chestnut flavor). The base was consistent with the fruit, being like a flaky pie crust, though just on the bottom, not folded up on the sides like a pie or tart. It was good.

Cake-off: Très Calme's Pistache Apricot over Éclat des Jours' Rhum Raisin

Last Saturday, I got cakes for a cake-off. Due to leg problems, I went by bicycle, which doesn't seem to mind. I was looking at a fifth-round for two shops with 3 wins to only 1 loss. The first was Rhum Raisin from Éclat des Jours and the second was the Pistache Apricot from Très Calme (which also has a great Kouign Amann, if you like fairly solid ones versus more puffed up ones, which I do). It's kind of obvious what the winner is, based on my over preferences, and yet somehow the uniqueness of Rhum Raisin among my great cakes has enabled it to be in a high bracket. The need for it is less now that I have a Baba on my list, but it still has merit, I think, though I'm giving the win toe Pistache Apricot because I like pistachio cream a lot, which is well balanced, and this is a nicely solid cake as well.

Très Calme, Chic

Last Monday was a holiday, Coming of Age Day. I visited another exceptional shop, this time Très Calme. The new cake I chose was Chic, which is passion fruit and, I think, apricot. Though I haven't been bothering to report about pastries lately, but I want to say that the I'll mention that I also got a Kouign Amann as my first fresh pasty from there and I thought it was maybe great, being of the same form as Paris S'eveille, which has been my favorite. I look forward to visiting there further for pastries. I ran and walked there, but walked back, and not by the shortest route, so I got a good amount of exercise.

Back to the cake Chic, the fruit part manages to be firm without being stick-gelatinous or runny and the fruits harmonize into mellow but satisfying flavor. The texture along with the flavor make this an excellent cake for me, so Très Calme remain in good standing among the exceptional shops. This was my best new cake of the long holidays. 

Cake-off: Bien-être's Chocolat Cuit over Très Calme's Mont-blanc

Saturday, I tried again and was successful at getting Bien-être's Chocolat Cuit. I wasn't quite as early as I intended, but it didn't look like they had sold much based on other items, even though they only had two of these out. It's was too light for the trip back, even though I was half running half walking. I did come back a longer way than I needed to because, in my confusion, I stopped at the newly opened Isetan, though the counter I wanted for the other cake-off cake was not available. Still, I bought the nonfood item I wanted. Once home, I took off by bicycling to get up to Très Calme and get their Mont-blanc, as a second two-wins-one-loss cake for a fourth-round cake-off. 

It was getting late at this point, so I also got a croissant there, as my first pastry and ate that first. It had a coating of syrup, I assume, or at least a coating that ended up sweet in the overall flavor, which is what I ask for in a pastry croissant versus a bakery croissant, so I can easily call this excellent. I'm back to the new interface on Blogger, which doesn't give me an option to rotate photos before uploading (whereas, somewhere something automatically decides to rotate long pictures so they are vertically oriented).

The Chocolat Cuit, despite the name, is pretty raw, being a very rich chocolate mass, which I'm giving the win. The Mont-Blanc is distinctive in being my favorite coffee cake, which adds coffee-flavored meringue to chestnut paste with cassis accent on whipped cream  in a way that you can taste all the flavors and yet the bitternesses of the chestnut and coffee cancel out and are together pacified by the sugar in a way that makes this acceptable to someone who doesn't like coffee (me) or chestnut (the chef). It stays among the greats, no problem.

Très Calme, Figcannelle

Last Sunday, in response to their cake-off win the previous day, I visited Très Calme, by bicycle, and chose a new cake to try. I went with the Figcannelle, which is fig, red wine, and cinnamon. Though it's pretty solid, the top half, under the coating, is actually a thick white cream-like layer, which was probably for balance, since the main ingredients are strong. It was excellent. The fig flavor was central, but not too strong and clearly balanced and smoothed by other flavors, which were not obvious. Unfortunately, I was tired, so I forgot to get a picture for presentation, so I'll slip in the picture from the shop (unlike some shops, no sign saying not to photograph) that I actually just to remember the name. 

Cake-off: Très Calme's Pistache Apricot over L'Abricotier's Montelimar

Working through fourth-round cake-offs for May cakes (based on when I first ate), I ran to L'Abricotier to get their Montelimar (for which I was successful). I went via Aigre-Douce, but the sign on the door indicated that, while they are still in business, they've shorted their hours and switched their holidays so that my working hours overlap theirs. It's a good measure to keep the riffraff out of the neighborhood, though it works better if they don't have to visit to find out. My backup was Très Calme's Pistache Apricot, which is somewhat out of order, but this cake is seasonal, whereas they always have their Mont-Blanc, and also this meant a match-up of two fruity nutty cakes, which seemed reasonable.

After getting the cakes safely home, I had lunch with a pastry rather than the cakes: a Canelé de Bordeaux from L'Abricotier, which usually doesn't have pastries (they also had a card for a chocolate tart next to it, but it was sold out, so I'm not sure what kind of product it was). It was definitely good, which a pretty thick firm crust.

It's a tough choice. The Montelimar is more distinctive among my great cakes, but I really like the pistachio better (versus almond), so I have to go with the Pistache Apricot.

Très Calme, Chocolat Épice

Last week, working through the list of exceptional shops that I'm ready to get a cake from and are open, I cam back from En Vedette by way of Sengoku in Bunkyou-ku and visited Très Calme. No pastries now, but open for take-out cake. I went with the Chocolat Épice, as it looked interesting. I'm not exactly sure what spices were involved, but they seemed to be the usual things you would have in a spice cake, even if spice cakes aren't usually tart-type cakes. Definitely good and it was definitely interesting as a change.

Très Calme, Cremeux Lime

Today's plan was to go to Très Calme for a new cake, since their cake won the last cake-off (both their great cakes have had third-round cake-offs now). I was not expecting to have enough time to walk and I was feeling that maybe my feet needed rest from the recent return to some running, so I went by bicycle. I decided to get Cremeux Lime, which is a lime cheesecake. Then, I was afraid it was going to be too mild, since I was thinking the description was mascarpone cheese, but now I'm not so sure what it said. Anyway, it wasn't any milder than a typical cream cheesecake and the lime and cheese worked well enough together that I can definitely say that it was excellent cake, so this shop keeps meeting my expectations as an an exceptional cake shop even with the tenth cake from there.

Cake-off: Très Calme's Mont-Blanc over Bubó Barcelona's Bubó Xoco Deluxe

This weekend's cake-off was a third-round match between two one-and-one cakes. First, I walked, along with two 4-min intervals of running, to Très Calme and got their signature cake, their Mont-Blanc. This has a cassis center and features coffee meringue on the outside, which balance out. This is the only cake with coffee in the my greats list, I think. I took the train back, since it's 7 or 8 kilometers and I had a second cake to get. The opposite was my favorite cake from Bubó Barcelona, their Bubó Xoco Deluxe. This time I let him give me their bag because it was raining and they have an unusually shaped box and a bag decided to fit it, so it was pretty stable. I ran another 4 min on the round trip, which was also 7 or 8 kilometers total, so it was a test of both my walking capability and renewed running.

I enjoyed both cakes, but the Bubó Xoco Deluxe was unable to stand out against the strong favor of the Mont-Blanc and in fact, though excellent, I've decided that I don't need it in the greats, which include a lot of chocolate cakes. The Mont-Blanc remains distinctive. I have a little trouble with the aftertaste, though that might have also been the leeks in my lunch. So I need to get back to Très Calme, though I have a number of shops in the exceptional cake shop list that I need to catch up on, except the top ones in the quite fine shops list keep poking their heads up asking for more attention. Next, though, I want I work on the quite exceptional shops.

Très Calme: Praliné Noix

Okay, my last prediction about my next cakes was almost completely wrong, although I did go to Très Calme today. Sadaharu Aoki does have a new cake that I haven't had, but I just had a new cake from them Saturday, so I'll wait until next, when JPH will also have one, so that's at least two trips to Isetan. It's been more than a week since I had my last Michalak cake, so I plan to go to Isetan tomorrow as well. My feet aren't happy today, so I suppose I'll be seeing the doctor eventually, though they're rarely useful (but make up for it when they are). Today's cake was a new one (for me and the shop, apparently), Praliné Noix, which has a promising name, but maybe making praliné out of walnuts was not a great idea, since there wasn't much walnut taste and the praliné sugar kick was too low to be that interesting to me. Still good cake, and it went with my tea fine, which I ate at home, even though previously the eat-in space was open after 7 pm. Très Calme is an excellent shop and I've found a couple great cakes there, but I'm caught up for now.

Cake-off: Paris S'éveille's Théâtre Over Très Calme's Pistache Apricot

Took the afternoon off and ran down to Jiyuugaoka. No rain, so I took a couple pictures to fill in the neighborhood running map and give me some intermediate goals. Also, since I hadn't had lunch yet, I got a Pain au Noisette et Chocolat from the underground Jean François at Omotesandou Station. It was good, but I was wishing for a tighter layering and the hazelnuts weren't have much of an effect, though the filling wasn't bad, and I've had some bad Pain au Chocolat for that reason, so the hazelnuts might be an improvement.

My goal was to get the Saint Honoré Caramel from Paris S'éveille, which seems to be hardest amount accessible ones, so I wasn't surprised that I failed. I had to go with my third choice (just based on it's calendar order in the list), which was Théâtre, their chocolate mousse in shell cake. I took the train back to Isetan and got the Pistache Apricot, taking advantage of Très Calme still being there, at least until Thursday (Friday is a new shop visiting only 5 days, so I'll want to go on Friday). I suppose I could have planned for the Mont-Blanc, but that's always going to be in the line-up.

These are both great cakes, but I'm giving the win to the chocolate cake. What can I say: I'm predictable. It's still early in the third round, so this is only the fourth cake-off of that round between two undefeated cakes, but Théâtre is currently my top chocolate cake at this level. There's a lot of chance in that, so hopefully I can pit it against another chocolate cake next time. 

Cake-off: Très Calme's Pistache Apricot over Frédéric Cassel's Choux Vanille

Took the afternoon off and started by getting Très Calme's Pistache Apricot from Isetan, where they did have their specialty, a Mont-Blanc, this time. The latter should have warned me, even though my longer memory had failed, that I was going to run into trouble running to En Vedette in the afternoon, because the cake of the same name, their specialty, was sold out. I do need to get new cake from them, and they had lots of cake, but I was already committed to a cake-off. Already wet and cold, from there I ran to Ginza Mitsukoshi, which has the other available great cakes needing a second round. I tried the Choux Vanille from F. Cassel first, since that definitely sells out as well and it was already past 4 pm, and was finally successful.

Though it looks like a mismatch, this Choux wouldn't be in the great list, with one win, if it couldn't hold its own. However, Pistache Apricot is also definitely great, so I had to choose. I decided to go for the heavy fruity tart over light vanille simplicity, but I could eat another Choux Vanille, no problem. These are great cakes.

Très Calme, Fraise Citron

Recently, I promoted Très Calme to excellent and it was time for another new cake from them, though I've been focused on very good shops and other priorities before taking care of the excellent ones. However, since they are visiting Isetan right now, which is convenient, I decided to get cake from them today, their first day (they will stay through the 14th, the usual period being disrupted by the White Day holiday). They do have cake at Isetan, but only half the display space (again, White Day), so there were only four cakes. One was Pistache Apricot, which I was happy to see, because I want it for a cake-off, though I was surprised not to see their signature Mont-Blanc. Instead the other three cakes were Exquis, which is high-end chocolate and excellent and so even though I've had it from them before, it was labeled as an Isetan exclusive, so it's not currently in the regular line-up apparently; a cake I asked about and seemed to have too much coffee for me, and Fraise Citron, which is actually a verrine, not my favorite form of fresh "cake". For running, I tried again to do the Tomigaya--Yoyogi loop. I did the first turn correctly, but it put me on something that was just a footpath squeezed between buildings, not even an alley, so I'm revising the map to go around it, even though it will have me doubling back. Maybe I'll try again tomorrow in the evening. In the early afternoon, which I'm taking off, I plan to go back for the Pistache Apricot and then make a run to En Vedette for their namesake cake for an early cake-off. It's under 10 km, so I can go out again later, though I have other more serious things to do tomorrow. I had planned to go to P. Ces Jours, but perhaps next Wednesday.

For a verrine, or even for a strawberry-based cake, the Fraise Citron was definitely good and this shop remains firmly in excellent. If they win their cake-off, though, I think I'll pass on the coffee-based cake and make a trip out to the main shop, unless I find that they vary the Isetan line-up over time. There is also a limited time Sadaharu Aoki cake at Isetan, so I'll be back there as least twice during Très Calme's run, I think.

Très Calme: Exquis

Saturday, I did another long run. My first destination was Sengoku to visit Très Calme, which was made longer by the fact that I kept running laterally rather than wait for lights to change and the streets don't run straight. As usual, I ate in (the only person). I choose Exquis (not sure that was the spelling provided, but it matches the Japanese phonetics) and immediately forget the ingredients. It's chocolate cake with sponge bottom and a chocolate mousse layer above which has a mellow and fruity taste. Actually, the card said Earl Grey, though I was thinking blackberry, since that's the garnish, but Earl Grey is infused with bergamot, which should be quite a different flavor. In terms of construction, I'm against sponge cake, and certainly wouldn't combine it with a block of mousse. However, it worked perfectly well, so what do I know. Maybe not otherwise remarkable, but the chocolate was harmonizing well with the tea and I can call it excellent. I had this shop was listed with very good shops, but I'm upgrading it to excellent. Now the standout very good shops is Maison Douce, which has the advantage of a sample of only two, one which I have listed as semi-great (it got demoted from great after it's first cake-off round). That's a problem because it's a 35-minute run or more than 1 hour by train, so I keep hoping that it visits Isetan again, but I've been waiting quite a while.

The run continued down to Nihonbashi, to visit Mitsukoshi, and then as far south as Ginza 6, with various stops along the way. Other than the first visit, where I noticed a cake counter that I can now ignore as they visit Isetan and bought a kitchen gadget, it was fairly fruitless, because shops are waiting until Jan. 15 to change their line-ups. Coming back home, I was only just in time for a 2 pm appointment, which I was fortunately able to put off until after a shower and lunch.

Très Calme: Allure

Wednesday, I ran to Bien-être and found them closed for renovation, through to Friday of next week; so, after a stop for a few groceries from Nikunohanamasa, I went down to Shibuya Hikarie and got Chocolat Citron from Le Pain de Joel Robuchon. I walked some but eventually ran most of the way back, despite the uncomfortable load in my too small backpack. The pastry was excellent, crisp leaves around chocolate and lemon (I assume, though it could have been some other citrus fruit) cream. That's too excellent ones, so they remain in pretty good standing for further visits.

With Bien-être out of the picture, I killed two birds with one stone by going to Très Calme, first to confirm a cake for the next cake-off (though the cake is not actually necessarily seasonal, so I'm not sure why I'm in a hurry for the second round other than Très Calme being one of the priorities among quite good shops since it seems to be better than some already on the excellent list) and then to get Allure as the reward for the shop for winning a recent cake-off (which catches me up), which is a rum and raisin tart under caramel cream/mousse, with chocolate accents where shown. I ate in again, since that is convenient there in the evening, sort of the opposite of Bien-être, so I'm a little worried about getting too attached. The cake was excellent, though I needed to make sure I got a balance of the two parts, since the separate parts are not excellent by themselves, or at least I can confirm that the caramel isn't (I don't like the necessarily level of gelatin to stabilize this). If you balance the parts, then the final flavor is very balanced across all four flavors, which is not something I get to say often.

Cake-off: Très Calme's Pistache Apricot over Bien-être's Pistachio and Grapefruit Chiboust

Saturday isn't as hot as I feared, but still plenty hot. Haven't done any running yet, but am considering going out in the evening to revisit parts of my neighborhood map before getting back to adding new parts (besides the new parts I've had to add in the middle of old maps, because I found overlooked locations). Instead, I went out at about 9:30 to update pictures for the neighborhood map. Did a temple practically next to Shinanomachi Station that's been rebuilt, then down to Jinguu Gaien Ichou Namiki Avenue, where I've added a new neighborhood loop, now that the connecting pedestrian bridges are available, along with the Royal Garden Cafe Aoyama at the south end, which has good pastries. Then I went down to the loop around Hiroo, where I only managed two planned locations and picked up two previously unknown locations near them, which is not a very good ratio of success, so I've had to completely redo that loop, splitting off the northeast part as three loops (which include a lot of bread places that I overlooked previously) and merging what was left (which is most of that loop) with the loop northeast of Shibuya Bridge, near Ebisu Station. I still haven't tested any of that, so I won't be surprised if there are future changes.

Then from about 10:08, I went my bicycle and got my cake. One was Pistache Apricot from Très Calme (naturally, I visited the farthest one first, though that was because they open first) which only got slightly dented, and the other was the variously named Pistachio and Grapefruit Chiboust from Bien-être, which I had (unnecessarily) preordered the night before (they just took my name and number; they didn't make me pay ahead, unlike Sadaharu Aoki), which definitely did not like road vibration, which is not surprising for any chiboust. The later cake I've been waiting to do a first-round cake-off since last September. I also noted that Bien-être had at least two other cakes that I haven't had, a seasonal tart and a new mille-feuille and that they do not in fact seem to have verrine, just puddings.

The cake-off wasn't a blowout this time, so they were well matched in that sense, as well as being well matched in flavors (no clashing) and yet having significant design differences to make comparing them interesting. I'm deciding in favor of the denser more sophisticated Pistache Apricot from the less distinguished (by me, at least) shop over the light, homemade-like Pistachio & Grapefruit Chiboust, which I thought would be better for with less grapefruit. Both cakes are seasonal, so I'll be doing second-round cake-offs with them next, starting with the loser against Le Saint-Marc, which at least shares its lightness. Next time, perhaps I'll walk the chiboust, or at least run it, home and see if it arrives more intact.

Très Calme: Pistache Apricot

To get myself caught up on cake-off win follow-ups, I ran to Très Calme after work. Most of the their selection was verrines, but they had a few cakes more acceptable to me. I choose the Pistache Apricot (yes, a mixed-language name) and ate in the shop (there were 5 tables for two but no customers, whereas the café across the street seemed to be doing better business).

This was good choice, though I have a number of pistachio cakes, but none I thick with apricot. Similar to the more recent previous great pistachio cake, the base is a tart, or rather a tartlettte rather than a slice from a large tart. The top is a very solid pistachio cream/butter or whatever they use, which is the opposite of the recent chiboust. It's not a subtle cake, but it suits my needs and I'm calling it great. That isn't enough to promote this shop yet, but it might eventually, if I get the rest of the quite good shops better sorted out to see which are on top and needing promotion.

The run was 12+ kilometers, which is the longest for quite a while. I had timing problems, but I ran about 80 minutes. I'm sure I'll need to stretch a lot tomorrow, but my next plan is 10 km, which is a little closer to what I planned for this stage. Friday maybe will be a run to Ginza, which is also about 10 km.

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.

Cake-off: Sadaharu Aoki's Cassisier over Très Calme's Mont Blanc

Started off with morning cycling with the new bike to check out the route to Maison Douce. Google had a short cut from the main road, but I'm not the only one it told about and it's not really wide enough even for two large cars to pass each other without pedestrians and cyclists, so I think I'll just put up with the noise along the main road. It was about 28 km and I was back in under a couple hours. No major hills, but I did manage to get it to top gear on one somewhat downward stretch.

For cake, I decided to do a cake off with the nearly reappeared Cassisier (though I spelled it Cassissier before, though I'm not sure whether I was correcting their spelling then) from Sadaharu Aoki. First, though, I had to run up to Très Calme, which I tried to do by the Google route, but ended up too far west by one bridge and maybe did more climbing than necessary. It was still cool (with a sweat-soaked shirt in a breeze) with clouds, until 10:30, but then got pretty hot when the sun came out. It's about 13 km round trip and I could manage 10 km/h up and 9 km/h, despite heat and slopes (though only about 30 m each way). Then I hit Isetan for Cassisier and confirmed the actual ingredients in my previous Sadaharu Aoki visit. I also did a short (< 1 km) shopping run after that, all these at around 9 km/h or more.

Both of these cakes are definitely excellent, so I don't want to demote them, but neither stood out strongly. In the end, I'm giving it to Cassisier based on degree of difference from other great cakes (I've had other great Mont Blanc), but the Mont Blanc would win for value, since it's about 60% of the price.

Très Calme: Ebene, Savarin Orange, Soleil

Over a couple days, I had a few more cakes from Très Calme, all good but none excellent. I also had the Mont Blanc again, which I might reclassify as excellent, but I should again emphasize that it is probably only excellent/great if you're not that into chestnut flavor, so the mildness in a meringue is a nice surprise.

The Ebene (my guess from the name  エベーヌ) is chocolate, like almost a block of chocolate on, although the bottom is not quite that hard, so I would probably a ganache, maybe with blackberry, since there is a blackberry on top and blackberry is not such a strong flavor that it would dominate chocolate. It's very similar to a chocolate tart. I've already thrown out all my receipts, but these were all 500+ yen with tax.

The Soleil was quick choice when I found out that there was no Mont Blanc. It is (mascarpone) cheese, I think with red fruit (strawberry and maybe raspberry shown). Also good. 

Finally, on the second day when we went back to get the promised Mont Blanc, we also go Savarin Orange. I hadn't see a Savarin in a class before, but obviously you need something to keep the rum in the sponge, so I have no objections and the orange worked well. Again, good.