L'Abricotier: Chocolat fumee

Had time during the day so went for an about 5-hour cycling tour of cake shops, although I probably could have done the meaningful parts in less than 2 hours with better planning. My original plan had been to get cake from Toshi Yoroizuka and do a cake-off after a training rul, but apparently Tuesday is the wrong day for doing that. The shops are only partially open (Kyobashi's salon is closed and only the dessert bar is open at Tokyo Midtown). I may try tomorrow, but getting two cakes for a cake-off is always risky after work, whereas today I was off.

Anyway, I went out to Kichiyoji by the new bicycle, where both both shops I checked were closed (the second one was a last-minute thing, and probably they are always closed on Tuesday, but they were sort of on my way anyway and I wanted to check the route, so I didn't check my notes). At Koenji, both shops were open (which I could and did check) and there were no changes from last month. One of those was L'Abricotier, which I was ready for an eighth cake from, so I got the Chocolat Fumee (their spelling), which is smoky chocolate mousse on top of a chocolate cake filled with bandy and, I think, crème brûlée seasoned with caramelized almonds, and although I couldn't really tell except for the almonds, which were mostly just the ones on top (I only found one more inside). It was a very interesting taste, as far as the chocolate mousse, and definitely good, so I was ready to call this excellent, but I had to admit later that it was not something that I was very interested in eating again, so "definitely good" is going to have to be my finial review.

Went off north, where it was demonstrated that I should not believe a shop's Facebook page which says "open now" over their general schedule (that they are closed the second Tuesday of the month). Did get by another shop and confirm that they still did not have Chiboust. However, and here's a shop I could have checked in on when going to Toshi Yoroizuka, since I essentially passed it on the way, At Sugino Hidemi, they told me that the cake I was looking for was a Fall thing and I should look for it in a month, so I'll look forward to that for a cake-off in October.

After that long a ride, I thought I deserved a second treat, so I got Praliné from Viron nearby in Marunouchi, which is a puff pastry with sesame seed sized granular praliné as filling (same as between the "fingers"). It was definitely good (it would be excellent, since there's a lot of competition among sugary puff pastries, so I'm not sure) and well appreciated.

Del'Immo: Remy Martin

Ran to Midtown to check whether Toshi Yoroizuka has Annya this early, but though the service person agreed that it was a great cake, they get the rhubarb from Hokkaido, so maybe it will come back in the summer. Next try will be one from Dalloyau, which I plan to visit tomorrow.

Next I went to Del'Immo in Akasaka, since I haven't been there in a while. Got the Remy Martin (レミーマルチン; 580 yen) , which is named for a kind of brandy. It also has tonka beans in it. Not sure what disagreed with me, but though I didn't mind eating it at the time, despite obviously not being my thing, since it was interesting, and I was initially willing to consider it "excellent", the aftertaste bothered me, so I'm afraid "good" is the best I can do. Still an "excellent" shop, but I replaced it by Origines Cacao for the new Top 15 "quite excellent" group, which I have visited enough for now.

The run was about 9 km and I wasn't pushing too hard, just 11 km/h for the first part, 9 km/h through Akasaka, and 10 km/h coming back with cake. Felt pretty good.

I'll also note that Andersen at Isetan had "Fondant Chocolat" for 320 yen yesterday (I was there because Le Petit Mec had no baggets), which seems in no way to be "fondant", but just a pretty thoroughly baked sweet, but it was excellent (sort of a like a lower fat higher sugar brownie).

Viron: cherry mousse cake

Got cake from Viron, which I thought was Pompette, but maybe it was Pampette, although I get more hits from Polpette, but nothing showing cake. I guess I just have to go back to find out, since as usually, I can't find any other posts showing this cake, which is not part of the regular lineup. It has Kirsch mousse I remember, which I didn't even have to look up to know what it is from the Japanese, because I just looked it up yesterday for a cake recipe: it is a transparent, not sweet, cherry brandy. So whatever it was called, it is a cherry mousse cake with some whole fruit. This was good, certainly, although not really it was cherry cake, which is something I would normally avoid but I was willing to give this a try (and had limited options for new cake). This was good, but not really 734 yen good. And it was definitely not great that I could tell, so Viron is too hit and miss for me to keep it as a "great" shop, so I'm downgrading it to "excellent" (so I probably won't be back there again soon, except for bread).

Sunday: Ryoura, Extreme

Sunday was cycling. First, I tried to visit A Tes Souhaits! But I arrived around noon (they open at 11) on Mother's Day (if that mattered), so there were a few dozen people in line and it sounded like they were warning new people that they couldn't promise they wouldn't sell out. I hadn't prepared and I need to update my map in that area, so the only places I knew were Jun Honma, which I didn't want to visit again, and L'Epicurien, which wouldn't begin selling cake until 13:00. I'm not sure whether that is just a Sunday thing, but the closest thing to an official website lists 13:00 as opening time now, although the door isn't locked, so they might sell you something besides fresh cake. It was obnoxious, but now I'm curious to go back. If I had remembered, I would have gone to Arcachon, in the basement at the station. Maybe I would have tried the Joshi+ recommended café Patisserie Tigre, although my plan is to skip this one. I was on a bicycle, so I gave up on the north and went down to Ryoura in Yoga, which is not close, but closer than home and a little closer to home and anyway in a more familiar area of town.

I got the Extreme for 560 yen. It's not really that extreme, although it has some sort of famous brandy in it. It's a little unstable for eating outside (very narrow and the layers tend to separate) but it was excellent chocolate cake. I'd enjoy having it again, although I could not say for sure that it was great, so I'll consider Ryoura an excellent shop and get around to having a third cake there after I've visited the great shops a little more (at least the less frequented ones that actually have more cakes that I haven't tried).

I was out riding for about four hours, so it did not seem overly greedy to also visit Bigarreaux, which is the excellent shop nearby that I'm much more familiar with. I got Le (?) Kouign Amann, which is not a French cake, although I've never seem one that was spiral, so this was quite different for cakes of this name, although the general flavor was still Kouign Amann, just no filling.
It was 300 yen and also excellent.

Viron: Bonaparte (no running)

So, no running for a week and no cake shops for almost that long: cake without running, at least alone, feels like cheating, although life without cake is not great, so I'll console myself with some cake more often.

My self-diagnosis is shin splints. Saw a Japanese doctor today, who asked some question that seemed to be to rule out a stress fracture (it did not seem sudden and I did not hear a sound, although the pain is more localized than I like, but with no swelling) and circulation-related problems. Guess I'll just have to rest it and see what happens (he prescribed 2 weeks of drugs). In the meantime, I've been doing my indoor workout every day and added squats, which I can feel afterward, and are giving me cramps in bed, if I'm not careful.

For cake, I visited Viron again, the Marunouchi one, after visiting Cuoca, which I decided needed to be on the map, at least the Mitsukoshi one. The latter was because I had bought a 7.5 cm tart form there last week and tried it for pecan pie tarts, and it was great, so I bought 7 more, since 8 is about right for a batch, in terms of the crust: my recipe makes 250 g, and 30 g worked fine for one.

The cake is Bonaparte for 756 yen. It is a dense chocolate cake, so it was okay in the bike basket for 6 km. It's prune in chocolate ganache with, I think, brandy (I didn't read that far on the card in the shop, but I tasted alcohol and someone posted that it has "Napoleon" in it, which is a grade of cognac. The cake was great (for a chocolate lover who hasn't had store-bought cake for almost a week), so I'll need to get back there again soon.

Cycling to Au Bon Vieux Temp

Went cycling, which in theory should be faster but I also tend to not follow known routes or check the map often, so I end up going way out of my way, like today.

The destination was Au Bon Vieux Temp out by Ooyamadai Station on Toukyuu　Ooimachi Line, in Setagaya. They are on my great shop list, although I'm having my doubts. I've made excuses in the past for cakes that might be great, except for not holding up under the extreme heat. This time I got three cakes with not very good prospects (I don't know what to pick, so I just picked them in the order of the display, except that I skipped the seasonal mixed fruit tart, because it looked small and pathetic and I've never been impressed by mixed fruit tarts; in particular, citrus fruits don't go well with most other fruits). None of these had much inherit chance of being great and they were not, but other great shops have shown that they can surprise me, which these didn't really.

First is the Fromage Cru, rare cheese cake for 380 yen + tax. Like all the cakes in this set, it's very small (just a few centimeters wide). Definitely good flavor, so I'd say better than average for rare cheese cakes, although it was just a little more gelatinous than I like. I usually can't be bothered to read and remember the details, but online it says that they use white wine rather than lemon juice, so now I totally want to do that with my baked cheese cake, except I also want to do chocolate, which would sort of confuse the experiment.

Next was Biscuit aux Fruits for 400 yen + tax. For sponge cake with fruit, this was very good, especially considering that there is banana in the middle, which I don't generally care for or consider appropriate but worked fairly well here. But sponge cake even with mostly custard rather than simply whipped cream has pretty limited appeal for me, so I can't say that this is great, just very good.

Finally, the signature dessert of the shop was 420 yen + tax. This is a Brûlée of custard and pear. Very good, and very alcoholic (pear brandy).