Frédéric Cassel, Mille-feuille Colette

As I posted previously, I loaded up on cakes Saturday, out of efficiency, though my cakes/week is fixed. At Ginza Mitsukoshi, besides the JPH cake for the cake-off, I got Frédéric Cassel's latest seasonal mille-feuille, Mille-feuille Colette. In this case, the cream is cinnamon cream and the gelatin middle is fig and raspberry, which was an interesting combination that harmonizes well, so I would say this is excellent, which most of this series is.

 

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. 

Paris S'éveille, Tarte Fraisette

Last weekend, went down to Jiyuugaoka by bicycle, which is a mistake as far preserving the cake. As the pictures shows, this Tarte Fraisette did not like the vibration, though jogging is slightly better. I should perhaps give up and use the train, since there probably would not be many other passengers. Anyway, this tart is strawberry and orange compote on a pâte sucrée almond base, where the almond is mixed with cinnamon. I missed this last year, apparently, but was glad to catch it this year, as it was excellent. As I just wrote about them, probably thinking about this cake, they seem to be getting a the hang of fruitier cakes relative to previously, or I'm learning to like them more. I hope to make another visit next week, as I don't think I'm caught up on their new cakes. If the weather is good, I might try to eat outside. This time, I was also getting cake for a cake off so that was not practical.

Lenôtre: Verrine Tiramisu Pomme Crumble

Ran Tuesday to Viron starting late, but nothing new there, after which I ran to the Hilltop Hotel, where the cake counter was closed (I mis-remembered or never knew that they closed at 8 pm), so a long run with no cake. Instead I bought some bread a Paul, which I toasted and ate with various toppings.

Wednesday, I worked not quite as late and went straight to Ginza Mitsukoshi to visit Lenôtre, which, unusually, had just two items left, both Verrine Tiramisu Pomme Crumble. Since I was expecting to get one of the verrine teramisu desserts, that was fine with me. It is quite expensive (like all their things) for something that seems like someone would make easily at home (if one made such things, which I don't, so I could be wrong). Fortunately, it was excellent, so I'm doubtful I could make it so well.

This is a 12th cake, and I'm ready to promote them to the quite exceptional group, since Origines Cacao has now officially announced that they are closing: the Ginza shop closed today and the Jiyuugaoka shop is planned to close at the end of the month, so shops from four levels advance one spot, and the exceptional category still has weakness in the bottom that the top of the quite good group can challenge. Also, new cakes have appeared at JPH, and they include great cake Tonka, which has only one loss in three cake-offs, so perhaps I should prioritize them for the weekend after next.

Jean-Paul Hévin: Bûchette Lichen

I'm way behind, but here goes. By last Wednesday, I had noticed that the individual versions of Jean-Paul Hévin's Christmas cakes were available, so I went hunting. I tried Isetan first, where there was a line (not necessarily for cake), but when I got a chance to ask, I found out that they were sold out, so I left. It was still early enough for me to go by bicycle to the Marunouchi shop, where they didn't have either and I didn't ask, so I went to Ginza Mitsukoshi, where they had both, not too much to my surprise (they are never as busy there). I went with Bûchette Lichen first because they only had one compared to several of the other, so I figured next time the other would still be easier to get, which would turn out to be true.

There is a full-sized version that has a fuller explanation of the layers, so I'm going to assume that they are the same, since the pictures match. The top (and sides of the big cake) is Venezuelan chocolate mousse, then Ethiopian café au lait mousse, a chestnut and almond biscuit, a chocolate and marzipan biscuit, and a cinnamon sablé base. So a high proportion of hard biscuit-type things, flour-less. The problem is the coffee, but I knew that going in. I really like this harder, drier cake as a change and I could accept the café au lait as an interesting flavor and enjoy it. There wasn't even a coffee aftertaste problem for me this time. However, it still left a burning feeling in my stomach, if not my mouth, so I still need to avoid coffee and have to rate it as only excellent.

Besides the bicycling, I did my indoor non-weights workout, which was enough.

Viron: Bourgogne

Went to the next in the list of priority shops: Viron. I went to the shop down in the Shibuya Stn. area, since I wanted to (and did) run the Jinguumae 5&6 loop counterclockwise, to confirm the recent revision. That leaves one revised loop reconfirm (at least until next time I go exploring). I got Bourgogne, which is mousse  of cassis and strawberry in win, a cassis mousse cover, and cinnamon cream. The outer cassis jelly dominated, though I could taste the cinnamon and win influence. For me, it was just okay. I took this as the most conventional thing sold as cake, but I probably should have known that it wouldn't suit me. Still, I don't know until I try. Still, one new cake that doesn't impress me doesn't stop them from being a high priority shop, for now. As a note on the picture, this is what happens when you take a full running carrying cake. It actually survived pretty well. I only had to rescue the currant from the roof of the box and wipe off the Viron marker and little bit.

Del'Immo, Othello

Wednesday, I ran down to Tokyo Midtown, looking for a cake at Sadaharu Aoki, and then continued looking by running to Marunouchi, a route I'm getting used to. Failed both times, so I went to the Del'Immo at the new Tokyo Midtown Hibiya and got the "Chef recommended" Othello, which is a chocolate mousse cake with crème brûlée flavored with vanilla, which is a pretty standard cake design that usually is quite disappointing, but this also included a layer of cinnamon streusel. This was definitely excellent. I'm still not that excited by the main cake design, but I wouldn't be surprised in someone rated this great.

As a result, Del'Immo get's promoted from the quite good to excellent shop category, where I had three openings, so I don't have to bump any of the underachievers yet.

Blondir, Nostagie

Visited Isetan for the last day of Blondir, which I had down as a good shop based on one cake. I picked Nostagie, marked as a hot seller, I think, which is like a lemon bar under whipped cream, broadly speaking. Of course, the bar part is almond (and lemon) and the maybe the whipped cream is whipped white chocolate, since that's an ingredient. On top, is probably the cinnamon. It was an interesting combination and excellent, though I'd like the bottom to be easier to cut. In that situation, turning it on it's side is the best option. With one good cake and one excellent cake, they qualify as potentially quite good, though that's a bloated category and I haven't reached the point that getting them all up to 3 cakes so that I can figure out which to drop.

For exercise, I tried walking the nearest neighborhood route, which was doable without apparent damage. Of course, it's less than how much I walk just commuting, but it's non-stop, so it is a kind of test of how my feel are healing. With my arm sprained, I can't jog anyway, but I can walk without jarring my lower arm.

[Fri] Pierre Hermé: Tarte au Potiron

Starting with the cake (which I did, but only the buying part, not the eating part), I got the Tarte au Potiron from Pierre Hermé at Shinjuku Isetan. This is the seasonal cake that is not part of the chestnut and pear theme set.

This is a pumpkin tart with a "tuile", which is French for "tile", but seems like brittle, in this case pumpkin seed brittle, though it could have nuts or something in it to balance it, since at least it was not all whole obvious pumpkins seeds, but just a few. I started on the just pumpkin part and thought, "yup, that's pumpkin", which I've been a fan of as in pumpkin pie. Mixing in a little tuile, though, great balance and this was an excellent tart. Even after the tuile ran out, I was either used to it or had enough sweet aftertaste that it was not too strong a pumpkin for me and was till excellent.

On the running, I'm working on a new ~15 km neighborhood map, as other days, but I still did not get very far without making mistakes and realized that I should add another patisserie, even though I've not blogged it yet (because it's more cafe and somewhere that really needs a recommendation, though I'm probably get around to them eventually), so I cut off the run at 1 hr, which I estimate was 8.5 km. I've learned always to use Runtastic (which I didn't), because even when I'm trying to run a course that I already have an exact measurement for, as likely as not, I've going to get off course. At least this time I backed up and found the correct course each time (and a church that I had forgotten about), so I hope next time goes more smoothly. Today I figured out how to expand the current map considerably without breaking the run of no stops for lights, but I think that'll wait to learn the current map first before I add the next several kilometers or more.

Henri Charpentier: Sachertorte

Well, I avoided them for two years, but illness and cake lust drove me to finally go to Henri Charpentier, which was most convenient at Isetan. My avoidance was because they generally have soft boring cakes, which I bypassed this time by taking the Sachertorte (540 yen), which is a relative heavy cake, even there. And the balance with the apricot and sweetness (the chocolate probably matters, but is relatively weak, which is what I would expect) means it was unexpectedly excellent, so I can't dismiss them as uninteresting, though I've never thought they were incompetent, so it's not a shock. On my personal list, they now come on the newly arranged "Quite good" list, which is the bottom few dozen of the top several dozen Tokyo cake shops, most of which I've only sampled from a two or three times. Only one cake means I should get back there and try something else sometime relatively soon.

I haven't had any other fresh cake lately, but I got some Mohave Raisin and Walnut Brod from Andersen, which was excellent toasted and buttered (so it's not really fair to compare it to untoasted and buttered bread), and Cinnamon from Hediard, which is very heavy on the walnuts and good, but not better than my modest expectations, both again via Isetan, which is about as far as I'm up for currently.

Chocolate Chic [Closed shop]]: Tarte aux Figues

Only 3 km today, 2 min running/1 min walking, but given the heat and the closeness of the shop, it was enough. I've still got 7 km more for Monday and Tuesday, which is about right. No problems with my left leg. I'm thinking (since Friday at work) that my computer use is what's hurting my left arm (enough to affect running), so I've been giving it more support and writing less.

I got the Tarte aux Figues (I think: one problem with trying to figure out the French name from phonetic Japanese is the silent letters and my shallow knowledge of French) for 561. The tart base was okay, but the figs were tougher than I expected and all I could taste was cinnamon. It was only okay, so I'm taking them off my list of potentially excellent shops. Neither of the ones I liked before were in the shop now, although that might be more of a matter of season than that they had special ones at Isetan.

Worked on my praliné cake. Made the cake biscuit again, which came out too thin, so I had a lot of burnt part to throw away (well, break off and eat), thawed the last, pretty bad attempt at the creme brulée praliné buttercream (got some crystals in it, but the smooth part tastes really good), and made some caramel-favored syrup (by caramelizing sugar, adding boiling water, and then adding an equal part of what I think the recipe calls 30 deg syrup, which just means sugar fully dissolved in water at 4:3). The actually recipe uses the syrup on various layers with different fillings, but I just put it on a side by itself and alternated with cake with the buttercream. Very good (after chilling, so the buttercream didn't just squish out). Still three more fillings to work on, as well as getting the actually biscuit consistent and the buttercream smooth.

37 km inside Tokyo to Patisserie Partage: Aphredite, Marc, and Chocolat Pistache Griotte

Sorry, no pictures today due to camera preparer failure (got to put the memory card back in the camera before you pack it).

The important thing was that I could go 37 km safely, more or less by this route. I looped around north to avoid leaving Tokyo (otherwise, it's about 30 km and passes through Kanagawa Pref.), although the initial turn was supposed to follow the river just for the sake of following the river, but initially I found myself up on the hill/bluff above one side, which surprised me when I got a look beyond the first time. Also, the whole loop took me up, down, through, and under (really wide sidewalk in the tunnel, a whole lane, but it's noisy in there; the shade was appreciated, but it really was not that much cooler: not such a long tunnel) hillier areas, so it was much different than my normal flat runs.

Lessons learned:
  I need to get up another 30 minutes earlier, 3:30, although today was mostly okay.
  The new running-shop socks seemed to work much better than the old general athletic socks; that is, my feet from the top of my sock down to my heel were not bright red after my run, just somewhat pink. So I need more of these expensive socks (or find cheaper thin ones that are good for running elsewhere).
  Need to simplify the path: the residential section at the end was a mystery, with roads on different levels of hills. I should have traded the river path for a main road to the road along the rail line (which runs by the shop) to my destination, or at least zoom in with Google Maps on the parts that might not be clear. For these runs outside the Tokyo core, I have to rely on a 1:50,000 scale map, although I already frequently was using the 1:25,000 part from than the 1:12,500 of my Tokyo's 23 (special) districts map.
  Two pieces of cake is enough.

For the cake, the first one looked like this, because that is what it is: Aphrodite. It resembles an ice cream sandwich, but is more of a firm mousse. It's tayberry, as far as the jam, which is a cross between red raspberry and blackberry. But the middle is cinnamon Bavarian creme (if I'm translating ババロア correctly) and the cookie is sablé, with almonds I'm guessing. Very good, like ice cream (I'm not that into actual ice cream, but I find that really rich cake reminds me of ice cream flavors). Getting the cookie to break to edible pieces without squishing the middle is a challenge with this cake. I think taking off the top, as messy as that is with the jam, and breaking that up separately to the side and putting it back is the best bet. I would definitely get this again.

My second pieces was the Marc (マール) (as in Marc Brandy) for 490 yen, which has a baked tart base under cassis (black current) and vanilla mousse. Very good. This person has a picture, the red one. I've only made custard tarts, so I'm not sure what you do to get the solid crumbly but rich middle. Something involving butter or almond butter and flour, I assume.

The last is the only one on their website, the Chocolat Pistache Griotte. I really need to stop getting chocolate pistachio everywhere I go, especially mousse in summer. It was fine as this standard cake goes. The griotte is the cherries, which are under the pistachio core. I don't really like cherries in my cake, but these were okay, not a bad idea.

Although not convenient, if they come back to Isetan again (which would not be for a couple years), I'll want to visit their counter again.

Now to plan the 39 km run for next week.