Dalloyau, L'Isolent Fraise

Catching up, last Sunday evening, I walked over to Dalloyau for a new cake and could. I got their L'Isolent Fraise (I assume from the phenetic Japanese). The macaron is rusk, I think, and the cream is coconut cream, which are both fine. This ended up being definitely good, certainly as good as I expected and good enough that I need to hit them again, since I let myself get behind in keeping them up with Sadaharu Aoki.

Sadaharu Aoki, Hassaku Passion

Sadaharu Aoki: Hassaku Passion

My running Sunday night was actually to get more cake, which was less ambitious than I originally planned, though I wasn't expecting to be successful, since it was late on a Sunday, when everything is usually sold-out. I went to the south Tokyo Sta. area and naturally went first to the Sadaharu Aoki main shop. I was looking for their yearly exclusive, which I still haven't gotten, even though the year starts in April. I did get something that they just promoted again, but I could have gotten to Isetan, if I were more patient, Hassaku Passion, which is hassaku orange (which is a Japanese variety which is apparently somewhat grapefruit like) and passion fruit on a coconut accented sablé. The description makes clear that it is mild, which it is, so not really my thing, but good.

Viron, Rouge

Last week, wasn't quite so late, so one day, I managed to get to Viron early enough to get cake, though I failed three days with Sadaharu Aoki and F. Cassel. Actually, even that one cake was one cake ahead, but since I expected to busy the next week, and it felt like Tokyo could go back into shutdown, it was justified. Actually, this was the cake I expected to get on Sunday, but I found something else. This time I was getting from the Marunouchi shop, which is more focused on the restaurant side, so maybe they don't have as many take-out cakes. Anyway, it's Rouge, which is obviously a fruity cake, and obviously has some gelatin, from the shape. An unusual point is that this is coconut cream, rather than some other medium. The fruit is specifically raspberry, I think. The reality isn't so exciting or different from other fruit dome cake, but it was good.

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.

Frédéric Cassel, Addiction

Finally, the last cake of May was Addiction from Frédéric Cassel. This is coconut mousse, passion fruit, mango, lemon biscuit, and raspberry. It's a cube held together by rigid wall and is really white. It definitely would be about the last cake I would choose from anywhere else, but it was a new cake from Frédéric Cassel and I just couldn't get that excited about the strawberry rollcake. As it happens, this was a great cake that I could recommend to about anyone, though maybe someone who wants something light, because coconut is high in fat and there's plenty of sugar as well, so I'm not saying whether it's healthy. If I'm lucky it will stick around long enough for me to find another cake to do a cake-off with, as right now I don't have anything to match it with.

Éclat des Jours, Tropicot

Last Monday, besides the cake for the cake-off, I got one extra cake from Éclat des Jours, for efficiency in the era of virus, long work hours, and short store hours: Tropicot. This has been around for a relatively long time, though not as far back as the first visit. It's a mango, passion fruit, and banana tart, with some shredded coconut. I knew it wasn't really my thing, but I was running out of choices as a 20th cake, but it was their turn or a new cake as one of the quite exceptional shops, at least until this one, which was only good. Betting cakes from here and with tropical fruit coming up, so I didn't give up on either. For some reason, blogger has gone back to the old interface, now that I've figured out the new one. There's probably some way to toggle between them.

I realize, I should really get some pictures of things other than cakes, because there are actually a couple people besides me that read this blog. I'll see if I can come up with at least some shops or pictures of the returned crowds, with more masks than typically this time of year (it's getting too hot for my surgical masks, which I already don't run or bicycle with, but I have other options).

Frédéric Cassel, Tarte Calamansi

Continuing from Ryoura, I put on my mask and used the train to go to Ginza Mitsukoshi and get the new cake of the month from Frédéric Cassel: Tarte Calamansi. The tart is just what the name says, though I've never heard of this fruit before. It's a coconut tart base, obviously, and the top is mixed calamansi and vanilla cream, with lime peal sprinkled in. It's very tropical, which is a hard sell for me, but ultimately it won and I can it was excellent, though I'm not sure that I need more calamansi cakes, particularly.

The afternoon run was all local loops, all successfully completed (about 2.5 hours of running): the Minami-Motomachi--Samon-chou--Suga-chou--Shinanomachi--Wakaba--Yotsuya loop, which is up to 8.44 km and hits all the main Soka Gakkai buildings now, the Daikyou-chou--Shinanomachi loop, which is up to 2.32 km and now includes the folk music museum, since Soka Gakkai claims it on the map of the complex (they also claim their main newspaper buildings, but I'm drawing the line there, as well as buildings that are dormitories or guest houses or shuttered, which might not be fair, but it's hard enough working everything in), the Samon-chou--Yotsuya loop, which is up to 1.1 km (though the link to the previous loop is now much shorter) and now includes the Soka Gakkai International (SGI) Headquarters and whatever the above shop is, the Sendagaya central loop, which is up to 1.90 km and now needs to be part of the cluster as the loop leading to it, as does the final loop, the Sendagaya 3 loop which is up to 404 m and has an OK, which is a grocery store, well named since the Two-Layer Creamcheese Tart I got there was only ok.

Frédéric Cassel: Inspiration Guava

Because my hip was hurting, as one reason, I bicycled to Frédéric Cassel at Ginza Mitsukoshi and got this month's inspiration: Inspiration Guava. This is very tropical, with guava, lime, lemon, baba (okay, nothing to do with the tropics), rum, and vanilla with a coconut sablé as the base. From anywhere else, I'd probably pass this up, but I can count on Frédéric Cassel and this was excellent. I ate it after coming home and doing a full indoor workout (the other reason for not running; I should really be doing these every three days), which takes me about an hour, but for 14 sets, I should be able to do them in 35 minutes, if I made more of them timed intense 1-minute workouts, which right now the weight training isn't. Maybe I'll that try once and see how it goes.

Peninsula Boutique, Okinawa Baba and Jivara Green Tea Tart

Saturday, I had and ate my cake first. Was trying to go to the Peninsula (Tokyo Hotel) Café, but didn't make the 17:00 cutoff, so got cake for two to go from the Boutique. Went with the Okinawa Baba, which looks like a (standard reverse) Mont-Blanc and the Jivara Green Tea Tart (which is not what was written on the card, which also didn't match the receipt, so I feel free to play editor based on the Japanese). There is a lot of coconut cream under the "shell" and some sort of maybe tropical fruit in the center and peach-colored sauce, which I can't identify, though there was a little banana consistency in some fruit and not in other but no such flavor. Very messy, especially with tiny plastic forks and wind. Not that into coconut, but definitely good.

The tart obviously has a big dome and is mostly green tea. The thin tart base has both a chocolate layer (the Jivara) and a dark layer of more green tea. Also difficult to eat with a tiny plastic fork just do the problem of cutting the base without breaking the fork, but could do it. Also definitely good. So it seems like a safe choice of a café before 17:00 (last seating), but neither cake sparked my particular interest, so I could recommend several definitely better places nearby for take-out at least (since Ginza Mitsukoshi isn't far). This shop goes to the fine shop list, at least until I split it, maybe into safe and fine shops. Glad to fill in some details of that area. Still a place in Marunouchi Building and one in Ginza 6 that I haven't tried in that neighborhood.

The running came later, from about 19:30. I went down to confirm counterclockwise knowledge of Sakuragaoka-chou and Shibuya east loops, though I need to look for confirmation of demonstration clockwise knowledge of the former, which it's trivial. Maybe I left that loop until redo the main loop. I also confirmed a couple more Natural Lawsons and that I can ignore a number of other shops that I marked for checking for baked goods or reasonable accessibility/quality for café cake on nearby routes. Like Friday night, the running was 1:4 walking:running, though only as a maximum, since there are lots of places around Shibuya Station where advancing at all was difficult and I ran into a baseball game letting out coming back up Gaien West, which is new for me. Total running time was about 64 minutes, which took about 2 hours total, with the walking and various investigations.

Speaking of Friday night, no cake, but I did need bread for breakfast, so I got a couple things (not shown) from Christa, and visited Daisy around the corner for the first time and got what I think was called a Cinnamon Bun. They had actual croissants, which is more definitely a pastry, but there was a sale and I didn't resist. This is a somewhat of a chain (from outside Tokyo) and small and more limited to lunch breads maybe, depending on traffic south from the station, since it doesn't seem to have anything on Christa except more of a quickie mart feel, in a clean way. The bun, which was just sufficiently pastry like to pass (versus sweet bread), was definitely good, so I was satisfied, but don't need to get back there. Now I need to hit the Akasaka bakery that I overlooked (and is going to require me to confirm the revised now 14 km long loop). With shopping, the running amounted to only 16 minutes, plus walking. Note, the bag says "patisserie", but I didn't see any signs of cakes, which would be out of place there.

Jean-Paul Hévin: Verrine Mésange, Verrine Chocolat Coco Framboise, Verrine Mascarpone Café

It took me a while to remember at least somewhat what I did on Wednesday, but I'm finally there. I got some sesame bread from Andersen for eat with olive oil. This was different from their Trekonbrod and the name was completely Japaneses (though using "pan" as the word for bread). It was good, but I didn't bother to take a picture. I was at Isetan for another errand, which I forgot to do, though I verified what the next two visiting shops are (both worth visiting, but I'm up to date on both), and saw that Sadaharu Aoki has a very promising tart for just this month at Isetan. The more important errands on the way home I did not forget. For running, I may have tried to do the revised southern Cat Street loop (and failed very early on), as I think I did the revised Jinguumae central loop (which covers northern Cat Street) counterclockwise on Monday and forget to record it.

In any case, Thursday, I definitely tried to do the southern Cat Street again and realized that my route was flawed, so I've had to revise it. I also failed to get food at Steamers for the good reason that their shops close at 6 pm, so I'll have to hit them on a holiday. Instead, I got a croissant from Natural Lawson, which I've added to routes and on the grounds that they have fresh pastries. The croissant was not special but it was not worse than an average bakery one and definitely better than some, so I'm happy to keep them on my routes. There are not that many of them and I'm not sure that I've found any that the route was not already going by for the neighborhoods covered.  They have eat-in space, which is an advantage over most bakeries, though the atmosphere is what you would expect from a convenience store.

Friday through Sunday I was busy, but I was indulged. Friday night, I sampled all three of the new verrine from Jean-Paul Hévin, though I failed to take a picture. I was busy. If you hurry, I you catch them on the website. These were Verrine Mésange, Verrine Chocolat Coco Framboise, and Verrine Mascarpone Café. The first is Peruvian chocolate mousse, matcha Mousse, and passion fruit gelatin and was not really very exciting, but good. The second is chocolate mousse and coconut mousse with raspberry and lychee gelatin in between again good but not exciting (particularly the coconut mousse). The last is basically a verrine version of tiramisu, but the mascarpone mousse and coco powder is really excellent; I would prefer it without the coffee, but it didn't make me sick, so I'll overlook that. I'm hoping for a different version without the coffee if are more verrine at the end of the summer, but I'm expected to be disappointed.

Sadaharu Aoki: Choux Coco Passion

Not sure of the French, but I got the coconut (whipped) cream and passion fruit custard choux pastry, which I'll call Choux Coco Passion. This was a third try to get it, though it's supposed to be available through late August. For exercise, I fast-walked a neighborhood running course, a semi-new one, in that I decided that I should do the full loop around Akasaka Palace rather than just link up one side to the park on the north end. Today I did it clockwise (which is against the main running traffic). I walked faster than I sometimes run, so I'm feeling pretty ready to run, though I'm going to take it slow when I do.

The cream puff was good. The passion fruit custard is pretty strong, so I didn't particularly notice the whipped cream, though I usually don't like whipped cream on these, so that might reflect that I liked it. Unusually, this is not an ordinary cream puff in that the bottom part doesn't have a bottom, just the custard sets on the paper, although it's thick enough that you can still pick it up and eat it without more more trouble than you would if the bottom were pastry. I'm going to have to check the next variety to see if their cream puffs are always like this. It's fairly heavy too, so a match for your average cake, much less your average cream puff. I'll rate this as excellent.

Cacao Store, Exotic Edamame

Wednesday, feeling fine despite Tuesday's long run, I did a run out to Bien-être, where they did not have any of their seasonal cakes, so nothing new for me to try. Rather than reserve something for another day, I finally followed up on the cake-off win by the Cacao Store (Théobroma) in Tomigaya, Shibuya-ku. My choice there was between Exotic (or maybe Exotique) Edamame, which is coconut and I suppose edamame (immature soybeans, usually eaten steamed, in bars) though I didn't look that closely, and an orange cream puff, so I went with the more traditional cake over the puff. I walked back mostly, because of carrying cake and just in case my body needed the rest, checking out a landmark in Harujuku, which I rejected as an ice cream place, which I don't want get into.

I've had great coconut cakes, though it's not my favorite flavor and this one did not have much else going on. It was still okay, but that's a pretty low level of appreciation, so I'm not even going to bother cross-posting to Twitter.

Hidomi, Ilhéur

Yesterday, I took a rest from running, though some of my shopping was running related and it took a lot of walking. Still ate up the same about of time, so I still managed to get practically nothing else done in the evening. Since I was out at Odakyu Halc, I sampled Pompadour as a first post and got a Pain aux Raisins. Not actually very special, but not bad, so I'll say it was good. This counts as being on the neighborhood course since I've allowed Shinjuku Takashimaya (as across the street from a west Shinjuku loop) and they are connected by underground tunnel.

Today, I had the afternoon off, so I ran out to Hidemi (with lots of stretching), as a candidate for promotion from the very good tier of cake shops. I did not write it down, but it was fairly memorable, so I think I have it right as Ilhéur (the "h" is silent). I was attracted to the chocolate, but Hidemi is about fruit, in this case pineapple, lime, and coconut (if that counts). The harmony doesn't quite do it for me though, and I really don't like the texture of shredded coconut meat, certainly not in a smooth cream/gelatin. Still it was definitely interesting and well made, so it was pleasant and I can call it good, but Hidemi is off the radar for promotion and now I'm noticing Noix de Beurre in its place.

Origines Cacao, Saint-Honoré Passion Coco

Did a run to Ginza 6 and got my eleventh (type of) Origines Cacao cake. This is maybe the first time that I've bought from them at Ginza 6, though I bought several mostly great cakes from the closed Nihonbashi store (not sure why I've never seen those great cakes since; have to wonder if someone quit at the same time).

Anyway, very unstable weather today but there was only a little rain while I was out. It was fairly hot (close to 30 degC) and quite humid, so I didn't push it that hard, though I did run most of the way back (I stopped a Marusho for groceries and walked after that).

Like with éclairs, I seem to appreciate fruit flavors with saint-honorés more than with other types of cake. This was passion fruit and coconut, of course, but also mango. Definitely excellent.

Frédéric Cassel: Tarte Exotique

Monday and Tuesday were repetitive, in that I went to Ginza Mitsukoshi two days in a row on the off chance that I could get a super-limited cake. I failed both times, but wasn't really surprised. Still, I had good runs and relieved some stress. Monday I got a Pain au Chocolat from Johan. This was definitely good. It was a little more on the bread side than I'm really looking for, but I don't blame them for that, since they are more a typical bakery, not a pâtisserie.

Tuesday, I decided that it was time to take the next step in overcoming my prejudice against coconut by getting the Tarte Exotique from Frédéric Cassel, despite it even having visit shredded coconut (though it does not seem to be raw, thankfully). This has a cacao biscuit shell with a layer of coconut ganache and milk chocolate-coconut ganache, none of which seem like good ideas to me, though I appreciate a nice solid tart. Fortunately, they know what they are doing more than I know what would be good and everything worked well together to make an actually excellent cake, though that might being giving it credit for difficulty, as well as my bias toward this brand.

Dalloyau: Douceur des Is

Leg not happy, so went to Mitsukoshi by train and bought some stuff at Cuoca and found one fresh cake at the Dalloyau counter that I haven't had, the Douceur des Is for 540 yen. It's tropical fruits: coconut, banana, mango, and passion fruit. It was good, but definitely not my thing. I'm near the end of their selection, but also down to the least appealing cakes. Not sure whether they'll stay in my Great list to the end. I guess it's the chocolatiers that can consistently satisfy me the most.

I was thinking I might take the train to visit Paris S'eveille tomorrow, but now I'm thinking that if I can't walk at least one way, I'm wait another week and get more when I go. Tuesday afternoon is also an option.

Running and not quite cake from Henri le Roux

After trying to get 乳化気泡剤 at Takashimaya (they looked and didn't act like it was a crazy request, although Google thinks it's a typo for 乳化起泡剤), I went home and changed into running clothes---and actually ran, for the first time in more than 3 weeks and longer than I've run in at several weeks (which ended badly). Not sure how far I ran, but I ran 20 minutes in intervals of 1 minute separated by 1 minute of running, so I'll call it 2.5 km. Probably, 16 minutes would have been enough, but I'm okay for now (except my left arm is telling me maybe it was too soon yesterday for doing even a little light strength training, but that's not the fault of running). Not sure what my limit should be. I had been thinking 5 km in a week last time I tried to start, but I do that much not slow walking on a typical day, so I could probably start with 10 km, but 20 km would definitely be the limit and I'm going to ramp up slower than ever before in both speed and distance, if I get the chance. Still, did you know that the

The not quite cake was a Kouign Amann, which I consider a pastry. They have them at Midtown Tokyo, for 324 yen, and each one has a caramel in the center. I've only had great ones (not sure if that exactly corresponds to great cake). Previously, I've had the chocolate and C.B.S. (salted butter caramel), which they always have, so this time I got the third, which was Pina Colada, despite the visible coconut. It too was great.

Sadaharu Aoki (Marunouchi): Zen, Cote d'Ivoire

Visited the cafe at Marunouchi today, which was almost empty at 3:30 pm on a rainy Monday. I had wanted to go to the café to get the Millefeuille Vanille, which is not available at Isetan. Instead, we got the Zen (which was supposedly an exclusive, but I've seen posts claiming Midtown sources, which is consistent with the way "exclusive" is used by Tokyo Patisserie) and Cote d'Ivoire, neither of which I expected to be my favorite, but they were both excellent.

The Zen was 891 yen with tax and is dominantly sesame paste, a really thick layer in mine, I think, compared to posts online, who are the source of my ingredient lists, although they were buying from different shops, so maybe the recipe varies, which would be interesting but inconvenient for trying to keep a record of who sells what, under what name, and how it is. Midtown and Paris posters agreed cognac, which I didn't notice (Paris poster claimed it was about triple the amount of a normal cake, basically killing it). Now, there is a green layer, which I assumed had green tea (which agrees with a different poster), though I couldn't say for sure I tasted that. Midtown poster claims chocolate cream, although maybe that was around the dark sesame part, and hazelnut biscuit. As I said, this was excellent, but I'm not convinced that I need a lot of sesame cakes, just like I don't need a lot of chestnut cakes. This is seasonal and was available only in August last year.

The Cote d'Ivoire is available at Isetan, but is a low priority for me because it's coconut, I've fairly sure, although the Sadaharu Aoki diary (in relation to a cooking class on it in 2010) only mentions passion fruit and white chocolate, which I can believe. The coconut is maybe just in the biscuit, and was not enough to kill it for me, but I would have preferred something else. Still, excellent for 780 yen including tax. Also seasonal, but was available June thru August last year.

This was a café, so double those prices to include the fruit tea. The Pomme Caramel is excellent, though. The Douce Fruits was not so exciting.

Weekday run around the imperial palace and cake from Viron: Soleil

I did the long way to the moat route: down to Aoyama Road past Meiji Ginguu Gaien. I stopped for cake at Viron, which is pretty famous. I've had some good cake there. This time I got the Soleil, for 540 yen, which for some reason my camera would not take a picture of in the field. Too windy to run with cake and too windy where I was to eat it easily outside. Anyway, it is very summery, being coconut mousse above passion fruit Bavarian creme. Not great and I should stay away from coconut. I didn't mind the taste, but I still don't like the texture of shredded coconut, even as an adult.

Next time needs to be a great shop, to make up for this one. Also, I don't need to go back to Viron soon. There are other cafe/bakery/patisserie out there (if you don't mind the mixed languages).