Jean-Paul Hévin, Maya

Thursday, I had the morning off and slightly ran to Fiorentina Pastry Boutique down in Roppongi Hills to find out whether they still have Estate in the line-up with they don't. That was as much as I could manage as far as running, so I walked to Ginza Mitsukoshi. The big goal was to get one of the new cakes at Jean-Paul Hévin, which I've never had before. There is also one that I've only seen in Kyoto previously, which was excellent, so I might have that again. I let one of the great ones from last month go without having again, just because I couldn't do a cake-off, which is unfortunately. This month, I don't have a match for Bergamot.

But for now, what I got was Maya, which follows the usual JPH pattern as far as chocolate cakes with layers of mousse. This uses Ecuador chocolate mousse, Provence honey nougatine, crème brûlée, a chestnut biscuit, and croustillant. This gives it relatively sharp taste (I don't really know how to describe chocolate), but that's good, great actually. 

Jean-Paul Hévin: Bûchette Hope

Last Thursday, probably again working late, I skipped Isetan and Marunouchi and went straight to Ginza Mitsukoshi by bicycle to get Bûchette Hope, the individual version of the most expensive of the regular sized Christmas cakes (probably because of the decoration ball not on the individual) of Jean-Paul Hévin. Based on descriptions of the full-sized cakes, the top chocolate mousse is Ecuadorean bitter chocolate, next is crème brûlée using Tahitian vanilla beans and a little timut pepper, then the same chestnut and almond biscuit as Bûchette Lichen, then a flour-less chocolate biscuit, and finally a chestnut powder sablé, hazelnuts, and caramel flavored chocolate croustillante. Like the previous day, a relatively crunch/dry cake that is a nice change while still being decadent chocolate. It's easy to say it's a great cake, though it will never get a chance to be in a cake-off. I'll have to wait until next year to see what new Christmas cakes they offer.

At home, I did the indoor workout with weights.

Friday, I did a neighborhood run course, the new Dougenzaka--Maruyamachou--Shinsenchou loop, which merges two new loops. On the way to shopping I discovered a LaDuree salon behind the Bunkamura in Shibuya, not even on Google maps yet, so I had to revise the Kamiyama-chou--Tomigaya--Udagawa-chou loop again. That led to noticing that the Jinnan loops should be merged, which meant the new loop needed to be put in a clump, which has let to a shape up of a few clumps and discovering that the Minami-Aoyama 3&4 loop was linked to the wrong loop. I still have one more clump to fix before it's all sorted out.

Sadaharu Aoki, Symphonie

Sunday evening, I decided to try to get the Isetan exclusive cake. I figured it was probably sold out, but if I could get it, I would run. As it happened, they were fully stocked even around 6 pm. Because of the upcoming White Day, they had two registers going and a line set up, but the moved quickly and I wasn't completing with the other people for cake, since they needed gift items, so I could Symphonie, which is a raspberry macaron-style cake with whole raspberries, tea-flavored crème brûlée, and violet cream. For the run, I did a clockwise run around the Tomigaya--Yoyogi loop finally. It's longer than I thought be a little closer, but still is about 10 km total and I took a longer way back to stop by a grocery. Counterclockwise might be harder, as I'm not sure where I'm supposed to turn off the inner street to go to the multi-lane main road on the west side to swing by a church.

The cake was excellent, with the macaron having just the amount of chewiness that I like in a macaron. The filling is not so exciting though, too subtle for me, but there is another macaron cake as a more general seasonal cake at all the shops through April, so I should get that one next week.

Le Chocolat de H/Paul Bassett: Imporatore

Tuesday, I went down to Monday's backup. I've been wanting to visit this place since I realized that they were hiding cake in the back (the Le Chocolat de H counter doesn't have fresh cake, but in the Paul Bassett part, they have the cake). This doesn't count as an unvisited local shop because I've visited the Ginza Le Chocolat de H, but there, as cake, I've only had a café dessert (made fresh), which is a different category. However, among local cake shops that I haven't had cake from, I figured this was the prime choice for someone who likes chocolate cake. Certainly, it has a relatively high-class atmosphere and is in good company in Shibuya Hikarie ShinQs.

I choose the Imporatore, which is pretty standard in someones, having vanilla crème brûlée in the middle of milk chocolate mousse surrounded by a chocolate coating and on a dacquoise base. Usually this type of cake is a glazed dome rather than a coated cylinder. The almonds in the coating are a small but appreciated touch, and the shape allows some whipped cream, on which there is chocolate (I think there is a special name for that shape, but I'm not looking it up now) and dusted with coco powder, all of which I appreciate and wouldn't mind seeing on more cakes. While I prefer mild chocolate, this was still excellent, so I'll probably be back there next week or so for a second cake.

On the way back, I practiced clockwise runs on a couple small loops without trouble, except I found a Benten branch temple (a Buddhism-based Japanese new religion) on my Shibuya north loop, so I should add that to the map.

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.

Ryoura, Clair

Croissant from Shibuichi Bakery

Sunday, I decide to change my plan to get my next JPH cake (I'll go tomorrow), and instead ran out to Ryoura (since I can't go on a workday). It was a shorter run, but I didn't go direct. I went first to the north end of Meiji Shrine grounds and walked to the shrine and out to the south end (it's posted "no jogging", and there are guard to enforce it, plus thousands of people, though the path is wide). From there I went down to Shibuichi Bakery again, now that it was open, and got a Croissant which was excellent I guess. Certainly it was sufficiently flaky and light enough in the middle for me, though the excellence might owe more to the fact that I'm not able to get to them early in the day very often. Blogger apparently doesn't want to rotate this picture, so you get the sideways version.

Hikawa-dai Children's Playground

From there, it's mostly west to Ryoura, more west than the roads run, so there were some turns. I stopped at a couple landmarks for future neighborhood courses (if I get the current one's mastered so I can expand again), just to chip away at them. At Ryoura, I made a mistake and ordered Clair, which has chestnut mousse, orange-flavored almond caramel (not sure what that means, but it sounds good), but, and I missed this until I had already ordered, confirmed, and payed, coffee crème brûlée. I considered pleading for an exchange but decided to take responsibility.

Clair from Ryoura

Though at first a little disappointed, I came to look forward to the challenge, as it's inconvenient to have to avoid coffee. As it happens, it was good and it didn't leave a sickening aftertaste, which marks a huge improvement over most experiences, so I'm going to call it excellent, because I would at least get it again for someone else, even if I'm okay with no coffee-flavored cakes for another year. However, I've seen JPH's Christmas line-up, and I may end of another cake with coffee this year (plus, JPH's other coffee flavored cake, while not my favorite, was still pretty good as well).

Christa; Chocolate Crunch?

Friday, continuing on Thursday's work, I worked on doing reverse-direction runs of Naitoumachi, Sadagaya 5, and Shinjuku 4 loops. I also checked out the Kitasandofureai Public Park in case I wanted to change to route to coming in through the back rather than loop around on the main roads to just run by the front and decided that the back stairs were too dark to run at night (there is a drive next to them, but that seems too private). It was short run, just a little over 40 minutes, but it was a run without cake and I did not want to get too tired before Saturday.

Saturday, I planned a cake-off, starting with a run out to 14 Juillet in the Shin Marunouchi Bld., but they did not have the cake and I wanted, instead having a lot of Christmas-themed cakes, which did not surprise me. I verified that Toshi Yoroizuka was the same, finished 1 hour of running and then walked another two or three hours, getting pictures for landmarks on my planned maps and confirming some parts of the routes. I hadn't planned to be out long, so I didn't have any snacks with me. Since cake-offs seem to off for the rest of the year, I decided to try Christa in Koujimachi. I got Chocolate something, which I'm going to call Chocolate Crunch, since which might be correct, since "crunch" was the word used on the card. This also was a special Christmas cake, so may not be representative, although was a pretty standard chocolate mousse with crème brûlée center and a layer of "crunch" above a thin cake base. It was simple but the chocolate (a blend of Colombian, Brazilian, and I can't remember where's) was good. Not sure why the cake left a sort of smokey aftertaste. Might not have been it's fault, since I passed people smoking to get out of the park. Still in the process of adding photos, but my impression is that the course through Akasaka is going to take time to learn.

Later, I also got an Escargot Chocolate Pistache from Ritual at Isetan, where Origines Cacao had stopped selling individual cakes. I stop by the 26th to see whether those cakes return for the last day at Isetan, but I'm not excepting so. The pastry was just good and I'm thinking that pastries are more sensitive to time of purchase than most cakes, so I'll have an excuse to experiment with timing.

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.

P. Asako Iwayanagi: Crème Chocolat Caramel Cake

Still cycling today, for a rare visit to a new place out near Todoroki Station on the street running parallel to the tracks, Patisserie Asako Iwayanagi. It's a new shop with a new feel and the clientele seemed a little too upscale (groups of ladies) and the clerk, or maybe it was Ms. Iwayanagi, spoke too formally for how I was dressed, so I didn't try to eat in, which is why the cake is not presented as well as it could have been. I've always had trouble finding a park in this part of town, so instead I was on a little mound with some sort of archaeological significance, although I was not the only one crammed into the green space there, probably for the same reason: nowhere else to go walk the dog (one person) or escape the house (assuming the old guy who was washing his feet at the bathroom at the base when I arrived was not just a local homeless guy, as I first thought). But I digress.

The cake I choose was the oddly named Crème Chocolat Caramel Cake, or maybe I'm making it French for no reason and it's Cream Chocolate Caramel Cake. It was 626 yen for a caramel crème brûlée above chocolate cream above chocolate sponge cake. It was good, but probably not a good choice for me, since it's not sweet or nutty. However, I don't respect soft sponge cake, so I'm going to assume that this is not the place for me. But the shop is sophisticated, so I would probably try again if it were more convenient for me, so it may actually be excellent.

I kept my greed more in check than yesterday and rather than get something pricier at Au Bon Vieux Temps, along the street to Oyamadai Station I stopped in at Vent de Ludo, a new (although I suspect there was something similar there before) bakery café that looked pretty nice. The selection was not exceptional, but the chocolate doughnut was kept in a refrigerated case (with some other fancier things) and was good for 140 yen. Better the Seven Eleven, but not dramatically (nor dramatically different in price).

Cooking today was an attempt at chocolate madeleines, but they were not an improvement on brownies. I should get some lemon zest or a workable substitute next time for normal madeleines, although I've had the scary/wild idea to try ｓansho, which is potentially a literally electrifying idea. Need to get some granulated sugar before I try anything with that recipe again, though.

Friday: Jun Honma (Isetan) and racing shoes

Since the last cake from P. Jun Honma was great (although not exciting), I returned to Isetan for another piece of cake, this time Majestic for 550 yen.

The run was intended to be a short run, but I wanted to use the racing rather than thick novice shoes, which I have not used since my injury. First, I ran down to the start point of the Gaien loop course (the course has a start/end marker at the south point and 100 meter tiles, which I was not making much use of when I timed from the entry point at the northwest point): a moderate 9'03'' for 1.5 km. I did just two laps, from there, focusing on keeping my pace fast but stride short. To avoid dragging/swinging my right leg around, I tried to focus on bringing the right heel down and rolling off it. Also, I checked my time at the 500 m and 1000 m markers to make sure I was keeping my target speed. I had set up my timer to ring every 36 s but didn't use it (since the track is 1325, it would not have stayed in sync after the first lap anyway). Just two laps at a moderate speed taking 7'49''.33 and 7'46''.40 left me tired; yup, I've lost some muscle. Continuing back around before, and I thought trying less hard (but maybe that meant longer stride despite the slower pace) was 1.62 km in 9'25''24, which is actually fast; don't remember why now. So the today was 1.6 km fast and 4.1 km moderate.

The cake struck me as only good at the time, but I've downgraded that to okay later because ultimately it really made me want to have great cake, which is a bad sign. It is another chocolate mousse, this time with caramel crème brûlée. Like the orange cake, this was pretty unexciting and the basic flavors did not really add up to something worthwhile to me. Not bad or poorly made, but not something that I need. Sorry about the picture; guess the auto-focus or something failed. That's toasted puffed rice, maybe, covered in caramel, on top.

I got these last Thursday and have been trying them, just to explore what else the sweets section of Isetan has to offer. This is from the Yokohama Francais counter. I suppose should show what they look unwrapped, but I don't need three photos of them and I've only eaten one a day. The three flavors in this set, "Mille feuille", of six are chocolate, which was excellent, caramel, which was okay or good, and gianduja、which was at least good. "Gianduja" was a term I did not know for a mixture of chocolate and hazelnut. I've had what looked like chocolate but tasted like this and had not known what the weird flavor was and wondered if it had gone bad. This is the first I've finally "gotten" it. I think sometimes I mistake this taste for coffee, but the nuttiness is definitely there. This set is about 600 yen, about the price of a piece of cake, but can be stretched to six servings. Not sorry I tried it, but it's not going to replace cake in my life.

Sunday run (2) to Jun Ujita

(continued, due to blogger label length restrictions)

After the other two thirds of the run, I could barely see straight to navigate and I was out of breath for at least the last several kilometers. Granted, due to rain and work and social commitments, I only got in one run last mid-week, which is pathetic. Monday thru Wednesday are supposed to be okay this week (as far as weather, and the social side is quiet), so I'm going to try to get out every day. Plus it was 30+ degrees out today, though May was just as hot. Anyway, I'm going to try to plan more rests and drink something more fortified than water next time and see how that goes. Also, I need to end at a nearby grocery, because what I really need before cake is drinkable yogurt and vegetables.

As far as the cake, which I took home and ate after lunch, I got the Orange Caramel, which uses homemade orange confit mixed into almond dough to make a sandwich of caramel creme brulee. It's fine, at 460 yen.

I also got the Chocolat Pistache, which uses Sicilian pistachio cream and griottines (cherries) inside a chocolate dough/crust, so its kind of creamy. The cherry is very mild, so I was not even sure what fruit it was. This too is fine. I'd visit this shop if I lived in this area or went to the church across the street (which someone stopped and asked me where it was after having just passed it, driving on the short road named after it, so I am pretty sure I pointed him to the right place), both of which look very nice.