Noliette, Sicilian

Saturday, I hit one more remote potentially quite fine shops, Noliette out west in the north part (relative to where I usually go, anyway) of Setagaya. I went with the Sicilian. I went by cycle, since I can't run so far and didn't get up early enough to walk very early. Actually, I arrived at opening time and was second. I went with the Sicilian, which in this case was (milk?) chocolate with pistachio. This cake actually survived better by bicycle than I should have expected, but the weak point was the macaron on top, which caused the top to to crack and sag. Chocolate and pistachio is actually a difficult combination, but this was working well. It was definitely good, so I was satisfied. However, it means that I have too many shops with 2 good and 2 excellent cakes to make a cut. I've got a lot of fine shops to go through, so I might find a great cake among them, which is what it would take to make the jump to quite fine. I more likely way to add to the quite fine shops would be to find an excellent cake from some new shops. I've still got three more 3-cake fine shops, two that are really far out (so I'm willing to wait on the off chance that they'll visit a department store in central Tokyo) and one that's pausing on their cake, so one clearly quite fine shop might not be enough.    

Michalak, Religieuse

Monday, I was obsessed with the recently revised, than re-revised, then revised again Daikanyama-chou--Ebisunishi--Hachiyama-chou--Nanpeidai-chou--Sakuragaoka-chou--Sarugaku-chou--Shibuya--Uguisudani-chou loop. I'm still a little fuzzy on navigating the stairs at Daikanyama Stn./Dixsept shopping center, but I don't have to be so strict there. However, I noticed "it Coffee" off my course and shifted the course to add it, so Sunday's success was nullified, and I turned too soon after the new chocolate shop, so I failed Monday near the end. I was, however able to do the updated/corrected Shibuya central loop clockwise, so there was progress, and the run was really refreshing until the 10 km mark, when suddenly my hip was tired (this loop might have the most stairs, especially now, at least until I get to the part I split off from the main Akasaka loop).

Cake came on Tuesday, which is also the first day of the month, a good day to go to Isetan. I had the afternoon off, so I sent to Isetan and got two things. JPH's new cake in the lineup is an excellent one I've had before, so I didn't need get cake from them, but Michalak had their Religieuse, which I haven't had and I was two cakes behind on them. Unfortunately, they removed the almost identical Paris-Brest, which I hadn't done a third-round cake-off with yet, but I can wait a year. The other thing I got was a fresh viennoiserie (avoiding the vaguer term "pastry") from Andersen, the Choco Stripe. I had the latter first, before going out for exercise. It was good, but the concept sounds better than the practice, I think, because having the chocolate layered in loses crispness.

The exercise was once again practicing the Daita--Daizawa--Hatagaya--Kamiyama-chou--Kitazawa--Motoyoyogi-chou--Nishihara--Ooyama-chou--Shouto--Tomigaya--Uehara loop. I could go about an hour before I didn't have it memorized correctly. I added a shop with Australian sweets to the loop near Shim-Kitazawa station and shifted the course after that so I go by the Kitazawa Koushindou (a kind of traditional road-side shrine). Near the end, coming south from the northern most point near Hatagaya, I added a site marked Myōdōkai Kyōdan on a plaque, which is a Buddhist society, although the building just looks like a really nice residence. Still, I like this route more than staying on the main road, so I'll keep the change, and keep practicing until the route stabilizes and I learn it.

The Religieuse (which French and English authorities agree is a pastry but is cake for my purposes) really tasted very similar to Paris-Brest, but I prefer the latter. Still, excellent, so I don't begrudge them the variation, other than they timed it to coincide with JPH's introduction of Religieuse, which was announced a month ago. I should say that, though they told me hazelnuts, the recipe they showed me indicated, besides mostly caramel cream, pate almond. The top is whipped cream and a little fudge square.

Frédéric Cassel, Inspiration Mirabelle Pécan

Had that exhausted feeling in the morning, and though it dissipated by the afternoon, I hadn't done my indoor workout for more than a week, so in the evening, I chose the bicycle to go to Ginza and get cake from Frédéric Cassel, Inspiration Mirabelle Pécan. This is a seasonal cake, probably just for one month, and the last inspiration was great and this one sounded promising, so I had been looking forward to it all month. After returning home, doing the full indoor workout (30+ minutes of different high-intensity exercises for abs, back, up through the arms and shoulders), and eating dinner, I had the tart.

It was very pie-like in texture. Mirabelle is a kind of small plum, which this apparently has both compote and roasted bits of (I assume that's what "roti" means) on a lime cream tart with a biscuit which uses rice flour, plus pecans, of coarse. Not a strong taste, but rich in a certain way. I would say that it was excellent.

Y par Potager, Komatsuna and Moringa Cheesecake

Working through the 2-cake quite fine shop list, I got to the last of the non-workday ones, Y par Potager (at the Nakameguro location, formerly Potager, though now in a new looking school). It's hot to run during the day, so I went by bicycle, which also allowed me to check a couple sites on the way to looking in on BE and DA to check lineups for great cakes (without any luck).

Since it was recommend out front, I went with the Komatsuna and Moringa Cheesecake at Y par Potager. Komatsuna is Japanese mustard spinach and moringa is a "superfood", though it's a tree, so I'm not sure what part they used, the leaves or the pods. It's not really suitable for Japan, since it prefers try soil. The cheesecake tasted like good cheese cake flavored with greens. Nothing wrong with that, but not something I particular need to look for, as I prefer sweets. The label shown indicates under 5 g carbs. So this shop gets banish to the fine list, probably never to be visited again. Three more 2-cake shops from the quite fine list to go.

In the late afternoon/evening, I went down to the area south of Roppongi Hills stretching down past Hiroo Station. For the main target, the Nishi-Azabu--Minami-Azabu loop, I failed again at the same second traffic signal bypass (although that bypass also serves to pass the entrance of Amida-ji, which is on a narrow lane). I kept going anyway and feel a lot more confident about the rest of the loop now. On the way, I tried two loops to the east of it and was able to do both of them correctly. The only problem is, reviewing the maps, the first one left out a temple, and looking for a way to correct that loop, I also found a church I had missed, so I'm moving the section with those sites over to a different loop. At least the Moto-Azabu south loop seems stable, and I was able to do clockwise without getting sucked into a dead end. I failed the Roppongi 6 north loop clockwise (wasn't sure how far south I needed to go after where I use a crosswalk to get over a major street), but at least the Roppongi 4 loop is finished, all 243 m of it.

Pierre Marcolini, Éclair Vanille

Thursday, I did a lot of food shopping errands, starting with visiting Pierre Marcolini, which had four éclairs I haven't tried. Since it will probably be a long time before I'm back and finding something great that's about to disappear would be less useful, I went with one of the two standards rather than the seasonal ones, and got Éclair Vanille. The filling is vanilla, but obviously there is some red fruit on top. This is one of the quite fine shops that I've only had two cakes from and I decided that this éclair was excellent, so they stay on that list. This is despite the crust not seeming to be the traditional choux pastry, but was rather soft. Maybe I'm influenced by the high-end atmosphere, but in any case, this remains as some place that I would like to visit again. Actually, I'd like to visit the salon and get one of their salon deserts, but like the éclairs, everything is about double what you would except from an ordinary shop, though they are not trying to be ordinary. I think eventually I'll do it, but it might not be until October. Interesting trivia: if you pay by cash, they round down to multiples of 10 yen.

I'll include Friday here, since no food is involved: I went for a long run that took about 3 hours, though I walked on stairs and crowded places, so maybe close to 2 hours actual running. The balance was good, and I was still running well at the end and am ready to run again on Saturday, though there was a lot of stretching between. Back to the trivial details for Friday. I did the recently altered Jinguumae--Kita-Aoyama south loop counterclockwise, so that route is confirmed. The main goal was to do counterclockwise the Daikanyama-chou--Ebisunishi--hachiyama-chou--Nanapeidai-chou--Shibuya--Uguisudani-chou loop, which is 9.75 km long and has a lot of stairs and slopes (as well as churches as sites). Along the way, I first confirmed the current (until the construction on the southeast corner is finished) updated Dougenzaka south loop (1.1 km), but later failed trying to do the Maruyama-chou--Shinsen-chou loop (I did the first turn at the correct intersection, but onto the wrong street (it's a five-way intersection). I didn't try to do connecting Dougenzaka north loop. I'm going to call the main Daikanyama... loop a success. Actually, I turned early at the end, but it was dark and a long run and I could immediately see that it was wrong (and the reason for not turning there is not that important), so I'm not going to ding myself for it, or I can never do long runs in the dark. So I'm done with that area for now, and I'll move over to in front of and south of Roppongi Hills for the run Saturday afternoon, where I've really only run a little bit, though I've previously done runs to officially add those loops to the neighborhood course, while consulting a map.

Le Précieuse, Caramel Salé

I originally planned to bicycle to a nearby place and get cake and then go for a long run, but the first shop apparently closed early for the Obon season and the search was on. I was trying shops I'm trying to get a third cake from. There are six left that theoretically available on a weekday, but apparently not this week. The first was Pascal Le Gac. Then I tried the hotel cafe at Tokyo Midtown, but found out that they are renovating for the next 5 weeks, which is good to know. From there I tried south Ginza, where they were closed for the week, then north Ginza, where they were sold out, and then Nihonbashi, where they close early, this time at least posting a sign so I knew that was what had happened. I ended up coming back to the closed place, Le Précieuse at Yotsuya Station. By then there were only 15 minutes left to eat in, but it was enough. I got Caramel Salé (salt caramel) which includes nuts (I'll guess roasted peanuts). I thought it was definitely excellent, which surprised me, because I keep underestimating this place. Anyway, it's good enough to keep them in the quite fine category, leaving only six to check. I wouldn't be trying again this week anyway, so at least 4 should be available on a weekday next week and maybe in a couple weeks I'll get to the last remote one. I should also say that on the way I found another patisserie in Akasaka, but it requires using subway tunnels to get there without using a traffic signal.

Vincennes, Délice au Cassis

Working through a list of cakes I want a third cake from, I finally got to Vincennes out in Meguro-ku, when I went to by bicycle, taking a break from running and doing my short indoor workout. I got Délice au Cassis, which is almond biscuit with some cassis butter cream (?), and some "raw" chocolate on top. It's a nice little cake from a nice little shop, for a nice price, and was good. Don't imagine that I'll need a fourth cake, but I respect them, even if I search for fancier things.

Sourire, Sicilian

Working on the last two of the 9 remaining 2-cake possibly quite fine shops that aren't accessible on a weekday, I cycled (since it was above 30 degC at 9 am) out to Sourire. Since I was not willing to buy beverage, I got take out and consumed a box and three ice packs (perhaps I should figure out how to re-use those, but they get dirty easily) bring it back.  That took about an hour. Then I went out for another two hours and hit two shops north looking for maboroshi (phantom, by which I mean not visible) great cakes on the north side, of course not finding either, as always.

After lunch, I had the cake of choice, Sicilian. I didn't actually read the card beyond the name, so I left it as a surprise what was inside. Actually, it remained a surprise as I ate it, but by the end I could tell that the center mousse was (milk?) chocolate. It harmonized better than maybe dark chocolate would, though in general I prefer dark chocolate, if not necessarily with pistachio, but still, I don't think it was a good choice over fruit, which I don't generally prefer, though maybe it would work with stronger, fruitier chocolate. It was well-constructed and pretty (and traveled well by bicycle), but I can't rate it higher than "good", so Sourire doesn't make the cut and get sent down to join the fine shops, though in the upper fraction that will make the next cut of them, which I have about 60 too many of.

In the late afternoon/evening, I went for a run to confirm changes to the the Jinguumae central loop to add the Starbucks on the west corner. Noticed a tea shop that should be added on the current route. I need to make a slight change to avoid running through the middle of a outdoor eating area and I confirmed the Starbucks at Omotesando Hills, which replaced a Tully's Coffee, I think.

Michalak, Mangue

Needed to go to Isetan today, which is why I didn't go yesterday. Michalak has a new cake and I owe them for a cake-off. The cake is Mangue, which is one of those fruit-shaped cakes that I've heard a popular among young pastry chefs, where it's made to taste like a cake version of the fruit (versus cake in the same shape that includes the fruit as a taste). I don't want all my cakes like this, but I now see the appeal. Definitely excellent.

I decided that it would be foolish to try the Akasaka--etc. run again today, since really yesterday was about as long as I've run lately, and the real course takes a little more. Instead, I did a food shopping runs by bicycle after bringing home the cake, which ended up taking longer than I expected, since my first stop turned out to be closed for reasons I didn't bother to read in detail about on the sign, so I ended up going to a branch on the other side of home, as well as stopping a couple other places, so it took about 1.75 hours, leading me to give up also on doing an indoor work out. Stocked up on roasted peanuts, crackers, sesame seeds, energy cookies, vegetables, canned fish, and got one cheap chocolate bar, which I haven't tried yet.

Yesterday and noticed and today I confirmed that the Akasaka Del'Imo closed (moving to Tokyo Midtown Hibiya). It doesn't really matter for the course, since there are other sites on the same street, but it inspired me to revised the big Akasaka loop and cut off one site to its own loop (dubbed the Akasaka 4 loop) and reroute the main loop to be more direct and take over the sites for the Akasaka 3 loop. I'll have to recalculate distances for everything west of there, but it shortens the loop somewhat, despite increasing the total number of sites on it, so it seems like a legitimate change, even if it was probably inspired by yesterday's failure (if you're losing the game, change the rules).

Lenôtre, Feuille d'Automne

Wanted to get back home earlier and get some stuff done (which mostly I didn't and most of what I did, I didn't need to), so I went by bicycle, which also allowed my feet to run after two days in a row following more than a week of no running. Since the first cake from a new shop was great, I went back to Lenôtre at Ginza Mitsukoshi. My first choice as the second cake was Plaisir, which is like a Saint-mark, I think, but it was sold out, so I went with my next choice, which was Feuille d'Automne. This seems to be their specialty and the only reason it wasn't my second choice, was that it looked the most chocolaty, and the first cake was their straight chocolate cake (since today's wasn't available then), but actually each other cake has their different take on chocolate. This was was meringue (as a core) and chocolate, where as the other two are caramel and chocolate and (Plaisir) vanilla and milk chocolate. Anyway, this is a great cake, comparable to chocolate and meringue cakes from JPH, my top pick, so Lenôtre looks to rocket up the cake chart, as it were, though I think they have 8 things that qualify as fresh cake right now, including the verrine (which I probably will have to in their case). It looks like in the short run, I'm going to be visiting the same few shops for a while, but I need to get over to Toshi Yoroizuka, maybe weekend after next, but the Annya is in for a third-round cake-off, maybe against the loser of this weekend's second-round cake-off (since Annya is one and one).

Lindt, Truffle au Chocolat Framboise

Tried to actually exercise again today, beyond just walking. Expected that it might induce coughing, but no such problem. Went by bicycle down to Lindt first, as a quite fine shop that I need a third cake from. I got the Truffle au Chocolat Framboise, which was the only viable option for a new cake (more cakes are listed on their site, but I suspect there aren't that many at the Kitaaoyama shop).

Then I went over to the Fiorentina Pastry Boutique at Roppongi Hills and confirmed that they still have Estate, which I want for a cake-off tomorrow, so I should be set. Back home, I only did push-ups as indoor workout and I was pretty weak, but it's a (re)start. Maybe I'll do abs, back, and arms tomorrow.

The raspberry truffle cakes was definitely fine. Lindt might just be a big commercial chocolate maker, but they have a good brand and protect it. Not exciting but solid and dependable. They shouldn't have trouble hanging on to a position among the fine shops (targeted to be the bottom half of the top 127 Tokyo shops). Eleven more quite fine shops to confirm, including both of tomorrow's cake-off targets, who are top contenders to move up to the next level.

Lenôtre: Concerto

No running since last Saturday, due to some otolaryngological problems, although the usual accompanying dermatological problem appeared as well. Anyway, Monday I rested, so I didn't get to Sourire, one of 3 basically holiday-only shops among the 14 quite fine shops that I wanted a third cake from to whittle the category down to hopefully closer to the target 32 than 64 shops that its been near. Tuesday, I was well enough to work and go to Isetan afterward and make a third (blogged) visit to Morozoff and try their Rare Cheese Cake. Not that fond of rare cheesecake in general and this didn't impress me in particular. I can rate it as ok, but Morozoff goes in the just fine category, so I at least knocked down the remaining two-cake quite fine shops to 13. 

Wednesday, I went by bicycle to Ginza 6 to get a cake from Origines Cacao. Unfortunately, I've had all 4 or 5 of the regular fresh cakes on display and all 3 seasonal things next to them were jar desserts. They say they are verrine, and I believe them in principle, but JPH's verrine have actually sponge as a layer, so I've allowed them as cakes, but OC isn't JPH and these didn't have anything to distinguish them from a parfait-like dessert, so my previous resolve to accept verrine as cakes collapsed; I'd rather wait to see what comes next month, although if they are like JPH, just the same or different verrine, probably.

I had a good back-up ready though: Lenôtre, a chocolatier that opened a counter at Ginza Mitsukoshi between JPH and F. Cassel this year but I haven't tried yet. I went for the mousse chocolate cake, Concerto. It has glaze and crunch as well, but it's relatively soft for a high percentage of mousse and most resembles my favorite type of JPH cakes. That said, and given the quality, I'm going to have to say it was great, which is a pretty good start, though now I'm back to 14 among the quite fine shops with fewer than 3 cakes and a new top priority. Guess I better hit one of the other 13 next, rather than the old top shop in that category, which is going to have to wait.

L'Abricotier, Saint Honoré

Friday, I did an indoor workout. Before hand, I went to Isetan to get their Koonie Chocolat Pecan, since they won a cake-off but don't have any new cakes (in Japan). Koonie are their cookie-brownie hybrid, covered in chocolate, and there are several flavors. I approve of the combination, and can call this an excellent baked good. Hard to tell the size from the photo, but reported weight Koonies on the French website is 20 g each.

Saturday, as planned, I rode to L'Abricotier to get a new cake, also for a cake-off win. This makes the 19th cake type from them for me. This time I got Saint Honoré, which I was surprised to find as new to be from there. It's very traditional in construction. As Japanese choux pastry goes, this was fairly robust, which I appreciate. The caramel is bitter caramel, which I did not appreciate but can respect, so I don't have probably saying that this was excellent.

Other errands appeared that I was not expected, so I was actually pretty late getting back, but went out again at 4 pm to confirm neighborhood course loops in the south Jinguumae area. This time I could confirm my Jinguumae 5&6 and Jinguumae--Shibuya loops counterclockwise, and take care of clockwise for the Jinguumae 5 and Jinguumae--Kita-Aoyama south loops. Along the way, on the first of these four, I finally sampled Coco-Agepan, which is not open in the afternoon, though you'll still see the truck it's run out of parked in the same spot. Agepan means fried bread, and is a staple sweet to an extent. They fry it after you order it, but it doesn't take long. It's basically like a long yeast donut. I choose the Cinnamon Agepan rather than the Coco one (which I assume is chocolate, not coconut), one of several flavors. It was good and reasonable snack for runners, though photographing it in the rain was awkward.

Origines Cacao, Forêt Noire

As a substitute for a superb shop that Origines Cacao is challenging, I got another cake from there. This time I really did rest from running by going by bicycle, which is not much of a workout. I should have done indoor exercises too, but I was too hungry. There were only three regular kinds of cake left and some glass desserts that might qualify as verrines, but I did not need to go there as I've never had their standard Forêt Noire, because I don't generally like forêt-noires (Black Forest cake). However, I found that it's not actually a forêt-noire, its just chocolate cake with lots of cream and chocolate cream, which is really weird (the name refers to the the cherry liquor that this doesn't), though only the same way that "short cake" isn't made with short cake, though that's true in my American cookbook as well. It's a simple cake, and cheap (only 400 yen), but good. Origines Cacao has enough of a history of great cakes (all but one never seen again) that it remains at the top of the quite exceptional shops, scoring above all the superb shops, but based on a lot fewer cakes (always an advantage).

Cake-off: Sadaharu Aoki's Noisette Chocolat over Éclat des Jours' Cheminée

I'm way behind blogging. Sunday, I cycled to Éclat des Jours and got the Cheminée, which is perhaps my favorite raspberry cake, though actually it's also chocolate cake. Then I went to Sadaharu Aoki at Isetan and got the Noisette Chocolat for a second-round cake-off before the latter leaves the line-up at the end of the month.

Floto: Blueberry and Almond Tart

Before that, I went out and did some recon, including visiting Floto for the first time, which is a sister store to Bien-être. They mostly don't have cake, being focused on gelato (which I'm not interested in) and baked goods, so I got a blueberry and almond tart. I didn't eat it under the best conditions, but it seemed quite good, so I'm going to say that it was excellent, giving them the benefit of the doubt. Certainly they are good enough for me to shift my course to go by them. Note a very good picture, but mosquitoes were a problem in that (and most) parks.

Cake-off: Noisette Chocolat over Cheminée

For the cake off, both cakes are chocolate, one fruit and one nuts. Predictably, I'm going with the nuts, though as far as I know they are both the best of their type that I've had. Certainly both are rich but have good harmonization between the chocolate and compliment flavor.

Cookie Time: Chocolate Chip Cookie

Just to pack more into this post, Monday I did a short run along with some indoor exercise. It's out of order because I originally planned to go to Nikunohanamasu but changed my mind and went to Takashibiya. Anyway, picking off minor non-cake places on my neighborhood course, I visited Cookie Time near the Harajuku Station and got a chocolate chip cookie. This was an extremely soft cookie, which I suppose is not that unusual, and is fine for a quick calorie fix, but just okay as a treat.

Jean-Paul Hévin, Longchamp Feuilleté

Sunday, I went out a couple more hours by bicycle and picked up photos a new missed places in otherwise finished maps and corrected an order for cake for Tuesday (I keep forgetting to check what I've had before). Then I went out and got Longchamp Feuilleté from Jean-Paul Hévin at Ginza Mitsukoshi. Also, I saw a new pastry a Dalloyau, Boule de Marron I think they were calling it, so I had to get that. On the way to my actual necessary errand for being in the Tokyo Station area, I swung by Toshi Yoroizuka and happily saw that they had a great cake from 2015 in the line-up (and claimed that it would stay in the line-up for the season, i.e., until December), so now I know what I want to do for a cake-off next weekend. I'll have four chances to find something else great, otherwise I'll be running to Ryoura on Saturday, take the train back, and run to maybe to Tokyo Midtown (which is closer than Kyoubashi, where I went today).

Today's cake was fill of good things that I like, dark chocolate mousse and both almond meringue and feuilleté, though the latter made it tend to break up into small chunks, which is a little awkward using a tiny cake fork. Maybe I should use a spoon. I still haven't found a sharp table knife for cutting cake (I assume sharp would be better than a serrated blade). It was excellent cake, though I've rating other of the similar cakes higher; it could be I'm spoiled now or just I liked the simpler versions (I think they were simpler).

The Boule de Marron seemed deflated in that there did not seem to be enough pastry for the amount of chestnut, at least for me, though I'm sure more people would complain if they were cheap with the chestnut. Still, it was good, but it reminds me that I want to get to Clair de Lune again, I hope Wednesday of this week, though for cake this time, not pastry, though a pastry from there on Sunday wouldn't go wrong.

Don't really need my camera in super-wide mode for cake, but I think I've already fixed that now.

Jean-Paul Hévin: Chocolat Framboise (2018)

Sunday, there was cycling in the morning to try to review landmarks on the Hatagaya--Honmachi--Minami-Dai--Nishi-Shinjuku loop, which I thought was going to be a 13th-level loop until the connecting 12th-level loop got merged with its source as the Hatagaya--Hatsudai--Honmachi--Tomigaya--Yoyogi loop, now my longest at 11.7 km. I axed one park that was just a small paved area with one corner as a bicycle-sharing station and missed a couple landmarks on the other side the road to the north, where I don't have any immediate exits (my entrance link is from the south and there is a pedestrian bridge crossing out to the west). So I think I'm now ready to try this as a one-way neighborhood course run, which is good, because it's second on the list of level 12 loops and I plan to do the first one Tuesday.

In the afternoon I went to the Jean-Paul Hévin in Marunouchi, mostly for variations on things I've had before, shared between two. The limited item was the Coussin d'Amour Orange, which I had forgotten that I had before, since previously it was on a plate with a little chocolate sauce on top. It's a chocolate crepe with I'm not sure what kind of filling and orange sauce and this time it came in a paper sleeve for eating by hand and without any chocolate decoration. I think this presentation helped me appreciate it as excellent, though that's based mainly on the orange sauce. The chocolate crepe doesn't really add anything for me.

The other main selection was the Chocolat Framboise, which the receipt adds an "N" too, probably for new, since this is a change version as of this month. The top now doesn't have fresh raspberry and the now is now thinner and more gelatinous, which isn't any better an idea than it sounds. Not sure what they are thinking. It's still good, still relative dry and now there's a new gelatinous texture that doesn't help.

The best thing about the Marunouchi shop (besides being an an addition place that might have something different), is the hot chocolate, since it's less than halve the price of what's at Isetan and the selection is not bad. It's worth putting up with a paper cup instead of a tea cup. I had a new flavor for me, Chocolat Chaud Brésil, which was excellent.

Paris S'éveille: Arbion

Did another cycling day, about 3 hours, this time out to Paris S'éveille. It was a little soon to go back there, but it seemed like a good choice for a weekend and I wanted to check the Dalloyau line-up at their main store (their two mont-blanc are in, but none of the cakes I'm looking for). On the way, I took a few photos in the area around Meguro Station, but even before that, I stopped at Café Le Cordon Bleu for my first pastry from them, which I think was called Croissant au Chocolat (or at least should have been), and ate in. This was super fresh, complete with the fresh bread smell, whereas I'm used to buying pastries late in the day on weekdays. I think that they brushed it with egg white, because the outside is well sealed. Definitely seemed very "by the book", so no complaints and I can say that it was excellent.

At Paris S'éveille, they no longer have signs on their tables saying "no photographs", so I ate in. I choose the "chef-recommend" Arbion, which is new and features Japanese apricot mousse, almond milk mousse, and lavender flavored milk foam surrounded by white chocolate. The taste balance was fine for me, as a light fruity concoction, but not really my thing; still, definitely good. Maybe fall and winter will bring some new heavier cakes. Completely forgot to confirm up-coming cake-off cakes, but I wouldn't get to them this month anyway, so I guess it's okay.

On the way back, I confirmed that Les Cacao still doesn't have Cuba, the only great cake that I've had from there, swung by Toshi Yoroizuka to confirm recently spotted great cakes remain, though no new old favorites. Lastly, I stopped by Bubó Barcelona and got their Croissant au Chocolat (I think), which I ate at home. Wait, I also confirmed La Vie Douce still doesn't have a yuzu chiboust, or any kind of chiboust or yuzu cake right now. The second croissant had a balance of buttery flake, fluffy interior, and chocolate that makes we want to say that it is great.

Presqu'île Chocolaterie, Mure

Still having trouble with foot pain, so I took off yesterday and did some upper body work, which I should do more often (hopefully I will). Today, I took a half-day off work and went cycling up to Kichijouji to visit Presqu'île Chocolaterie (versus one other their other operations, like wine making), which is a quite good shop that rates higher than some of my excellent shops, so I wanted to resolve the discrepancy, despite those shops outside the top couple dozen being a pretty low priority, so I haven't done anything about it for months. (On the way, I also confirmed that Aigre-Douce still doesn't have a cake I've been looking for about 3 years).

I went for Mure (I'm updating with the 2020 website spelling), which is a chocolate and mulberry cake, though the decoration seems to be a relative of the blueberry. I didn't trust the cake to survive the road trip back, due to vibration, but melting may have been a bigger problem, as there was less ice inside a not so small box than I expected. In either case, I ate it in a little park within a couple kilometers, which was not optimal (mosquito repellent was necessary, which I had). This was definitely good. Now I'm curious how mulberry would go with a darker chocolate, but I don't see that flavor usually, so now I'm going to be looking for that. Now that Presqu'île Chocolaterie is firmly in the quite good group, I can deal with other overlaps. Right now, along with Très Calme, Hidemi and Del'Immo stand out among quite good shops, so maybe I demoted them too soon.

Paris S'éveille: Tarte Rhubarbe

I'm calling it: 35 degC is too hot for cake, even by bicycle.

My goal had been to get to Au Bon Vieux Temps, since they won a cake-off a little while back. It's really hot, so I went by bicycle. However, since Paris S'éveille hasn't had any new cakes for a while and it was a new month, I stopped by there. Even if I decided that they are a superb rather than a quite superb cake (looking like the case, but they have the disadvantage that I've had more of their limited-time cakes and their standard cakes are mainly the great ones), I would be one cake behind on them, so kind of a priority. I was still prepared to get a second cake elsewhere, on the grounds of missing a week recently, though I'm ready to call things even now.

In fact, Paris S'éveille had a few new cakes, so I took the one they were particularly recommending, the Tarte Rhubarbe, which is a hard crust type standard shallow fruit tart with flavored whipped cream on top. Not necessarily a bad idea, and certainly pretty, but for me, whipped cream and fruit rarely works, even though that's considered a pretty standard combination (such as in most Japanese "short cakes", which a recent Japanese NHK program backed me up on as having a silly name since they lack short cake, which is biscuit-like cake made with shortening, since the Japanese definition is sponge cake and whipped cream). Good tart but not that interesting to me. Of course, not being 35 degC would have been better, but probably wouldn't have changed my evaluation, bested on previous experience with this type of tart. Not the best photo, but I wanted to eat before the cream died in the heat.

At this point, I decided that it was too hot for eating cake, or carry cake in a box dangling in a bag from my handlebars, or even in fact for cycling, really, so I headed home. Until I realized that I wanted to check the line-up at L'abricotier, which was way too far north, but I went and confirmed that they still have Sicilien Figue anyway, because I'm obsessive compulsive like that, so that's want I want next weekend for the cake-off. Then I convinced myself that I should go some place local and get something that I can't get on a weekday, so I was off too far back south, though at least I talked myself down to 365 Jours, which is a apparently super-popular bakery west of Yoyogi Park (closer at least than Daikanyama). Fortunately, the line was not out the door (though there were instructions for how the line should fold if it came to that), but it still took a while to get a Canelé. I also got photos of the shop and of 15°C (not that far way; interesting number theme around). Not sure about After Hours around the corner, which is apparently on vacation until next month. The canelé was good, as expected. The shop is mostly little breads, with the only other pastries a croissant and essentially a chocolate croissant.