Yu Sasage, Montélimar Noisette

Took a half day off and didn't accomplish many things. That's normal, but I actually did try and did accomplish a few things, as the list of things is pretty long now. However, especially because I mistook the Sadaharu Aoki schedule (there was a new cake today, but only in Nagoya, which gets special treatment from JPH as well), I did go for cake, by bicycle. Yu Sasage is along the borderline between the exceptional and quite exceptional shops and was in line for a cake to try to make the jump. There were a couple promising new cakes, the other a chiboust, but I went with the Montélimar Noisette, which was explained as having Montélimar mousse, which I didn't find informative, since Montélimar is a place name, though I guess I new it was associated with honey. Actually, they were using it to mean honey meringue, which I'll have to try to remember and confirm that as tracking with what other shops mean. Other components are, obviously, hazelnuts, in mousse form, as well as dacquoise. It was definitely good, but is maybe too small and light a cake for me. This might be a case were some fruit would help.

 

Camélia, Carmelina

Camélia, Carmelina

Went to Camélia in Ginza for a second cake, since the first one was excellent. Got the cake I was looking at, Carmelina (the "n" is silent in the Japanese at least). This is a relative thick dacquoise base with large bits of hazelnuts under cream made of caramel and mascarpone cheese (based on a user post; I didn't try to research the card that closely, since I forget during running anyway). Definitely my kind of thing and excellent. I like the flavors, though the usual ones, and the texture mix is great. This seems to be a quite fine shop. I'll probably be back next week for the third cake. I only ran one way, walking back to protect the cake, and my side, which is still giving me trouble. I'm probably over stretching it, so I'll watch it. It's not the side that needs the most stretching anyway.

Pascal Le Gac: Fondant Chocolat Naturel & Dacquoise Pistache

On the first day of the special 10-day Golden Week holiday, I went to Pascal Le Gac in Akasaka and had cake at their café. I had about 3/4 of a Fondant Chocolat Naturel (in two installments) and about 1/4 of a Dacquoise Pistache, so especially my review of the latter is based on limited information. The (plain) fondant chocolate was chocolaty good, so especially as a first cake, I'm quite good, so I should get a third cake from there as a part of my effort to sort through those.

comfortable calling it excellent. There is also a raspberry version, I think. It is small and not cheap. The other cake is one of two "dacquoise" cakes, though I can't remember what the other was, maybe hazelnuts, though the pistachio could easily have been called Dacquoise Fraise and the other was burred in exotic fruits. It seemed definitely good, and maybe not different in taste and texture in similar deserts that I may even have rated great, but I didn't have enough to get that excited by it and there was no novelty for me. These were good enough to rate the shop potentially

Charmant Gourmand: various

Friday I took off work and went to Charmant Gourmand (after lunch, though from Thursday they had lunch there, which I had not known) and got a variety plate, the name of which I'll have to update later, though I think the menu varies. This had their Moelleux au Chocolat Figue, Madeleine Lemon Lime, Crème d'Anjou, and I think some kind of dacquoise sandwich, though it's not something I found outside the salon. The moelleux au chocolat was the most interesting, being more like a thick chocolate filling than anything baked. (This is my first time to find a moelleux that had a separately made firm base.) I would say the moelleux was excellent and the rest were good. Since Crème d'Anjou is not so different from cheesecake, I'll treat it and the moelleux as cakes, whereas the other two are baked goods, so they don't really affect my cake shop rating. Still, one excellent and one good makes it at least in the running for quite good, so I'll go back and get one of the other flavors of moelleux au chocolat some time, though they are expensive for the size. The house-blend tea was also definitely good.

Ladurée: Afternoon Tea Set

Got the full afternoon tea set from Ladurée at Ginza Mitsukoshi. I might have done that somewhere, some time before, but I don't remember where, not Ladurée, or when, not in the last few years. The sandwiches were fine. The meringue was fine. The bonbon chocolate (that I had) was fine. Tea seemed fine, though I didn't have much and I don't remember which one, except that it was one of the classics (the first choice was gone). What I had a lot of was the Chocolat Chaud, which was excellent, but not pictured. There were four macarons: the standards were Vanille and Pistache, which were both excellent, though I liked the pistachio more, the seasonal was Fleur D'Oranger, and the special was Ichigo (strawberry), the latter both being good; note that all were judged based on limited experience of macarons in general compared to cake and only half a macaron each to go by.

There were two cakes. One was a standard for the line-up, the Plaisir Sucré, which is a milk chocolate and praliné over hazelnut dacquoise, specifically praliné "crispy", milk chocolate, milk chocolate ganache, and milk chocolate chantilly. I didn't dig into it too quickly, so it reached a high enough temperature that the sweetness was high, which was what it was designed for. I'm a little suspicious of such a blatant appeal to my sweet tooth, but it seemed successful, so I'll tentatively say it was great. I expect that will get quickly tested in a cake-off. The other cake was Saint-Honoré Pistache. That was definitely good, but the pastry was a flaky pie pastry (versus other pie pastry), not choux, which surprised me. That and the butter cream pistachio frosting gave this a sort of American to me. It's not really a direction that I want my saint-honoré to go.

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.

Pierre Hermé: Fraisier Pistache

Pierre Hermé started their next line-up today. I went to Isetan thinking that they wouldn't anything new to me, since the web page was not updated last night, but it turned out that not only did they have 4 of their next "feature" (based on passion fruit and pineapple), but 4 strawberry ones that I've never gotten around to. The later group is still not on their website, so I might have to update the name later. Fortunately, I could find an old webpage with the full recipe so I know what's in it. The base is "la dacquoise pistache", which I should have recognized immediately, since I've made it (not this well or this particular recipe, as far as I know, but more of as, as a standard type). The cream is "la crème mousseline pistache". I've had much too sweet fruity candy recently, so this sweet but not too sweet strawberry and pistachio dessert had the flavor and the elegance that I've been craving, so it is easy for me to say that it is great. I'm see whether I can get it into a cake-off before it disappears (I let the Tarte Infiniment Mandarin slip away).

The run was similarly informative. I went down to the southwest part of my completely neighborhood map and found that one of the Akasaka loops doesn't work, because there's a signal light in the way of where I need to cross the street, but it was mostly redundant (under looser rules of being across the street from a landmark is close enough) so I deleted it and just had to extend a couple other parts slightly. I'll keep practicing and get it right eventually.

Pierre Hermé: Yu

Did another neighborhood run to learn the Southeast Sendagaya course. Made too early a turn after the station where I changed the map (or tried to; Google reverted it) and overshot going around Zuienji loop, the southeast one, and apparently ended up going around it twice, which surprized me at the time, since I though I reverse direction at one point and went around a corner, but quickly found that I hadn't, but at least it gave me another chance to make the correct turn turns. I also followed the course south of Shinjuku Gyoen over where I messed it up and confirmed that I could do it correctly (at least until the bypass get's finished and that area gets cut off). Total, I think I did about 9 km (including 3 pedestrian bridge crossings) at a low -9 km/h.

New month and new cakes at Pierre Hermé. Rather than following this month's theme, vanilla (which I've had the main one already), I chose Yu, which is yuzu-flavored apple compote inside praliné mousseline on top of hazelnut dacquoise surrounded by milk chocolate. It looks good and has good ingredients of no doubt high quality, but it is all overly mild for me. At the very least, dark chocolate would be an improvement, I think. Still good, but someone it seemed dry, maybe. I had it with Earl Grey tea, so maybe milk as a drink or a side of rich vanilla ice cream would make this better.

Jean-Paul Hévin (ジャンポール エヴァン): Orly (オルリー) Place de l'Étoile (プラスドゥレトワール)

Orly

Sunday afternoon, I went to the Jean-Paul Hévin in Marunouchi, because they have cakes the other shops don't. Of the two, the favorite one was the Orly （オルリー, 592 yen + 8%), which is chocolate cake (of course) and mouse with passion fruit ganache. Great cake.

The other, which is promoted on their home page as a special, is Place de l'Étoile (プラスドゥレトワール, 592 yen + 8%), which has a sablé bottom, and layers of coffee-flavored dacquoise and chocolate mousse. I'm still not a fan of coffee (especially the aftertaste), but the balance was not bad and it was still excellent cake, even for me.

Place de l'Étoile

Still one more cake there that I haven't had (Voyage; maybe three are constant and one, now the Place de l'Étoile, get's rotated). In fairness, this should perhaps be considered a separate cake shop from the other JPH shops, since there seems to be no overlap in cakes, but the style and quality are similar.

Today's run was along the same theme, as I visited the shops in Omotesando and Tokyo Midtown to see whether they have special exclusive cakes. I'm not sure whether it's special, but they both had Safi, which I've not posted on. Not sure whether I can get it at Isetan (tried to check, but the line was long, though I can probably just ask the person manning the door without going in, or it might be on the chocolate bar menu), and I need to visit Ginza Mitsukoshi again and see what they have there. Total, I ran 9.2 km at about 9 km/h. I haven't really had a plan to this point, but I'd like a long (maybe 25 km, although that's a big jump, so maybe walk the last 5 km) this weekend. If I do it Saturday, that only leaves me a shortish training run and a Ginza run this week, although I don't really need to do more. However, maybe I should try hold off until Sunday for the long one, since I can do a shorter run Saturday (maybe to a new shop) and then the long run Sunday and then rest Monday. Tomorrow looks like rain, though, so it wouldn't bad to rest then in any case.

Le Jardin Bleu: Misérable

Got a second cake of Le Jardin BLue at Isetan and then did a training run in only like rain. This took three laps at Meiji Jingu Gaien, running 8 km/h there, alternating 300 m (7 times) at 10 km/h and 200 m at 8 km/h, but then I went too fast going home and have to count that as 10 km/h, but I'm still okay for this week's plan, since I already substituted out two laps around Akasaka Palace course for one lap and a short side trip for cake for one run this week.

The cake was Misérable (ミゼラブル; 432 yen) and I was expecting a rather plain cake. The description says it's dacquoise with buttercream filling as a traditional Austrian cake, but if you Google this name, it comes up Belgian, which makes more sense, since the name is French. I just had this cake type of cake from Échiré Maison du Beurre not long ago, and that one was not as good, as it was just very sweet buttercream. This one, the buttercream is praliné, with actual nut pieces and uses syrup, which has a more caramel flavor than just sugar, although the effect would perhaps be the same if they brushed some syrup on the dacquoise, which many recipes do (I've learned from experience baking). So it was excellent cake, and I could go back get another there tomorrow, to have three, which is my target now for excellent shops, but I have to rest from cake and running sometimes (actually, I'm hoping to make macarons tomorrow), so I'll just have to wait until either they come to Isetan again, or I get up to being able to run 60 km in a day (or admit that that's never going to happen and go by bicycle).

Friday night, Dalloyau: Vanille Fraise

Walked 6 km/h for 6 km (so, the long but nice way) for a Vanille Fraise from Dalloyau, vanilla cream and strawberry compote combined with white chocolate (there's a thin square visible in the middle) sandwiched between between pink dacquoise, for 594 yen.

As usual, leg tendon was a little sore from previous walk, tried not to over-do it, walked back slower, again avoiding straining, and seemed okay but a little sore the next day (but no burning).

Park still crowded with zombies, but got a better seat. This was excellent. More something I would want for someone else than myself, but a really nice strawberry flavor that I don't get too often. The dacquoise was soft enough to cut with a spoon without the cream completely squirting out, though a little dangerous eating without a plate.

Dalloyau: Charme

Walked a little too fast but maybe closer to 5 km/h than 6 km/m to Dalloyau for Charme for 486 yen (so no stamp in my Carte de fidélité). It's strawberry and whipped cream on top, which is a turn off and why I never got to this previously. Then dacquoise, vanilla cream, strawberry gelatin, vanilla cream, and dacquoise. This gel is good = not gummy. This is not my favorite thing, but it does what it does well and I appreciate diversity. It would be worth learning to make for someone else, so I'm rating it excellent. Sorry, forgot to take picture of shop.

For research purposes, got a Chocolat Noir macaron (250 yen) from Le Chocolat de H one street over. I wish I could get half that much foot, but the texture is not completely different from my last effort. Need longer drying and less baking, maybe. Mixing might have been okay.

And a chocolate filled donut-type oily sugar bomb （Beignet Chocolat Noisette?) from Paul at Yotsuya Station (324 yen). Long time since I've seen the Beignet Chocolat. Not sure that the nuts are fooling anyone, but I still find it hard to resist, at least once in a while.

P. le Pommier: Le Pommier

P. le Pommier is visiting Isetan, so, even though I've sampled them enough in the past to know that they aren't great, I also know they aren't bad and I have some respect for them, so I got their signature piece, the Le Pommier for 540 yen. Now, the shop is not trying to be that high-end, but rather more family friendly but still authentically French. They have three shops and get invited to Isetan, so they aren't doing to bad. This particular cake has a dacquoise base, which their website actually explains (it's hazelnut mixed with meringue, which is exactly what I've been making lately, only if you bake it long to caramelize it as I have, it becomes Japonaise instead), which is kind of nice but also a sign of the friendliness over sophisticated, which I would trade for the latter, although only if it came through in the cakes. Anyway, there are also a couple of hazelnuts on top, so the dark color of the base gives away the hazelnut powder, but it's a wet sponge in this case because the bulk is caramelized sautéd apple mousse and pretty loose and wet. There is a little chocolate ganache in between the mouse and dacquoise, but not so much, certainly not enough to form a barrier (although wet chocolate would not be a good idea). It is very good, put I can't say that I like it enough to call it excellent, that it's something I need to have again, though it has the advantage of being different from my usual stuff.

Pierre Hermé: Plaisirs Sucré

I'm still a little drippy today, so I didn't go running in the rain, but maybe tomorrow. I don't want to get more sick, since I've got important plans for the weekend.

Swung by Isetan and got a Plaisir Sucré for 648 yen, which is considerably cheaper than on the Paris homepage, even with the stronger yen. According to there, it is a dacquoise biscuit with crunchy hazelnuts, hazelnut crisp, thin wafers of milk chocolate, milk chocolate ganache, and milk chocolate chantilly, which pretty much sums my experience: like a really good milk chocolate bar with nuts. That limits it somewhat, but it's still definitely excellent and I would welcome another one.

Sadaharu Aoki: Fraisier

Still feeling like I have a head cold, so no running. And it makes me so hungry, which means I can't bake anything, because I'll just eat all of it.

Today, I got cake from Sadaharu Aoki, the seasonal Fraisier, which is, I think, strawberries in custard sandwiched between meringue (update, I think it was actually dacquoise) biscuits. It was more strawberries than I knew I needed like, but I figured I should get at least one of these seasonal cakes this year from them (they have a couple strawberry tarts, as well). Everything was excellent, though not exciting and at 830 yen, once is probably enough for me.

I still haven't posted on Bamboo (the green tea cake), their cheesecake, or choux à la crème, but the next post will probably be on Pierre Hermé, unless I recover tomorrow and can run Wednesday or Thursday to Ginza.

Laps and Sadaharu Aoki Chocolat Pralin

Tried to do 7'/lap for 10 laps and failed from the start. I'm sore and just didn't have the will to push myself that hard for that long. I did make 10 laps within 7'15''/lap, but by less than 10 s total, so not that impressive. I knew I wasn't pushing as hard because I wasn't puffing as hard or burning as hard, but my back was not happy so I decided that I was going fast enough. I need to add regular back stretches. I've done 8 laps at 7'/lap previously (as part of 9 laps), so I need 9 laps at that pace to show improvement. I'll try that next or move over to seeing what how I can do with 2 laps around Akasaka Palace.

Cake was Chocolat Pralin from Sadakaru Aoki by way of Isetan for 780 yen. Pricy, but didn't buy cake yesterday (I made cake, and had some today and decided that the evaporated milk recipe is not worse than the cream recipe, and cheaper, mainly because I use less evaporated milk, though it's harder to find). According to the online description, the cake has some orange biscuit, which I didn't notice, but no mention of chocolate dacquoise. It definitely has chocolate cream and cream praline. It has feuillantine (?), which I assume is almond based, but seems accurate from the texture. Anyway, it all goes together and is chocolaty and praline without being overpowered by that. I thought that this was one that I had been indifferent to when I did the sampler set at Tokyo Midtown, but no disappointment today.

34 km to Il Fait Jour (Tachikawa Station)

Route was approximately this, although poor navigation and deliberate but fatigue-addled (gack: spent more time trying to figure out the spelling of this word) judgement may not all have been accounted for. Most of the route was pretty good for running. Liked this part of Kanda River and following the road north of Chuuou line was also nice: good width of sidewalk, nice enough neighborhood, and not too much traffic. Last bit was not great, but then it was also not the original plan (although it is what Google would have told me to do). This is in the very not detailed part of my central Tokyo map, so I need to add notes about turns better so I know what intersection names are if I'm going to follow a less obvious route. Did fairly well most of the time, though.

Started out too fast, but if I don't go fast at the beginning, then I never will. Ended up with 3 28' for the run and then another 12' of running from Shinjuku Station (which was slow). Considered going on to Yotsuya Station and coming back or switching to the local at Shinjuku Station, but kept it simple.

Not a big counter of the cake shop, so there might be better things elsewhere (although not that much more listed on web site, but they don't have the fig tart, which they did have and I know is good), but could find at least two good things (the berry tart would have been the next choice) at the Il Fait Jour counter in Ecute at Tachikawa Station. Got the signature tart for 567 yen, which is navel orange tart base with an Earl Grey mousse which includes orange peal. Excellent.

The second was Melissa (the Francois Pralus chocolate) for 511 yen. This is a chocolate dacquoise (I always have too look up what that means, which I think is just a cake having layers of meringue and/or cream in this context, although this definitely was specifically mousse). I'm not a fan of milk chocolate in general, but it is often a good choice versus the dark stuff, as in this case. Excellent cake/tart.

Frustrating run and Libertable: Vert

So I figured out why the drone was up yesterday. It was probably a trial run for today, when people filled streets and intersections trying to get a free view of fireworks over Meiji Jingu Gaien. It was messy until I got to Aoyama Road west of the Gaien area. Also it was hot, I had to go back once from something forgotten (but I did find the bug spray), and I did not run that far.

Today, they did not have the Zenith, so I got the Vert from Libertable for 604. It's very similar to yesterday's, actually, in that it is very fancy, very pretty, obviously good quality, not cheap, and yet very weak on flavor without being bad. It a creme mousseline (Hollandaise sauce) of Itanian pistachios, some fennel (visible on top), and lemon gelatin. Still two more cakes to try from there. So far, the Crystal is best, and that's not actually cake.

Homemade pizza was great, though. Think I'll make it again tomorrow, and then I really need to clean the kitchen. No running or cake expected.

Weekday run to Aux Bacchanales Ginza: Castel

Again, I took the long way straight south to Aoyama Street and then west to the Moat course and on to Ginza, but this time I looped south, around Hibiya Park. Also, I carried cake rather than try to eat it outside, which was fine as it was not so windy as yesterday (the calm before the storm). Today was the land day of the heat wave and the taiphoon-generated rain storm has started. I hope that it lightens up at least by Sunday so that I can take a run, since this week I was able to get some training in (and rain might be better than 30+ degree air temp over hot asphalt in the sun). At least the storm is only scheduled through Friday with just normal rain for Saturday, but these things are not very predictable.

The cake was Castel for 475 yen. Was able to take pictures, although the name card failed fo focus and my Internet access is crap, but I got the index of cakes to load eventually. This is apparently a specialty of Aix-en-Provence, being hazelnut dacquoise as the cake and praline cream in between with whole/pieces of almonds and hazelnuts (besides the creamed nuts in the praline). A simple and focused cake in some ways, but great for a nut cake lover. This is the main reason that I call this a great shop, since the cake selection is not that deep or varied, but the two cakes I've posted about are great. I should try more of the other cakes, and plan to. Note that the lighting is golden: the plate is actually bone white, but the white flash-photo looks awful so I still used this. I guess I'll use the other overhead light next time.

(Saturday) No running; Dalloyao: Savarin aux fruits & Opale; Jean-Paul Hevin: Yuzu

Saturday, I went to the actual second-floor cafe at the Ginza Dalloyau, and not alone, so we got two cakes (although the drink and desert set is pricey). We got the Savarin aux fruits, which is kind of a standard thing anywhere: rum soaked sponge with some fruit. This one would have been 486 yen by itself. It was very good, as far as I could tell. I've only had this kind a cake a few times. Very syrupy (Which is spelled with a "y", why? English is such a pain.), which is not a bad thing.

The Opale is a new chocolate cake that is a mixture of earl grey (the Hong Kong website says lemon tea) cream, dark chocolate mouse, and chocolate sponge (supposedly, although I can't remember from yesterday and the Japanese-French note I wrote down is not helpful). The impression you get is just a really rich chocolate cake like with very moist sponge and frosting, but without actually sensing sponge or frosting separately; it is just a great chocolate cake (I couldn't tell that there was tea in it, but lemon makes sense as far as the color of one of the layers). This would be 594 yen by itself for a single piece, although you can also buy a larger cake. Still a great cake shop.

In the evening, we could have more cake, so we did (although apparently, cheese would have been preferred by one of us). Actually, there was one not cake, Varrine Chocolat Jasmin. It's not bad (besides being 711 yen), but I didn't really taste much of anything, so I can't see the appeal. The cake is called Yuzu, after the citrus fruit.
Of course, it's chocolate cake, like all their cakes (it's a chocolate shop): dark chocolate mousse, yuzu cream, and a tonka bean (which they're into there) dacquoise "croustaillant" (crispiness?) for 714 yen. Great cake. You'll note a couple macrons in the picture. I usually stay away from these, because fancy cake is already really out of my salary range, but I order them when requested. These were caramel and vanilla, and were also great. I like Jean-Paul Hevin's the best of the one's I've tried.