Paris S'éveille, Tarte Vert Griotte

When I went last to Paris S'éveille, which was really long run for me in my current condition, though I'm working on that daily, they had a new cake. I almost didn't notice, but it shared features with their previous new cake, but that one was excellent, so that aspect is no problems. Fortunately, I noticed before paying and they let me add to my order (versus needing to go back outside to get in line again). It was Tarte Vert Giotte, whereas the previous tart had mango as the fruit, but both were green tea, which doesn't obviously go with either. It's not just cherries, but big dark, American-type cherries, like in a pie. My opinion of these is theoretically low, but the actuality was definitely excellent because rather than despite them, so I won't avoid them. I don't absolutely have to have this cake again, but I hope they keep whoever is designing these seasonal cakes, as I really appreciate them. This shop has the best standard line-up of any in Tokyo, but unlike JPH, which tends to make minor variations of established cakes, PS goes a completely different direction with the new cakes, so there isn't correlation. 

I'm about 5 cakes behind on them and it's a new cake-off season, so they'll probably rack up more wins and I'll get further behind even if I'm busy working on the exceptional, quite fine, and fine shops.

Jean-Paul Hévin, Matcha Marron

New month, so the verrines are gone (almost: their were still some coffee ones at the side on the 2nd), which I'm not sorry about. Lots a great cakes in the line-up, and an exceptional one that I wouldn't mind having again. Importantly, there is a completely new cake, Matcha Marron, so the second day I got that. Recalling that I've fallen off with the regular Matcha, I wasn't sure how this one was going to be for me. Don't think I've had a matcha-maron pairing before from anywhere, but it totally works. Probably the bitter chocolate mousse and biscuit at the bottom helps. As even my photography shows, the matcha part is extremely light, like chiboust. Nothing else to say about it except that it was a great cake, which I hope stays around for awhile. If I'm lucky, I'll find another great cake to have a cake-off with it (or another cake that's eluded me for years will reappear, but I've been touring their shops, and no such luck this month yet).

Sadaharu Aoki, Chou au Mâtcha

I'll make an attempt to finally catch up, and start with the picture of the cake so it shows up at the top when I do a search (I give the cake in the post title, but then I have to actually read). I didn't get my second cake of the weekday until Thursday. I ran every day, though.

Tuesday, I ran down to Lattest, a latte shop on Jinguumai Shopping Street. They close at 7 pm, and were closed during most of the emergency. Cookies come from a jar rather than a wrapper, but I don't know the actual source. At 400 yen, not cheap, but certainly big. They also have a pound cake and a muffin. I would say this was excellent, as cookies go, on the hard side, to maintain shape, but not too hard. Either that day or the next day I went on to shop for nuts and garlic and did a long run back with a heavy pack.

Wednesday, I went to the same street and stopped a few doors down at Neko Neko Shokupan, where they were sold out of their signature item, of course, but they had the French toast version. Even that was very soft, softer than bread really should be for French toast, but still good.

Thursday, I went to Isetan, where my plan was to get a cake-off winner cake from PH, or a repeat cake from JPH, but Sadaharu Aoki had a something I couldn't find any record of having had (despite conflicting memories), so I got the Chou au Mâtcha shown above. It like their usual cream puff, not the "Chou Ginza" ones at Mitsukoshi now. This was definitely excellent, with a nice rich custard balanced by the pastry and definitely flavored with powdered green tea. Unless you really had green tea, it's worth a try, and if you really love it, you shouldn't miss it.

I'll mention that on Friday I ran for 2 hours (though not quickly in the heat, humidity, and mask) to do my recently created top sites neighborhood running course from Yotsuya Sta. to Shinjuku Sta. and down as far as Jinguumae 2. I need to not wear those shoes for that long a run again: they're too light and old and my right foot is not so good.

Pièce Montée, Thé Vert

No running today. Since I planned (and did) my indoor workout, I went to Ginza by bicycle and visited Pièce Montée for a fourth cake. I decided to be more adventurous and get Thé Vert, which is working hard to be Japanese. Besides the green tea, it has a couple beans, and lots of sesame (seems like). The top fell off the base tart, but I could put it back, though the very top might have originally been better centered. Anyway, it was definitely good and had similar texture and sweetness to other cakes. Interesting enough to recommend but not really my thing.

This shop is now tied for top of the quite fine shops and could replace one of shops at the bottom of the exceptional list, but not today.

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.

Café Le Cordon Bleu, Opéra au Thé Vert

Sunday was rain but not so much or so cold that I couldn't run. It did stop me from taking photos along the way, but I did some reconnaissance along the way that made the trip a little longer. My goal was to get a new cake from Paris S'éveille, in response to a cake-off win. Previously they had two new cakes that I was not excited about, because they were coffee flavored, but I've had another similar cake with coffee and tonka beans and it was fine. At the shop, though, they only had one that was coffee cream on coffee gelatin, which I'm pretty sure would make me sick, so I gave up. I'll check again next month (actually, I'll probably be back before that for a cake-off, since they have so many great cakes). I've had plenty of pastries from there (including great ones), so I'm not stiffing them on what they are due in terms of number of items tried. Still need to get back to the two cake-off winners after that, but they're both open after work on a workday.

Instead, I ran back and stopped at Café Le Cordon Bleu, which is one of the shops I've labeled as quite good based on only two cakes. The cake I choose as the third was Opéra au Thé Vert, which is chocolate and chocolate. It was mostly green tea, and maybe its legitimate for it too seem watery, since so is green tea, but I don't find that acceptable in cake. My experience with green tea is maybe too limited (I tend to drink the same cheap stuff at work every day) for the nuance of the chocolate to get through. I've going to give this the benefit of the doubt and say it was okay, since it was reasonable, but the shop goes straight to the good group, where I'll probably never hear from it again, since it's going to be a long time before I'll want fourth cakes from Tokyo cake shops that are just average. Next in the list of holiday only places: Ces Jours. Actually, I only have a few to go, and not so many workday-accessible ones.

Pierre Gagnaire: La Panthère Verte

Thursday night, I went down to Pierre Gagnaire in the ANA Intercontental in Akasaka. This is a fifth cake from a cake in my excellent list, leaving just one to bring up to five. I decided to try the La Panthère Verte, which has been there for at least a little while, along with other matcha (powered green tea) versions of cakes. La Panthère seems to be their signature cake, though I've never had it (and it wasn't available Thursday evening). Besides green tea, there were beans, as a another traditional Japanese sweets touch. Both aspects were fine, though not more than that. The cake was much more gelatinous than I expected, dominated overly by the outer layer that is holding the design. I still give it credit for concept and quality at what it was, so it was good, but I'm less interested in trying La Panthère now. Still, they'll stay in the excxellent group for a six cake.

Sadaharu Aoki: Matcha Azuki

Having failed yesterday with Dalloyau, I went to Sadaharu Aoki for a new cake, the Matcha Azuki, which follows the pattern of Sadaharu Aoki's praliné cakes with both matcha (powered green tea) and azuki, a type of beans used in traditional Japanese sweets, as well as chocolate ganache.

It was raining today, in fact all day and will continue tomorrow, but was pretty light at the beginning and is coming with a warm air (tomorrow with be 10 degC warmer than today), so it wasn't too bad. I ran down to confirm that Pierre Gagnaire does have pastries, should I should get one some time, but not their Tarte au Chocolat still, after about a year, and that I can't take a shortcut I mentioned yesterday regarding a pedestrian bridge in east, as the entrance for Saikouji is at the south end. Now if I can figure out where the entrance is to Dougenji: I need to shift my route to catch that temple, though I'm running beside it and can see the graveyard.

The Match Azuki was excellent, especially considering my expectations. I consider at the end designating it great, as it was certainly the best azuki cake I've had, but decided ultimately that would be too far. Now I'm more sure, as the azuki as a stronger aftertaste than other components, which I don't appreciate. As full disclosure, I should say that I've actually had this before, maybe 4 years ago, before I started blogging, though not a full piece.

Cake-off: JPH: "Matcha" over Bigarreaux "Citron"

Still not running, as I've gone into a full-blown cold (after seemingly fighting something for a couple weeks but not stopping running), so I consoled myself with a cake-off sourced from Isetan. Although they did not have it back in February when I checked the main store, they had the Citron (500 yen) when Bigarreaux visited Isetan (though still no Le Plaisir, but they did not bring a very big selection of fresh cakes). This was excellent, with layers of lemony cream and sponge cake, and something that I would be interested to make (not that I've done a lot of baking laterly), but I was not feeling the greatness; since it was a fairly early evaluation (and thus a priority to revisit for cake-off), I'm not surprised that it doesn't meet my current standard for greatness.

The cake I got to compare it to was not very similar, but was something I was having a hard time matching something up to (it was a priority because I wanted to have it again before it disappeared from Jean-Paul Hévin, which supposedly will happen May 1, when they'll introduce a couple éclairs that I should evaluate). This was the Matcha (735 yen), which is a rectangular mousse layer cake. Being JPH, it's chocolate cake, and the matcha (powered Japanese green tea) obviously gives it much of it's color as well as it's name), though I'm not experienced enough with it to pick it out of the harmony. Actually, the main flavor comes from yuzu (which is citrus, which is how it relates to the Citron) and cherry, which in generally I'm not fond of, but again, I wouldn't necessarily be able to pick out of the harmony of flavors other than to note that something was working with the yuzu and matcha. This definitely is a great cake, so it easily wins this cake-off.

For Friday, I just got some bread to celebrate another work week over and a chance to rest and recover. This is their rye bread, and it was good, but not a really strong in flavor, so nothing special.

Henri le Roux (Tokyo Midtown): Kouign Amann Yuzu Matcha

Took a short run to Tokyo Midtown for the first time in a long while to visit the Henri Le Roux there, where they have kouign amann. Round trip, it's only about 6 km total, and was on the low side of 9 km/h (I don't count the vertical distance from using the pedestrian overpass twice, which is about 40 steps high). As the seasonal flavor, they just changed over to the Yuzu Matcha (powdered green tea). These are small but only 324 yen. This one was only okay. I might have gone with "good", but I was not fond of the green tea aftertaste. The yuzu was particularly detectable over the caramel taste. On the other hand, I count this as a pastry, so it does not penalize them as a great cake shop.

More importantly, I've been wrong about them: they do have cake at the Midtown store (although getting it before it sells out is a separate issue), which of course they do: they have an eat-in space. This evening, they only had one cake left around 19:30, but I should have noticed before that they have cake (the hard part is not noticing, it's retaining any memory after running). The more important information for me is they have a supposedly exclusive cake there that is only available as eat in (and is 900+ yen), so I'll definitely go back. I was planning to go to Midtown for dining over the next holiday weekend already, but I'm going to want to change the target now to them.

Tomorrow is baking, although it might just be canele to free up some eggs whites, though really I want brownies: too many competing recipes.

Pièce Montée: Thevert

The rain held off mostly, so I could run today. I did 4 km running total at 7 to 8 min/km alternating  2 min running, 1 min walking again, which I'll keep doing through next Tuesday, as my running week. I was a little worried because pain from a little pain from sitting at, but it was okay running (though it generally is, whereas the next day might bring other news). Now, it's my left arm that's the problem. I probably shouldn't be typing with it, but it's not hard to rest it enough.

I finally got back to Pièce Montée, but didn't get a good picture of the cake. It's a long way walking home, so I ate in the park and my lighting was not as good as last time (I started from the other end of the park), but I had already wrecked the box. It's worth seeing though, so the photo is taken from their blog. It's Thevert (for Thé Vert, green tea). I think the "cup" and lid are chocolate, although the sesame seeds mask it, or maybe it is sesame seeds and nuts dilute, since it looks more like nuts than sesame in the picture . There is quite sweet green tea mousse inside, although the green tea flavor is hard to taste. I'm not sure if the beans are real, since there was no bean texture, so maybe just brown mousse. This is a very interesting and good cake, so I don't regret it, but as a second cake and for 1000 yen, I'm not inclined to give them the benefit of the doubt, so I'm calling it just "good" and taking them off the list of potentially excellent shops, which still has about 35 shops in it, about half only visited a couple time and half bumped down from potentially "great". At some point, I'll sort out the semi-great from just excellent ones, but I'd like more cakes from some of them first. In the meantime, it's been too long since I've had really great cake, so I'll see whether I can get to Pierre Hermé tomorrow night after my other errands. I'll be unusually busy, but there's always Saturday (which I haven't decided where to go yet, although I always need to get back to Paris S'éveille and I'm not up to running that far or fast enough on a weekday or have high enough need to use the bike).

http://piecemontee-blog-new.seesaa.net/upload/detail/image/DSC_0607ver2-thumbnail2.jpg.html

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.

Sadaharu Aoki: Bamboo

There was no running today and will be no running any time soon, nor should there any appreciable cycling, which I think was been part of the problem, or even much walking to some extent. Same problem: seems to be iliotibial band syndrome, but it might take an MRI to find out. Anyway, I'll be using the trains for anything beyond a couple stations for a while.

For cake, after browsing French language study books (now I know where to look for the Japanese ones, including the NHK series, at the Shinjuku Avenue Kinokuniya) and trying to find a flour sifter with a more course mess than I have (my is good for powdered sugar and wheat flour, but too fine for nut powders), I stopped at the basement of Isetan. I tried going to Clover, but it just looked too bad, so I decided to finally get the Bamboo at Adaharu Aoki, which is an "opera" of green tea and orange (I didn't guess), with a chocolate base. This one might not have been fresh enough, as the texture did not seem as good as their usual cakes, although I'm not sure that it was that different and my previous experience with this cake has been that I'm not that much into it. Anyway, I'll say it was good, although at 891 yen, one wants considerable more.

Jean-Paul Hevin: Matcha and Pyramide

I missed lunch, so it was suggested that it was okay for me to have (most of) two pieces of cake at the Jean-Paul Hévin Chocolat Bar at Isetan. I didn't resist the suggestion.

First, I had Pyramide, which apparently has a slight Cognac flavor in a cake of pistachio and bitter ganache. It was definitely good, and I'm going to say that it was excellent, but actually I can't remember well (I mean, I only remember that I was thinking more about other things than whether I was going to say it was good or excellent). This was 572 yen plus tax. Amazingly, apparently this is only the third of the five spécialités that I've blogged.

 I got it with オーボーデュフル―ヴ (ouboudeyufuruuv), which I've forgotten what it is when it's at home, some sort of herb tea, I think, not exciting anyway.

I also had some of Ghana hot chocolate I think, which was good, and parts of Vanille and Pistache'in maracon, which were excellent and good.

For the second cake, I has Matcha, because it's seasonal and because I didn't have my notes and knew that I had never blogged this, or maybe had it. Actually, it was great (maybe). Besides green tea mousse, which was not particularly strong, although that is the nature of green tea, is griotte (Morello) cherry gel, which is semi-Japanese, and yuzu cream, which is very Japanese. This was more expensive at 680 yen plus tax and is the second seasonal cake, not counting two types of éclair, despite being up to 14 cakes now.

Dalloyau run: Zen Extreme

Just a normal run to Ginza and back, although the temperature was just low enough that I could do some hard running sometimes, but the humidity was probably 100%, so still pretty harsh. Not sure where the bug spray is, so I didn't try to eat in a park. The cake seemed to be fine for the trip. At the beginning, I was looking up at the sky, because that's how you check for developing cataracts, and there was a double green light, so I watched it and switched eyes to check whether it was really double green, and then it switched on a pair of red lights and zoomed laterally, so I knew it was a drone and not an airplane (plus, I could hear it). I think someone was flying it over a cemetery, which is probably relatively safe at night.

Anyway, it didn't follow me, I think, and I got to the Dalloyau and got the Zen Extreme for 594 yen, which actually sounds a lot more extreme than it is, as all the flavors are pretty mild to the point that it would be hard for me to identify them (except there is a raspberry on top and you can see the green tea). So more of an interesting cake than a great cake, but I've had it before and thought it was worth having again. It's powered green tea base with guava mousse, raspberry gelatin with a fruity mousse and a taste of caramelized almond. Pretty cake, I think.