Bien-être: Seasonal Tart (Kyohou Grape)

Yesterday, I went to Bien-être and they were sold out of the one cake that I wanted, which did not surprise me, so I reserved cake and a table for the next day. I was surprised how much I enjoyed the next day looking forward to that, even though it's not like I don't want to get cake from other places. Jumping back to yesterday, though, I had added Lola's Cupcakes to the Northwest Jinguumae Loop, so I visited there for the first time and got a tiny (less than 3 cm in diameter) Chocolate Cupcake. It was good, but I couldn't make out what the frosting was. It was not as stiff as I would expect buttercream to be (though maybe I'm used to eating them at colder temperatures). A few minutes later, I had a kind of bad taste in my mouth, but I'm not sure that it's fair to blame the cupcake, since there wasn't any immediate strange aftertaste that I noticed, though I'm suspicious of the stars. Anyway, there is a reason that I've moved on from cupcakes, namely that there are so much better things.

Today, I went and got my cake. Since I had a table time, I did not need to be in a hurry and tested out the new parts of the Northwest Jinguumae loop on the way there, and also checked out from the outside a couple baked goods shops in odd places down around Yoyogi Park Station (both on tiny side streets, one in a basement and one on a second floor).

As promised, they kicked out (gently) people a table (and probably the table next it, though the people with that reservation didn't show up for another fifteen minutes) and I got my Seasonal Tart, which includes kyohou grapes. It's a pretty thick tart, maybe a butter tart on the bottom and a relatively restrained layer of custard before fruit held by some gelatin. Also, whipped cream and I suppose those are pistachio sprinkled on. Other fruit besides two kinds of grapes seem to be fig and strawberry. I think there was also a raspberry, which is maybe hidden in the back of the photo. It was excellent, so I recommend it to fruit tart lovers. It's my first to try a seasonal tart, but I look forward to whatever the next season is (couldn't get a definite prediction of what or when).

On the way back, I finished reviewing the Jinguumae Northwest loop, which had expanded to add Cookie Time, but then I saw that there as a Kyoubashi Senbikiya, which is a fruit dessert seller, but that includes cake (which I've blogged already, for a different source), so I felt a need to add it. Now the course breaks down, so I've had to slit off the bottom as the Jinguumae Central West loop.

Bien-être: Kyohou Grape Shortcake

On Monday, I reserved cake at Bien-être for Wednesday, so it was good luck, I suppose, that Tuesday was the day with violent rain over Tokyo in the evening. Today, I was a little surprised when they called me to ask whether I was coming to get the cake when it was before the earliest time that I had given them and I paid ahead, but someone else probably wanted it. I told them that I was on my way, since I was more than halfway done with the run there (I was actually just passing Harajuku Station). They were sold-out of that cake and other one which I would have wanted (seasonal tart), so it was good that I reserved it. There was a table open between parfait eaters, so even though I told them take-out and they had already boxed it, they offered to let me eat in, so I did.

The cake was their seasonal shortcake, which now is Kyohou (巨峰の) Grape Shortcake, which I've heard other cake shops as offering now, too. Not sure how long the season lasts. I've had grape mille-feuille from there in the past, so it was probably the same kind of grape, though I wasn't paying attention to that at the time. Bien-être has surprised me in the past, but this was a standard Japanese shortcake, which means lots of whipped cream, some fruit, and sponge cake to hold it together. All of these are good and go fine together, but this kind of cake is too much plain whipped cream for me to get excited about, though a change is often nice. Definitely good cake, as expected.

This leaves Bien-être, Paris S'éveille, and Sadaharu Aoki overlapped for third place. Since I've had the fewest cakes from Bien-être, they remain the priority, but any of them could end up on top, though none of them have many cakes that I haven't had, so it's not so important as far as prioritizing for new cakes.