Frédéric Cassel, Mandarine Mangue

Was over at Ginza Mitsukoshi last weekend and picked up one new cake, Mandarine Mangue. It was good, but not too exciting. Maybe I'm just not into fruit enough. 

L'Abricotier, Oriental

As a second shop and a reason to keep running on Sunday, once Rue de Passy had secured its place among the exceptional shops, it meant I knew which shop was facing the chop, so I didn't have to visit the bottom shop of the group. In stead, I went to the top of the quite exceptional group, L'Abricotier, to allow them to challenge the group above. It's about 10 km from Rue de Passy to L'Abricotier, so it wasn't the easy choice for running, and I was tired enough after I got there, having done 3 hours of running Saturday, that I knew I was going to take my cake home by train, unless I could eat in. However, they were quite busy and all seats were full, but I preferred to have lunch at home first anyway, so I wasn't disappointed. I though I'd have to go with cream puffs, but actually they were sold out and there were two other cakes I haven't had, though I've seen their strawberry tart before, so I surprised I hadn't had it yet. However, I went with Oriental, which is mikan/tangerine  and chestnut with a chocolate base, which sounded interesting at least. Interest I might have been, but I can't say that the combination worked for me. It wasn't poorly made though, and it was as promised, so I can say that it was good. Maybe someone who likes mikan or chestnut more than I would appreciate this more. I've gotten a few cakes ahead with L'Abricotier, so it might have to wait awhile for me trying to get another new cake.

Jun Honma; Edo Matchi

Did a run out to Kouenji to visit the Jun Honma branch there, since it's closest. It was a longer run than necessary because I got turned around past Shinjuku Station and ended up heading back south and losing all my northern progress, though that was probably just a few minutes of running. Coming back, I didn't have trouble and actually walked from the west Shinjuku subway entrance to pass under the station, and then had shopping in Shinjuku (though that was it's own kind of exercise).

At Jun Honma, I got Edo Matchi, which is a traditional heavy (think, central/eastern Europe) layer cake with matcha, matcha ganache, chocolate, and some mandarin in there (I assume the sort of gelatin looking layers is matcha and fruit gelatin). I chose it thinking that chocolate and matcha is a good combination, but I didn't really have high expectations that it would be very exciting, based on the type and the previous two cakes from there. Certainly, it is not something that blows you away from the first bite, but it impresses over the full eating, so I can easily say that is excellent. It surprised me, though I expect most chefs to the bigger places to be able to make excellent cakes, just what I think is excellent is not necessary what sells well for them. Because of one early great cake that I've never seen again, they score high enough to challenge the bottom of the exceptional group, but now it's looking more like they have an actual chance of moving up. Of course, a different shop is at the top of the quite fine shops, but they are closed Tuesdays and there is room for two to be promoted, so Jun Honma got their chance, and did well. One nice thing about them is that they are open until 21:00, so even if they are little far and getting past Shinjuku Station takes time, there was a pretty good selection.

Ladurée: Galette Capucine

As planned, ran to Ginza Mitsukoshi to visit Ladurée. I tried to do some harder running in some parts, to actually build some muscle, though not in any systematic way. Maybe I'll actually use the timer of my watch running tomorrow, as the planned destination is rather close. Ran back, not trying to be so fast.

I chose Galette Capucine as the new cake to catch up this shop to the baseline for exceptional shops. Capucine is a type a flower, though I think the filling was mandarin. The cake is made of a rather dense pastry, so this was more like a pastry than cake, but I'll let them label it. Whatever it was, it was definitely excellent, so I'm happy that I promoted them and started visiting them again. Hope the other two below-water exceptional shops do as well.

Clair de Lune, Mandarine Napoléon

I had done my planned weekday cakes and still not found a new great cake to match up against Mont-Fuji, so I turned my thoughts to the alternative, finding an old great cake that hasn't had a first round (which means I've been searching for it unsuccessfully for more than two years, so little chance). I had the four or five most convenient candidates to check again in mind for over the next three days, and today started with the nearest (fail: no Chiboust Yuzu) and the one with the latest hours, the Clair de Lune, where I preferred to get a pastry if they had a new one (not the case), considered getting a cream puff, but decided to get the Mandarine Napoléon, since it's a long run and this is now a top priority shop, since I tentatively promoted it to quite excellent.

Just in case, though it was not on display, I asked the chef about their Chiboust, which I have down as a great cake from 3 years ago. He said he makes it sometimes (which is what I've been told before, but no schedule) and that I should call ahead. Well, yeah, but I don't do that and it takes my excuse away from running.

The Mandarine Napoléon was very nice. Perhaps very conventional: vanilla and fruit mousse cake with a thick gelatinous outside to hold it together on some kind of cake (seemed like chocolate) base. But it was well made and I really appreciated the mandarin/mikan, which I don't get enough, versus chocolate version, which are almost ubiquitous and often not very good. This qualifies as excellent.

Since I was still there (I ate in) and so was the chef (making something in the back), I asked again about the Chiboust, like would he make it this weekend, for example, and could I specifically order it (which PS seemed willing to do for me the other day, if I could wait 2 hours, which I couldn't). He considered and I managed to persuade him to make it for Sunday (Saturday would be too tight for him). I've repeatedly asked about a cake until they finally made it before (Fraoula), but I've never talked someone into making a specific cake, so this was new. So no cake for me Friday and Saturday. I can do a second round on Monday (holiday) if Mont-Fuji wins (if the Chiboust wins, then I will have to call and see if they carried it over for another day). In principle, I could do a third round with either to matching something else that I can get on a weekday (again, assuming that the Chiboust is not just a one-day thing).

On other JPH news (besides Mont-Fuji), they seemed to have retired one cake from the lineup without notice and announced the end of another along with the Mont-Fuji for Jan. 15. I hope this means that the Mont-Blanc will continue, or I'll be trying to do four cake-offs in three days, which would mean no more cake for a week.

Pierre Hermé: Tarte Infiniment Mandarin

Today, I got the tart I skipped yesterday, Pierre Hermé's Tarte Infiniment Mandarin. Also, I check at Jean-Paul Hévin's and supposedly they are celebrating 15 years in Japan, so it's reasonable to suspect that other shops besides the one in Isetan may have special cakes; I should look around. Maybe I'll do that Saturday, though I've got an excellent shop to get a fourth cake from. Today, I tried what I'll call a neighbor culture and cake run, where I visit local culture spots, include any cake shops, on a local run. I missed my first turn only about 100 m in, so I didn't make it far, though the first course was only 400 m. It just goes around a couple parks and a shrine that are grouped in one block, so I'm going to change my start point to be somewhere not requiring that I tell one house or apartment building from another in the dark. Also, I decided to add the police box (it's a kouban, which is not actually a box, but close enough translation), since that's as import a landmark as a train station (both may have officials that you can ask directions from). In course two, which is about 3 km long (or was until today's revision), I forgot the route two-thirds in and thought that I was off it, but since I remembered where I had to go, I ended up following the correct route after all (since there was not a better way to do the four locations in the order that I could remember). I did mess up my timing, though, so I'm guessing that I ran about 6 km total at 9 km/h. I do know that I ran about 40 minutes. I explored the next neighborhood over a little more deeply than yesterday, finding a couple parks I'm not familiar with and seeing where there are problems.

The Tarte Infiniment Mandarin tasted more like a lemon tart than orange, but that's a good thing (I'm not sure I've ever seen an orange tart, not counting this). This uses all parts, including the peal, so it has a good citrus tang for a tart but is different from lemon. The trust is a very tough one, so I probably should have used a sharper or serrated knife, but it was not overly brittle, so it didn't fall apart despite my crude efforts. I'm going to say that it's great, it being the top of its type, as far as I know; those kinds of ratings don't always hold up as well under cake-off conditions versus something that appeals to my particular tastes, but I'm not sure that they repeat cakes enough for that to matter (I'm still waiting from some citron cakes that I "great"ed a couple years ago to reappear).