Jean-Paul Hévin, Maya

Thursday, I had the morning off and slightly ran to Fiorentina Pastry Boutique down in Roppongi Hills to find out whether they still have Estate in the line-up with they don't. That was as much as I could manage as far as running, so I walked to Ginza Mitsukoshi. The big goal was to get one of the new cakes at Jean-Paul Hévin, which I've never had before. There is also one that I've only seen in Kyoto previously, which was excellent, so I might have that again. I let one of the great ones from last month go without having again, just because I couldn't do a cake-off, which is unfortunately. This month, I don't have a match for Bergamot.

But for now, what I got was Maya, which follows the usual JPH pattern as far as chocolate cakes with layers of mousse. This uses Ecuador chocolate mousse, Provence honey nougatine, crème brûlée, a chestnut biscuit, and croustillant. This gives it relatively sharp taste (I don't really know how to describe chocolate), but that's good, great actually. 

Jean-Paul Hévin (Kyoto): Kibune & Mousse au Chocolat Miso

Took a trip to Kyoto and of course a top priority was to visit the Jean-Paul Hévin. Sure, there was skepticism at first, until a little research showed that it was a Salon de Thé. Visiting, it is very nice and is a good price if you want a high-quality café-type lunch, hot chocolate, and cake. 

I took a picture of Croque Parisien, but the Pâte gratinée aux cèpes was better (seen here). The hot chocolate was the Chocolate Chaud Columbia and Chocolate Chaud Gingembre (ginger). This was my first time for the Gingembre, which was definitely good but not especially exciting.

Of the cake, I assume that the Kibune is named after the shrine. It's layers of chocolate and matcha mousses along with cherry and pistachio nougatine. It's excellent, which an overall fruity chocolate taste. The other is Mousse Chocolate Miso, which is a dark chocoalte shell filed with chocolate flavored with white miso. Probably would not able to identify the flavor as miso, but it's definitely good chocolate mousse that I didn't get tired of before it was gone.

Jean-Paul Hévin: Goa

I'm behind so, the cake is from Wednesday. I went first to Jean-Paul Hévin at Isetan, where they have Goa from this month, which I don't think I've ever had. Backing up, Tuesday, I tried to do a 21 km run but got lost trying to save time and once I figured out where I was and what I needed to do to get on track, I didn't have the time or energy to make up for it, so I decided to head home and make it a 16 km run (at about 9 km/h average), though I stopped at Dalloyau and got a Pain au Chocolat, which despite the late hour and the poor conditions of me eating it (in a park), was still definitely excellent. This is basically like a very loose croissant, in the sense of being flaky all the way through rather than being bread-like on the inside, in texture and taste, despite the difference in shape, with line of chocolate down the axis.

The run for Wednesday was up to Yasukuni Avenue to a closed shop (I forgot and hadn't checked their closed day) and then down to Tokyo Midtown, where I checked what special cakes Sadaharu Aoki might have there, though I had also intended to check Toshi Yoroizuka, but forgot. Total, it was about 8 km again at 9 km/h. I definitely need to change my running and cake-buying for the long runs so I force myself to rest afterward, but it's hard to balance my different running and cake objectives. Anyway, this week, I needed more rest, but I'm busy Thursday, Friday, and most of Saturday, so I'm rested up now.

Goa from Jean-Paul Hévin was great, though I did not come to that conclusion quickly. It's been a while since I evaluated a new cake from them and they are kind of a special case. This cake is chocolate mousse, Darjeeling mousse, yuzu flavored biscuit, and pecan nougatine. My first impression was that it was subtle for my tastes, and so not my favorite from them, but definitely good. As I progressed, it was clearly excellent and I appreciated the difference. Afterward, I decided that it was great, in that I definitely wanted to have it again, which is the real test, and that I would not have as much trouble identifying it as great if I avoided comparing it to other Jean-Paul Hévin cakes. Even so, it really is great even among their and appreciate their variety (though only among chocolate cakes), and wouldn't have trouble choosing them if I could only have cake from one place, though the variety is necessarily spread out over the year, so my cake eating is a little too frequent to be satisfied.

Henri le Roux and nonstop running 1/1 intervals

Got the fourth and last Henri le Roux cake type from Henri le Roux, Isetan. Need to get back to Henri le Roux Midtown for the Kouign Amann that I haven't had, since the two I had there were great.

For running, I went back to the unfinished loop of yesterday's run and continued the non-stop run. This time, inspired by a friend, I did 1 min/1 min intervals for an hour (as you can imagine, my ability to run all out was short lived, but I did continue to put out effort) and then did a normal run home.

The cake was Paris-Brest C.B.S. (caramel beurre sel) for 540 yen. Which is basically a round salted caramel éclair. It was excellent but I can't say great, either because I'm less impressed the second time around after having an éclair last time or maybe because I liked the chocolate better than the caramel. It still has a nougatine topping, more actually, and the cream filling has their specialty C.B.S.

Nonstop local run and Henri le Roux (Isetan): Éclair Chocolat

Got a third Henri le Roux cake from Isetan, so for my running, I did a nonstop run, using what I had learned previously and starting by going west. Still ended up coming out of the wrong subway exit when using it to cross to a different block, so I could go farther, but it was okay. At 1 hour, I intended to finish my loop and go back, but hit road construction that closed the sidewalk, so I had to detour to the next street back, which is really what I should have been using since the light was out only because of construction for the Olympics. Ended with 1:12' run. Was sore at the beginning, especially when I hit the first slightly up-slope part, so yesterday's Akasaka Palace course work definitely had an effect.

The "cake" (and they call it cake there) was Éclair Chocolat for 432 yen, which has thick chocolate, a solid chocolate bar inside, the biscuit of course, and some caramel and nuts on top (nougatine, "brown nougat"). Best éclair I've ever had (which is not high praise by itself), and I'm going to call it "great", although it is simple rather than revolutionary. This is a third great cake in a row (and three of only four available), so I'm going to call the shop "great".

Probably go back tomorrow for the last cake. Not sure what I'll get from there after that, but won't have to decide until maybe next Tuesday, since I have other weekend cake plans.