Ladurée, Saint-Honoré Rose Framboise

My last cake, bought and eaten, of the weekend was a new cake from a reopened shop on the exceptional list, Ladurée. Usually I would buy from Ginza Mitsukoshi, which was still closed, so this is from the Aoyama shop, which also has indoor and outdoor eat-in space, which was in use, though I got take-out. This was the only new cake, as they were keeping their line-up lean for the first weekend reopening in a neighborhood that's still mostly closed. It is the Saint-Honoré Rose Framboise. I like saint-honoré, but I've had one from them before, and the pastry is different from what I'm used to. For example, the large bottom is flaky, which seems impossible, though I haven't experimented with choux pastry that much. Anyway, the rose and raspberry flavors were sufficient rich, that I forgave them this time and allowed that maybe this pastry could be allowed, at least enough to call this an excellent cake.

I had after an evening running where I got maybe 60% through my 13 km neighborhood running course around Daikanyama. I was coming up to a turn and noticing a red brick tower in the distance ahead and had trouble thinking what building by the station it might beyond to. Then I noticed a cross on top and realized that I had missed a church on a side street. It's a nice building, too, though there a couple bigger ones in this neighbor (which has more churches than any other I know in Japan), so I was happy to find it, and quite my run, went back to my bicycle, and got some photos I was missing for Shibuya sites.

Pierre Hermé, Tarte Rose et Jasmin

Finally got to Isetan (by virtue of taking PM off Thursday) and got a new cake from Pierre Hermé in response to their recent cake-off winner. I even got the (probably) monthly cake I was targeting:  Tarte Rose et Jasmin. This looks a lot like their vanilla tart, which is one of their great cakes. I had this after a half lunch, before even running (there was afternoon running for more cake, to catch up from lots of overtime work this and the previous week, and then evening running). This cake was definitely excellent. I really like this solid tart. The mascarpone cheese has a good texture, but no flavor, so it's good for adding sutler flavors. I think even Earl Grey tea was a little strong for this cake, but in general I prefer stronger cake, so I doubt it makes a huge difference, just something to think about for next time. This is a good enough showing that the shop is not in danger for it's superb shop position from challengers below, for the moment.

Ces Jours, Aroma [updated]

To change things up, I went back to hitting a shop on my quite great list, though I'm still adding new ones faster than I'm ticking off ones with three net cakes. There are a lot of local ones and ones I can hit weekdays, so maybe I'll do one next week, though I'm conflicted about hitting JPH again. Anyway, the long planned trip to Ces Jours was finally carried out. It was about a 70-minute each way.

I went for Aroma, as the type of cake I like, but it was a poor choice for transporting by bicycle. I'm skeptical about the design, though, as the top half is jell, with nothing keeping it on, so I'm not sure that a long return by train would have completely saved it. It's lychee, rose, and raspberry, well balanced. Inside is lychee comport, which works well. The texture is somewhat limited, but reasonable (the outside shell of the bottom gives a little crunch, I forget from what kind of nuts, so let's say pistachio, which would go with the flavor). This was definitely at least definitely good, but I was conflicted about whether it is excellent, based on what I perceive as its relative design flaws. In the end, I decided to just split the difference and call it semi-excellent, which isn't enough to keep it in the quite good shops, though it will be able to keep a position in the next lower rank (currently good), when I have to split it due to too many shops (its already 36 over the target 64 and I need to demote another 26 from quite good, but even including the latter, I don't have a full 64 that are obviously above the minimum and get second cakes from the just good shops with one cake isn't going to be a project I'm going to start any time soon). Still, it's been a little over 3 years since I've been there anyway, and with 3 cakes, don't to have need to visit them again: just too many shops in Tokyo.

Michalak, Tarte Pistache

Today, cake from Michalak again, as planned. I tried a second tart, the Tarte Pistache. The base is almond cream flavored with orange and rose, pistachio praliné, with mascarpone cheese, whipped cream, and pistachio paste in white chocolate icing, or some combination of those ingredients, as I got a little lost in the description online. The result is somewhat mild, as one would expect from mascarpone cheese and whipped cream, though still definitely good, and better from me than the previous chocolate one, though similar. This shop is currently beating some excellent ones, so it will probably get promoted from quite good, but it hasn't reached 6 cakes yet and I haven't tested either of the cakes identified as great yet in a cake-off, so I'll hold off a little while long. In the meantime, I'll try a new shop over the weekend, I hope, as well as the planned cake-off to test the first great cake.

Ryoura, Reverie

Got out by bicycle between the morning and afternoon rains kicked up by the freak (for its west movement across Japan) typhoon and went to Ryoura, which is my number two priority right now, after Bien-être, which I just visited and is accessible on weekdays (though I might have to go a weekend, as getting to the new cakes at the end of a workday is becoming more difficult).

Went with the Reverie this time, which I've had my eye on. Obviously, this is a delicate type, but the outer shell held up well from the road vibration, even if the whipped cream on top suffered a little bit. This is rose-flavored red fruit cake, very light and creamy inside as well. This is much lighter than the types of cakes I prefer, so my initial thought was that although this was definitely good, it doesn't rate higher. But I don't need heavy cakes every time, or strong flavors in my light cakes every time, so I decided that it was fair to call this excellent, but certainly I would recommend it more to someone who likes light cakes (like the ubiquitous shortcakes).

So Ryoura remains at the top of the quite excellent shops, partially by virtue of my not having sampled as many of their cakes yet, and there is a strong sampling bias. For the same reason, Ryoco is in some sense also at the top of this list (I have two metrics that put different weights on different cake ratings), with only 7 cakes, but since Ryoco almost never have anything available, and even then I think you have to go online and order at exactly the right time, they're a just a remnant that I keep until Ryoco actually closes their shop completely.

[Tuesday & Wednesday] Viron: Parfum de Rose

Jogged to Viron, which was a huge mistake, for one thing, I've been sick since, but then, probably before that as well so I'm not so confident about cause and effect. No soreness at first, but picked up some hip pain half way there. Was able to keep running, but again, apparently shouldn't have, though I've not feeling sore now again, even if I have what's probably a cold.

The cake, which was in response to Viron winning a cake-off, was Parfum de Rose, which is a fruity (and obviously flowery) mousse dome, so not really my thing. Still it was good. Obviously, it did not travel so well.

The next day, on Wednesday, I got a Madeleine Maman from Noix de Beurre, which was good, but I regret not getting the financier, since my last one wasn't good as I wanted (but better than this).

Arcachon: Rose Pink

I kept things simple and went back to Arcachon at Isetan and got the Rose Pink (I think) for 540 yen. This is strawberry as the outer coating (just a couple millimeters) with the inside mascarpone cheese. I choose this just as the first cake in the lineup (although there are things I would have skipped with this strategy) and it is not something I would expect to be in the mood for, but actually it worked out well. It's not exciting again, but it was excellent for what it was, with the strawberry not too strong, and actually left me quite satisfied (and very full, since I ate it after lunch).

Yu Sasage: Gaien Walk

Got a second cake from Yu Sasage during their visit to Isetan before running.

For the run, I did the east half of the Shinjuku History and Culture course, Gaien Walk and Outer Moat, before following the Shibuya course to the Inner Moat and coming back through Akasaka-Mitsuke and up past Yotsuya Station. Mostly, I was really slow about it, although the point was more to get some hills in. There was 0.2 km of very fast at the beginning, and I managed a moderate speed 6.4 km for the Shinjuku H&C (despite the hills and stairs) and a little extra to cross the main road (and because I overshot the turn onto the Shibuya course), but there was 2.7 km of slow and 2.4 very slow after that, for a total about about 11.7 km.

The cake was the Perfum, which they list as a specialty. This is a tea tart with raspberry cream and jelly with rose-scented meringue and was 486 yen. I can't say that I could pick up on most of this. Certainly, there was a tart that was good, but I couldn't tell you the flavor, and the cream/meringue was raspberry. I wanted to like it, so I did and will call it great, which means that I need make a priority of getting over to Yu Sasage itself, since they are done at Isetan. Also I was reminded that shops have Isetan-only cakes, so I should check out the visiting patisserie even when it's some place that isn't otherwise a priority, just to see if there is anything special.