Ron Herman Café: Cheesecake and Mont-Blanc

I was busy on the weekend, but did a first visit to the Ron Herman Café in Sendagaya and had lunch and cake for two. The cakes were their Cheesecake, which has fresh grapes, and a Mont-Blanc. For a café, this place has a pretty good selection, which was one reason for choosing it, plus it's not in a crowded area, though fairly busy (not sure where people come from, since it's far from the standard shopping areas, and yet they continue, though obviously on people's radars). Too much gelatin on the top of the cheesecake for me, but definitely good cake, with amount of sour cream sourness that I miss in a lot of cheesecakes here. 

I thought the Mont-Blanc was also definitely, but it was pointed out that it had a sort of amateurish disorder. The base is about 1 centimeter thick of something between a dense pound cake and a sablé-type cookie, which is a bit unusually, but probably useful for a café. I suspect both the base and the cheesecake are prepared in advance at a remote location and the top parts are added locally.

Anyway, good enough that it should count as a cake shop on my local running map, but not good enough that I'll probably get back to it now that I've had two cakes.
 

Le Salon Jacques Borie, Pistache

Was busy on the weekend, but catching up, midweek I had one cake, La Pistache from the (Le Salon) Jacques Borie at Isetan. Actually, I was looking for something else at Isetan, since I haven't finished bringing up the exceptional shops to 8 net cakes, but I didn't mind getting back to this quite fine shop that I had three excellent cakes in a row. 

This was definitely a good cake. It's got a great sablé and the whipped cream, but the latter tends to drown the pistachio flavor (perhaps the pistachio part is pistachio cream rather than a stronger paste). Nice cake from someone who likes something on the light side, though I assume this shop will safely stay in the quite fine category, even though I'm hoping to cut 1/3 in this pass.

Sunday August 23, I hit the Omote-Sandou Stn. north area hard, starting with getting cake from a coffee shop, Nikka Block Cafe. I had had an excellent sablé from there. On the negative side, no cake take-out, but no drink requirement, so I figured if the cake's good, I'll make it a cake site on the new neighborhood course map. Unfortunately, this cake hits back hard. It's not stale, and a certain amount of hardness is expected, but it didn't really work for me. Ok, but needs a lot of whipped cream.

In better news, I liked the sunflower seed macaron from Cooing, which is evidently Korean.

In other local sweets news, Streamer Coffee Company Harajuku had a nice cookie, whereas the basement cafe in Omotesando Hills was manufactured on the other side of the country and not so great. I also didn't appreciate the pound cake from Ratio&C bike shop. Finally, though they apparently used to sell Kobe Donuts, now they are into muffins from a company called Berry Wise. Actually, definitely good, though I don't usually do muffins. This one was macadamia nuts and chocolate, maybe.

Sadaharu Aoki, Hassaku Passion

Sadaharu Aoki: Hassaku Passion

My running Sunday night was actually to get more cake, which was less ambitious than I originally planned, though I wasn't expecting to be successful, since it was late on a Sunday, when everything is usually sold-out. I went to the south Tokyo Sta. area and naturally went first to the Sadaharu Aoki main shop. I was looking for their yearly exclusive, which I still haven't gotten, even though the year starts in April. I did get something that they just promoted again, but I could have gotten to Isetan, if I were more patient, Hassaku Passion, which is hassaku orange (which is a Japanese variety which is apparently somewhat grapefruit like) and passion fruit on a coconut accented sablé. The description makes clear that it is mild, which it is, so not really my thing, but good.

Pierre Gagnaire, Crème de Fraises et Citron

The midweek cake for the midweek holiday was Crème de Fraises et Citron from Pierre Gagnaire, where everything was 20% off. Hope they're still in business for my next cake-off. As the name implies, this is basically just cream flavored with lemon and strawberry, with a thin sablé cookie underneath and some sheet chocolate to fence it in. But again, its a collection of good stuff that works together, so I'm happy to call it an excellent cake.

I ran in the afternoon on neighborhood courses around Omote-Sandou, where I've had to revise the loops to the north, east, and south loops due to finding additional sites. I decided to dump a park site that's attached to a public housing area that's now fenced off, probably about to be torn down, now that they're done with the south half, in order to simply the north loop somewhat. Looking ahead, the next Saturday, I finally got them all sorted out and confirmed clockwise and counterclockwise, so I can move on to other things. I'm mention, that I decided I shouldn't discriminate against the fast food places if they have takeout desserts, so I added McDonald's (okay syrupy apple pie), Freshness Burger (okay poundcake), and Mos Burger (frozen mini cheesecakes). I'm adding a couple cafes as well, if I can ever catch them open (if they are open during the state of emergency).

Sadaharu Aoki, Florentin Chocolat

Last week, no more cake Tuesday to Thursday, but I kept running, mostly working on revising the Jinguumae, specially the area north of Omote-Sandou, where I ultimately had to combined the new loop with the main loop (which had already absorbed two other smaller adjacent loop in the previous revision). One new shop on the route is Comebuytea, which I hadn't realized until now wasn't even on my map (and not on Google map yet, as it just opened). I don't know how the tea is (uses a machine like a coffee maker, apparently, so presumably it's fast), but they have some good packaged snacks (as found in the best convenience stores), though they had a display for this tart that hid that it was packaged. I've had this brand and size before from a grocery store, though the packaging is slightly different. Still, it seems to be a good brand. I could have gone for the muffin for about 500 yen, but I'm not sure who makes that anyway; it at least looked more local.

I also found a buffet sweets place (so a curiosity, but not somewhere I would go), Maison Able Cafe Ron Ron. Earlier, I did get to Isetan again, surprisingly, but En Vedette was already gone. Actually the Ma Patisserie is closing down at Isetan as of today, though there is still the other rotating sweets shop and a shop I'm interested in comes at the end of the month, so I'll see whether they sell cake. I got useful information on JPH's line-up, which I took advantage of later, but for Wednesday, what I got was a Gâteaux Sec (baked sweet): Florentin Chocolat, which was excellent. I should get the plain one.

Ryoura, Récif

Sunday as a big cake and running day. First, I did the run out to Ryoura. I stopped at Hikarie to check Sadaharu Aoki, but it seems to be one of the shops closed during a 1.5-month renovation. Next, I went to Viron and got their Bostock aux Pistaches, which I decided was excellent, though I'm not convinced that pistachios, much less with cherry, are an improvement.

At Ryoura, I decided that chocolate was a dependable choice (plus, I've had most of their line-up), so I went with the Récif, which I hadn't seen before. This is chocolate and whipped cream, with oat and currant sablé and cacao-scented blancmange, which sounds a little weird perhaps, but the taste was a definitely good chocolate cake, but it didn't really stand out. Maybe the interesting ingredients actually cancelled each other out. I'll included the double picture and split up the post, since I don't have enough space for all the labels.

Jean-Paul Hévin: Bûchette Hope

Last Thursday, probably again working late, I skipped Isetan and Marunouchi and went straight to Ginza Mitsukoshi by bicycle to get Bûchette Hope, the individual version of the most expensive of the regular sized Christmas cakes (probably because of the decoration ball not on the individual) of Jean-Paul Hévin. Based on descriptions of the full-sized cakes, the top chocolate mousse is Ecuadorean bitter chocolate, next is crème brûlée using Tahitian vanilla beans and a little timut pepper, then the same chestnut and almond biscuit as Bûchette Lichen, then a flour-less chocolate biscuit, and finally a chestnut powder sablé, hazelnuts, and caramel flavored chocolate croustillante. Like the previous day, a relatively crunch/dry cake that is a nice change while still being decadent chocolate. It's easy to say it's a great cake, though it will never get a chance to be in a cake-off. I'll have to wait until next year to see what new Christmas cakes they offer.

At home, I did the indoor workout with weights.

Friday, I did a neighborhood run course, the new Dougenzaka--Maruyamachou--Shinsenchou loop, which merges two new loops. On the way to shopping I discovered a LaDuree salon behind the Bunkamura in Shibuya, not even on Google maps yet, so I had to revise the Kamiyama-chou--Tomigaya--Udagawa-chou loop again. That led to noticing that the Jinnan loops should be merged, which meant the new loop needed to be put in a clump, which has let to a shape up of a few clumps and discovering that the Minami-Aoyama 3&4 loop was linked to the wrong loop. I still have one more clump to fix before it's all sorted out.

Jean-Paul Hévin: Bûchette Lichen

I'm way behind, but here goes. By last Wednesday, I had noticed that the individual versions of Jean-Paul Hévin's Christmas cakes were available, so I went hunting. I tried Isetan first, where there was a line (not necessarily for cake), but when I got a chance to ask, I found out that they were sold out, so I left. It was still early enough for me to go by bicycle to the Marunouchi shop, where they didn't have either and I didn't ask, so I went to Ginza Mitsukoshi, where they had both, not too much to my surprise (they are never as busy there). I went with Bûchette Lichen first because they only had one compared to several of the other, so I figured next time the other would still be easier to get, which would turn out to be true.

There is a full-sized version that has a fuller explanation of the layers, so I'm going to assume that they are the same, since the pictures match. The top (and sides of the big cake) is Venezuelan chocolate mousse, then Ethiopian café au lait mousse, a chestnut and almond biscuit, a chocolate and marzipan biscuit, and a cinnamon sablé base. So a high proportion of hard biscuit-type things, flour-less. The problem is the coffee, but I knew that going in. I really like this harder, drier cake as a change and I could accept the café au lait as an interesting flavor and enjoy it. There wasn't even a coffee aftertaste problem for me this time. However, it still left a burning feeling in my stomach, if not my mouth, so I still need to avoid coffee and have to rate it as only excellent.

Besides the bicycling, I did my indoor non-weights workout, which was enough.

Frédéric Cassel, Tarte Tatin

Went by bicycle (since the main exercise was indoors) to Ginza Mitsukoshi and got my target cake, Tarte Tatin. Not sure whether it will continue after today, since I see on Facebook that a fig tart is starting tomorrow and running to mid-November. This has a pretty hard pecan sablé base, which is what set it apart enough that I can call it excellent (not that tarte tatin are so common).

Frédéric Cassel: Inspiration Guava

Because my hip was hurting, as one reason, I bicycled to Frédéric Cassel at Ginza Mitsukoshi and got this month's inspiration: Inspiration Guava. This is very tropical, with guava, lime, lemon, baba (okay, nothing to do with the tropics), rum, and vanilla with a coconut sablé as the base. From anywhere else, I'd probably pass this up, but I can count on Frédéric Cassel and this was excellent. I ate it after coming home and doing a full indoor workout (the other reason for not running; I should really be doing these every three days), which takes me about an hour, but for 14 sets, I should be able to do them in 35 minutes, if I made more of them timed intense 1-minute workouts, which right now the weight training isn't. Maybe I'll that try once and see how it goes.

Pierre Hermé: Cheesecake Céleste

Made another visit to Pierre Hermé, who started selling their next theme (though they still have some of the previous one), which is Céleste. I got the Cheesecake Céleste, since it had been a while since I had tried one of their cheesecakes and some of the have been excellent or great.

For running, I went down to my farthest neighborhood that I've planned and tried and made the second attempt, after considerable changes. I wasn't perfect, but it went pretty good, as far as following the planned course checking the map as little as possible. I took some pictures, now that a new building showed what it could do with all that spaces in front of it (it's a media company, I think): Christmas Circus. Totally secure Christmas is popular this time of year, pretty much straight from Halloween, though there is overlap with fall leaf viewing, which we're just seeing the end of in central Japan. Note that the building behind the tree is next door, not the building in front of the tree.

The cake was definitely good. I'll even call it excellent. It's got a lot going on, from a sablé base, biscuit infused with passion fruit and a harmony of strawberry and rhubarb.

(Tues) Dalloyau: Tarte Mangue

Had a long run under the impression that Eclat des Jours was open Fri to Tue, when actually they are open Thu to Mon, but sometimes Tue (yesterday was not one of those open Tue times). On the plus side, the return run was much more comfortable without carrying cake. My backup was Dalloyau, which added less than 1 km (total run was about 22 km; 10 km/h out but 9 km/h average over the total). Another disappoint was that it did not rain as forecast, so it remained hot. My purpose in want to go to Dalloyau was to get the Tarte Mangue (540 yen).

The tart was the usual high quality. It was firm custard on sablé, or something similar, with a layer of mango gelatin on top. It was definitely good but very mild and not very interesting to me. To the best of my knowledge, that catches me up on all available fresh cakes at Dalloyau, but hopefully there will be something new next week with the start of the new month, though some shops wait for the first full week or maybe just the first weekend in the new month to introduce new cakes.

Éclat des Jours: Azelia

Yesterday was training without cake (cached for a second future cake-off). I ran up and down a slope fast for about 14 min and then around the same neighborhood trying to familiar myself with it (I did to a point and then got lost) and seeing whether there are better slopes nearby (probably not, except the one between two stations that might be too busy that I already knew about), for a total of about 40 minutes. The non-cake was a sablé from Jean-Paul Hévin: Sablé Viennois Nougatine, which is a cookie with an almond-brittle center and undercoating of chocolate. Definitely excellent, so I'll try their other similar sablé.

Over the outer moat toward Hibiya.

Today, I got back to a recent priority, Éclat des Jours. I had a fairly good run, almost exactly 10.0 km/h for the 10+ km going out, but with lots of stops for lights. I u need to stop for fewer lights (by ignoring the unnecessary ones). This time I got Azelia, which was a little risky. This is peanut mousse covered in caramel on a chocolate and whole peanut tarte. I'm not generally in favor of peanuts as a cake ingredient and caramel doesn't always work out, but I was willing to give it a try. I told them it would take 100 min (I meant to say 80), and they put three ice packs in it (so I think their service is great, too). Still, the caramel was looking a little melty around the edges, so the extra ice was probably not wasted, but it was fine. Going back was just above 8.5 km/h, which is fine carrying cake. Tried to take a couple pictures with the cheap phone.

Night view from main bridge on route.

The cake was excellent, I think, certainly I had no problems with the peanuts or the caramel, which were both to my liking. I was expecting a richer chocolate, ganache maybe, rather than something more biscuit-like, but you generally need something to soak up extra moisture from mousse, seems like, so this was probably a structural requirement. Even though this third cake didn't reach the great level, this remains a top priority as a still little explored quite excellent shop.

Pierre Gagnaire: Chocolat Gianduja

My running is scaling down as I approach the weekend runs, which aren't planned as that long, although Sunday has room to grow if I decide to add to the basic plan of Jiyugaoka and Isetan as sources for great cakes for another cake-off. Specifically, I ran just under 10 km at about 10 km/h, which was actually a little faster than I had planned, so probably going to run right up to my running budget limit on Saturday (unless Fraoula finally comes through with the one cake of theirs that I've rated as great, in which case I'll maybe switch Limevert to Sunday).

The cake was Chocolat Gianduja, where the only other information on the card besides the Japanese pronunciation and price (600 yen) was "Chocolate Praline". This turned out to be mostly cream under the chocolate coating, half plain and half apparently hazelnut (or the name doesn't make sense). There was also a little spongy chocolate (or maybe Gianduja) cake in the middle and a flavorful sablé on the bottom that I'll guess was hazelnut, though I'm not that good at even basic identifications. It was definitely good cake, but did not have enough flavor to balance all that cream for me to get excited about it. Since it's very windy today and might rain, I chose to eat in (there are some tables in the sort of hallway next to the shop), where the lighting is not very flattering, at least for my phone camera.
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Il Pleut sur la Seine: Le Saint-Marc

Had a run down to Il Pleut sur la Seine in Daikanyama. It's about 5 km and outbound was 11 km/h, which is a little fast for the safety of pedestrians around Omotesando, but the patisserie/cafe/school closes at 19:30, so it's hard not to be in a hurry, and it is after all my target speed for general weekday cake runs.

The cake I got was Le (?) Saint-Marc (ラサンマルク; 616 yen), which is a standard cake. I've had cake from here more than once years ago but never found anything that I was thrilled with, more in terms of variety than quality. This time, as a bonus (maybe because they messed up my receipt; I didn't really understand the explanation) they gave me a couple of Sablé "Mimorettou" (サブレ・ミモレットゥ), which is a name only they use, but there's a link here explaining how it uses 12-month aged cheese and almonds. Presumably the cheese is Mimolette, so I should keep an eye out for that. This is sort of a salty, cheesy, almond cookie, which means I know someone who would really appreciate this, so maybe we should go down there together for cake and get some more. Certainly it was excellent, so I'm also keeping an eye out for a recipe, as well as the cheese.

The run back was 10 km/h, as planned. One nice thing about this shop is that they label their cakes (that's the green dot) and boxes so that you know what temperature to eat it at. In this case, they recommended 10 degC, so the whipped cream was the right consistency, which, they explained, means 10 minutes from the refrigerator. I followed this instruction, and it was great cake. Since this is mostly whipped cream (some chocolate), it can be light for me, but with the almond biscuits and caramel on top, it balanced out perfectly. Guess I'm going to have to get back there again next week (although I'm pre-warned that they are closed next Wednesday so as to be open on Valentines day). 

Debailleul: Macaron Breton

I was curious about cake appearing at Debailleul, which is a high-end chocolate counter at Isetan (where I had never bought). Actually, though, the cakes are from Collection Échiré, so not so distinct from Échiré Maison du Beurre, which is in the same company group. Anyway, even knowing the facts now, it was worth trying and was good, high-quality cake, but not more than that. Specifically, I had the Macaron Breton (マカロン　ブルトン; 734 yen), which is a sort of buttery chocolate (ganache) tart on a sablé base
with a macaron-type top.

The running was Meiji Jingu Gaien intervals, which ended up with 300 m at 14 km/h, 925 m at 13 km/h and about 3 km at 10 km/h. The fast intervals were all at least 13.0 km/h, as planned, though I don't have fine control at the speed, which is how I end up with one interval sliding into 14 km/h territory.

Jean-Paul Hévin (ジャンポール エヴァン): Orly (オルリー) Place de l'Étoile (プラスドゥレトワール)

Orly

Sunday afternoon, I went to the Jean-Paul Hévin in Marunouchi, because they have cakes the other shops don't. Of the two, the favorite one was the Orly （オルリー, 592 yen + 8%), which is chocolate cake (of course) and mouse with passion fruit ganache. Great cake.

The other, which is promoted on their home page as a special, is Place de l'Étoile (プラスドゥレトワール, 592 yen + 8%), which has a sablé bottom, and layers of coffee-flavored dacquoise and chocolate mousse. I'm still not a fan of coffee (especially the aftertaste), but the balance was not bad and it was still excellent cake, even for me.

Place de l'Étoile

Still one more cake there that I haven't had (Voyage; maybe three are constant and one, now the Place de l'Étoile, get's rotated). In fairness, this should perhaps be considered a separate cake shop from the other JPH shops, since there seems to be no overlap in cakes, but the style and quality are similar.

Today's run was along the same theme, as I visited the shops in Omotesando and Tokyo Midtown to see whether they have special exclusive cakes. I'm not sure whether it's special, but they both had Safi, which I've not posted on. Not sure whether I can get it at Isetan (tried to check, but the line was long, though I can probably just ask the person manning the door without going in, or it might be on the chocolate bar menu), and I need to visit Ginza Mitsukoshi again and see what they have there. Total, I ran 9.2 km at about 9 km/h. I haven't really had a plan to this point, but I'd like a long (maybe 25 km, although that's a big jump, so maybe walk the last 5 km) this weekend. If I do it Saturday, that only leaves me a shortish training run and a Ginza run this week, although I don't really need to do more. However, maybe I should try hold off until Sunday for the long one, since I can do a shorter run Saturday (maybe to a new shop) and then the long run Sunday and then rest Monday. Tomorrow looks like rain, though, so it wouldn't bad to rest then in any case.

Pierre Hermé: Céleste

After yesterday's disappoint, I went to Pierre Hermé at Isetan. Probably I should finish off trying their regular cakes, since there will always be a new "fetish" of the month, but this month's sounded good, so I went with the signature one, the Céleste for 756 yen. This is a sablé base with strawberry and rhubarb confit (basically strawberry slices in sauce). Next up is mascarpone cream flavored with passion fruit, meringue on top, and a whole strawberry. It was definitely excellent cake, although it was not so great that I won't be able to resist sampling the other cakes in this series and visit other shops. No doubt, there will be something good next month as well, if I make it over there again.

But I skipped the running: as planned, despite knee discomfort, I ran. Not sure if that was bad or not: I get discomfort from sitting at my desk, or from my commuting walk, but less than before, I think. At some point, it is not clear what will make things better. I only ran 1 km, in 7'20'' and it does not seem worse than before, but that's been the case for some time. I'll see how things are through tomorrow night.

No running, Pierre Hermé: Infiniment Citron x2

Tried to go to the cafe at La Maison du Chocolat but gave up after a 40-minute wait. I don't have much experience with cafe's, but I think a 20 minutes cap is reasonable: if they can't get you in before then, get away. There is plenty of good places that I've been to that would break that, and I was okay, but not everyone is that into cake all the time, and you can get take out.

Later, at Shinjuku Isetan, got two special/seasonal cakes (which doesn't really get me to my goal of trying out all the regular cakes at all the great shops, but that's okay): Baba Infiniment Citron and Cheesecake Infiniment Citron. The second is lemon biscuit, lemon baked cheese cake, lemon cheese mousse, lemon marmalade, and sable. The baba version is lemoncello (a liquor), lemon cream, lemon whipped cream, lemon confit, and lemon gelatin. These are both great, which they should be for 700 and 800 yen, I think (although I don't now which was which).