Sadaharu Aoki, Flan Nature

Thursday, since they are a priority shop in terms of not having enough new cakes, I get another new cake from Sadaharu Aoki at Marunouchi. This was Flan Nature. I didn't have high expectations, being just custard, but having a wonderful vanilla flavor, it was excellent (and relatively cheap).

Though this is from Friday, I'll also give a mention to Échiré and these Sablé Sandwiches, which were at least good. Can't say I've rated them carefully, but I definitely liked the Pistache the best. These are from (Shinjuku) Isetan. Not really that cheap: about half a cake each, though that's true of most non-cake things.

Pierre Gagnaire: Green Tea and White Chocolate Cake

Leading text. Thursday was a holiday, as part of a four-day weekend prepared for the Olympics. I used it to visit Pierre Gagnaire and get their other new cake, Green Tea and White Chocolate Cake, which follows the same literal naming as the other cake; can't say that I mind. In fact, I started the next week's cakes early, but I expected to be busy two days, and did not actually have any cake then. White chocolate seems a much better pairing with matcha than blond chocolate, and this was excellent. There might have been some sort of custard in the middle, or maybe it was just cream. Anyway, excellent cake. It was raining, so I walked there and continued on for a second stop. This actually brings this shop level with quite exceptional shops, as far as new cake count, and it maintained its rating edge, so Lenôtre loses it's place, as expected.

Paris S'éveille, Tarte Rhubarbe Orange

Sunday, I went out to get a new cake from a superb shop, specifically, Tart Rhubarb Orange, or maybe they used French spelling. You aren't allowed to take pictures. The tart seemed to be pistachio.

On the way, I hit a local shop in the Jinguumae/Kita-Aoyama area north of Omote-Sandou Sta., which was actually not that far out from home, though that's why it's a high-priority area. They had a selection of 7 kinds of baked goods. I went with the Matcha Donut. It was good. It was a quite moist (but not wet) cake donut. The other things were similarly vegan pseudo-healthy things. Though the staff was Japanese, when spoke English to me, the website shows a young Euro-looking family of three, and the person behind me was a young white woman, which is a tough market segment in this travel environment. Just because of their selection, and the college-aged English speaking Japanese staff, I wonder whether they are related to the folks to took over the bakery Tournage one running neighborhood loop to the north, who were also doing the vegan baked good things. They had a kitchen, though it's the middle of Tokyo, so it wouldn't be hard to move containers of small baked goods from any of hundreds of shops. Anyway, one shop to visit down, and I found another one I hadn't recorded one building further along (I knew they sound some coffee, as well as whatever their main thing was, but I hadn't noticed the baked goods before).

The tart reminded me of rhubarb pie, which my mother frequently made but I did not appreciate, so it was usually made at the sime time apple pie was made. It was good, but too much of what I'm not interested in. I have no memory already of what running if any I did. It was a lot of walking carrying cake and an umbrella, so probably I didn't.

the whatever spelling they are using. . Actually, I intended to get them from two, but it didn't work out. It was raining, so I went walking with an umbrella.

Origines Cacao, Saint Honoré Pistache Framboise

Finally got over to Ginza 6 to visit Origines Cacao and get a new cake from them. This falls under new cakes from superb shops, because right now Origines Cacao is a candidate, but based on less than half the cakes I've sampled from the current list, so it's going to be a long process to make the leap.

To day and walked and ran (in 4 min intervals, 6 total of the running) and got the Saint Honoré Pistache Framboise, since I like saint-honoré in general and the other one I had from them was excellent. Even with 24 minutes of running, it's a long round trip, taking 1 h 45 min, so maybe tomorrow I'll go to a shop by bicycle, even though that's also my plan for Thursday.

I'll also rate this as excellent. The pistachio and raspberry harmonized well and the choux pastry provided texture to contrast the cream. Definitely much better than the last saint-honoré  I had from a different shop.

Éclat des Jours, Macaron Anana

I was thinking that I owed Éclat des Jours for a cake-off win, but apparently not, just I was putting them off because they're at the bottom of the quite exceptional shop list. No matter: under the new system, they were above all the shops in the exceptional shop list. To get a better selection of a new cake, I wanted to go on a weekend, and I did get something new, the Macaron Anana. It's as named, although the macaron is airy, which may be a thing in Tokyo shops now, and pineapple is different, though tropical fruit appear in cakes in the summer. It was good, but the design and flavors didn't stand out as something I wanted again.

This was about a 11 km one-way, bring the cake back by train. I did feel a need to test a new limit of walking again today, though I did incrementally increase the running bit to four 4-min intervals, plus around a few intersections. So far so good. Next walk and run will probably be Tuesday. I have to decide whether to finally visit Origines Chocolat for new cake or see whether Michalak at Omotesando still has the clam-shell type "cake" that disappeared from Isetan recently (the pistachio tart and milk chocolate tart have also disappeared, replaced by two more jar sweets, which I'm not willing to accept as comparable to cake, though I don't mind, since I've had the tarts and I agree that they were the least interesting of the cakes). Also today, I noticed a new bakery within the scope of the neighborhood running course out in Kojimachi, though I'm going to need to add another single-block loop to include it. It's pretty far out in the periphery, so I'll put off adding the loop until I get around to reviewing the adjacent loop.

Cake-off: Très Calme's Mont-Blanc over Bubó Barcelona's Bubó Xoco Deluxe

This weekend's cake-off was a third-round match between two one-and-one cakes. First, I walked, along with two 4-min intervals of running, to Très Calme and got their signature cake, their Mont-Blanc. This has a cassis center and features coffee meringue on the outside, which balance out. This is the only cake with coffee in the my greats list, I think. I took the train back, since it's 7 or 8 kilometers and I had a second cake to get. The opposite was my favorite cake from Bubó Barcelona, their Bubó Xoco Deluxe. This time I let him give me their bag because it was raining and they have an unusually shaped box and a bag decided to fit it, so it was pretty stable. I ran another 4 min on the round trip, which was also 7 or 8 kilometers total, so it was a test of both my walking capability and renewed running.

I enjoyed both cakes, but the Bubó Xoco Deluxe was unable to stand out against the strong favor of the Mont-Blanc and in fact, though excellent, I've decided that I don't need it in the greats, which include a lot of chocolate cakes. The Mont-Blanc remains distinctive. I have a little trouble with the aftertaste, though that might have also been the leeks in my lunch. So I need to get back to Très Calme, though I have a number of shops in the exceptional cake shop list that I need to catch up on, except the top ones in the quite fine shops list keep poking their heads up asking for more attention. Next, though, I want I work on the quite exceptional shops.

Fiorentina Pastry Boutique, Estate

After visiting a top 3 shop (quite superb) Tuesday, and a top 15 shop (quite exceptional) on Wednesday, I went for a shop in the quite fine group that I want to slim down to being part of the top 63 shops. This time it was the Fiorentina Pastry Boutique, which is the pastry shop attached to the Tokyo Grand Hyatt Hotel in Roppongi Hills. It's been more than two years since I was last there. On the way, I ran the 550 m bordering the Akasaka Palace grounds and walked the rest, but was a start at running again.

As cake, I got Estate, I think. My main concern was not to get the same cake as previously more than worrying about the details, so I didn't finish reading the card before ordering. From the card and the taste, this definitely has peach and liquor. It also obviously has a lot of white chocolate. I'm not sure about the cake layers, as there was a brown layer and a green layer. I ate with green tea and either the green in the cake was green tea or it was pistachio that harmonized with the fruit. In any case, it was very nice and different from other cakes I've enjoyed, so I'm going to say that it was great. I don't have any candidates to quickly get it in a cake-off and it seems seasonal, so the immediate consequence it to put it at the top of the quite fine category, making a candidate for promotion. I'll try to get back there in the next couple weeks.

L'Abricotier, Menthe Fraise

Had some business to take care of, so I took a full day off work, which was more than necessary. Coming back, I took the train all the way to Koenji to visit L'Abricotier  (two other also quite exceptional shops that getting a cake from are a priority are both closed today). I ate in and then walked home by a longer route than necessary that let me take some pictures of some sites from my neighborhood map, although these are all so far out that I may never need them. It was about two hours of walking (whereas I could walk there Sunday in about 80 minutes) and my business included maybe an hour of walking, so I was quite tired but seem okay. Maybe tomorrow I'll slip in some running with the walking and see how that goes. Just a few hundred meters would be enough as a test.

The cake was Menthe Fraise, which is a dome cake. Like another recent mint cake from JPH, they did a good job of balancing this so that the mint is an accent rather than dominating, to the point that I probably wouldn't have known that the accent was mint if they hadn't told me. I wouldn't have thought that mint and strawberry went together, but I think it improved it. It was definitely good cake, so no complaint. Also, now I'm definitely caught up with L'Abricotier, at least for a few weeks, when I'll want to put their Cicilien Figue in a cake-off. That should give me time to get to Ryoura and Éclat des Jours over the next couple weekends. And maybe I'll finally get to Origines Cacao as some place that deserves a chance to see whether it could be promoted.

Sadaharu Aoki: Choux Coco Passion

Not sure of the French, but I got the coconut (whipped) cream and passion fruit custard choux pastry, which I'll call Choux Coco Passion. This was a third try to get it, though it's supposed to be available through late August. For exercise, I fast-walked a neighborhood running course, a semi-new one, in that I decided that I should do the full loop around Akasaka Palace rather than just link up one side to the park on the north end. Today I did it clockwise (which is against the main running traffic). I walked faster than I sometimes run, so I'm feeling pretty ready to run, though I'm going to take it slow when I do.

The cream puff was good. The passion fruit custard is pretty strong, so I didn't particularly notice the whipped cream, though I usually don't like whipped cream on these, so that might reflect that I liked it. Unusually, this is not an ordinary cream puff in that the bottom part doesn't have a bottom, just the custard sets on the paper, although it's thick enough that you can still pick it up and eat it without more more trouble than you would if the bottom were pastry. I'm going to have to check the next variety to see if their cream puffs are always like this. It's fairly heavy too, so a match for your average cake, much less your average cream puff. I'll rate this as excellent.

Cake-off: L'Abricotier's Montelimar over Noix de Beurre's Fraise Chantilly

Walked as far as L'Abricotier's, then to nearest JR Station, then Shinjuku Stn. to Isetan, and then home, which was a lot, and certainly more than other controlled walks, but seemed reasonable, so better than previous walking tests. I was there to get Montelimar for a third-round cake-off of cakes that were one and one. It's opponent was Noix de Beurre's Fraise Chantilly, which is why I went to Isetan. The wait was less than 30 minutes there, which was less than I feared, given the lines from opening time (not sure when or why this started). I questioned last time whether the Fraise Chantilly belong among the greats, but when you want cream and strawberry and a little sponge cake, this is still my favorite, and it is nice sometimes, so I'm keeping it in. However, I like the hazelnut accented by apricot of Montelimar better. Wish it was a little more solid, but then it would be a different cake.

L'Abricotier, Illanka

Once again, I was back in Nakano-ku to visit L'Abricotier. My excuse, besides that I can only visit on holidays, is that I planned to do a cake-off with their cake next week, so it's a priority not to get behind on them, even though otherwise Ryoura and Éclat des Jours (which doesn't require a holiday, but it's become harder to get something new late in the evening), which are also in the quite exceptional list, probably deserve turns first.

I ate in, as I usually do for new cakes there. I went with a new cake to the shop again, Illanka, but I was not that impressed. It was good, though a little melty, but not any more than advertised, cherry and chocolate mousse. Of course, that combination could have gone very wrong, so I'm not discounting that it was good, but I need something more at this point. Someone more into cherries might be able to better distinguish what's special about this cake, or maybe a more refined appreciation of chocolate.

The bicycling for the cake took a couple hours (I'll say that unconsciously I wanted more exercise, and that's how I got so offtrack on the way there). I ate a half-lunch and went out again walking to see how my feet are doing. I practiced too neighborhood running course loops from memory, the Akasaka 7 and 8 loops, which form their own clump of routes, though total they are only about 2 km, less than the one-way distance to reach them. I was successful (Akasaka 8 is trivial and 7 just has one tricky bit) and no great problem with my feet despite a fast pace and having already done bicycling, though I was pretty tired afterward (not running tired, but still). I might repeat tomorrow night, this time counterclockwise for each, since I plan to get cake from Isetan, though really I should do my indoor workout and maybe some cleaning to free up time later in the week.

Cake-off: Pierre Hermé's Carrément Chocolat over Bien-être's Chiboust au Pistache

Tried walking to cake, to see how that would go. On the way, I stopped at some shops that showed up on a Tabelog search of the top 100 cake shops in Tokyo. #1 is actually a "hidden" French restaurant (there's a small sign, but it's a residential area and it's not clear what business the sign is for). Even the couple cakes they have are by pre-order only, so it doesn't count as a full running course site, so I'm not going to alter the enclosing course to include it.

Got the new version of the Bien-être's Chiboust au Pistache (grapefruit accented), which is less tart/pie-like and more traditional cake, which means more chiboust and less pastry base. My first choice (and next on the one-one after two cake-offs list) was Soyeux from Ryoura, but but they no longer had it at Tokyo Midtown's Dean and Deluca. I'll have to swing by the main shop and see whether it still exists, though I'm planning to do a first round next week, which may lead to a second round, depending on whether the season cake survives.
So I wasted a trip to Tokyo Midtown. I had an afternoon appoint, so I went for the easy substitute and went to Shinjuku Isetan and got Carrément Chocolat from Pierre Hermé, which has been a standard for a long time (though I had further backups to choose from at Isetan). That was too much walking. After about 1 hour, the weak points were letting me know that they were there, but not hurting, but even though time after that involved as much train (mostly standing) as walking, it was feeling less good by the time I got home 2 hours later. Then after my appointment, which was about 1 km each way and a stop for grocery shopping, I was definitely wanting to get off my feet. I'll try to avoid that much for the next couple weeks and not expect to run in June either.

As far as I can remember, I liked the old Chiboust au Pistache better, with more pastry base. The pistachio chiboust is still nice, and no one else is providing me with this good of chiboust cake, so it's staying on the great list, but it loses to Carrément Chocolat, which is somewhat standard, but still a great rich chocolate cake, which some variation in texture accents. It's been a while since I've had a new cake from Pierre Hermé (they've dropped a category in ranking since their peak), so it will be nice to get something new; I don't think I saw anything new at Bien-être). However, I saw something new at Sadaharu, which I'm behind on (after raising them a category), and yet I want to work on the huge quite good group of cake shops and busy at the end of the week, so I think I'll just make one trip to Isetan for new cake. If only I had a sponsor...

Kouhii Chakan Shuu Gâteaux Naturels Shuu: Mont-blanc

This week, I'm trying to get a 7th anniversary cake from the Hikarie Shinqs Sadaharu Aoki, with not a lot of hope, at least during the week (and I'm busy over the Golden Week holiday, but I could get over there). Monday, I walked and ran a little (probably 1.5 km total running) and they were sold out. I went to the top-priority shop for cake on the neighborhood map, but they were renting out their space to promote beer (not the first time for that sort of thing), so I finally got to the new counter in the basement of Gyre, Dandelion Chocolate, a beans to bar place that I had seen went I last (perhaps) went out to the main shop of P. Clair de Lune, though they were closed. Besides chocolate bars, the biggest thing they sell are macarons. They have "cake", but its less than bite-sized. The macarons are several bites-size, though, bigger than average. I got the Anamalai, India one, which I was told was fruity chocolate, versus sort of standard and white chocolate, as the other options. It had the perfect texture, in my opinion and was a little fruity, as chocolate. It was great, certainly as satisfying as most cakes, so I was not disappointed. I don't have plan for buying macarons, so I don't know when I'll get back, but it will be a good backup, other than they are not open that late. The running, as it turned out, was premature. My feet hurt a lot the next day (actually both, which was disturbing, though the problem one lingered more), other it subsided fairly quickly. I'll still to other forms of exercise probably for the next few weeks and start smaller with running next time I try.

My second try, on Tuesday, was by bicycle. It was my first time to use the bicycle parking, which was pretty empty, so useful for visiting that area, if I can finish within 2 hours. No cake, so I walked around to Kouhii Chakan Shuu Gâteaux Naturels Shuu and got the Mont-blanc. I would have eaten in, but the tobacco smell suggested that would not be a good idea (they have separate seating for smoking, but apparently not separated enough). This was way too soft for a bicycle ride, so it collapsed, but was still edible. There was not much more to it than a pile of whipped cream under chestnut paste with some chestnut pieces inside, like many other mont-blanc. Nothing special, but it qualifies as good. Still, disappointing as a new place that might secretly have had great cakes.

The third try (Wednesday), was just walking. No cake again at Sadaharu Aoki, so I walked back first to What a Tart! where they did not have any tarts left (but I could see the crumbs). They did have some little cake squares that reminded me of something I bought at Doutor once. I choose the Chocolate Orange. It was good, as dense (like pound cake, but with icing) cake goes, but not fresh cake and not worth going back for. In this batch, only Dandelion Chocolate has come through. I should mention that Fabrice Gillotte has, at least temporarily, closed their Aoyama shop as of March.

Cake-off: Frédéric Cassel's Fraisier over Coffee Parlor Hilltop's Pistache Chocolat

Somewhat according to plan, I walked to Coffee Parlor Hilltop again to get Pistache Chocolat, though this time a little after noon, so it seemed a least a couple sold before me, but no problem getting mine. My purpose of being in a hurry was only secondarily because I'll be busy next weekend and they will close for renovation soon after that. It's been a year since I had Frédéric Cassel's Fraisier (which I need to go back to old posts and correct the spelling of throughout, now that I'm decided) and I'm not confident I'll find something else to pair it with for a second-round match of first-round losers. Took a few pictures along the way for future expansions of the neighborhood running course, though I didn't do any reviewing today, since I was so tired yesterday and didn't get a lot else done all day (was slightly more productive today).

Had a little trouble with this cake-off. I only had a half-lunch, and yet late, but toward the end of the cake testing, I think I got full, or at least something upset my stomach. Suddenly the chocolate in the Pistache Chocolat was overly strong and disagreeing with me. It's possible that someone changed the recipe, but not likely. Before that, I had already decided on the Fraisier, which is simple but has the quality to pull it off. I'll give the Pistache Chocolat the benefit of the doubt and all it excellent, so it will stay on the great list but have to prove itself in the third round (which I'll leave for December or next year).

Bien-être, Pistachio and American Cherry Chiboust

Friday, I went back to Bien-être, jogging a little over 2 km of the roundtrip. At the shop, I tried the current pistachio chiboust, Pistachio and American Cherry Chiboust, in their eating space (there were 4 other customers eating). Not sure that American cherry is as good as grapefruit, but it's fine and provides a different texture from other components that grapefruit can't. Anyway, this thick tart under a thick layer of chiboust is still unlike other cakes that I have regularly, so I can say that this is great, like the previous version that seems to have a very short line-up life. Now I really did to do a first-round cake-off, but I'm busy this weekend and some of next.

Thursday, I got back to Libertable, also running just 2 km of the roundtrip and walking the rest. That time I got the regular Feuilletée. It looks more like a croissant than the chocolate one does and was more bread-like inside than I expected. However, the texture is less like a typical croissant than the chocolate version was. It has a kind of chewiness that actually made it more interesting, which made it excellent to me. I hope they make some other pastries, though these two might be the only two I've seen; if they don't have one next time I go, I'd also like another new cake, but I should make sure to ask them about their pastry schedule.

Frédéric Cassel: Choux Vanille

Did a walk and run to Ginza Mitsukoshi for a cake from Frédéric Cassel. I've been trying to get Choux Vanille for some time without luck. This week, I was ready to get this month's tart (raspberry), but they finally had the choux pastry, lots, actually (and lots of everything else; apparently, Tuesday is a good day to go there), so I got one.

The running was only 2 km in the middle of the outbound run. My feet were not totally unaffected by yesterday's run, so I didn't try to increase the running (though I increased the walking).

The shell on this pastry is very thin, which is not a complaint. The custard was not too wet (not sure that this is a real thing, but there is surely a spectrum of custard) or eggy, so the excellent vanilla flavor came through well and I enjoyed this very much. I tend to like complicated cakes, but I'm going to say that this was great and see how it stands up to the competition.

Cake-off: Très Calme's Mont-Blanc over L'Abricotier's Le Piemont

Last day of the month and a Saturday. Can't ride a bicycle due to right arm and shouldn't type much, but tried even longer walks to see whether I'm ready to start running next month. My foot seems good enough.

Two walks: 8+ km to L'Abricotier to get Le Piemont (oddly, their signature cake wasn't out yet, even after 11 pm. They were just getting to putting out the Sicile. Came back by JR Chuuou line, so still had some walking to do at both ends. After lunch, walked to Très Calme by not the best route and got their Mont-Blanc, which is also their top cake with me and generally. Came back by a cheap but not close way, this time Toei lines, I think.

This was a battle of underdogs, both in terms of shops that are on the way down on my list and also cakes that lost the first round. Le Piemont is chocolate and nut cream, was well as chocolate and nuts, so good stuff. Still like it a lot, but not sure I need to keep in on the great list; will have to review in the third round. The Mont-Blanc was in a similar situation, though in the end I felt that it had a distinctive taste that I wanted to keep, so it remains safe, as well as the winner.

Yesterday, I failed: F. Cassel still did not have a cream puff for me and I've run out of pastries at Dalloyau (under my restricted definition, which calls certain things sweet breads and leaves them for a different evalutation, basically the completely soft stuff).

Thursday, I was successful at getting a pastry from Libertable for the first time. This was Feuilletée au Chocolat, where the first part just means a layered-type pastry, so pretty generic as a name. It sort of combines the best of croissant and pain au chocolat, so I completely approve and am calling it a great pasty. They are now my top priority for pastries. I might have tried to stop by there when I failed yesterday, but it was already going to be my longest walk of the month, so I didn't want the detour coming back from Ginza.

Le Pommier, Pour Moi

Back again to Isetan today for cake, this time for a second cake from Le Pommier, which I had one good cake from previously. This time I went for the pistachio mousse cake, Pour Moi. I like pistachio mousse, but then I've had enough to get critical. This one was up front about having raspberry jelly, which put me off some what. Actually, it had quite a bit. But in fact, the textures matched when and the flavors also did not have trouble harmonizing (raspberry sometimes is overpoweringly sweet in cakes). Not sure what the white thing is even after eating it. It's not white chocolate, it was more like hard candy but not. Like yesterday's, which was an excellent cake, which bumps the shop up to potentially quite good, so I'll try to get back there for a third cake while they are at Isetan, but not tomorrow.

For excercise, I tried walking farther. Went as far as across from Akasaka Palace on the neighbhor route, taking more than 30 minutes to reach Lawson 100 for groceries. It was enough that I could feel it in my right foot but not enough for it to linger, so I hope to try farther tomorrow to get a pastry from Libertable (I've had three weekday cakes already, so even if I fail, I won't be too disappointed).

Blondir, Nostagie

Visited Isetan for the last day of Blondir, which I had down as a good shop based on one cake. I picked Nostagie, marked as a hot seller, I think, which is like a lemon bar under whipped cream, broadly speaking. Of course, the bar part is almond (and lemon) and the maybe the whipped cream is whipped white chocolate, since that's an ingredient. On top, is probably the cinnamon. It was an interesting combination and excellent, though I'd like the bottom to be easier to cut. In that situation, turning it on it's side is the best option. With one good cake and one excellent cake, they qualify as potentially quite good, though that's a bloated category and I haven't reached the point that getting them all up to 3 cakes so that I can figure out which to drop.

For exercise, I tried walking the nearest neighborhood route, which was doable without apparent damage. Of course, it's less than how much I walk just commuting, but it's non-stop, so it is a kind of test of how my feel are healing. With my arm sprained, I can't jog anyway, but I can walk without jarring my lower arm.

Cake-off: Jean-Paul Hévin's Bergam over Sadaharu Aoki's Chocolat Pralin

Actually, I'm not sure whether running was involved. There was certainly a lot of walking. I know I visited the Marunouchi Sadaharu Aoki (because I was over in that neighborhood hood) to confirm they had the Chocolat Pralin, then went to Ginza Mitsukoshi and scored a Bergam, which was about to be pulled from the line up, and then went back and picked of the Aoki cake and walked both back to Yotsuya in Shinjuku (there are other Yotsuya in Tokyo, I think).

Bergam is close to being a standard JPH design, with the special element being the orange flavor. As great as the Chocolat Pralin is, I have to the with to Bergam, though both cakes proved in this second round that their first-round losses were due to their tough competition there.