Sunday: Ryoura, Extreme

Sunday was cycling. First, I tried to visit A Tes Souhaits! But I arrived around noon (they open at 11) on Mother's Day (if that mattered), so there were a few dozen people in line and it sounded like they were warning new people that they couldn't promise they wouldn't sell out. I hadn't prepared and I need to update my map in that area, so the only places I knew were Jun Honma, which I didn't want to visit again, and L'Epicurien, which wouldn't begin selling cake until 13:00. I'm not sure whether that is just a Sunday thing, but the closest thing to an official website lists 13:00 as opening time now, although the door isn't locked, so they might sell you something besides fresh cake. It was obnoxious, but now I'm curious to go back. If I had remembered, I would have gone to Arcachon, in the basement at the station. Maybe I would have tried the Joshi+ recommended café Patisserie Tigre, although my plan is to skip this one. I was on a bicycle, so I gave up on the north and went down to Ryoura in Yoga, which is not close, but closer than home and a little closer to home and anyway in a more familiar area of town.

I got the Extreme for 560 yen. It's not really that extreme, although it has some sort of famous brandy in it. It's a little unstable for eating outside (very narrow and the layers tend to separate) but it was excellent chocolate cake. I'd enjoy having it again, although I could not say for sure that it was great, so I'll consider Ryoura an excellent shop and get around to having a third cake there after I've visited the great shops a little more (at least the less frequented ones that actually have more cakes that I haven't tried).

I was out riding for about four hours, so it did not seem overly greedy to also visit Bigarreaux, which is the excellent shop nearby that I'm much more familiar with. I got Le (?) Kouign Amann, which is not a French cake, although I've never seem one that was spiral, so this was quite different for cakes of this name, although the general flavor was still Kouign Amann, just no filling.
It was 300 yen and also excellent.

Saturday: L'Abricotier

Today's project was to walk the Yakushi "Peaceful Wood" Walk, which is the first part of the Suminami History and Culture course. Actually, the main point was to visit L'Abricotier, and the walk was a convenient associated activity. Unfortunately, we ate lunch after the walk and just before going back to the shop, which made me too full, although I didn't notice until after eating the cake, but it might have affected my evaluation.

The selected cakes were Desir and Savarin for 450 and 480 yen (before 8% tax). The Desir is a chocolate mousse with raspberry mousse inside. It was definitely good, although I'm not easily impressed by either raspberry or chocolate mousse these days. This was high quality but did not really try to do anything original, beyond decoration. Savarin is definitely not my thing, nor are pears, although this was good and the chocolate cream in the middle was a nice touch, as well as the chocolate cream visible on top, so this was definitely good too. This is a definitely an excellent cake shop, which is probably the best it can be in its location, where it can't specialize in only great cakes, like shops in core shopping areas can, but has to meet the local market. It is similar to my other excellent shops that I've made several visits to. Also, they are cheaper than the great shops of course.

Interestingly, there was another hardcore cake eater in the shop with us, evidenced by having 4 plates. He also was carrying some pretty big water bottles, so I suspect he was a cake urban hiker. It would be fun to track down his blog, but haven't been able to.

We also got a couple things for the road, which we ate much later but before reaching home. These were a Tranche Orange for 230 yen, which is candied (?) orange partially covered with chocolate and was good, and an Angadine, which is a sandwich cookie of nougat and walnut and was excellent.   

Thursday: Jean-Paul Hévin, Choco Passion

Last day of Golden Week holidays was shopping. Fortunately, we went by the chocolate bar just when we wanted to rest and it was nearly empty. I ordered the Choco Passion cake, which I had completely forgotten I had had until I saw it. Fortunately, it is great for 647 yen. Obviously, it is chocolate cake flavored with passion fruit, but also rum-flavored ganache and feuillantine for crunch. Not sure what the nuts on top are.

I also got the Nectar of the Day which was passion fruit, which was ultimately too sweet. Should have gone for tea.

The other order was Apéro Gourmand "Affogato", which is chocolate ice cream with apricot sauce/nectar for 1,322 yen. Not my thing, but it's good.

(P.) Avranches Guesnay: Mille-Feuille Vanille

Cycled to (Patisserie) Avranches Guesnay in Bunkyo-ku. I was worried that it would be too crowded an area to park a bicycle, but the shop is between exits for Kasuga, so most of the subway traffic doesn't need to walk past.  

I got the Mille-Feuille Vanille for 605 yen, as this was the only one marked as "recommendation". Being a standard cake, it's hard for it to be great, but on the other hand, it's something that I like, so I'm not likely to rate it low. I struggled between rating it good and excellent, which looking at previously posts on mille-feuille did not much help with except that this was definitely better than Fraoula's good mille-feuille, which was the kind where only flakes are used rather than whole biscuits, making it easy to eat but without a main feature. Since this is a newly visited shop for me, I decided to call the cake excellent, and thus tentatively the shop, and visit them again soon. The picture didn't turn out so great; not sure why it's zoomed in so much.

It was short trip, so I swung through Ginza on the way back and verified where I could park and walked down to Tokyu Plaza Ginza in order to verify that Esquisse Cinq has takeout cake, as reported by Sweet Sonobe. I know the café is really expensive, so I gave up going there unless the cake turns out to be really good (in which case, I could go for my birthday). The takeout is also expensive and limited, but I'll probably still some time. A better choice for me for a café would be Cacao Market by Mariebelle (Hinka Rinka 3rd), which was empty around noon on the holiday.

Ryoura: Tarte Chocolat Caramel Salé

Cycled out to Yoga in western Setagaya to visit Ryoura, which seems to be a hot topic right now, seemingly for good reason. No line near opening time, which is late, 11:00 am, but it's a nice shop. They had Tarte Chocolat Caramel Salé and I read the description as far as "nuts", after which there was no reason for me to resist my impulse for chocolate. I'm very biased, but think this is great. If other places would make more chocolate, salt caramel tarts with nuts, maybe I would become more discriminating but until then, I'll appreciate this shop's accurate anticipation of what I want. Also, the price was 520 yen, which is reasonable for great cake. This is basically a standard chocolate mousse dome, complete with (bavarian) cream, on top. The base is a tart shell, a layer of chocolate biscuit/cake, and then the caramel. Also, the outer coating is obviously very reflective; not sure what I could have done about that for the photo.

I was cycling, so my route was somewhat random and I ended up going past Patisserie Main Mano again, so I decided to stop and see what they had. I was thinking they were more a bakery, because their other shop nearby (both in the Yoyogi area) is a boulangerie and café, but they had some cakes. I had already had cake, so I got a choux cream for 200 yen. It was good. Also, they filled it after I ordered, which seems to be the best way. It rolled around a little before I took this picture, so don't judge to harshly.

Went over to Takashimaya and verified that they have Ma Priere cakes, so I don't need to run out there tomorrow. Already have plans to visit L'Abricotier on Saturday and expect to get cake at Isetan earlier in the week, so my best bet for unvisited places hard to go to on a workday is Avranches Guesnay. I got it from Joshi+, which isn't that reliable (since its priority is to go some place new and it's been running for a years now), but the online info looks okay and it's close on a rainy day. Guess I need to dig further into Sweet Sonobe to make a plan for Sunday, unless I want to get out to Eclat des Jours, which didn't look quite as good, I think, but still worth visiting.

Jog to Bien-être: Harmonie

Actual running today, the first in 10 days. Took it very slow, which I'll call jogging, as it was a little more than 7 min/km, which I'm fine with. Didn't know how long I could do it since my foolish run before which aggravated an old knee problem while not doing the current one any help. As it happens, the old problem didn't make trouble, so I'm not worse than 10 days ago before that run, I think, but on the other hand, the dominant behind-the-knee problem remained, so I only ran just over 7 km and then walked. That will probably be it for running until maybe Sunday, but I've got cycling planned a couple days and there will be walking a couple days.

The goal was Bien-être. Sill not a huge selection, but I'm a little more optimistic that I can find a few cakes worth trying (and at the rate I visit, I can keep getting something new). The cassis mousse dome, Harmonie for 540 yen, I think (although their website says 450, but I don't and didn't have 50 yen change and Joshi+ went last Sep. and reported 520). The harmony is with jasmine cream. I chose well, as this was excellent. The outer gel did not bother me (maybe I'm getting used to it) and the flavor was great. Still don't really know what jasmine tastes like, but if it works, I'm happy.

P. Asako Iwayanagi: Crème Chocolat Caramel Cake

Still cycling today, for a rare visit to a new place out near Todoroki Station on the street running parallel to the tracks, Patisserie Asako Iwayanagi. It's a new shop with a new feel and the clientele seemed a little too upscale (groups of ladies) and the clerk, or maybe it was Ms. Iwayanagi, spoke too formally for how I was dressed, so I didn't try to eat in, which is why the cake is not presented as well as it could have been. I've always had trouble finding a park in this part of town, so instead I was on a little mound with some sort of archaeological significance, although I was not the only one crammed into the green space there, probably for the same reason: nowhere else to go walk the dog (one person) or escape the house (assuming the old guy who was washing his feet at the bathroom at the base when I arrived was not just a local homeless guy, as I first thought). But I digress.

The cake I choose was the oddly named Crème Chocolat Caramel Cake, or maybe I'm making it French for no reason and it's Cream Chocolate Caramel Cake. It was 626 yen for a caramel crème brûlée above chocolate cream above chocolate sponge cake. It was good, but probably not a good choice for me, since it's not sweet or nutty. However, I don't respect soft sponge cake, so I'm going to assume that this is not the place for me. But the shop is sophisticated, so I would probably try again if it were more convenient for me, so it may actually be excellent.

I kept my greed more in check than yesterday and rather than get something pricier at Au Bon Vieux Temps, along the street to Oyamadai Station I stopped in at Vent de Ludo, a new (although I suspect there was something similar there before) bakery café that looked pretty nice. The selection was not exceptional, but the chocolate doughnut was kept in a refrigerated case (with some other fancier things) and was good for 140 yen. Better the Seven Eleven, but not dramatically (nor dramatically different in price).

Cooking today was an attempt at chocolate madeleines, but they were not an improvement on brownies. I should get some lemon zest or a workable substitute next time for normal madeleines, although I've had the scary/wild idea to try ｓansho, which is potentially a literally electrifying idea. Need to get some granulated sugar before I try anything with that recipe again, though.