Wittamer: Chocolat Noisette

Had some business around Shinjuku Stn. (besides confirming the cake names for Bigarreaux from Sunday night), so I got cake from another "neighborhood" cake shop that I haven't posted from before, Wittamer at Shinjuku Takashimaya. Of course, Wittamer is a pretty standard department store brand, but they have a reasonable line up. I went with the Chocolat Noisette (chocolate and hazelnut), which seemed safe. The cake is good and definitely as avertized as far as flavor. The cross-section is pretty ugly, though, and I'm not that thrilled by the texture, as it was softer cake than I like (I like mousse or a drier biscuit, whereas this was mostly sponge cake, maybe). Still, not a bad choice if you're at Takashimaya.

I ran with the goal of Lawson 100, following neighborhood routes around south Yotsuya. Total, it was 27 minutes, though I wannted 30 minutes. Still, it was fine and I can increase the length tomorrow and run in the opposite direction, at least on the southwest Yotsuya part, and meet up where I finished today. As my running increases, I can get back to more distant neighborhood courses. Also, I still need to update the one today by Akasaka Palace, where they finished the construction around the park (now, there's construction around the north just north of Akasaka Palace, but that doesn't block my route).

Bigarreaux, Citron Vert and Sampa

No running or cycling and only normal walking involved, but on Sunday night I shared cake for two from Bigarreaux, which was the visiting patisserie at Isetan until today. I didn't really need more cake from them, but they are an excellent shop, so I was happy to share.

We got Citron Vert, which is obviously lime. Citron is one of their signature cakes, so it seemed a reasonable choice. Also, Sampa (I checked on two days, but it's still possible that I was misreading the diacritic on the last character and it was actually Samba), which is milk chocolate with layers of mango and passion fruit. They were both definitely good, but only the Sampa really interested me enough to call it excellent, though I have to wonder whether I was just seduced by the sugar rush, since it was certainly not its sophistication, not that sophistication is much of a substitute for great cake.

Monday, I went down to Paris S'éveille, which is my #3 shop but doesn't have new cakes, so I got Chausson Pomme (maybe, though Chausson aux Pommes sounds better) and Pain aux Raisins. These were both definitely good, but didn't excite me as much as their top pastries. They still have a few more pastries for me to try, mostly baked tarts, before I have to try something else or revisit an excellent cake. I went by bicycle, which was quite painful to begin with, due to my sprained arm. But at this point, nothing is going to get better without rehabilitation, so I put up with the pain and my arm improved over time, though it was a little tricky nonetheless.

Cake-off: Bien-être's Pistachio and American Cherry Chiboust over Libertable's Charm

Got a virus and went a week without cake.

Felt well enough to go out and get cake. I prepared to go by bicycle and got as far as the exit and decided leaning on the bars was too painful and instead half ran and half walk (because it's maximum-warning hot right now) to Libertable at Shibuya ShinQ to get their mont-blanc, Charm, for a cake-off. I had gotten to four untested great cakes, so I decided to do a first round. Also, I didn't trust Bien-être to keep their Pistachio and American Cherry Chiboust around, though they've had it for a few weeks. These cakes are similar in that they are perfect realizations of in some ways simple types of cakes. Since I have limited access to dependable chiboust, the chiboust is the more important on my great list, so I'll give the nod to it. At some point, I'll want to compare mont-blanc to each other to see which ones are redundant.

Jean-Paul Hévin: Verrine Chocolat Singe and Verrine Matcha

No cake Saturday, as my plan to go to Cova for lunch at Shinjuku Takashimaya was foiled by them having been replaced as the third-floor café (we did eat in Takashimaya, but not at a café). Of course, nor was there running, so there is a certain fairness to that.

Sunday's plan to go to Jean-Paul Hévin at Isetan, which does not have a café (in Tokyo, you have to go to Tokyo Midtown for that), but does have a chocolate bar with a drink and verrine set, did go through and even arriving at noon, we had the place to our selves, at least initually, so early Sunday is a good time to visit there. We got two verrine sets. I got the Verrine Chocolat Singe (I'm guessing for the last word, as there is no monkey in it, just basil and yuzu) and the other was Varrine Matcha, which certainly has matcha (powdered green tea) in it. Drinks were Nature Tradition, which is a cold chocolate drink, and Thé Glacé au Yuzu (no picture), or something like that.

Both verrines were excellent. The first had chocolate apparently infused with basil, though I couldn't tell, with yuzu gelatine in the base. The chocolate mousse was quite good, though just plain chocolate and it took some effort to dig down to the yuzu. I suppose I could mix it all up at the beginning (which I wouldn't have done this time even if I had thought of it, since we were having halves and I ate the first half of this one). The matcha, of course, had the chocolate and matcha up top, so you didn't have to wait. The gelatine in the bottom was griotte cherry, though I couldn't identify it at the time other than fruit, which is probably good, because matcha is subtle enough that you don't want to pair it with too strong a fruit. A child of a shop specializing in green tea assured me that it this was really nice green tea, which I beleive and would expect. Jean-Paul does a good job respecting Japanese flavors, in my experience.

The Nature Tradition (cold chocolate) was also excellent. It had been a while since I had had this. Unfortunately, the cold Yuzu tea was more like icewater flavored with yuzu juice, especially by the end, so I can't recommend it, but it was good to okay.

In the evening, I went for a run (about 24 minutes) and then walk (considerably longer), first to Libertable, at which I found a new pastry and bought it, justifying this by my not having had cake or pastry Saturday. This time, it was the Feuilletée au Almonde, which was definitely exactly like an almond croissant, specifically the type where there is almond paste both inside and outside as coating, on which there were also almond slices and a lot of powdered sugar. It was excellent, but not ideal for me, somehow. It was a little moist for me, I thought, and yet my other suggestion for how to improve it would be to add almond liquor, so I probably don't know what I'm talking about. Anyway, they remain  as a top tier place for pastries for me, so I'll get back there again to try to score something else this week. They also had an apricot tart today, as well as the two pastries that I have already posted on. I asked whether they had the same line-up everyday, and the counter person said that it varied and didn't offer any details, so I left it at that. If they don't have a new pastry for me next time I go, I also want a new cake from them, which so far has not looked like a problem, despite them still having at least most of the old ones.

In other information, Toshi Yoroizuka has both their great Cassis and Saint-Marc, but the Marunouchi JPH has switched to regular JPH cakes from having their own line, so I've lost access to Orly. I hope they put it the line-up again. I've had the (non-coffee) current new cakes from JPH now, but when I was in for the verrines, the menu included a tart that won't be available until later in the month, so now I'm looking forward to that.

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.

Le Pommier, Saint-honoré

Sunday was no cake, but I did take the full walk to Jiyuugaoka, where I got from Paris S'éveille both their Croissant d'Almonde and their, Pain au Chocolat. It was somewhat greedy, but I'm trying to get my sample count up there and they keep not offering me no new cakes. I took the train back, not trying to tempt fate, but my feet seemed (and still seem) fine. I ate the Croissant d'Almonde first, and thought it was excellent; the important point was the almond liquor taste. I can say that the Pain au Chocolat was also excellent, though not distinctive. Fortunately, neither of these was heavy relative to their type, so it was not too much after a couple-hour walk. They've still got a few things in the pastry family, as well as lots of other things in the shop, so I'll be back there again this month. Also, I ran about 1 km later, which also worked out fine.

Monday, I got a third cake from Le Pommier, who were still at Isetan (and again the top guy was there taking my order, so he recognized me as having been there last week). I decided to go traditional and got the Saint-honoré.  Before having my cake, I did a couple errants and ran about 2 km total, which seemed to be fine. Compared to other versions, this had a lot of whipped cream and less custards and small chou balls. Also, the crust was flakier than usual. It worked well and was excellent, so my upgrading them from good to quite good was justified. I noticed in revising my spreadsheet lately that the latter category is actually larger than the former and almost double the intended size. This is because I have I lot of two-cake shops (one good cake and one excellent cake) that could go either way, but this group isn't high enough priority for me to need to take care of that yet. But I would like to find a few to fill out the excellent group.