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.

Yoku Moku, Citron Pistache & Mont-blanc

No running Saturday, but about fine hours of shopping afterward, which is more than my feet are up for. Before that, I finally over for some cake from Yoku Moku (via the Blue Brink Lounge) on the Minami-Aoyama 3 & 4 loop of the neighborhood running course.

This is a fairly ubiquitous department store gift cookie brand, so cake is pretty much an extra. After a nice lunch, we tried the Citron Pistache and the Mont-blanc. The Citron Pistache is on the soft side, but still definitely good. The mont-blanc was similar to Michilak's, in that it had a chocolate-coated base. The chestnut past was relatively thick for the amount of whipped cream and a little heavy for me, but still definitely good. While I don't need to go back there, the cake was better than it needed to be, so I respect them.

Rose Bakery: Ricotta Cheesecake

Was trying to get something else, but it wasn't available but I felt busy, so I still wanted to get something at Isetan. That gave me a couple choices of quite fine shops to get a third cake from. I decide to go with Rose Bakery. I had my best previous luck with a cheesecake from, so this time I chose the Ricotta Cheesecake. It was different and good, but not enough that I need to go back. And of course, they aren't trying to be a patisserie, so they aren't really my focus anyway. 

Frédéric Cassel, Framboisier

Heavy rain Monday. Tuesday, I rode out to Frédéric Cassel and got Framboisier in response to a cake-off win. This is lots of pistachio mousse with a nice balance of raspberry and was definitely excellent. The sponge base was a little boring for me though. Maybe because this is similar a strawberry cake they had, I wanted an interesting biscuit as the base, though that would distract one from the raspberry, so not for everyone. I rode it back, stopping for shopping and then went out again for a fast walk, 70 minutes, to do the Central Akasaka clump loops of the neighborhood running course, Akasaka 7 and 8 loops, counterclockwise this time. Felt property tired from exercise despite not running. My feet were mostly fine with it. I might trying walking farther tomorrow.