Sadaharu Aoki (Marunouchi): Zen, Cote d'Ivoire

Visited the cafe at Marunouchi today, which was almost empty at 3:30 pm on a rainy Monday. I had wanted to go to the café to get the Millefeuille Vanille, which is not available at Isetan. Instead, we got the Zen (which was supposedly an exclusive, but I've seen posts claiming Midtown sources, which is consistent with the way "exclusive" is used by Tokyo Patisserie) and Cote d'Ivoire, neither of which I expected to be my favorite, but they were both excellent.

The Zen was 891 yen with tax and is dominantly sesame paste, a really thick layer in mine, I think, compared to posts online, who are the source of my ingredient lists, although they were buying from different shops, so maybe the recipe varies, which would be interesting but inconvenient for trying to keep a record of who sells what, under what name, and how it is. Midtown and Paris posters agreed cognac, which I didn't notice (Paris poster claimed it was about triple the amount of a normal cake, basically killing it). Now, there is a green layer, which I assumed had green tea (which agrees with a different poster), though I couldn't say for sure I tasted that. Midtown poster claims chocolate cream, although maybe that was around the dark sesame part, and hazelnut biscuit. As I said, this was excellent, but I'm not convinced that I need a lot of sesame cakes, just like I don't need a lot of chestnut cakes. This is seasonal and was available only in August last year.

The Cote d'Ivoire is available at Isetan, but is a low priority for me because it's coconut, I've fairly sure, although the Sadaharu Aoki diary (in relation to a cooking class on it in 2010) only mentions passion fruit and white chocolate, which I can believe. The coconut is maybe just in the biscuit, and was not enough to kill it for me, but I would have preferred something else. Still, excellent for 780 yen including tax. Also seasonal, but was available June thru August last year.

This was a café, so double those prices to include the fruit tea. The Pomme Caramel is excellent, though. The Douce Fruits was not so exciting.