L'Abricotier: Chocolat fumee

Had time during the day so went for an about 5-hour cycling tour of cake shops, although I probably could have done the meaningful parts in less than 2 hours with better planning. My original plan had been to get cake from Toshi Yoroizuka and do a cake-off after a training rul, but apparently Tuesday is the wrong day for doing that. The shops are only partially open (Kyobashi's salon is closed and only the dessert bar is open at Tokyo Midtown). I may try tomorrow, but getting two cakes for a cake-off is always risky after work, whereas today I was off.

Anyway, I went out to Kichiyoji by the new bicycle, where both both shops I checked were closed (the second one was a last-minute thing, and probably they are always closed on Tuesday, but they were sort of on my way anyway and I wanted to check the route, so I didn't check my notes). At Koenji, both shops were open (which I could and did check) and there were no changes from last month. One of those was L'Abricotier, which I was ready for an eighth cake from, so I got the Chocolat Fumee (their spelling), which is smoky chocolate mousse on top of a chocolate cake filled with bandy and, I think, crème brûlée seasoned with caramelized almonds, and although I couldn't really tell except for the almonds, which were mostly just the ones on top (I only found one more inside). It was a very interesting taste, as far as the chocolate mousse, and definitely good, so I was ready to call this excellent, but I had to admit later that it was not something that I was very interested in eating again, so "definitely good" is going to have to be my finial review.

Went off north, where it was demonstrated that I should not believe a shop's Facebook page which says "open now" over their general schedule (that they are closed the second Tuesday of the month). Did get by another shop and confirm that they still did not have Chiboust. However, and here's a shop I could have checked in on when going to Toshi Yoroizuka, since I essentially passed it on the way, At Sugino Hidemi, they told me that the cake I was looking for was a Fall thing and I should look for it in a month, so I'll look forward to that for a cake-off in October.

After that long a ride, I thought I deserved a second treat, so I got Praliné from Viron nearby in Marunouchi, which is a puff pastry with sesame seed sized granular praliné as filling (same as between the "fingers"). It was definitely good (it would be excellent, since there's a lot of competition among sugary puff pastries, so I'm not sure) and well appreciated.