Sadaharu Aoki: Chou à la Crème

Tuesday, before the rain started, I tried for a short run and it got a little out of control. I was looking for Sadaharu Aoki's Chou à la Crème (webpage accenting, not the instore "Créme") at Tokyo Midtown after the Isetan counter disappointed me again. I was successful, but then I went back through Aoyama Cemetery (or at least along the north end of it; maybe the little part on the other side of the path is separate) and then wanted to check on a couple pedestrian bridges and a closed café (though I probably would have just checked for the café if I had remembered correctly which intersection it was at), so it took more than an hour.

The cream puff was excellent, which is not something I say very often but I am more willing to say than in the past, maybe because I've bought ones from better places now (as I run out of other things at those shops). I used a sharp knife to half and quarter this without crushing either the pastry or the custard. Of course, the quality of the vanilla is important, as well as the balance of custard and pastry so it's not just like eating custard with pastry chunks, and I think this did well on both counts.