Cake-off: Sadaharu Aoki's Noisettine Chocolat over Jean-Paul Hévin's Mille-feuille Chocolat

Today a typhoon is passing over the main island of Japan (it's noisy now here), so maybe that was why the streets were extremely empty Sunday morning. I think they must of close Sophia University and the church in front of it, because without even trying I made the next light after passing through the Yotsu-Mitsuke intersection, which never happens, because there's usually about a hundred people in the way any time I'm running that way.

My running goal was to get to Ginza Mitsukoshi for the Mille-feuille Chocolat at Jean-Paul Hévin, maybe on the last possible day, after discovering it secretly (as far as not finding anything notice on their website) over there. I wanted to do a first-round cake-off, so I choose the nearest shop to match it (there is a typhoon coming, so I wanted to get home before the rain started up again) and got the recently enjoyed Noisettine Chocolat from Sadaharu Aoki in Marunouchi (I was early and quick enough at Ginza Mitsukoshi, that I actually had to wait several minutes for Sadaharu Aoki to open.

These are two heavy cakes, so I went out for a couple hours running and walking (in about equal measure) to places that I didn't have photos for on the neighborhood course map. Took about a dozen, found that a couple places showing up on Google Maps weren't permanent places, like a Dars (chocolate brand) shop in Omotesando Hills. Led to lots of revisions of courses, including creating a couple new little loops for access to some new shops.

Both the Mille-feuille Chocolat and Noisettine Chocolat remained definitely great. It was hard to choose between them, since they are both unique and amazing, but I really like noisettine and chocolate, so Sadaharu Aoki gets the win. The Mille-feuille Chocolat remains my top priority for a second-round cake-off, if it shows up at another shop. I'm going to be patrolling regularly.

A two cake-off weekend, so only two cakes for the week (probably both from Isetan, if they still have last month's Isetan exclusive for Sadaharu Aoki; otherwise, Marunouchi has two exclusives through next month, and maybe Tokyo Midtown still has the matcha cream puff). That's okay. I'll take a rest one day and get something besides fresh cake from a couple local shops two days.

Cake-off: Jean-Paul Hévin's Tarte au Chocolat over Frédéric Cassel's Mont Blanc Jewel

Since rain was forecast as increasing throughout the day and my feet seemed reasonably okay, I went our running south to visit sites on my neighborhood map through Hiroo. Took some pictures, found that one temple had been replaced by a construction project (I should have checked of what), so I deleted that loop from my neighborhood course. At 10 am, after maybe 50 minutes of running, I checked and found that I was farther away from Ginza Mitsukoshi than when I started, but not by a lot. I picked up a few more pictures along the way and got there around 11 am. I was able to get both of my target cakes, Jean-Paul Hévin's Tarte au Chocolat and Frédéric Cassel's Mont Blanc Jewel, for a second-round cake-off. The latter was next in the list for the round and the former will end its one-month run tomorrow. The big discovery, though, was that Ginza Mitsukoshi had the JPH Mille-feuille Chocolat, which I've been looked for and would have been a higher priority. Apparently, it is an exclusive there, so now I'm going to need to run around every month checking every shop for unannounced exclusives, which is inconvenient, but does provide some direction to my running. Wish I had noticed before I had the second-to-last day of the month after I'd already bought one cake.

Ate the cakes at home. Hope that the issue of overlooking a cake did not affect my appreciation, but I has having a hard time sensing the greatness today. Still, definitely excellent cakes and I definitely see the unique good points of both with respect to my great cakes list. I'm giving the round to the tart and marking the mont-blanc down as possibly not great (it will get another round, but if I'm not convinced then, I'll knock it down to semigreat). It's good point is probably that it is the fruitiest mont-blancs on my list. If JPH has a couple new cakes next month, I'll be able to get them, but otherwise I've noticed that it's time for me to try something new of theirs, fresh cake or not, which goes well with my newly recognized need to visit their different shops more regularly (though I'm still only going to buy non-cake things from Isetan and Mitsukoshi, probably).

Afterhours: Gateau Chocolat

Took the afternoon off yesterday, coincidentally one of the few days without rain, with the main plan being to do a one-way neighborhood course run taking in all of the Hatagaya--Hatsudai--Honmachi--Tomigaya--Yoyogi loop, which merges an old loop with what was going to be the Hatagaya-Honmachi loop. Haven't measured how far it is to the nearest point, but it took just under 50 min, which I was happy with. The target loop is 11.1 km long and includes 4 pedestrian bridge crossings and another bridge-equivalent set of stairs between the New National Theatre Tokyo and Tokyo Opera City, which maybe they don't want people running through (just the down half were in the arcade, so I limited myself there, at least while the guard was around). I could avoid the latter stairs if I took the long way around on the main streets. The loop took about 80 min. There was lots of pausing to check the map and some walking around crowded areas, so I could probably do it faster and felt like I should practice it some more, but when I played back the run in my mind, I could remember the total shape, just there are just a couple places were I don't yet recognize because there isn't an obvious landmark and its more than three streets from the previous landmark. I found one problem with the map (I pedestrian signal blocks the main path), but it gives me an excuse to take out separate loop (I can just turn there and pick up the loop as part of the main loop). Found one cake shop, though it's just homemade style tarts, so not a high priority, and a Christian ministry headquarters, which I've added to the map, along with a sandwich place (Sun&Witch) on the way that sells bread, now that I'm adding general take-out baked goods places, not just places with cake or pastries. I'm still walking on updating the rest of loop, just to make sure all the included landmarks are together, in order, and labeled.

There was also cake, not surprisingly. One of the harder to visit cake shops on a neighborhood course (specifically, the above-mentioned long loop) is Afterhours, which was closed a long time in summer, closes at 6 pm in general, and isn't open Sundays. They are tiny and have just a few simple cakes and a small table and a counter (both occupied this time) that require a drink order, so I got cake and ran it to the next park on the loop. Choices were a tart, a shortcake, a baked cheesecake, and a traditional (French) chocolate cake, Gateau Chocolat, so I went with the latter, which they just put in a paper bag like a loaf of bread, which is all it needed, since you might find this at a bakery. It was good but didn't really surpass its simplicity, so no special reason to go back there other than that I'm going past and want some cake (though, if they were closed, I was going to go to Cacao Store, which is less than 100 m away running (probably 50 m as the crow flies) and I owe a cake from a cake-off win.

Bien-être: Seasonal Tart (Kyohou Grape)

Yesterday, I went to Bien-être and they were sold out of the one cake that I wanted, which did not surprise me, so I reserved cake and a table for the next day. I was surprised how much I enjoyed the next day looking forward to that, even though it's not like I don't want to get cake from other places. Jumping back to yesterday, though, I had added Lola's Cupcakes to the Northwest Jinguumae Loop, so I visited there for the first time and got a tiny (less than 3 cm in diameter) Chocolate Cupcake. It was good, but I couldn't make out what the frosting was. It was not as stiff as I would expect buttercream to be (though maybe I'm used to eating them at colder temperatures). A few minutes later, I had a kind of bad taste in my mouth, but I'm not sure that it's fair to blame the cupcake, since there wasn't any immediate strange aftertaste that I noticed, though I'm suspicious of the stars. Anyway, there is a reason that I've moved on from cupcakes, namely that there are so much better things.

Today, I went and got my cake. Since I had a table time, I did not need to be in a hurry and tested out the new parts of the Northwest Jinguumae loop on the way there, and also checked out from the outside a couple baked goods shops in odd places down around Yoyogi Park Station (both on tiny side streets, one in a basement and one on a second floor).

As promised, they kicked out (gently) people a table (and probably the table next it, though the people with that reservation didn't show up for another fifteen minutes) and I got my Seasonal Tart, which includes kyohou grapes. It's a pretty thick tart, maybe a butter tart on the bottom and a relatively restrained layer of custard before fruit held by some gelatin. Also, whipped cream and I suppose those are pistachio sprinkled on. Other fruit besides two kinds of grapes seem to be fig and strawberry. I think there was also a raspberry, which is maybe hidden in the back of the photo. It was excellent, so I recommend it to fruit tart lovers. It's my first to try a seasonal tart, but I look forward to whatever the next season is (couldn't get a definite prediction of what or when).

On the way back, I finished reviewing the Jinguumae Northwest loop, which had expanded to add Cookie Time, but then I saw that there as a Kyoubashi Senbikiya, which is a fruit dessert seller, but that includes cake (which I've blogged already, for a different source), so I felt a need to add it. Now the course breaks down, so I've had to slit off the bottom as the Jinguumae Central West loop.

Ryoura: Waguri Mont-Blanc

Monday (a substitute holiday for the September equinox), I tried running to a local cake place in Daikanyama area, but they took a holiday as well, though in theory they are open Mondays. It was not a very direct run there, as I wanted to get a new picture for Shibuya 4-choume Town Park (which Google maps kept substituting a different picture of mine for, even if I deleted it, so there is some corruption in my Google map) as well as a couple places around Shibuya Bridge and Ebisu Station. Since I was running, I had decided on Ryoura as a backup, which is several kilometers away, and then back by train. First, though, I stopped at Café Le Cordon Bleu for a second pastry. This time, they had a big selection, so it sells out fairly early. Back-translating the shown English name and receipt name (not the same) to the Japanese and then back to French, it was Torsadé Pistache (pistachio twist, which I should know). This also has some chocolate twisted inside, as well as pistachio, and the outside nuts and chocolate are held well by a hardened syrup coating, which made this chewy over the flakiness of the pastry. Definitely excellent, so I would like to get back there again.

They just started the Waguri Mont-Blanc at Ryoura (and I had seen the photo on Facebook), and last time's Mont-Blanc had been great I thought, so I got that. It was good, so I enjoyed it, but it did not standard out as a mont-blanc. The simplicity of just a simple meringue base, whipped cream, and chestnut paste means that it pretty much depends on how the chestnut hits me, and it was fine but not my favorite for cake, apparently.

I'll mention that it was more weekend running than other weeks, but I'm doing stretches for my foot pain twice a day now, and it seems to be improving nicely, so not too bad this morning. Tonight, I did some local shopping running around places looking at drinking vinegar. I've gotten some recently, and it has more honey in it than expected, so it's not very low calorie. I ended up getting some black vinegar today that has about half the calories, though it still says add honey to taste, so I'm not sure how it's going to work out for drinking. I can still use it for other things.

Before finding that, I've added several alternative dessert locations in the Omotesandou/Harujuku neighborhood area to my neighborhood running course, and tentatively changed it for future runs. Still on the old course is the Aoyama-douri Pudding Shop, so I bought a little baked non-fresh (packaged, actually) cake there today, called Chocolat Aoyama Sanpo (stroll/walk). It would be pretty messing to try to eat it walking, so I'm glad I didn't try. This was much better than I expected, so I might even try their other "white" version of this. It certainly qualifies as definitely good.

Cake-off: Sadaharu Aoki's Marron Fruits Rouges over Viron's Bonaparte

Sunday, for cake-off day, as the earliest great cake available for a second-round, I tried Viron's Bonaparte again, this time against something not another chocolate cake, Sadaharu Aoki's Marron Fruits Rouges, which was conveniently next in line, though it is available through November, so there was no hurry with it. I ran to Viron first and then ran carrying it north at least as far as Shinjuku Takashimiya, and then walked from there to Isetan to get the second cake and walked both home.

This time I had the Marron Fruits Rouges at my preferred temperature, and it made all the difference: definitely great cake. Again, the Bonaparte was not working for me, so I can't keep in among the great cakes. It was an early choice and from when I was more enthusiastic about Viron (though their Mille-Feuille is still definitely my favorite). These day, maybe I'm used to a moister cake. I wouldn't have minded some whipped cream on the Bonaparte, if I were ordering it in a cafe (which is not possible, since their cafes' serve different desserts than they sell in the bakery section).

In the afternoon, I went and checked the current line-up at Clair de Lune, which I should get cake from soon (they are third to sixth in priority, in no particular order). Since the previous pastry I got there was excellent, and I didn't get any during the last week, I got their Boulette au Marron and ate it within a kilometer (though I arrived by an unnecessary detour) at a park. I've never had this seasonal pastry from anywhere, I think, though I'm seeing everywhere now, it being the season. This is pastry around a baked (I think) chestnut, but also there is marzipan inside, which makes a differences, as far as balancing. Again, I don't have much comparison, but this seemed great to me. I also got a small bag of chocolate almonds as service, which I've saving to share, and I could have gotten a flower, but passed. It's their 5th year anniversary.

I also checked out L'abbricotier and Jun Honma, again to verify their lineups, again. This time I made proper notes, so I can move on the checking other places. I did go to check out a new loop in Honmachi, Shibuya-ku, and found that I was mistaken about there being an underpass to cross back over Yamanote-dori Ave., so I was wrong about being able to reach the north part of Yoyogi by curling the course back east. I can just barely get into Nishi-Shinjuku, where there is not actually anything I need to reach. At least I found a crosswalk with a signal for getting to Tokyo Opera City, where there's a bakery cafe.

Sadaharu Aoki: Noisettine Chocolat

As planned, I went to the Marunouchi main tokyo shop for P. Sadaharu Aoki Paris and got cake and tea for two. My tea was Ceylon Citronelle, which I thought was excellent this time. Due to greed, I chose the Noisettine Chocolat, even though I can get that at Isetan, whereas the Marunouchi shop has an exclusive cake that I haven't done yet, because I wasn't sure that I would want another cake from them in time to have both before the first went out of season, which isn't looking true now, but that could change with the next new cake.

As the name indicates, the Noisettine is caramelized hazelnuts and chocolate. This is very different from gianduja, which is about 7:3 chocolate:hazelnut, so a hazelnut-flavored chocolate. In this case, chocolate is the accent, and the hazelnut is able to shine. There is a lot of (caramelized?) hazelnut cream, which is at least excellent by itself, but inside are some small pieces of whole caramelized hazelnuts, so if you chew carefully to crush those up, they release a more intense flavor than I remember in other cakes. Add in the chocolate, and greatness easily follows. This is around through November and I'd like to get it through two rounds of cake-offs, since I haven't seen this before, so I don't know how many years I'll have to wait for it to appear again. Sadaharu Aoki has just moved to the top of my priority list of places to get more new cakes from (though I'm still limiting myself to one a week), as it has pulled away from the competition to clearly take at least third places and is tied for second.

I should mention that I also received half of the Maron Fruits Rouges (not the half with the whole chestnut, obviously), from which I've decided that it's better to eat this cake while it's still well chilled so the whipped cream is sufficiently firm. This might be true of mont-blanc (which this basically is, of the typical upside-down type, with the "snow" under the "mountain") in general. It's just just structural: this cake works better for me with firmer whipped cream. The ideal time I've heard for whipped cream is 10 minutes from the refrigerator, but I wouldn't wait that long when it's supportive rather than on top.

In other cake news, Jean-Paul Hévin's Tarte au Chocolate is only around for this month, so I think I'll move its second-round cake-off to next weekend. That's the only announced retirement from the line-up so far, with no word yet on what will be new in October (but at least one of their mont-blanc varieties is expected, hopefully Mont-Fuji from 2015, though I'm waiting to do second-round cake-offs with Mont-Poire Yuzu and Mont-Pomme Caramel). In related news (namely, great cakes), 14 Julliet Tokyo has stopped selling petits gateaux, so Au Lait Noix is unavailable. I'll check them again next month, as the young person out front, who likely is a part-timer, couldn't say have long this situation might last.

In the evening, I ran another one-way neighborhood course run to loop 11 out: the Minami-Aoyama east loop. I was surprised to find myself just a little lightheaded after only 30 minutes (just reaching the preceding loop), since I had a big lunch and cake earlier, but then I remembered that I hadn't had breakfast (though I got up late). I kept running and didn't have any problems. No surprises on the Minami-Aoyama east loop, though I did decide to add the Viking Bakery F to the map, since it's conceivable I would want a snack from there some day, though they don't have any pastries. Total run was a bout 65 minutes. I had initially planned to continue on to the next loop but decided maybe even before I started running to save that, since it would add another hour (it's a 10+ km loop; has two dead-end loops, at least one of which I would be obligated to include, so I don't have to make a special trip another time; and would leave me farther from home).

Frédéric Cassel: Tarte Myrtille Creamcheese

Despite the rain (though the rain was less than earlier in the day), I did a run out to Ginza Mitsukoshi to finally visit Frédéric Cassel again. Forgot to look to see whether they still have their mont-blanc, so I'll have to try to do that on Saturday was reconnaissance for the next cake-off. Don't remember the window being that narrow last time, or I could have waited to do La Figue. Full disclosure, because of the rain, caring cake, not wanting to over-strain my foot, and being behind on getting other things done, I took the train back.

Today, my target was Tarte Myrtille Creamcheese, though there were two other new cakes that I could have chosen from. The name pretty much defines it. It was definitely good, but the blueberry was too subtle for me to get too excited about. I might be getting tired of this tart series, though the quality remains high, so I'm still looking forward to next month's flavor, if they keep the same pattern, but Sadaharu Aoki is now a higher priority, after Bien-être.

Bien-être: Kyohou Grape Shortcake

On Monday, I reserved cake at Bien-être for Wednesday, so it was good luck, I suppose, that Tuesday was the day with violent rain over Tokyo in the evening. Today, I was a little surprised when they called me to ask whether I was coming to get the cake when it was before the earliest time that I had given them and I paid ahead, but someone else probably wanted it. I told them that I was on my way, since I was more than halfway done with the run there (I was actually just passing Harajuku Station). They were sold-out of that cake and other one which I would have wanted (seasonal tart), so it was good that I reserved it. There was a table open between parfait eaters, so even though I told them take-out and they had already boxed it, they offered to let me eat in, so I did.

The cake was their seasonal shortcake, which now is Kyohou (巨峰の) Grape Shortcake, which I've heard other cake shops as offering now, too. Not sure how long the season lasts. I've had grape mille-feuille from there in the past, so it was probably the same kind of grape, though I wasn't paying attention to that at the time. Bien-être has surprised me in the past, but this was a standard Japanese shortcake, which means lots of whipped cream, some fruit, and sponge cake to hold it together. All of these are good and go fine together, but this kind of cake is too much plain whipped cream for me to get excited about, though a change is often nice. Definitely good cake, as expected.

This leaves Bien-être, Paris S'éveille, and Sadaharu Aoki overlapped for third place. Since I've had the fewest cakes from Bien-être, they remain the priority, but any of them could end up on top, though none of them have many cakes that I haven't had, so it's not so important as far as prioritizing for new cakes.

Cake-off: Bien-être's Framboisier over Jean-Paul Hévin's La Figue

On Monday, a national holiday, I had a first-round cake-off for the seasonal (I assume) La Figue by Jean-Paul Hévin. I pitted it against a standard from Bien-être, their Framboisier. These both held up as great cakes and I really enjoyed them (it's good to live in Tokyo and know where the great cake is). I'm giving this round to Framboisier because there are a lot of chocolate cakes that I like a lot (and even a lot of cakes from JPH similar to La Figue, in different seasons), but it is the only great cake I know that gets by on just raspberry as the main flavor (the closest is Perfum, which is raspberry and rose), though white chocolate is usually a good assist.

I ran for the cakes (one at a time and one-way, taking the train back from Bien-être, though that requires at least one train change and either a few extra stations or extra fee to change lines) and afterward went for a long ride checking shops for great cakes that have yet to have a first round (the only missing ones for second-round are ones I visit regularly anyway and Cuba from Les Cacao). First though, I revisited Bien-être to correct a mis-order (I'm resorting to reserving cake, so I hope it doesn't rain hard again Wednesday) and get my loyalty card stamped. Next I hit Bubó Barcelona to try their Croissant, which was definitely good as a fluffy buttery pastry, though you can always add butter to hot bread and get similar results, perhaps, so I'm not as interested in it as their more decadent creations. Could check two shops (the third was closed, as it always is on Monday) for great cakes without finding them, but had a few-hour ride around the city.

Noix de Beurre, Waguri Mont-Blanc

Sunday, I got some cake for two from Noix de Beurre, Isetan, the Chantilly Fraise (not pictured, damaged in transportation) and one new one, their Waguri Mont-Blanc. It was definitely good, though I wished that I had used a sharper knife, just to cut through the chestnut paste without crushing the whipped cream underneath. The base is tart-like rather than meringue and there is a large piece (pre-cut into smaller chunks, I think) of chestnut in the center as well. I should look at knifes when I got back to Tokyu Hands to see about a glass jar for pickling.

In the evening, I finally did another one-way neighborhood run, this time as far as the Shibuya--Minami-Aoyama loop, which is ten loops out (not that I start from Loop #1, but I start before my neighbor courses start branching, so it's all proportionate beyond the first few). Not surprisingly, I found flaws in my old course (crossing signal), so I ran an approximation and updated the course for next time, though I don't feel compelled to repeat it before starting on the next set of loops (the 11s out). Took a picture on the way back that works even at night for the neighborhood map of a cafe on the Jinguumae--Kita-Aoyama Central Loop (which is 8 loops out) that seems quite good for cake.

Hidomi, Ilhéur

Yesterday, I took a rest from running, though some of my shopping was running related and it took a lot of walking. Still ate up the same about of time, so I still managed to get practically nothing else done in the evening. Since I was out at Odakyu Halc, I sampled Pompadour as a first post and got a Pain aux Raisins. Not actually very special, but not bad, so I'll say it was good. This counts as being on the neighborhood course since I've allowed Shinjuku Takashimaya (as across the street from a west Shinjuku loop) and they are connected by underground tunnel.

Today, I had the afternoon off, so I ran out to Hidemi (with lots of stretching), as a candidate for promotion from the very good tier of cake shops. I did not write it down, but it was fairly memorable, so I think I have it right as Ilhéur (the "h" is silent). I was attracted to the chocolate, but Hidemi is about fruit, in this case pineapple, lime, and coconut (if that counts). The harmony doesn't quite do it for me though, and I really don't like the texture of shredded coconut meat, certainly not in a smooth cream/gelatin. Still it was definitely interesting and well made, so it was pleasant and I can call it good, but Hidemi is off the radar for promotion and now I'm noticing Noix de Beurre in its place.

Bien-être, Figue Mille-feuille

Yesterday, did my first Bien-être run since they reopened, as I confirmed. They had three great cakes and one excellent cake but no new cakes, so I ran to Shibuya Hiharie ShinQ and got a sweet quiche fromToshi Yoroizuka, but I should have been more careful, as it needed to remain flat, whereas I was given it a paper sack, and I didn't worry about it. It was still good, but I don't want to judge it based on that experience. About an 80-minute run.

Today, trying Bien-être again, I ran slower and shouldn't have, as they were more busy, and though they had more and different cakes left today, the short cake sold out in front of me and I had to settle for Figue Mille-feuille. This time, I was more careful about my cake (and my feet), and walked home. This is my fourth type of mille-feuille, but I'm going to stick with excellent for now, as I still like the balance of lots of dense pastry and maybe equal parts fruit and custard. I may have to result in reserving a piece or going near opening time (which is what I do for cake-offs, when I need a specific cake) to get a new cake. I'll see how next Wednesday goes, which is probably when I'll get back there next. I still have three cake back-ups and two pastry back-ups, so I can be patient for a while.

Chianti: Mille-feuille

I've had mixed results from Chianti after two cakes, so since they were at Isetan, I thought I would do the tie-breaker. Heavy rain and some other business kept me from running and yesterday was upper body, so I just did some squats and exercised my ankles (I'll do my stretches for heel pain later). 

The excellent cake I've had from Chianti was a mont-blanc, so I went for a standard (not that there was a big selection) and got the Mille-feuille. It has a little fruit and whipped cream, but not enough to damage it. It turned out to be good, but not exceptional.

I've still got half the other quite good shops to get through before I can know which is the bottom half and demote them (I've got about double the candidates that I need), but there are more important shops to worry about. For example, I hope that Bien-être has themselves in shape for tomorrow.

Paris S'éveille: Arbion

Did another cycling day, about 3 hours, this time out to Paris S'éveille. It was a little soon to go back there, but it seemed like a good choice for a weekend and I wanted to check the Dalloyau line-up at their main store (their two mont-blanc are in, but none of the cakes I'm looking for). On the way, I took a few photos in the area around Meguro Station, but even before that, I stopped at Café Le Cordon Bleu for my first pastry from them, which I think was called Croissant au Chocolat (or at least should have been), and ate in. This was super fresh, complete with the fresh bread smell, whereas I'm used to buying pastries late in the day on weekdays. I think that they brushed it with egg white, because the outside is well sealed. Definitely seemed very "by the book", so no complaints and I can say that it was excellent.

At Paris S'éveille, they no longer have signs on their tables saying "no photographs", so I ate in. I choose the "chef-recommend" Arbion, which is new and features Japanese apricot mousse, almond milk mousse, and lavender flavored milk foam surrounded by white chocolate. The taste balance was fine for me, as a light fruity concoction, but not really my thing; still, definitely good. Maybe fall and winter will bring some new heavier cakes. Completely forgot to confirm up-coming cake-off cakes, but I wouldn't get to them this month anyway, so I guess it's okay.

On the way back, I confirmed that Les Cacao still doesn't have Cuba, the only great cake that I've had from there, swung by Toshi Yoroizuka to confirm recently spotted great cakes remain, though no new old favorites. Lastly, I stopped by Bubó Barcelona and got their Croissant au Chocolat (I think), which I ate at home. Wait, I also confirmed La Vie Douce still doesn't have a yuzu chiboust, or any kind of chiboust or yuzu cake right now. The second croissant had a balance of buttery flake, fluffy interior, and chocolate that makes we want to say that it is great.

Cake-off: Cacao Store (Théobroma)'s San Juaquin Dos over Viron's Bonaparte

After more than two years, visiting Viron looking for previous great cakes finally paid off Friday, when I say that Bonaparte was brought back. I rate this as great but never did a cake-off, so that became the new priority. Prior to that, there was actually running, in the form of a one-way neighborhood run that got as far as revisiting both the Minami-Aoyama--Nishi-Azubu loop (which goes past Esola the Lab, where I got black cheesecake recently) and the connected Nishi-Azuba Northwest loop, which goes by the temple Choukoku-ji, as the main landmark, and is a neighborhood in which I've seen people out waking their (full-sized) pig on a leash a couple times. Note counting stops for stretches, it took about 68 minutes, after which I walked home. No cake or pastry, as I was banking them for the weekend.

Saturday, I did a cake-off, cycling, again resting my feet where I could. I stopped to take a few photos of, for example the entrance (since there seemed to be a guard and it's very private looking) to Central Tokyo Church of Perfect Liberty, which is a Japanese "new religious movement", started by a Zen Buddhist priest.

Viron opens early, so I went there first, choosing the Shibuya location because it aligned with my initial photography goals, and got Bonaparte, which is a chocolate cake flavored with prune. I took it home, did some other shopping, and then went out to Bien-être, where I found that they had canceled business, presumably because they were not finished with their renovations. My back up was Cacao Store, very close, where I got San Juaquin Dos (actually by Théobroma, like all their cakes), which is straight chocolate cake, pretty much, and their star attraction, seems like.

Both of these cakes involve, well, more cake than my usual choices: no caramel, mousse, cream, crunch, or nuts. My first reaction was, is just cake really great? But they convinced me of their merits over time. Initially, Viron had the edge, with its extra interesting flavor, but the Cacao Store chocolate cake, with its thick layers of ganache, won me over by the end. Next time a trip to Bien-être for a new cake fails, I know where to go.

In the afternoon, I went out again by bicycle for additional exercise and photos, covering the rest of a hatagaya--Honmachi loop for a neighborhood course (and finding a few flaws that needed fixing), as well as the rest of the north side of the Hatagaya--Motoyoyogichou--Nishihara--Tomigaya--Uehara loop, though one shrine was closed, so I would like to go back.

Lots of seasonal cakes appeared in September in the top shops, but I'm not going to sweat it, and just take them in order (of my original evaluations), so I hope that JPH's chocolate tart sticks around for October, so I can get it for a second-round cake-off.

Presqu'île Chocolaterie, Mure

Still having trouble with foot pain, so I took off yesterday and did some upper body work, which I should do more often (hopefully I will). Today, I took a half-day off work and went cycling up to Kichijouji to visit Presqu'île Chocolaterie (versus one other their other operations, like wine making), which is a quite good shop that rates higher than some of my excellent shops, so I wanted to resolve the discrepancy, despite those shops outside the top couple dozen being a pretty low priority, so I haven't done anything about it for months. (On the way, I also confirmed that Aigre-Douce still doesn't have a cake I've been looking for about 3 years).

I went for Mure (I'm updating with the 2020 website spelling), which is a chocolate and mulberry cake, though the decoration seems to be a relative of the blueberry. I didn't trust the cake to survive the road trip back, due to vibration, but melting may have been a bigger problem, as there was less ice inside a not so small box than I expected. In either case, I ate it in a little park within a couple kilometers, which was not optimal (mosquito repellent was necessary, which I had). This was definitely good. Now I'm curious how mulberry would go with a darker chocolate, but I don't see that flavor usually, so now I'm going to be looking for that. Now that Presqu'île Chocolaterie is firmly in the quite good group, I can deal with other overlaps. Right now, along with Très Calme, Hidemi and Del'Immo stand out among quite good shops, so maybe I demoted them too soon.

Frédéric Cassel, Choux Cassis

Was windy today, due to a typhoon passing to the west, enough to stop some train lines. No rain in the evening though, so it was mostly fine for running. I imagine most running groups cancelled early, so there were not many people out on the moat course. Saw one tree had broken off and was floating in the moat to the east and someone official looking was inspecting the trunk when I reached it near Hibiya intersection.

Went back to Ginza Mitsukoshi by the scenic route (not so much as a plan, but I just missed the first traffic light, which is followed by a second traffic light that you can't make at any reasonable speed, so I turned and went down to Aoyama-doori Avenue, which adds more than 1 km, I think (especially if you start by trying to go the opposite direction). I walked from the big Ginza scramble (Sukiyabashi), but it was still about 75 min or running total round-trip, plus walking underground from there, as Marunouchi Line Ginza Station ti Ginza Mitsukoshi and then to Viron by the zigzag underground route.

For cake, I got Choux Cassis from Frédéric Cassel, which is the first time I've gotten this inspiration cake, one of three lately, along with a cheese charlotte and a tart. I would have been happy with this month's tart, which is blueberry, but wanted to finally try the cream puff, even though I've never liked cream puffs with whipped cream or fruit or any flavor of custard but vanille. However, the custard in this was a really rich dark red from the cassis/currant. It has a very strong fruit taste without being very sweet at all. And there was no feeling of a mismatch having the cassis whipped cream. I ate it in the 9th floor open area, since I figured it would be hard to carry home on foot due to wind. I still found that I really prefer cutting the pastry with a sharp knife versus my teeth, but it was still excellent and I look forward to trying other version in the future.

Jean-Paul Hévin: La Figue

Took two months this time, but the JPH line-up has changed, bringing back a few old favorites (like the one in yesterday's cake-off) and one new cake: La Figue. I was willing to take a couple tries, since my aim is only three pieces of cake for weekdays, so I wasn't devastated that La Figue (and maybe all the cakes new to the line-up) were sold out at Isetan. I did however change my plan to do a neighborhood run and instead tried Ginza Mitsukoshi, where I also had a back-up in F. Cassel. But I didn't need it: they were not sold out (not as busy a place as Isetan, so I was not surprised). Hope they still have the F. Cassel cakes tomorrow when I go, but I can try again Wednesday and Friday (long shot) if not. Ran both ways with no stops except to walk underground from the Ginza scramble intersection to Mitsukoshi. Coming back, I checked in at Origines Cacao (still none of the old great cakes, nor were there any at Dalloyau, neither surprising) and then surfaced and ran back.

La Figue is a very Jean-Paul Hévin cake: crunch on the bottom, thin layers of fig, main layer of chocolate mousse and a layer of solid chocolate on top. It was dependably great, getting the right balance of fig and chocolate for me (I don't need a lot of fruit).

Cake-off: Frédéric Cassel's Choux Vanille over Jean-Paul Hévin's Macaron Chocolat a l'Ancienne

Started off at about 10 am for Ginza Mitsukoshi to get cakes for a first-round cake-off between Frédéric Cassel's Choux Vanille and Jean-Paul Hévin's Macaron Chocolat a l'Ancienne, which was just restored in the August line-up. Besides being available from the same department store, they are from my top two favorite shops and are both unique among my great list. As types, though they are completely opposites. This round goes to Frédéric Cassel's Choux Vanille. The simplicity and quality of the filling is key, but sugar coating of the pastry really gives this cake a nice texture as well. I really need to try one of their variations. The macaron is sort of an excuse to eat a lot of fairly solid dark chocolate, which is not a bad thing, and I like a dry chewy macaron compared to a moist one, in general.

I did about another 90 minutes of running later, taking photos to fill in/verify a bunch of locations on my local running courses, in this case on the east side, so I ended up running around the American Embassy. In the last couple years or so, they built a big commercial development across from it that has nothing much of interest to me (I'm interested in the old Austrian cake shop on the far side, though they are always closed Sundays). As part of that, there is a kind of park running through it with narrow twisty paths, so I did not notice the cop in the middle until fairly close. Not a problem, but I wonder how far he can see just standing there. Maybe it it's not that dense and you can see through well enough once you get used to it, at least from that exact spot.

Café Le Cordon Bleu: Earlgrey Chocolate, Macaron Chocolat Gianduja

Saturday, went to a new place for cake for two, which is to say I had half of each of these first two cakes, Café Le Cordon Bleu (supposedly the current name, though the old name is still on the receipt: Le Cordon Bleu La Boutique). It is close to the old Asakura Family Estate, which dates from early Showa (about a hundred years ago), which is a cheap (100 yen/person) visit. Back to the cafe, it is self-serve and has a limited selection of cake, pastries, bread, and simple cafe lunch, salad maybe. On a Saturday, they ran out of at least one of our cakes shortly after us, maybe a little before 3 pm.

Both of these are chocolate (there was also a strawberry mousse/cream and a cream puff), but are quite different. One is Earlgrey Chocolate, a fairly standard mousse cake, but definitely good. The tea gives, well a tea taste, but I would say it makes the chocolate a little fruity. The other cake is a macaron, Macaron Chocolate Gianduja, and I advised cutting it, though it turned out that picking it up was very possible, as there is a center of chopped nuts (I assume hazelnuts) in chocolate that acted as a central post while not offering resistance to biting (so it was sort of sticky rather than solid). This sort of heavy cake is more my preference, so I thought this was excellent. Based on two cakes, it seems a quite good shop, which is a fairly good find for just a local shop I noticed on my neighborhood route.

Esola: Black Cheesecake

No running Friday, but took an out of town guest with us when trying a new place, Esola in (Minami-) Aoyama. Noticed this near my neighborhood running course through the area, once I adjusted it to allow cutting through the alley/driveway at the end of this road that needs to a park on the other side. The crust/topping is bitter chocolate cookie crust (with salted butter for the bottom, at least), though I thought it was sesame for some reason. It's not very strong compared to the center, which is layers of fresh cream, rare cheese cake, and baked cheese cake, apparently. It's definitely good and definitely and a little different in a good way, like the shop.