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).