Clair de Lune, Passion Chocolat

As planned, I ran up to the Clair de Lune in the Marui just across from Ueno Station, which is about a kilometer closer each way than going to the main store. Taking the shortest route, I run down a short seedy hostess bar street, which is no big deal (it's well lit and loudspeakers repeat the local police saying that I shouldn't trust anyone who tries to lure me in and that such action is illegal, though there are still people in front of individual clubs/bars who presumably know what they can get away with; probably they'll talk to you if you go up to them, but otherwise are just standing there or talking to each other while they wait for someone interesting to come along) and then the crowded back streets of cheap shops and food stalls on the other side of the main street, but it's okay.

I hadn't looked around in the basement of Marui before, just verified that Clair de Lune was there (and they're right at the bottom of the escalator), so I hadn't noticed that it was mostly eat-in places rather than counters for take-out, not like the department store food areas, maybe more like parts of Tokyo Midtown, but cheaper. Anyway, I could eat in-at a spacious counter next to the cake shop counter. I got the Passion Chocolat, though there were a few other more basic options that I haven't tried yet, and I probably should have chosen a piece having more chocolate, since there was variation in the balance between them and I was given a choice. Still, it was a good flavor, as good as I've gotten in good passion fruit and chocolate cakes from elsewhere, maybe even from JPH, though the bottom biscuit did not impress me. The aftertaste of the cake was sort of gingery, which I couldn't detect over the passion fruit when I was eating it and also might be unrelated to the biscuit. The biscuit was not bad, just it was a dense chocolate cake with no particular character and I wanted something more dramatic to contrast with the passion fruit and chocolate cream/mousse. There was some crunch element between cake and cream as well, but also not sufficient to make much impression. It was definitely good cake and I wasn't really disappointed, but it's going to be hard to keep this shop in the quite excellent group, which I knew from the beginning. I need to get another cake from Del'Immo before visiting Clair de Lune again, since it's a potential rival.

La Base Secrète du GAMIN: Marbré W Fromage

Still at the beginning of working through under-visited shops from my bloated quite good list. I'm skipping a couple A's for logistic reasons and ran to (La) Base Secrète du GAMIN, which seems farther than it is because of the slow down going through Shibuya station. I'd try running further north, in front of NHK Studio Park next time, but that's not looking necessary. Round trip is 14 to 15 km.

Got there several minutes before closing on the day before their rest day and the person ahead of be bought 4 pieces, so not a big selection, which is true every time I go there. This time I went with Marbré W Fromage, which is a baked cheesecake base with a marbled cheese souffle on top. Considered coming back by train, but it requires a line transfer and isn't that direct, so I was able to convince myself that there was not much benefit, plus I could use some more exercise after the heavy eating last weekend. I had a windbreaker in my backpack that I didn't get out, but I definitely was feeling that I was activating brown fat cells on the way back.

My major complaint is that this cake was put in the box with nothing to keep it in its place, so it was just rolling around in there. On the other hand, it's not delicate at all and was fine (it probably didn't roll around so much as settle in the corner and shift a little bit). It's a nice cake: nothing special but I didn't feel disappointed in it. Definitely good. When this shop category get's revised, it will probably get moved to the good group, but eventually that bloated group will get revised and it will remain in a definitely good group, I expect, though I'm a long way from needing to go through the good shops to see whether I overlooked something deserving more attention.

The plan for tomorrow is to visit the slightly nearer Ueno counter of a shop that otherwise is definitely farther (and open later, so I might end up there anyway, if I failed to find anything new in Marui Dept. Store.

Le Chocolat de H/Paul Bassett: Chocolat Earl Grey

Did a run combining various purposes. First, I ran to Il Pleut sur la Seine, where Saint-Marc is still in the line-up but Chiboust Poire has not returned (probably I need to wait for pear season is, whenever that is). Also, on the way, I notice Landtmann in the Ao building along Aoyama-doori, so that's another cake place on my neighborhood map to get to.

Then I went to Le Chocolat de H/Paul Bassett at Shibuya Hikarie ShinQs (my current newly visited neighborhood shop) and got, I think, the Chocolat Earl Grey (a seasonal cake). Like the previous cake, this was very much a café cake versus a patisserie cake. It was not solid like a torte, but softish biscuit or a coarse sponge, not sure which (it's somewhat spongy but not the spherical bubbles of a sponge cake, more a bread-like weave). The chocolate is also not dense, but enough for flavor and it is balanced by the small amount of fruit. I was completely ready to just call this good and keep this place firmly in the quite good category, but I ate in and had it with just water, so there was an after taste: I really nice harmony of chocolate and raspberry, it's inconvenient, but even though it's not what I look for, this was an excellent cake, so I'll probably back back soon, since now it's challenging a lot of my excellent shops.

Next, was a visit to the Shibuya Seibu, which I had overlooked. In stretches over a few buildings and the food section is tiny and fairly empty of customers. I wouldn't be surprised to see them go out of business, although I was probably going minutes before closing. Isetan or Mitsukoshi would have several times the density of people. Anyway, they have two places with cake Factory Shin, which I've visited in Kobe, so I've blogged them, but not as Tokyo cake. The other is Kihachi, which is at Isetan.

Lastly, it did the Jinnan loop of my neighborhood course correctly this time, so I can do it and the other loop in that clump counterclockwise next, though I'm maybe not going to get time until Saturday night.

Cake-off: Yu Sasage's Perfum over Viron's Mille-feuille

In the morning, I ran down to Viron in Shibuya by way of practicing/confirmed the two loops in the Jinnan clump of the neighborhood course and then getting roasted crushed peanuts from Nikunohanamasa, since I was running very low. Both the loops are newly revised and I failed on the smaller further away Jinnan loop but could do the simpler and closer but longer Jinguumae--Jinnan loop clockwise. This year, for the third-round cake-offs, I'm working through the list in order of the month I first sampled the versus just chronologically, so that I can match things up in the main season better and am not look for winter cakes in summer, hopefully. This time it was the Mille-feuille, which is available year round, like most of their cakes (the repeat rate on specials is pretty low, though the Fraise, for example, is strictly seasonal, though it's off the great list. I had a delay coming back, as I took the wrong exit (I'm being carefully and using the train to bring back my cakes) and was briefly trapped north of the Shinjuku Marathon runners.

After a half-lunch, I went out again to go to Yu Sasage and was trapped longer on the east side of slower runners, though eventually they let us through. As in other recent outward forays, I took a several photos that are aspirationally future sites on neighborhood loops, should I ever add loops that far out. Yu Sasage still doesn't have either of the other two great cakes of theirs, which have never been available for a cake-off since their appearances in '16 and '17, but they had Perfum.

I like to give honest reviews, so while Viron's mille-feuille was excellent, as a traditional mille-feuille, I wasn't feeling the need to have it in the great list at this time. I've had a lot of mille-feuille since I've last had this one, and though none of those was great, maybe I'm becoming more demanding. Or it could just be natural variation. Perfum remains a combination of fruit, pistachio tart, and meringue that I appreciate, so I don't mind giving it the win, though it's a lot less convenient to report them with an additional visit for a new cake (but the only way I visit these days, so they need the visit more).

Angelina: Strawberry White Mont-Blanc and Orange Caramel Mont-Blanc

Angelina: Mont-blanc and White Strawberry Mont-blanc

Thursday through Saturday, I was semi-busy, so all the running was on my neighborhood course trying to review and confirm loops forward and backward, as I work through my list outward. Not sure where I left things off, but I've most recently completed the Jinguumae--Kita-Aoymama--Shibuya, Minami-Aoyama 3&4, and Kasumigaoka-machi--Kita-Aoyama loops, so those are probably, which brings me up to 32 km confirm. Of course, at this point, not that I've finished with the closer ones, I spend a lot more time reaching them than running them.

Angelina: Orange Caramel Mont-Blanc

Friday evening, I intended to visit the Salon de Thé Angelina, which initially survived its department store being renovated and renamed but apparently was closed at the end of the last year. The cake counter remains selling only the mont-blancs that they are famous for (they used to have a couple other cakes as well). Now, they have 4 varieties, not including the full-sized mont-blanc. This time we got the smaller regular mont-blanc, which I've had before, plus the seasonal and monthly variations, which are Strawberry White Mont-blanc (the name might not be in that order, but but I don't want to call it White Strawberry Mont-blanc), which I think is a white chocolate paste and a strawberry in the middle, and Orange Caramel Mont-blanc, which does not have an orange in the middle, but does obviously have some orange on the outside. I liked the orange and caramel better than the strawberry, whereas my partner's preference went the reverse, both of which were pretty predictable. These were all good, including the regular version, but I'm not that into the traditional monc, even if these are fortunately all mild in terms of the chestnut taste, which can be strong in some mont-blanc. I think this shop will take up permanent, or at least as long as they continue the counter (I have to wonder who the actual maker is these days, whether it's another shop a kitchen in the department store), residence as just a good shop, which is not a horrible thing, by any means.

Les Années Folles: Pistache Griotte

After resting a day, I went for a run down to Les Années Folles to pick up a third (blogged) cake from a shop on my bloated quite good list. This is about a 10 km run, so typical, though I'm not used to running down to there directly, so there were some wrong turns.

I usually steer clear of cherry in cakes, and I've have consistently bad experiences with pistachio and cherry, though that relates to the commonness of the pairing and my trying lots of shops. Nevertheless, or because of this, it seemed time to give cherry a chance, as otherwise I've been into pistachio cakes recently, and got the Pistache Griotte. I was thinking that cherry as an accent to pistachio was reasonable, but actually this cake was more of the reverse, or maybe just a complete harmonization. In any case, it was definitely cherry and I was will to accept and appreciate that this time. The top decoration did not have much holding it place, it it ended up in a corner of the box, but mostly the cake was as original received.

Jean-Paul Hévin: Mont-Fuji and Caracas

After running maybe 15 km Friday night, 20 km Saturday morning, and 43 km Sunday, I wasn't planning to run Monday night, but I was feeling pretty good (besides being sleep-deprived from getting up too early Sunday and not making it up yet) and I wanted to get the Longchamp Chocolat from Jean-Paul Hévin to compare it to Mont-Fuji, which I already had waiting at home. However, sold-out again at Isetan, so this time I ran first to Omotesandou Hills. When they were sold-out, I didn't have much hope, but tried Tokyo Midtown, which I at least bothered to ask about how long it would be around (took the guy a long time to find the information), which is through the end of February, reportedly. I decided that for that much effort after that active a weekend I needed more cake, so I got the Caracas, which I've noted as excellent, though not recently, so I thought I'd review it. The Mont-Fuji in question came from the freezer the night before, where I'd kept it for more than a week as a experiment.

The Mont-Fuji was as a remembered it, so this might be viable option to stash cakes with brief line-up times for later. Obviously, it's not going to work with cakes with fresh fruit. The next experiment, besides storing something longer, would be to compare fresh to defrosted. No specific plans to do either. The Caracas was fine, but I think excellent is the right evaluation. I did not run Tuesday and did manage to get more sleep.

Jean-Paul Hévin, Longchamp Chocolat

Sunday, I finally did it, I ran, as a one-way neighborhood course run, the giant Daita--Daizawa--Hatagaya--Kamiyama-chou--Kitazawa--Komaba--Motoyoyogi-chou--Nishihara--Oohara--Ooyama-chou--Shouto--Tomigaya--Uehara loop, which was 35.2 km long, plus enough lead up to make it a marathon+ distance, so a massive addition to the route, though I'm not confident that I'll ever get it memorized. Along the way, I verified some new sites, so already I've split off part, but the loops are always evolving. No problem with my feet, by keeping it pretty slow, though it was so slow, and my knowledge of the route is so poor, that I almost wore out my battery (also I took about dozen pictures), so next time I do this kind of route, it better either be simpler or I should memorize more of it.

Besides some candies from Iwate and Calorie Balance cookies, I had one Pain au Chocolat from Asterisque. As usual quite a wait, though not enough to explain the 6 km/h average time. Better that that body damage, though. Still, I'll rest tomorrow from running, I hope, and get caught up on cleaning and email.

For cake, I finally got the Longchamp Chocolat from Jean-Paul Hévin at Isetan. Even around 2 pm when I got there (I started at 6:20 for the running), they had several. Hope the same is true tomorrow, because I want to do a quick turnaround on cake-offs, because this was great, as expected, totally decadent, with chocolate, meringue, both almond and just pure sugar and egg, I think. It's hard chocolate, but I don't know how it compares to the Longchamp Chocolat Noir.

Cake-off: Jean-Paul Hévin's Tonka over Sadaharu Aoki's Saint-marc Praliné

Got up early and went running for about 3 hours, includes stops for pictures. I started by going to Jinnan, so I was pre-committing to a long run, since the goal was Ginza Mitsukoshi, in the opposite direction. I verified a few things that aren't on my neighborhood running map really shouldn't be there (one site was vacant and a shop with "bread" in the title was a sandwich place), and add a few photographs of things that should, mostly non-essential (there's a Tully's in the lobby of a building). I missed a shrine, so I'll have to go back and try again (I needed to look up), but I did fill in the Aobadai loop sites and fix the route, so that's ready when I get adding to the course in that direction.

At Mitsukoshi, I saw Jean  Jean-Paul Hévin's Longchamp, so it really exists (they only had five out, compared to a dozen of most others), but I was there for Tonka. It was already past 11, so I didn't have to wait to go to Sadaharu Aoki's Saint-marc Praliné. These are both delicious cakes, but I wasn't feeling the greatness so much today (perhaps because I was tired). Still, I appreciate JPH's design and it was nice to have chocolate and tonka flavor again, so it's getting the win. I should have let the Saint-marc Praliné warm up more, as I don't think it was an optimal temperature. I'm marking this down as excellent this time, which is a way of putting it on notice as far as the great list, but since it's a one-year one-shop cake, I might not get another chance at it.

Other news is that they have the Tarte Fraise Citron for this and next month SA's main shop, but actually its the caramel salt tart that I'm on the look out this season, so that's actually a disappointment. There's still a chance that Isetan will get it.

Franzè & Evans London, Yuzu Meringue Tart

Thursday, I made my first attempt to obtain JPH's new Longchamp Chocolat, which is dark chocolate accented by pistachio in the coating. No luck at Isetan, but it was only its second day. For running, I went out for about an hour and did the planned running of neighborhood course loops, confirming my knowledge of the Kita-Aoyama central and Mianmi-Aoyama north loops, and the clockwise direction of the Kasumigaoka-machi--Kita-Aoymama loop (which is long, but is just a big loop with streets to cross). So far, I've reconfirmed only 26 km of loops, so a lot of work yet to do, but I'm still planning to try to do my first full run of a new 35 km loop plus the neighborhood course access route to it on Sunday.

I was considering resting Friday, based on sore feet in the morning and big plans for Sunday. However, I failed a second time to get the new JPH cake, so instead I started out for the Marunouchi/Ginza area to try other outlets. By that point my feet felt reasonably okay and I didn't try to run fast. Lots of cakes still at the Marunouchi JPH chocolate bar, but not that one (they had greater variety than I expected, though). After a brief detour to see whether Viron had any new since the first half of January (no), I wend down to Ginza Mitsukoshi, where they were also sold-out. After a similar brief walk to Origines Cacao, I decided that I was will to pay extra (in buying outside Isetan/Mitsukoshi), and ran to Tokyo Midtown. The original route would probably have been okay, but I deviated for lights around Shinbashi and the updated Google route had me going up a steep curved hill where the sidewalk disappeared due to construction and I was left running the street against incoming taxis (though that's a normal legal Tokyo thing, and I passed a walker near where the sidewalk resumed). At this point, it was past 8 pm and Midtown had all of two Longchamp Feuilleté (which I noticed Saturday Ginza Mitsukoshi had labeled as "nouvelle", which is technically true, though it's been in the line-up for over two months by this point and they are clearly working on selling off the current stock). Figuring I might as well finish off the set, I ran to Omotesandou Hills, where they still had an enormous about of cake, but not that one.

When I set out for Omotesandou Hills, I was planning to settle for cake from Lotus, which is a café along the Jinguumae Shopping Road. However, I also have a long list of theoretically quite good shops that I've only had two cakes from that I want to visit again, so I did that instead, Franzè & Evans London being open. I went with the Yuzu Meringue Tart (I've still yet to get anything not meringue from there), which probably closely resembles a lemon meringue pie. It definitely met my needs after the unplanned long run (I didn't have any energy foods prepared, or I would have opening something up around Tokyo Midtown). In a way, I didn't respect its crude appear to my sweet tooth, but on the other hand, I rarely see meringue cream (the topping is still soft), probably because pie and tart shops aren't my thing. In the end, I decided that excellent was a fair evaluation by my standards, so Franzè & Evans London will make the cut.

Le Chocolat de H/Paul Bassett, Chocolata

Tuesday, I mostly took a rest. I did some running, trying to pick off the clockwise run of the Jinguumae Northwest route, but I knew when I started that I didn't really know it. I just changed the route and need a turn at a particular alley along Takeshita Street, which is crowded and filled with similar shops: lots of crepe and lots of youth fashions. Now I remember that the convenience store marks where to turn to link up to the next loop and the turn after that is to continue on the Jinguumae Northwest route. For a snack, I stopped for the first time at The Deck Coffee&Pie. By pie, they mean in the sense of a fruit pastry pocket, though I actually got a slight variation in the form of the Chocolate Nuts Stick Pie, which is a chocolate and peanut pastry, so it's a little oily with peanut oil (it's hot pot). I'm not making it sound good, but it was. I wouldn't mind trying one of the fruit ones, though it's not a priority.

Wednesday, JPH finally updated their webpage, so I see that they have a longchamp cake that I haven't blogged yet, so I'll try to get that tomorrow, and the Tonka is back, so I'll tentatively plan for that as the cake-off entrant to go against Saint-Mark Praliné from Sadaharu Aoki, who've announced pistachio ice cream for Tokyo Midtown and Shibuya Hikarie ShinQs, but not what the new exclusives will be at the other locations. Related to the latter, today's run was down to Hikarie ShinQs, but not for ice cream. I wanted to visit the Le Chocolat de H/Paul Bassett café. This time, I got the Chocolata, which features orange peal and walnut. Not sure where the walnut is, since it's not obviously nutty, but I would guess that the biscuit uses walnut flour. My first thought was that it was not that exciting, since I usually like a heavier cake or light in sense of mousse, whereas this cake is very much a café style cake, being a like a torte, with just ganache between layers of biscuit. The biscuit is very light and thick, but it's not short-cake like sponge, but neither is it one of the tougher cakes. As I ate it thought, "good" did not seem sufficient; even if I usually go for something more decadent, I can enjoy this and it's a nice change and among such cakes, this might be what I would choose, which is sort of my definition of excellent: if I could make it, it would be worth making. So that's too excellent chocolate cakes (my bias). They have third, a raspberry as the seasonal cake, I think, so should go for that before it disappears.

For running, I finished off verifying my memory of the trivial Shibuya central loop, and the similarly tiny Shibuya west loop, though I did expand it slight, so it now reaches the northeast corner of the famous Shibuya scramble intersection. I've also noticed that I've never gone and looped at what's in the Seibu basement food area, which is the northwest corner. They might not have any cake, but they have counters of a few brands I like, so I should check. They have a Factory Shin, which I know from Tokyo as good or quite good, but that doesn't mean they have cake there (it's not like they're going to import fresh cake from Kobe). On big loops, I failed on the Shibuya north loop counterclockwise, but I can get that when I do the west loop again. I did get the Jinguumae northwest loop, which was my priority, as far as being the closest in not confirmed. Tomorrow I should work on the east area around Gaien.

à tes souhaits! Pistache d'Abricot

Monday, which is a national holiday, I ran out to à tes souhaits! with a couple back-ups in mind further out from there in case they were closed or my patience was insufficient. The person in front of me counted 21 people in front of her when she called her partner. That's about typical for this shop on a weekend (it's reasonably accessible on a weekday). They were well staffed, so the line moved a little faster than I expected, but I was glad that I had an extra jacket, long pants, and hat in my bag for the outside part of the wait (if felt nicely warm at first when I first entered, but the door is open, so not so much once I got used to it), though the person several spots ahead who also looked like he ran there was not visibly suffering without doing so. I limited myself to only a few pictures of sites that could potentially be on future neighborhood course additions.

Selection was pretty good. I went for Pistache d'Abricot, which looked like something I would like. The apricot is a layer on top, under which is pistachio mousse (with pistachio cream on top), but under that there are nutty layers, including feuillantine praliné, which I don't usually associate with a fruity cake but I do associate with modern traditional fancy cake, so my regard for them has improved. This was definitely excellent cake. I suppose the distance was about 14 km, including about 1 km to and from stations coming back (the cake was fine, though maybe only because the mousse proportion was low).

This shop will make the cut when the quite good shops gets trimmed down to half their current size (hopefully), once I get all the current group up to 3 cakes each, which will make the designation more significant. Right now this category is just the not definitely below average group, though that's average among the places that I'm will to visit. For example, there was a much smaller patisserie 300 meters away that didn't seem to be having trouble with lines.

In the late afternoon, I went out again and completed verifying my memory of the Jinguumae central loop and then did clockwise on the new version of the Jinguumae northwest loop (probably wasn't necessary to change it, but it was nice to get some of it off Takeshita street, which is difficult to do even a slow walk due to crowds and finished off the linked Jinguumae central west loop. My plan is to finish off the Jinguumae northwest loop next, and then continue down to the revised Jinguumae--Jinnan and Jinnan loops (as well as try to get pie). The other neighborhood memory-check run will be in out toward Aoyama, where I didn't manage to get to Viking F (bakery) last week, but it requires that I avoid overtime work. Other plans for the week will depend on what the cake shops put out to replace cakes retiring Jan 15.

Cake-off: Jean-Paul Hévin's Mont-Blanc over Aigre-Douce's Tarte Caramel Salé

Strictly speaking, I'm not behind posting, though I am behind on other types of communication, due to other obsessions.

Friday night, I worked on testing my memory of (near) neighborhood course loops. I got at least Minami-Aoyama 3&4 loop correct clockwise this time, after failing again on the Jinguumae central loop. As a snack, I got Salted Butter Bread from Pier's Cafe (I'll translate the name as), which is a croissant like roll with basically two layers created by a little butter between them (versus an actually pastry croissant, with a lot of layers with butter between). It was good and it was fresh (in that it was not wrapped and kept toasty hot by a heat lamp (so it was still warmed after I ran the loop). I had thought this was claiming to be a bakery cafe, but I was misinterpreting a single advertised menu item. It's a just a cafe, but I'll keep it on the map.

 Saturday I ran during the day. I started reasonably early, but had an afternoon dentist appointment, so I didn't want to stay out too long. I combined trying to do neighborhood course loops with getting missing photographs of new sites. For example, Crayonhouse, which has simple cakes and tarts.

What I actually bought was a wholewheat Croissant from the grocery section. The actual making has the name Natural Pao and they're in Chiba, but I'm not going to Chiba. It was definitely good. Probably because it was wholewheat, it didn't get soggy from being bagged, but it still had croissant layering of crisp buttery layers. I was not expecting the snow, which in Tokyo was supposed to be in the mountains mainly or at night, but not the morning. Not that there was a lot, but my smartphone glass is cracked and I want to protect it from moisture, so I might have done a different kind of run if I was sure that the clouds wouldn't keep all their moisture to themselves. I got as far out as Aobadai 4, where I now have photos confirming the sites on a little loop.

Sunday, I first went to P. Clair de Lune, where I had not confirmed ahead but was hoping to get a Chiboust. Alas, the chef was not able to source ingredients. He asked for my number and said he would call when he was at the preparation stage (so that would give me a couple day's notice). I was a little unsure whether that was good, since that means it's going to be too late to get what I wanted to pair it up with, but I would like ti have it again anyway. We'll see whether I come up with something else I want to match it against, since Jean-Paul Hévin at least is ending three items from it's line-up (not sure why they only list 2 on the web site; maybe they aren't offering the third everywhere now but don't want to be bothered with being precise about when and where it will finish it's appearance). Not sure when it will end, but not sure when it will end, so I switched to what would have been the plan of doing a third-round cake-off with JPH's Mont-Blanc. Unfortunately, now I was in the opposite direction from Jiyuugaoka and wasn't feeling excited about running another 20 km run to see whether they had what I wanted. It seemed more reasonable to go to Aigre-Douce, which was 9 km away, for the one great item that I know of in the line-up, Tarte Caramel Salé. Not that busy at JPH around 11:30, but we're going up on Valentines Day, which is peak chocolate madness, when they shut down the chocolate bar and use the space to sell cakes and the primo chocolate sets (for people willing to pay double to avoid the line for their regular stuff). I was not disappointed by either cake and I could not easily choose between them. In the end, thinking about which one I would least want to drop from the list (not that I do that to losers), I choose Mont-Blanc, which is a standard for me as a mont-blanc, though I can't think of any better format for sweet caramel than Aigre-Douce's Tarte Caramel Salé (because Sadaharu doesn't provide theirs again for me to check, though January was when last appeared, so I'm keeping an eye out).

Clair de Lune, Mandarine Napoléon

I had done my planned weekday cakes and still not found a new great cake to match up against Mont-Fuji, so I turned my thoughts to the alternative, finding an old great cake that hasn't had a first round (which means I've been searching for it unsuccessfully for more than two years, so little chance). I had the four or five most convenient candidates to check again in mind for over the next three days, and today started with the nearest (fail: no Chiboust Yuzu) and the one with the latest hours, the Clair de Lune, where I preferred to get a pastry if they had a new one (not the case), considered getting a cream puff, but decided to get the Mandarine Napoléon, since it's a long run and this is now a top priority shop, since I tentatively promoted it to quite excellent.

Just in case, though it was not on display, I asked the chef about their Chiboust, which I have down as a great cake from 3 years ago. He said he makes it sometimes (which is what I've been told before, but no schedule) and that I should call ahead. Well, yeah, but I don't do that and it takes my excuse away from running.

The Mandarine Napoléon was very nice. Perhaps very conventional: vanilla and fruit mousse cake with a thick gelatinous outside to hold it together on some kind of cake (seemed like chocolate) base. But it was well made and I really appreciated the mandarin/mikan, which I don't get enough, versus chocolate version, which are almost ubiquitous and often not very good. This qualifies as excellent.

Since I was still there (I ate in) and so was the chef (making something in the back), I asked again about the Chiboust, like would he make it this weekend, for example, and could I specifically order it (which PS seemed willing to do for me the other day, if I could wait 2 hours, which I couldn't). He considered and I managed to persuade him to make it for Sunday (Saturday would be too tight for him). I've repeatedly asked about a cake until they finally made it before (Fraoula), but I've never talked someone into making a specific cake, so this was new. So no cake for me Friday and Saturday. I can do a second round on Monday (holiday) if Mont-Fuji wins (if the Chiboust wins, then I will have to call and see if they carried it over for another day). In principle, I could do a third round with either to matching something else that I can get on a weekday (again, assuming that the Chiboust is not just a one-day thing).

On other JPH news (besides Mont-Fuji), they seemed to have retired one cake from the lineup without notice and announced the end of another along with the Mont-Fuji for Jan. 15. I hope this means that the Mont-Blanc will continue, or I'll be trying to do four cake-offs in three days, which would mean no more cake for a week.

Café du Jardin: Cacao d'Or

Wednesday, I took advantage of the visiting shop at Isetan, Café du Jardin. Of Tokyo shops that I've now sampled, this is the farthest away from home. I chose the Cacao d'Or, which by taste is not that different from other chocolate cakes. It has chocolate cream and layers of chocolate sponge cake. I'm not used to this much chocolate cream, extending in a thick layer to the edge. Pretty dairy heavy for me (the whipped cream on top is overkill, in this case), but still definitely good. If they visit again, I'll try a second cake, but I think I'm not going to get back to them this time around.

My run was another neighborhood course run reviewing loops both clockwise and counterclockwise by running them from memory (no looking them up beforehand on the day). It was net loss, since I only managed to do the Jinguumae--Kita-Aoyama loop counterclockwise correctly, but spotted a Starbucks in Jinguumae 1 that made me change the Jinguumae northwest loop, so I have to redo it.

Le Chocolat de H/Paul Bassett: Imporatore

Tuesday, I went down to Monday's backup. I've been wanting to visit this place since I realized that they were hiding cake in the back (the Le Chocolat de H counter doesn't have fresh cake, but in the Paul Bassett part, they have the cake). This doesn't count as an unvisited local shop because I've visited the Ginza Le Chocolat de H, but there, as cake, I've only had a café dessert (made fresh), which is a different category. However, among local cake shops that I haven't had cake from, I figured this was the prime choice for someone who likes chocolate cake. Certainly, it has a relatively high-class atmosphere and is in good company in Shibuya Hikarie ShinQs.

I choose the Imporatore, which is pretty standard in someones, having vanilla crème brûlée in the middle of milk chocolate mousse surrounded by a chocolate coating and on a dacquoise base. Usually this type of cake is a glazed dome rather than a coated cylinder. The almonds in the coating are a small but appreciated touch, and the shape allows some whipped cream, on which there is chocolate (I think there is a special name for that shape, but I'm not looking it up now) and dusted with coco powder, all of which I appreciate and wouldn't mind seeing on more cakes. While I prefer mild chocolate, this was still excellent, so I'll probably be back there next week or so for a second cake.

On the way back, I practiced clockwise runs on a couple small loops without trouble, except I found a Benten branch temple (a Buddhism-based Japanese new religion) on my Shibuya north loop, so I should add that to the map.

Bien-être: Tarte aux Abricots et Pistaches

Still behind, because I keep fiddling with the map instead of writing. Monday, I ran down to Bien-être, where I got the Tarte aux Abricots et Pistaches. For a baked tart, this is pretty moist. I liked it more than the pistachio and strawberry one, though I'd rather have a chiboust. Anyway, excellent cake. I did some neighborhood running, around Takeshita Street in Harajuku I think, though I only got one loop correct and I've since changed it so I have to do it again. So now I've finally caught Bien-être up to my designated number of cakes for superb shops, so I just need to stop in enough to check on the chiboust. Eventually I'll want more cakes from superb shops, but I'm got a lot of excellent and quite good shops that I'm now behind on, so it's not a priority.

L'Abricotier: Chataigne

Sunday, I put off doing the giant new loop as a one-way neighborhood course run (~45 km) or going to Maison Douce (~35 km) and instead went to P. L'Abricotier, but by a very long route, going by dozens of sites to add to my neighborhood course map, which is getting pretty out of control. I don't actually have much of the actual course plotted out where I was adding and I was still finding (or not finding) sites to include as I went.

At the shop, I ate in and was not alone, though just one couple, so I took the far table (there are only three tiny tables). I got the Chataigne and probably shouldn't have. The card warned me that it had bitter caramel, which turned out to mean the caramel of Japanese purin (pudding), which I hate (the caramel, that is). But then, it's not as bad as coffee, and I can accept a certain amount of that in cake sometimes. In this case, the base cake was mascarpone cheese flavored (in the inside) with the caramel, and chestnut supposedly for contrast, though it would take a lot more chestnut to balance the caramel for me. So I did not like this cake, but on the other hand, it was well constructed, as advertised, and the flavor of caramel seemed normal for its type. I'm putting it down as good and will try to avoid bitter caramel. However, good is not enough to save the shop from slipping from quite excellent to just excellent, which it was already doing, so I went ahead and finally made that change, swapping it with Clair de Lune, though I'm worried that it might not be able to keep the position.

That phase of running took about 3 hours, so I decided to save my strength and come back from train, after taking a few more pictures and running the extra kilometer or so to the more convenient train line (in terms of frequency of direct trains), and get lunch.

Possible cake source 

After a few hours break, I went out again the in evening and ran 1+ hours around Harajuku. It was a surprisingly comfortable run. I did an easy counterclockwise run around the Jinguumae east loop on the way and managed to get the Jinguumae--Kita-Aoyama loop clockwise correct without having to look it up. Also did some recon along Omotesandou and found another café worth adding, so I'm still fiddling with the Jinguumae--Kita-Aoyama--Shibuya loop. Also, although the current café in Gyre doesn't rate inclusion by itself, they are scheduled to get a bean-to-bar chocolate shop next month in time for Valentines Day, which is a better step toward the loss of the cake and bread shops that used to be in the basement.

Très Calme: Exquis

Saturday, I did another long run. My first destination was Sengoku to visit Très Calme, which was made longer by the fact that I kept running laterally rather than wait for lights to change and the streets don't run straight. As usual, I ate in (the only person). I choose Exquis (not sure that was the spelling provided, but it matches the Japanese phonetics) and immediately forget the ingredients. It's chocolate cake with sponge bottom and a chocolate mousse layer above which has a mellow and fruity taste. Actually, the card said Earl Grey, though I was thinking blackberry, since that's the garnish, but Earl Grey is infused with bergamot, which should be quite a different flavor. In terms of construction, I'm against sponge cake, and certainly wouldn't combine it with a block of mousse. However, it worked perfectly well, so what do I know. Maybe not otherwise remarkable, but the chocolate was harmonizing well with the tea and I can call it excellent. I had this shop was listed with very good shops, but I'm upgrading it to excellent. Now the standout very good shops is Maison Douce, which has the advantage of a sample of only two, one which I have listed as semi-great (it got demoted from great after it's first cake-off round). That's a problem because it's a 35-minute run or more than 1 hour by train, so I keep hoping that it visits Isetan again, but I've been waiting quite a while.

The run continued down to Nihonbashi, to visit Mitsukoshi, and then as far south as Ginza 6, with various stops along the way. Other than the first visit, where I noticed a cake counter that I can now ignore as they visit Isetan and bought a kitchen gadget, it was fairly fruitless, because shops are waiting until Jan. 15 to change their line-ups. Coming back home, I was only just in time for a 2 pm appointment, which I was fortunately able to put off until after a shower and lunch.

Cake-off: Jean-Paul Hévin's Bergamot over Sadaharu Aoki's Mont D'or

Friday, I went for a long neighborhood run that combined practicing loops to confirm that I have them memorized and doing a one-way neighborhood run to and around a new loop, which means that it was really long neighborhood run, because I was doing full loops and then having to run back from the start point of the loop to the official link to the next loop rather than just use the part of the loop (once) that I needed. I was successful at doing clockwise runs on the Jinguumae east, Kita-Aoyama central, Minami-Aoyama north, Minami-Aoyama east, and Roppongi 7 loops. On the Minami-Aoyama north loop, I stopped at P. Takagi and got a Chausson Napolitain as my first pastry from there. Related, I made a decision to stop using the sidewalk that cuts through it as part of the loop, because it's really not somewhere where one should run and it's easy enough to go around, which still takes one by the signs saying what's inside. The pastry was definitely good. I've never seen such a flat chauson, though my experience is limited and this seems to be normal for this kind of chausson. It contained sufficient fruit for me (and apparently alcohol), so no complaint about that.

The new loop was the Azabu-Juuban--Moto-Azabu loop, which I'm going to add a little loop for to reach a Tully's. On that loop and coming back, I took some photos of places that I had missed or had second thoughts about leaving out, since as the photo at the right, which is a temple, though their business is pet memorials.

The cake was another cake-off (trying to get through the potentially soon to got out of season cakes from the majors): Jean-Paul Hévin's Bergamot and Sadaharu Aoki's Mont d'Or. The latter is scheduled through February; it's not clear when Bergamot was leave the line-up, but it's listed as seasonal and some sort of shake up is scheduled for mid-January. These were both working for me. The Bergamot is just one variation of a type of JPH cake that I think is great, but I haven't gotten tired of it yet and it takes the win in this third-round cake-off, where previously it had one win and one loss.

Cake-off: Jean-Paul Hévin's Macaron Chocolat a l'Ancienne over Pierre Hermé's Fraisier Pistache

Still catching up. I'm pretty sure I slipped in some running Wednesday, just a run on local courses, but I can't remember the details now. Before that, just out shopping, I got a Choco-Fashion from Tully's Coffee, which is just a chain coffee shop. However, it was definitely good, as an old-fashion donut, which is good enough that I should start adding these to my local running map as a snack resource, though I'll skip any that require major adjustments.

Thursday, I definitely did not run, as I woke with a headache and was worried about having caught a cold. I did, however, go to Isetan, where I scored Jean-Paul Hévin's Macaron Chocolat a l'Ancienne and Pierre Hermé's Fraisier Pistache, on the grounds that these both are expected to disappear Jan. 15. I questioned the Macaron Chocolat a l'Ancienne last time. I think I managed to raise the temperature a little bit this time, and enjoyed the chocolate more. I still love the cake base and pistachio of the Fraisier Pistache, but have to admit that I probably put and kept this on the great list just to remind myself of this classic without having to make it myself. It is excellent, but I should consider shortening my list of greats, so it takes a loss and gets a question mark, while Macaron Chocolat a l'Ancienne finally gets a win in its third cake-off round.

Paris S'éveille: Figue Spéculoos & Poire Bergamote

Not sure which runs I did which days on Sunday and Monday. I think I did local runs reviewing loops nearby one day, with mixed success, and a long one-way neighborhood course run down to add the Moto-Azabu--Roppongi loop and the Moto-Azabu loop the other. One of those days also involved Mont-Fuji and Pyramid from JPH, which are repeats, so I didn't bother to take any pictures. Still waiting to find a great cake to match the former up with for a cake-off.

Tuesday, despite being busy, I had some free time (can't remember why) and ran down to Paris S'éveille in response to a recent cake-off win. I was getting cake for two (like the JPH cakes), so now I'm a cake ahead for the next new cake (it might be awhile otherwise, since I want to visit all the under-sampled excellent and quite good shops, which is a lot). They had two new cakes: Figue Spéculoos & Poire Bergamote.

These are both successful as fancy cake and both were good quality, but not too exciting. I'm definitely not that fond the design of the fig/chocolate cake, which is sort of a thin brick. They are right to balance it with a light whip, but I still can't rate it higher than good.

The other was very fruit focused, so not so much my thing, especially the dome of gelatin, though actually the texture was good and I like the balance of that and the tart, as well as the balance of the two fruits, so I'll be generous and rate it excellent, which does not drag them down too much and all the shops in the superb category have the same problem of coming up with new cakes that match the best of their regulars.

Cake-off: L'Abricotier's Sicile over Ryoura's Mont-blanc

Saturday, did a run out to Jiyuugaoka, since my first choice as a pairing in a cake-off was a Paris S. cake, but I was not willing to wait around for two hours. Didn't see this the next time I went either, so it might be out of the line-up. On the way, I stopped at Sunandwitch and got Choco Rusk (might not be the correct name), which was actually labeled as from Bread Espresso &, part of the same group, so I didn't really need the second sample. Still, the rusk was good and useful as a snack to carry on from Jiyuugaoka (though I had rations)

Also on the way, I checked out a café, which was closed, so not the useful, a non-existing shrine, and an unexpected church (forcing me to adjust a neighborhood running course loop). So not the most direct run to Jiyuugaoka to begin with. I continued on to Ryoura and got their Mon-blanc.

After taking my Ryoura cake home, I ran out to L'Abricotier and got the second-to-last Sicile. There seems to be a pretty narrow window of availability during the day for the cake, or they just don't like to make many. It's featured on their website, so it might just be really popular.

L'Abricotier's Sicile was as I remembered it. The Mont-blanc from Ryoura was also excellent, but I wasn't feeling the greatness this time, so I'm putting it on notice and giving the win to Sicile. L'Abricotier needs the help anyway, since they are slipping in ranking. Of course, the additional new cake could just confirm that while they are excellent, they aren't really at the quite excellent level. Report on that soon, I expect.

Toshi Yoroizuka: Tarte Tatan

Was somewhat busy (or my computer was) until now, so it might take some days to catch up, though I was busy for running and cake as well, so there is less to it than might otherwise be the case. I'll try to reconstruct my movements and cake from the photographic evidence, but there are gaps. Actually, I had a headache today and took a break from running, but there was still cake, which I'll eventually get to.

On last Friday (Dec. 27), I took a shortish run to Tokyo Midtown, where I could get Tarte Tatan from Toshi Yoroizuka, in response to their recent cake-off win. This has been in their line-up for a while, so I was happy to get a chance to sample it. It's very nice. I'm not big on fruit in my cake, and apple is not a common choice, but the mildness of the fruit did not overpower the tart aspect, and the texture is a nice variation. This was excellent.