Frédéric Cassel, Inspiration Citron Vert Pomme Verveine

Catching up on cakes for the last couple weeks, if not on cake-off winners or even Frédéric Cassel's cake-off wins, I did a run to that counter at Ginza Mitsukoshi and got the Inspiration Citron Vert Pomme Verveine, which is a pretty out-of-control name. This is lemon verbena scented Bavarian cream, green apple compote, biscuit with lime peel squeezing baked, lime itself, and the hard base must be the sablé breton. The apple decoration is white chocolate, but its all richer than I expected. The apple dominates but harmonizes will with different gradations of citrus. I would say it was excellent.

L'Abricotier, Gateau Fraise

Took the afternoon off and rode around for about 2.5 hours. The first stop was L'Abricotier where I went with the standard Gateau Fraise. Nice strawberries in this and, as a cake structured for the enjoyment of strawberries and whipped cream, it seemed well made. It was a definitely good, but not my thing personally. This catches up this shop for the quite excellent category, at least until next cake-off. They still overlap with the above superb category, but they aren't the top of their current groups, so the honor of trying to move up will go to Origines Cacao for now.

Otherwise, I took another picture of a park or a picture of another park next to the first park, basically a linear strip used for parks along an old main road that how has a lot of old public housing buildings along it and tried again to get a name for a no name park on the way to Shibuya Station. I'm going to have to settle for Recycling Center Open Space.

I was going to try to confirm the main running course south of Shibuya Station, but I messed up immediately and anyway construction has changed things, so I'm having to revise the course anyway. A restoration of a pedestrian bridge exit allows me to combine one cul-de-sac loop back with the main look, but a big development project removed a road elsewhere, so I'll have to make a new cul-de-sac loop to reach those two churches (among the many in that neighborhood). Comping back, I confirmed that the Omotesando Michalak has the cake-like desert that disappeared from Isetan, so I'll be able to get one more cake.

Michalak, (Classique) Tarte Yuzu Citron

Just a little muscle training for exercise, due to being late getting home. I brought a (Classique) Tarte Yuzu Citron from Michalak through Isetan. This is a tart with a crisp crumble bottom (according to my translation), yuzu cream on lime Bavarian cream with lemon marmalade. It's pretty sweet and American tasting (for lack of a better explanation), but excellent. Michalak remains at the top the of the excellent shop group, but I'm out of cakes to try. They used to have another type, a clam shell design, but it hasn't been at Isetan lately. I'll need to check the Omotesandou shop. The cakes are still listed online for both locations.

So I'm keeping Sadaharu Aoki's lemon tart in the great category for the next cake-off, assuming the other cake is still available, which I'm planning to confirm tomorrow. I'll also hopefully get more exercise tomorrow, though still bicycling. Not sure whether I'll try walking a few kilometers this weekend, but the squats yesterday didn't seem to have any negative consequences.

Jean-Paul Hévin, Verrine Chocolat Menthe

Monday, I first went and got cake from Jean-Paul Hévin, as well as pick up knives from Isetan. It's verrine season, which is not my favorite, but I've allowed them as fresh cake and JPH doesn't have as many new cakes as I want. This time I got the Verrine Chocolate Menthe. I don't like mint in general, at least with my chocolate. Chocolate mints are usually pretty bad, except as a sweet way to consume mint. Still, I expected it to be better than the coffee one.

For exercise, before doing my indoor muscle training (excluding legs), went out to do some minor loops related to my recent neighborhood course. I did the little (600 m) Akasaka 3 loop, near Akasaka-Mitsuke Station, and did the Akasaka east loop next to Tameike clockwise correctly and varied the existence of a couple coffee shops, a Tulley's and a Starbucks, that give me an excuse to add a couple loops to the east and call the three a new clump, so I don't need to include the Akasaka east loop in the clump with the huge main Akakasa loop, which means I don't have to finish confirming it until I get to some clumps that are closer in.

I cake the verrine and it started like others, since I don't mix it up, but work my way carefully through the top chocolate mousse. When I got the mint part and mixed it in, I couldn't even identify it as mint, though there was a change in taste that harmonized with the chocolate. Partially in relief that the mint didn't destroy it, this seemed like the best verrine yet, so that I almost would call it great, but I'm not sure that I really need to have this particular one again, just my expectations for future verrine has improved and I'll call it definitely excellent.

I'll lump in Tuesday, since I forgot to take a picture, but I went to Théobroma(who supply Cacao Store) and got their Chocolat Classique. It's on the dry side of the classic chocolate cake spectrum, but not very dry. It was good but not remarkable. This is actually an improvement on the previous two cakes from there, which made me put off visiting, despite designating their signature chocolate cake as great. BUt it means that it's not at the top of the quite good group, so it won't be the one that will be a priority to explore to possible replace the low ones in the excellent group.


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Cake-off: Michalak's Mont-Blanc over Sadaharu's Tarte au Citron

Sunday, I did an Isetan-sourced cake-off with Michalak's Mont-Blanc and Sadaharu's Tarte au Citron. This is a first-round cake-off with two cakes that I was not too confident about.

For exercise, despite US presidential visit related traffic disruption, I finally managed to confirm (as best I can by bicycle), the Akasaka--Azabudai--Roppongi--Toranomon loop by doing it counterclockwise without consulting a map. It's 13.4 km long, so by far the biggest I've managed. I did what I call the Akasaka 1 loop, but really it's just a route using opposites sides a narrow row to a cul-de-sac full of temples.

As far as the cake, I'm more confident about Michalak's Mont-Blanc. It's got the meringue, which I like (though almond meringue is better) and a chocolate cup holding the base that sets it apart, so I'm keeping in among the greats and giving it the win. The Tarte au Citron was still delicious, and I don't have a better one, so I'm tentatively keeping in the greats, but I'm going to try Michalaks version soon (since that's the only cake of theirs at Isetan that I haven't tried) and might change my mind.

Sadaharu Aoki, Fromage Yuzu

Despite being benched from running, I tried to do a neighborhood running course, the Akasaka--Azabudai--Roppongi--Toranomon loop, by bicycle. I've done it clockwise most recently (in the daytime), but counterclockwise in the dark by bicycle defeated me today. I could get about 2/3 and then I wasn't sure where recent changes meant I had to turn after the ANA Intercontinental. I remembered correctly, but just didn't recognized it when I was there and wasn't confident. Maybe Sunday.

For cake, I got the Fromage Yuzu from Sadaharu Aoki from Isetan, as planned. SA already had a standard cheese cake in their lineup which is semi-great, so I shouldn't be surprised that this was was different. Basically, it's very mild, which isn't the direction for me. Still, it was good. 

Jun Honma: Bois de la Cambre/Cambre no Mori

Hitting a maybe quite good shop that's come back into consideration now that I'm penalizing shops less for less than excellent cakes (this is the third and the second was just ok), focusing on the potential for great cakes (which the first one seemed at the time, but I've never seen it since). I went for Cambre no Mori (or Bois de la Cambre, depending on how much of the Japanese you want to translate into French), name for the Belgian park. My reasoning was that the cake that I liked from them had orange and this looked solid enough to travel well by bicycle, which it certainly was. It's a chocolate on top of an orange tart. Actually, it's pretty much chocolate fudge to the point of the chocolate being slightly grainy, presumably from sugar crystals, which is a new experience for me in Japan. This seems like it wouldn't be out of place in a family restaurant or dinner, and it would be a pretty good choice, because it's good at what it does, but it's amazingly crude in aims for a patisserie cake, so I sort of just have to shake my head at it and laugh. It seems very mom and pop's style, but actually this is a branch shop of a shop further along the same train line, and they also have a workshop a little south, so it's all by design. As I said, it was good, and I can laugh at it, so I'm not disappointed really. It's fun to have something from a different kind of shop, but definitely not the kind of shop I'm usually look for, since I'd like something more sophisticated (especially at regular patisserie prices).

L'Abricotier: Moulin Rouge

As a weekend visit, I went to L'Abricotier again, trying to catch it up to other top quite excellent shops so I can choose which one to challenge the current superb shops, which are vulnerable. Finding 3 hours on my feet too long yesterday, I went by bicycle. I was about about the same amount of time but my feet are much happier.

At L'Abricotier, I choose Moulin Rouge (other untried cakes are Fraiser and their cream puff) and ate in. This is a very soft fruity cake, so it was probably not a good choice, but it's been around there for a long time, so I figured I ought to try it. It has raspberry and jasmine tea mousse, separately I think. The macaron sandwich decoration I ate separately, but it was rather dry, so I should have cut it up and used it vary the texture of the cake, which was very soft. It was definitely good cake, with a good flavor balance, so it was not disappointing.

Cake-off: Pierre Hermé's Carrément Chocolat over Bien-être's Chiboust au Pistache

Tried walking to cake, to see how that would go. On the way, I stopped at some shops that showed up on a Tabelog search of the top 100 cake shops in Tokyo. #1 is actually a "hidden" French restaurant (there's a small sign, but it's a residential area and it's not clear what business the sign is for). Even the couple cakes they have are by pre-order only, so it doesn't count as a full running course site, so I'm not going to alter the enclosing course to include it.

Got the new version of the Bien-être's Chiboust au Pistache (grapefruit accented), which is less tart/pie-like and more traditional cake, which means more chiboust and less pastry base. My first choice (and next on the one-one after two cake-offs list) was Soyeux from Ryoura, but but they no longer had it at Tokyo Midtown's Dean and Deluca. I'll have to swing by the main shop and see whether it still exists, though I'm planning to do a first round next week, which may lead to a second round, depending on whether the season cake survives.
So I wasted a trip to Tokyo Midtown. I had an afternoon appoint, so I went for the easy substitute and went to Shinjuku Isetan and got Carrément Chocolat from Pierre Hermé, which has been a standard for a long time (though I had further backups to choose from at Isetan). That was too much walking. After about 1 hour, the weak points were letting me know that they were there, but not hurting, but even though time after that involved as much train (mostly standing) as walking, it was feeling less good by the time I got home 2 hours later. Then after my appointment, which was about 1 km each way and a stop for grocery shopping, I was definitely wanting to get off my feet. I'll try to avoid that much for the next couple weeks and not expect to run in June either.

As far as I can remember, I liked the old Chiboust au Pistache better, with more pastry base. The pistachio chiboust is still nice, and no one else is providing me with this good of chiboust cake, so it's staying on the great list, but it loses to Carrément Chocolat, which is somewhat standard, but still a great rich chocolate cake, which some variation in texture accents. It's been a while since I've had a new cake from Pierre Hermé (they've dropped a category in ranking since their peak), so it will be nice to get something new; I don't think I saw anything new at Bien-être). However, I saw something new at Sadaharu, which I'm behind on (after raising them a category), and yet I want to work on the huge quite good group of cake shops and busy at the end of the week, so I think I'll just make one trip to Isetan for new cake. If only I had a sponsor...

Ces Jours, Aroma [updated]

To change things up, I went back to hitting a shop on my quite great list, though I'm still adding new ones faster than I'm ticking off ones with three net cakes. There are a lot of local ones and ones I can hit weekdays, so maybe I'll do one next week, though I'm conflicted about hitting JPH again. Anyway, the long planned trip to Ces Jours was finally carried out. It was about a 70-minute each way.

I went for Aroma, as the type of cake I like, but it was a poor choice for transporting by bicycle. I'm skeptical about the design, though, as the top half is jell, with nothing keeping it on, so I'm not sure that a long return by train would have completely saved it. It's lychee, rose, and raspberry, well balanced. Inside is lychee comport, which works well. The texture is somewhat limited, but reasonable (the outside shell of the bottom gives a little crunch, I forget from what kind of nuts, so let's say pistachio, which would go with the flavor). This was definitely at least definitely good, but I was conflicted about whether it is excellent, based on what I perceive as its relative design flaws. In the end, I decided to just split the difference and call it semi-excellent, which isn't enough to keep it in the quite good shops, though it will be able to keep a position in the next lower rank (currently good), when I have to split it due to too many shops (its already 36 over the target 64 and I need to demote another 26 from quite good, but even including the latter, I don't have a full 64 that are obviously above the minimum and get second cakes from the just good shops with one cake isn't going to be a project I'm going to start any time soon). Still, it's been a little over 3 years since I've been there anyway, and with 3 cakes, don't to have need to visit them again: just too many shops in Tokyo.

Sadaharu Aoki, Tarte au Citron

Following Golden Week, as the new seasonal cakes, they brought back the Symphonie for all the shops and also added Tarte au Citron, which surprisingly, I haven't had before from them. This might be the best lemon tart I've had (the pistachio is basically decoration, but it doesn't hurt and a minor flavor enhancement). I've had other ones that were stronger, I think, in sweetness and tartness, this seems better, and I trust the source. While my attempts to designate cake greats as top representatives of some class haven't always worked out very well, I'm in the mood to do it again say that this was a great cake. It will be around through July, so I'll have a few cake-off rounds to confirm that it belongs among other great cakes.

But not the next cake-off, as B-E's grapefruit pistachio chiboust is back, but in a new shape. Not sure whether it is really the same, but it does indicate that I won't get another chance at the older version soon, so I should at least assume that it's equivalent and do a third-round cake-off with it before it changes again (I won't be shocked if it changes even before Saturday, based on previous experience; I hadn't thought about them when I visited, so I didn't ask).

Jean-Paul Hévin, Verrine Chocolat Hirondelle

https://www.jeanpaulhevin-japon.shop/SHOP/998176.html

Today, Jean-Paul Hévin's verrine season started. The most appealing to me is the  Verrine Chocolat Hirondelle (where hirondelle means swallows, the birds), which is cream flavored with "verneine" (the liquor Verveine du Velay, I assume) over four-berry jelly (strawberry, cassis/blackcurrant, raspberry, and pomegranate) with thick Brazilian chocolate on top. I've never tried mixing it all together before eating, though that would probably be allowed. I'm more generous with these than previously, and am appreciating the advantage, as small bites are very flavorful. I'll say it was excellent, as it's likely to be my favorite of the current three. This year I might try the Verrine Chocolat Café, since it's Jean-Paul Hévin. But not this week. This didn't require an accompanying tea, which might be why I forgot to take a picture, so I'll include the official one and the link.

Cake-off: Michalak's Paris-Brest over L'Abricotier's Montelimar

I went by bicycle in one outing for both Michalak's Paris-Brest and L'Abricotier's Montelimar, in the opposite order, so the latter got a little beat up, as the vibration seemed to make the cake base lose it's adhesion to the cardboard base, although the latter was not actually taped down, I think, so maybe it's pointless to try to find a cause other than the bicycle.

My previous evaluations of both these cakes hold: I don't want to give up either as great cakes, but I'm on the look out for better versions to replace them with. I'm going with the Paris-Brest as the winner, as a guilty pleasure, but this thing is really decadently sugary, even for me, so have a glass of milk or lots of straight tea ready to balance it out.

I had said that the winner of this first-round would be in a second-round cake-off next, but I had already realized as soon as I posted that the Paris-Brest would be around for a while, so maybe I should do the other two one-win no-losses cakes instead. I'm debating between that and saving all three for match-ups with anything seasonal that appears, because I think there is no hurry for any of these three. Montelimar, however, I'll do a cake-off for as soon as I get another one-loss cake, which might take time.

Tante Maria, Camembert Cheese Cake & Tarte Pistache

Was busy Saturday and not fit to run, but I'm feeling less hopeless about my feet, which tells you about how my week was going. Anyway, cake for two, with drinks (required) in the max 3-group, 8-person eat-in area of Tante Maria in the Marunouchi Oazo building. I've passed by the regular home shop, though I've never stopped. Since it's their main thing, I choose the Camembert Cheese Cake and the other chosen cake was the Tarte Pistache. Based on half of each, and allowing some leniency in a first visit, these were both excellent.

The cheesecake has a distinctively strong cheese taste, though it still managed to be cake (it looks like it has a mold rind on top, but it's actually powered sugar). For its attention to cheesiness, I can say that it is excellent. They have two other cheesecakes, though the brie seems to be whole cake takeoff only, though it is smaller than the other whole cakes.

The Pistachio tart was mostly as expected, though it was softer than others I've had recently, which doesn't generally appeal to me, but it came without a sacrifice in flavor, and in fact it was more flavorful than some recent good pistachio tarts, so it also gets an excellent.

Michalak, Tarte Pistache

Today, cake from Michalak again, as planned. I tried a second tart, the Tarte Pistache. The base is almond cream flavored with orange and rose, pistachio praliné, with mascarpone cheese, whipped cream, and pistachio paste in white chocolate icing, or some combination of those ingredients, as I got a little lost in the description online. The result is somewhat mild, as one would expect from mascarpone cheese and whipped cream, though still definitely good, and better from me than the previous chocolate one, though similar. This shop is currently beating some excellent ones, so it will probably get promoted from quite good, but it hasn't reached 6 cakes yet and I haven't tested either of the cakes identified as great yet in a cake-off, so I'll hold off a little while long. In the meantime, I'll try a new shop over the weekend, I hope, as well as the planned cake-off to test the first great cake.

Très Calme: Praliné Noix

Okay, my last prediction about my next cakes was almost completely wrong, although I did go to Très Calme today. Sadaharu Aoki does have a new cake that I haven't had, but I just had a new cake from them Saturday, so I'll wait until next, when JPH will also have one, so that's at least two trips to Isetan. It's been more than a week since I had my last Michalak cake, so I plan to go to Isetan tomorrow as well. My feet aren't happy today, so I suppose I'll be seeing the doctor eventually, though they're rarely useful (but make up for it when they are). Today's cake was a new one (for me and the shop, apparently), Praliné Noix, which has a promising name, but maybe making praliné out of walnuts was not a great idea, since there wasn't much walnut taste and the praliné sugar kick was too low to be that interesting to me. Still good cake, and it went with my tea fine, which I ate at home, even though previously the eat-in space was open after 7 pm. Très Calme is an excellent shop and I've found a couple great cakes there, but I'm caught up for now.

L'Abricotier, Montelimar

Montelimar from L'Abricotier

For the final, 10th day of GW, I choose one holiday-only shop and decided that, under the new shop ranking system, L'Abricotier was by far under-visited as a quite excellent shop with 4 cake-off wins so far. They had a new cake, Montelimar, which is a honey mousse with dried fruit and hazelnuts on top of a hazelnut and Japanese apricot tart. This combination of fruit and nuts is common to many of their cakes, especially my favorite ones from them. I wondering whether there are other nuts in, since some seemed green, suggesting pistachio, and the combination gave a taste that made me think of butter pecan.

Cross-sectional view

I didn't ask, since another customer had come in, but there is a center custard-like disk, but I couldn't distinguish the taste. This cake was great, unlike others I have. I'll match it against Paris-Brest in the next cake-off I think, which is also hazelnuts, but praliné, so completely different from the raw fruity nuts of today's cake, in keeping with the contrast between the trendy modern foreign Machalak and the neighborhood shop L'Abricotier. Less of a ride today. I'll probably rest from even bicycling tomorrow, which I was thinking would be easy because all my cakes during the week will be from Isetan, since I only have two more cakes this week and might eschew pastries (and definitely bread) for reasons of weight control under my current reduced level of activity. I was hoping for a new cake from Sadaharu Aoki, since they are are finishing their main seasonal cakes today, but I'm now thinking that the chance of something totally new is small, and it has not been that long since I had cake from Machalak, so I'm not sure what I was going to get from Isetan. At least I'll visit them to see what the situation is. Maybe I'll finally get to P. Très Calme or Jun Honma again this week, assuming that they aren't taking the week off.

Cake-off: Frédéric Cassel's Fraisier over Éclat des Jours' Cheminée

On the 9th day of GW, I did a cake-off. I missed the window on the seasonal Origines Cacao cake, but Frédéric Cassel still had their Fraisier so I did a third round of cakes that were 1-1. Next in the list was Éclat des Jours' Cheminée, which is conveniently on the same side of town. Usually I would go get the latter first, since it's farther away, but I wanted to double-check Origines Cacao, so I also confirmed Frédéric Cassel (since Ginza 6 does not have bicycle parking) and then decided that I might as well get the Fraisier first, since it also seemed like a more robust cake than the Cheminée anyway. It's warm now. I'm hoping I can recover enough by the time it's hot so that I can at least walk to cake shops and take the train back for cake-offs. In the photo, I was able to turn the less well preserved parts of the Cheminée toward the back. The Fraisier is a milder cake, but suited me today: pistachio cream accented by strawberries (which I don't hate). The Cheminée is a pretty strong fruity chocolate ganache (?), which I certainly like sometimes and still enjoyed today, but I'm not sure that I need to revisit on a yearly basis, so I'm questioning its need to be on the greats list. It's not going to get axed this year, but I am giving Fraisier the win, its second in a row. Now I'm really behind on visiting FC for new cake. I'd choose the chocolate and hazelnut mille-feuille, but it's weekend-only, so the window is closed. Still, I'm much further behind on Sadaharu Aoki, since they introduce new cakes much less frequently, so I'll probably get there first (the seasonal cakes were announced to end with GW, so maybe there will be something new on Tuesday).

Sadaharu Aoki, Saint Honoré aux Fraises

On the 8th day of GW, I went to Shibuya Hikarie ShinQs and finally got the 7th anniversary (of the location) Saint Honoré aux Fraises from Sadaharu Aoki. I'm not sure what the rules are for saint-honoré cakes, but this one is heavy on strawberries an light on pastry, as well as cream and custard. It was good by not a combination of indigence that excites me. I went by bicycle, after a lot of problems with my feet from too much time on them early in GW walking around Tokyo (I rested in Kobe). Even the next day (when I'm writing) after another 20 km ride, they aren't noticeably worse than a couple months ago. I think I'll still avoid being on them more than an hour, at least until the next weekend end, and then set 2 hours as the limit.

Succession Kanditoratelier (Nishimura Coffee): Apfelstrudel& Pistazien Torte

Milk pudding

On day 7 of GW, and the last day in Kobe, I went to a Nishimura Coffee shop for lunch and got Succession Kanditoratelier deserts (I'm not sure whether these are in anyway independent or whether they are both just brands of the same company). I went for cake, but their actual cakes seem pretty perfunctory, if that's the correct word, so we went with more pastry-like torte, the Apfelstrudel (with whipped cream, which makes this pastry at least a café desert) and Pistazien Torte, basically, coffee cakes.

Apfelstrudel

The strudel was very nice, much nicer than pie. It has raisins, which seems like a traditional sweetener, and apple strudel predates sugar becoming a non-luxury, apparently. I definitely appreciate the cream, though that's pretty true for any torte. I would call this excellent.



I had the pistachio cake afterward, so it might have been too much. Certainly it was more sweet than I needed without something to cut it with, so I should have order tea. The milk pudding cake with my lunch and I didn't really want it, but it was actually good, so better than I expected.

Luciole: J'aime, Paris-Brest, & Gateau Meringue

Gateau Meringue

On day 6 of GW, I got cake from Luciole, which is a shop at the Hotel Piena in Kobe, as takeout. I don't recognize the name of the shop, though I've gotten cake from this location before, just the hotel name. Anyway, it's pretty big as a café space, since it might also be the hotel's breakfast space. However, they have a problem with takeout, in that they give you a huge box in a huge bag, which provides some stability, but the protection of the cakes within the box is completely inadequate.

Paris-Brest

There were one centimeter high paper walls to separate cakes, which did nothing to keep the tall, delicate meringue cake (above from their website) from falling over, even with fairly careful handling. I thought I told them something strange last time I ordered at that location that made them just leave the cakes loose inside (and maybe I did), but this time all the blame is on them. That said, the cake was good, better than average from places I've sampled in Kobe when I was sampling for essentially everywhere (which I don't do in Tokyo very widely these days). The Gateau Meringue was still good, but it's just meringue, white chocolate, and some berries in a decorative package. The Paris-Brest had an unusual pastry, not the usual choux pastry, but maybe the soft version used for Japanese-style choux cream. It was good, but I like a much more decadent style.

The final one, J'aime, is pistachio over chocolate. It is much airier/spongier that other dome cakes I have had, which one should guess from the air bubbles, again (like the previous day's) seemingly in keeping with a local style. It also was good and well balanced, but the texture was boringly soft.

Chocolat Republic: Rare Cheese Mont-Blanc & Raw Chocolate Mont-Blanc

On the 5th day of GW, in Kobe, I had a couple cakes from Chocolat Republic, the Raw Chocolat Mont-Blanc (according to the receipt), which I assume is the same as the Kobe Raw Chocolate Mont-Blanc that I've posted on before. It was still good, but basic, and heavy on the bottom layer of sponge cake for any kind of mont-blanc, which seems consistent with the local style, which features more sponge cake than I usually get in Tokyo. The other was Rare Cheese Mont-Blanc (notice the change in translation for nama from raw to rare). The cheese cake was definitely good, better than the chocolate, maybe because it was sweeter. This was specifically from Sogo Dept. Store, I think, though they have standalone shops.

Tully's Coffee, Cheesecake

On the third day of GW, we rest from cake shops, but I did take advantage of a visit to Tully's Coffee (not sure which branch, but maybe in Shinjuku) to try their cheesecake (since I don't drink coffee). It was definitely good, which is high praise for chain coffee shop fair. Couldn't get a picture without a shadow, but I'm not posting to Twitter anyway.

Michalak: Mont-Blanc

On the second day of GW, we got a couple cakes, one new to me, from the Michalak counter at Isetan, at my recommendation (next time is already been decided). The new cake was the Mont-Blanc, which I had most of, but am not completely sure how delicious it was, so I'm going with "great" just to get another chance at it (once I find a couple great cakes from some other shops). It's definitely the kind I like, not being very heavy. Actually, the middle seemed emptier than I expected, though the meringue broke irregularly, so maybe I just ate to greedily to notice.

Pascal Le Gac: Fondant Chocolat Naturel & Dacquoise Pistache

On the first day of the special 10-day Golden Week holiday, I went to Pascal Le Gac in Akasaka and had cake at their café. I had about 3/4 of a Fondant Chocolat Naturel (in two installments) and about 1/4 of a Dacquoise Pistache, so especially my review of the latter is based on limited information. The (plain) fondant chocolate was chocolaty good, so especially as a first cake, I'm quite good, so I should get a third cake from there as a part of my effort to sort through those.

comfortable calling it excellent. There is also a raspberry version, I think. It is small and not cheap. The other cake is one of two "dacquoise" cakes, though I can't remember what the other was, maybe hazelnuts, though the pistachio could easily have been called Dacquoise Fraise and the other was burred in exotic fruits. It seemed definitely good, and maybe not different in taste and texture in similar deserts that I may even have rated great, but I didn't have enough to get that excited by it and there was no novelty for me. These were good enough to rate the shop potentially