Lenôtre, Espirit Tartelette Fraise Chocolat & Viron, Charme

Was busy in the afternoon, but squeezed in a run and bought cake for later. I tried a neighborhood run through the just-revised Akasaka-Azabudai-Roppongi loop. Even though I wasn't up on the progress in Azabudai, I'm pretty familiar with most of this loop, so I could finish it clockwise this time, and also do the full Roppongi Itchoume Stn. clump (there isn't much to the extra link and loop), so I'm ahead on that. Tomorrow I'll probably work on clumps closer to the base, as I'm off and there's a shop that's only open during normal work hours that I want to visit over in Sendagaya. Along the way, I got a Croissant from Pierre Gagnaire, since Libertable doesn't seem to have pastries any more, or at least now (I was over that way because I first did the just revised little Yotsuya north loop clockwise). The croissant was more of a hotel breakfast croissant than a good patisserie croissant, so it gets just an "ok".

I was getting cake for two, so I got two cakes: first, Espirit Tartelette Fraise Chocolat from Lenôtre, which I had been trying to get since last Wednesday (though they have one more new item I haven't had, a strawberry verrine). The other was the new cake I spotted at Viron yesterday, Charme, which is a chocolate dome cake, but with a hard shell. I had to save them, though, so for my lunch dessert, I also got the Almondine, which is an almond petit four, I would say. It was good, but this kind of dessert isn't going to become a focus of mine, I think.

I liked the cake in the evening better, though I did add tea, which was lacking with the Almondine. The Espirit Tartelette Fraise Chocolat was good, but not so exciting and I'd rather have less fruit and more other parts. The Charme did a better job of meeting my chocolate cravings, and I can say that it was excellent.

I expect I'll have to wait another month before I can get another new cake from Viron.