Cake-off: Pierre Hermé's Tarte Infiniment Chocolat au Lait over Pièce Montée's Mont-Blanc

Friday night, I went to Pièce Montée's Mont-Blanc for Saturday, once they confirmed that Saturday they wouldn't be selling it. They open late, so that's still within 24 hours of them putting it on display, which seems reasonable. I mostly carefully walked it back (they do not take it down, just limit its movement by a partition and icepack). My snack instead came from the Marusho, in the form of a Plecia Basque Cheesecake, which was definitely good, unlike my last coffee shop cheesecake.

Saturday, I woke much to early, so I same neighborhood course I mentioned previously, but found another little shop next to Shinanomachi selling little traditional cakes, so the map needed to be revised (the shop is Bunmeidou, and I got their Honey Castella Rolls, which was definitely good, as packaged cakes go).

That being the case, I decided that I should add the various Soga Gakkai buildings, the same as I would if they were religious buildings of other groups, even though this area is their central complex. The streets are public, so it's not really a campus or like a temple grounds, where many building might be assembled. I took a few pictures of obvious candidates for revising the map and then headed to Isetan, where I arrived just before opening and easily got my Tarte Infiniment Chocolat au Lait for a cake-off between two zero-for-one cakes.

Unfortunately, I didn't move the mont-blanc from the chiller before serving (probably should have moved it to the regular part of refrigerator an hour before eating), so it was maybe too firm for the whipped cream to express itself. I just wasn't feeling the need for this to be on the great list, so Tarte Infiniment Chocolat au Lait, which I still think deserves to be on the list easily won. The mont-blanc will get another chance this year, and I'll try to remember to be more careful about the temperature, as appropriate for a cake that depends on whipped cream.

When I was out again, confirmed more Soka Gakkai buildings, I stopped at their souvenir shop, Hakubun Eikōdō, and got a little Shinanomachi Agemochi (fried rice cake), which was good in the standard way.

Pierre Gagnaire: Mousse aux Chocolat et Yuzu

Hard week at work. I ran the Minami-Motomachi--Samon-chou--Suga-chou--Shinanomachi--Wakaba--Yotsuya loop of the neighborhood course (successfully, but I'm revising it again) Tuesday late (ending about 10 pm). Wednesday, I was slightly less late and tried to go to Pierre Gagnaire, but arrived after 8 pm and they were sold out of all cakes. I'm still sampling snack places along the neighborhood course, so this time I hit NewDays and tried their little Baumkuchen Vanilla, which as the shown price indicates isn't the top of even their baumkuchen offerings. Actually, though, this was definitely good, better than either of the recent coffee shop baumkuchens.

At home, I also tried something from the organic grocery store Bio c' Bon. They actually have a fresh cake in the form of Benten-dou Cookie Choux from their "Gateau de nature du coeur" line. "Cookie", probably because it's a harder pastry than the soft ones usually found in convenience stores and the like, and maybe a little harder/less crisp than regular choux pasty, though not so different from Oyashiya Utchii's. The custard was a little different from that one, though it's not obvious that one was better than the other except that this one was sweeter, probably than it needed to me, whereas maybe the other would have been better sweeter. Anyway, this one was less than half the price for the same size, so I'm more satisfied with it.

Thursday, I managed to leave work by 7 pm and get to Pierre Gagnaire before 8 pm and they had a good selection. Since it was the end of the month, I figured the chances of a changeover Sunday is large (though maybe after White Day, March 14, is more reasonable; I can't remember the trend last year, but I'll maybe look around March 1 beyond just getting cake for that day). I went with a cake I've seen around for a while, the Mousse aux Chocolat et Yuzu. I keep avoiding it because it's easy to become tired of chocolate mousse and I've been disappointed by (usually dome) mousse cakes repeatedly. There is yuzu gelatine inside as well, so this really doesn't seem like something I should like, but the chef patisserie is not incompetent: the chocolate and yuzu are balanced: it's a true chocolate mousse taste with yuzu for flavor and it prevents one from getting overpowered by the mousse. This cake is fairly firm for mousse, but not gelatinous, which is why it's not trying to a dome, just lets gravity do it's thing. My complaint is they tape the bottom of the box and the bottom of the cake, so I'm in serious danger of destroying it when trying to pull it out, once I managed to cut the clear tape holding the paper cylinder around it and raise it exactly vertically to free it. I suppose a hot wire slid under the plastic try might cut the tape safely but there should be a better way. I decided that this cake was perfect and I had not substitute for it, so I can say its great. Looks like I'm going to be making regular trips to Pierre Gagnaire for at least a little while.

Au bon Vieux Temps, La Môme

Finally, to the other cake of Monday (since not much cake during the week, before or after), La Môme from Au Bon Vieux Temps. This is meringue (raw) on top, rosemary-flavored apricot jelly and confiture, and apricot cream. The biscuits apparently use olive oil. It's all very mild though and not my thing, so this just rates good, which in no way reflect how poor a job I did keeping it intact.

Now, actually, I had a lot more running after that, just around the near neighborhood, doing or practicing updated loops, taking pictures, which I'm not caught up on uploading, 4 days later. So another snack, to give Caffe Veloce another chance their little baumkuchen, which seems to be generic, but it gets a pass, as a substitute for a packet of calorie mate.

Finally, another Yotsu shop I hadn't visited before was Amaguri Tarou (basically, Sweet Chestnuts Guy). They had other little snacks, but I figured I should try the chestnuts at least once. They are okay, but not my thing and really too much trouble to shell for me.

Okashiya Utchii, Choux Cream

The Monday morning began with a snack from a new boulangerie in a new hotel next to a new park. Actually, it's a tiny space in a corner (with it's own door), that share a staff person with the hotel cafe, but I imagine they do good business across form the new National Stadium. I've seen groups of runners and groups of cyclist meeting up in front of there. I went with the reliable Pain au Chocolat again. This one features an uneven outer surface, which allows for powdered sugar, and a hotel breakfast style of softness to the interior, but it wasn't under-baked and it worked, so I'll say it was excellent. Not a big variety, they all beautiful looking. This place goes by the name The Grove Bakery.

Got to Au Bon View Temps between 10:30 and 11:00, as planned, well enough after they opened for everything to be be out and got my cake. Unfortunately, it didn't travel well, so I'm not sure whether I'll tweet it and I didn't eat it first, so I'll move on. The reason I didn't go earlier is because coming back I got off the tain at Kitasandou Station and went to Okashiotchii for the first time, a kind of patisserie in Sendagaya that is relatively new and I haven't visited, so it's a priority in terms of the neighborhood running course. They didn't actually have many items for sale, which I expected (not sure what they do; maybe ordered items). The closest thing to an individual cake was the Chuu Cream, so I got that. It comes with an explanation (of why it's so expensive) of how it uses top-class organic eggs. Certainly it was different, but I don't have a deep knowledge of custard, so the difference was mostly wasted on me, I think. It was still good, but not enough to take me back (not that there was much else for me to choose).

My next run was on the Minami-Motomachi--Samon-chou--Suga-chou--Shinanomachi--Wakaba--Yotsuya loop, where I failed (I was successful the next day) because of a new path that I was not sure where it started (I choose a dead end one the first time), but I still did the full route, to fill in some pictures of new sites. Early on, I decided to give Doutor Coffee a chance that they had something worth getting, and choose their packaged Baumkuchen, which I imagined was pretty hard to mess up and was right: it managed to be good.

Cake-off: Paris S'éveille's Monsieur Arnaud over Yu Sasage's Perfum

My Sunday plan for a cake-off worked, other than falling asleep too late and waking up too early. I hope to better tonight. First was a run to Paris S'éveille, by way of Takeshita, so I could get some pictures I forget yesterday. Note sure either of these places qualifies, as candy itself does not, and I'm not sure whether the cakes on a stick are something you make, which would also not qualify. Fortunately, the current version of the neighborhood running map doesn't depend on them either way.

At Paris S'éveille, I got the required Monsieur Arnaud and carefully verified that they have no new cakes. Because this places has the best pastries I know, I also got their Croissant d'Almonde, and, no surprise, it was great, which few are. My requirement, I discovered, was that it be baked to hardness on the outside: a soggy croissant is not a croissant, or much of a pastry (thus my problem with recent Pain aux Raisins). See the nice feet?

I took the train back and got Yu Sasage's Perfum from Isetan. The next best place I've confirmed for great pastries is Sadaharu Aoki, which only has things rarely, so I could pass up getting a fresh new one: Cannelé au Chocolat. Unfortunately, though I should have predicted, chocolate and cannelé doesn't work for me. The taste is good, but I'm not thrilled by the texture, so I'll be kind and say this was good and see what they produce next month (not that they are that frequent or have the big a back catalog).

Since I had a pastry after the first run and then after lunch, I went out running again before getting to the cakes. I'm completely redoing my running maps to add all the coffee shops and convenience stores I ignored before. Even if they don't have good cakes, they have some sort of packaged snack or energy cookie that is at least good, and they sort of define the pain points of the neighborhood, so just in terms of navigation, I should include them. What a mess though. Along this, I tried a Machi Café scone from Lawson, rather than my usual during running snack. It was okay, but I think I'll stick to my rule of ignoring packed breads/pastries, at least from convenience stores, as well as cake from Caffe Veloce (my other running snack was their cheesecake, with similar results, and only slightly better tasting than the Lawson 100 cheese tart).

Finally, cake-off. This is a fourth-round cake-off from the winners bracket. Paris S'éveille's Monsieur Arnaud is heavy decadence and Yu Sasage's Perfum is light elegance. I'm into the heavy, though it was a tough decision nevertheless. So becomes the second cake to reach four straight wins, and I'm caught up with the winners bracket at least through July.

Jean-Paul Hévin: Alexandra

After a morning of pastries and a visit to Jean-Paul Hévin to get Alexandra. I went out again and visited few shops I wanted pictures of over in the Suga Shrine clump of my neighborhood running course, and then tried to run the Gaien clump, where, in reverse order, I found what was wrong with one of the loops and then, when it didn't matter, turned too soon. Hadn't known about a shrine.

On the way back, I enabled verification that I should not get the Chewy Roll (Hokkaido Milk Cream Cake Roll) from Lawson Station.

All this is just to day talking about the Alexandra, which is my least favorite JPH cake as of now. It's Madagascar chocolate mousse (which might be fine), thyme honey infused biscuit, vanilla Bavarian cream, and raspberry gelatin. These don't seem like things I want in a chocolate cake in generally, and they certainly didn't combine well. Actually, the cake had a seedy texture, so maybe there is actual thyme, not just honey from bees that collected pollen from thyme. Well, it was ok; at least it was educational, I suppose: don't get cakes like this.

Tokyo viennoiserie: Caffe Pascucci and Pierre Hermé

Sunday, did a long morning run to Aobadai to practice a new loop counterclockwise. On the way, I made my first stop at a new brand of shops in Tokyo, Caffe Pascucci (the Japan flagship store in Kitaaoyama, though the other two are also within the same Tokyo running neighborhood). I got the Saccottini al Cioccolato, which is different from a typical Pain au Chocolat as it's not trying to to have big flakes on the outside. The main texture is similar and it's more compact and less messy, so I can say that it was excellent.

Was successful at the loop, which is tiny and simple. I circled back, stopping at Fukuras (which has at least one interesting high-end dessert shop, besides coffee shops and a tapioca tea shop). Went to Isetan for cake, which I'll post separately, but since it was morning and I'm reviewing all the pastries, I also picked up plain Croissant from Pierre Hermé, who I dismissed after two a while back. As it happens, my opinion of them stands: its well made enough that I have to admit it's good, but suited for some sort of spread rather than to be eaten alone.

Bien-être: Anzu Fraise Chocolat

It's been a while, but its been a busy week. First, Monday and Tuesday I tried to get the new cake from Bien-être (the last time I had a new cake from there was more than 11 months ago, though I haven't been looked so frequently of late) and failed, though I was fairly late. Wednesday, I had the afternoon off, so I reserved a piece to pick up in the afternoon. I also tried to get the new cake from JPH, but I dallied elsewhere, and so the last piece disappear in front of me. One place a dallied was the quite superb shop Sadaharu Aoki, which does not have a new cake, so I resorted to trying something else again. I prefer to get fresh baked goods in the morning, so I went with the Sablé Choco Chocolat. It's a chocolate covered chocolate sablé-type cookie and was excellent.

I got my ordered cake, passing through the Takeshita area, which I've completed the neighborhood running course clump and by now I have done both the new loops, clockwise and counterclockwise, though I was still working on them then (not necessarily successfully). As expected, the shop was full for eating in, so I brought back my cake for later. Then I went out by bicycle to see if, by chance, I could score the JPH cake at either the Marunouchi or Ginza shops, but no such luck. At Ginza Mitsukoshi, I did hit another quite superb shop which doesn't have enough new cakes to satisfy me, Frédéric Cassel, where I got one of their moelleux, Moelleux Pistache Figue. It was good, I'll say, but I don't need to try others in that line. Still looking for other good types of things from them.

For my second run, I did another neighborhood course, the Suga Shrine clump. I'm mention now that Monday and Tuesday I decided to start sampling the bottom-layer of cake purveyors in that neighborhood. I started with a cheese tart from Lawson 100 and a chuu cream from the Family Mart, both ok to bad (not sure which one left the nasty after taste, because I ate them on the same night): just tasteless. The Waguri Mont-Blanc from the Ministop on Tuesday was definitely bad whipped dairy with a bad aftertaste. Wednesday, though, I got a Chuu Cream from the 7-Eleven, and it was relatively good.

The main event, of course was Bien-être's Anzu Fraise Chocolat. They have this instead of the Cuit Chocolat that had been looking for last weekend, so I thought it might be just that with a different topping, but it's not a baked chocolate cake. I'm sure it's as designed, but it was not working for me at all, so I can't rate it higher than ok (which isn't as devastating to my rating of them as it used to be, but still they were only marginally open to promotion, but not any more, though another shop among the quite excellent shops is, so that should be at least one of my destinations Monday). I should say that this does not reflect what I assume were azuki beans on top, which were fine (though not particularly strong in taste, so maybe not azuki beans, or just ones soaked in anzu juice).

Thursday, I did the large loop of the Suga Shrine course counterclockwise to confirm my memory of it. I didn't try to get real cake, but instead got the Whipped Cream Roll Cake from the grocer My Basket, and it was reasonably good (which is the best any roll cake as been for me).

Friday, even though they failed on the tart, I got a Chuu Cream pack from Lawson 100, because I used to buy these probably years ago now, and found them reasonable. They still are reasonably good.

Looking forward to the weekend, when I can get to shops early enough to get good cake. Actually, based on my reconnaissance Wednesday, I'm planning two cake-offs this weekend, to take advantage of limited availability. 

Cake-off: Paris S'éveille's Gateau Vanille over En Vedette's En Vedette

In the name of completion, I'll mention that I did a quick weights workout on Friday night, but that Saturday I was busy. Had some time to kill in the afternoon near Tokyo Midtown Hibiya. I saw that the Starbucks there was listed as "Reserve", so I was hoping that it had some of the fancy baked goods, like the Starbucks Reserve in Aobadai or the Princi on the other side of the river and the old Yamanote Road in Sarugaku-chou, but no, just the usual Starbucks stuff, except for a fancy coffee bar with their reserve brand. I shared the New York Cheese Cake, which is good, and The Chocolat by P. Libre's Ichiei Taguma, which has chestnut and caramel, besides the obvious chocolate, and ultimately didn't work for me, though it was okay.

Sunday, there was running, cake from proper shops, a pastry, a neighborhood course run, and indoor muscle training: a full day. I wrote a pastry, but on the run I started off with a pastry from Excelsior Caffé, because they are convenient, and higher priority targets along my route were closed. It was okay as a pastry (maybe good as bread), but better than that. By the time I left, they had Pain au Chocolat, which would have been a better test.

I went first to Bien-être, where I expected to get Cuit Chocolat for a fourth-round 1st runner's up cake-off. I had just been thinking that they hadn't had a new cake for a year, but they proved me wrong: the chocolate cake had evolved, though now I'm confused about into what. Maybe it was Anzu Frais Chocolat, which would be fresh Japanese apricot chocolate cake, which I could deal with, but at the time the topping looked like but the topping actually looked like Azuki Frais, fresh sweet beans. Either way, I considered a new cake (though the base cake might be the same) and wasn't prepared to deal with it. Since I was still particially in that direction, I stuck with the second target of Paris S'éveille's Gateau Vanille (though I had scare when the tray sold out in front of me, when it was already afternoon, but fortunately another tray was brought out) and instead matched it with En Vedette's signature cake. It's a little early for them, so the next couple cake-offs at least won't be fourth-round one's, as I still have a third round ones to do (I have a second-round one, but Sunday doesn't work for it).

Gateau Vanille is perhaps the best presentation of vanille (the competition being PH's vanille tart, which is currently one and one among cake-offs) in more or less pure form (actually, white chocolate), whereas En Vedette is an interest mixture of strong flavors. Both are interesting, but maybe the En Vedette is more challenging and I was in the mood for straightforward and am giving the win to Gateau Vanille.

Didn't notice any new cakes at PS to go for in response to their win, though I was more worried about getting my Gateau Vanille, so I didn't look properly. I've reviewing their pastries, though, so I got the Pain au Chocolat. This thing is huge and looks perfect. It's pretty hollow, intentionally, which isn't a problem but isn't particularly helpful. There isn't any more chocolate than typically, though more would probably imbalance it. Not my favorite, but I can't fault it, it was excellent.

The evening run was trying to do the updated/new Minami-Motomachi--Samon-chou--Suga-chou--Shinanomachi--Wakaba--Yotsuya loop. I knew all the sites and I might have worked out the correct order, which would pretty much determine the route (I know the roads I need), except there was a flaw in the previous map down at the nearest point to Shinanomachi Station that I fixed but going straight instead of turning a block early but didn't remember, so tonight was just practice. Still I could do the revised/new Suga-chou look successfully clockwise, all 152 meters of it, so there's that. Maybe later in the week, after I've taken cake of my main cake targets (or if I'm starting too late to try Monday or Tuesday).

En Vedette, Tarte Fraise

Thursday, I made the last visit to bring En Vedette up to enough cakes to promote them to the exceptional list. Previous cakes were good enough that were was no chance of them failing to be promoted. Remaining choices of new cakes were 3 strawberry cakes and a unique-looking mont-blanc. Though I'd like to the try the mont-blanc, I figured one of the strawberry cakes deserved a try, so I went with the Tarte Fraise, which is pistachio. I appreciated strawberry and pistachio in a number of cakes, so it was perhaps the safest choice none the less. And it was definitely excellent. The interesting point is perhaps the tart, which was relatively soft for a tart but more like a butter/nut tart than, for example, a dacquoise. Very nice.

Since it was on the way, I tried to do the Takeshita clump of my neighborhood running course, but failed completely to make the correct turn on the revised Jinguumae northwest loop. In the usual spirit of sour grapes, I found one new site for the map (Sweets Paradise [Harajuku]), which nullified the previous loop. Actually, I'm going to have to split the loop to cover more of Shitatake Street (which is I'd actually like to avoid as much as a possible). Maybe next week when I'm running southwest, I'll try the clump with the two new loops again.

No running Friday, as I was busy, but I swung by the the Sadaharu Aoki counter at Isetan (which Sadaharu Aoki himself of signing, but I didn't buy that high level an item), and got a baked sweet: Cake au Chocolat Pistache. It's small, but excellent, as far as baked sweets go, versus fresh cakes. Hoping they'll have more fresh cakes, but I also wouldn't mind trying the matcha version.

Bio Ojiyan Café, Gateau Chocolat

After a long pause, I hit the highest priority of the open cake places on my neighborhood running course, Bio Ojiyan Café. I made the safe choice and took Gateau Chocolat, which is a traditional baked chocolate cake. It came with whipped cream, which it needs, as it is a little dry (being baked). It was good, though at a café price for a pretty basic café. I have to wonder how it compares to something from a chain coffee shop, though it was probably bigger. Wouldn't mind going back, but it's not high enough among fine shops to probably ever rate another visit. Still another cake place on that loop, a loop closer to the Suga Shrine loop (my new base loop) that closes at 18:00 hasn't been visited yet. Maybe next week.

Running, I did the revised Takeshita clump, with the revised Jinguumae northwest loop (clockwise) and had no trouble. Maybe I'll do the counterclockwise direction for the loop tomorrow, as I expect to be running down toward Shibuya Scramble Square for cake from En Vedette again.

Lenôtre: Chocolat Griotte

Tuesday afternoon (still a holiday) and went for another run trying to do neighborhood paths, this time back to the new/revised Jinguumae--Kita-Aoyama loop counterclockwise, which I was successful at, and also tried the Takeshita clump and was doing fine and could have finished it (I had done all the hard parts), but decided that it was time to revise the north loop and stop running through the shrine grounds. Everyone cuts through there and it's really wide and nobody has ever yelled at me for running where I do (can't say that about everywhere, though nowhere on a course). So I'll need to do that again.

Out of order, earlier in the day, since Viron doesn't have any new cakes for me and I've had less items that from other shops in the superb group, I stopped by and got a Pain aux Raisins. It was quite eggy, which was my complaint about Excelsior Caffé's, so really I owe them an apology (and perhaps another morning visit). It was still good, but not my favorite.

On the run, I decided that I have to add Max Brenner as a site, even if I don't respect chocolate pizza, it's valid, and Strawberry Mania has take-out strawberry macarons (though you might have to buy a set of three, which would disqualify them on price grounds). Also, back at home, I noted that Strawberry Fetish is near there in Totti Candy Factory (or vice verses) and one of them has cake on stick, which is overpriced and I wish they didn't, but I might have to visit them some day.

After the run, and dinner, I had Lenôtre's Chocolat Griotte. My original plan for the afternoon (and it would have been early afternoon), was to go to Ryoura, as next in line for a visit of holiday only places, but I saw that Lenôtre had multiple new things that were sold out at the end of the day when I had visited before, so I figured I need to take this chance instead. Actually, they have 4 new things, but two have coffee and one is a glass dessert, so the Chocolat Griotte was the obvious choice. The inside is completely soft, which is probably why it's uneven. It was good, but not exciting. The inside is like a fondant, despite being chilled, plush there's more cherry. I'm not big on cherries, so maybe something else would like this flavor more.

As it stands, Lenôtre, which was promoted early due to a hole in the quite exception shop list when Origines Cacao dropped out and Viron got promoted, is dropped to the lowest position and is now under threat by Pierre Gagnaire. Since Lenôtre doesn't have another cake I'm in a hurry to try anyway, I can wait until at least next week to get to Pierre Gagnaire. I'll try a new cake from Jinguumae next and then finish bringing En Vedette even with other exceptional shops. (And Friday I'll rest, at least from cake.)

Cake-off: Jean-Paul Hévin's Guayaquil over Ladurée's Plaisir Sucré

Sunday morning I definitely ran, and not to a cake shop, or at least not to get cake. The neighborhood course run part was the revised Central Jinguumae clump, which steals the Jinguumae north loop from a different clump and combines it with the new Jinguumae--Kita-Aoyama north loop, which combines three loops. I was successful at the clump and doing the new loop clockwise. In the middle of the run, I check Viron and B-E to confirm that they did not have cakes that I wanted even near opening time, which they didn't. Had other plans for Sunday and ended up being lazy in the evening and not running in the cold.

I did get one food item from a neighborhood course site (I'm working my way through that new Jinguumae-Kita-Aoyama loop, though they are adding new places faster than I'm getting to them, as well as closing them): Aomori Ringo Apple Pie from Ueshima Coffee Shop, which was fairly robust to call a pastry, but it was good enough. They also have fresh scones.

Monday was a total wash, with late work and still very cold, so I opted for an early bed and early run Tuesday morning, which is a holiday. This was a 1.5 hour run that first tried to do the Suga Shrine clump, which is the base clump. I failed at the clump but did revised the main loop clockwise successfully. However, I spotted, where I was lazy in the past and let myself pass a temple on the opposite side of a two-lane divided road and have since revised the whole clump. I was able to merge loops down 2 loops from 4 loops by leaving a tiny loop for the named shrine and a short link from the main loop, which circles it. After finishing the soon to be revised old main loop, I went to Mitsukoshi at Ginza for cake for a cake-off. I didn't get through all the third-round cake-offs last year, so I'm trying to pick up some now between the highest priority (great cakes with at least 2 wins) fourth-round cake-offs. I did a recent addition, Plaisir Sucré from Ladurée, because it's a February cake (based on when I first bought it), though it doesn't really have a season, and Guayaquil from Jean-Paul Hévin, because it's the earliest among the one-and-one great cakes.

Plaisir Sucré has great texture, with both crunch and thick nutty biscuit base, and a sweet smooth taste. However, I have to give the win to JPH, because Guayaquil is the perfect chocolate layer cake, at least today.

Emporter (Yotsuya), Harmonie and Gateau Fraise

Was mostly busy over the weekend. Saturday, though, I went a couple new places. One was only semi-new, and without cake: the Pierre Hermé in Marunouchi, which sells drinks, some suitable gift items, soft ice cream, and a few baked goods. We got Marron Pie and some ice cream (orange and passion fruit, maybe). The Marron Pie counts as a pastry, though it was after 4 pm, so I'm not called it fresh. Still, it was well made, so counts as excellent within that scope: no complaints.

The soft ice cream was fine, though not within my scope of interest, even with the macarons (which were particularly hard and not like macarons I've made, so I'm suspecting the modified recipe to produce something more robust and cookie-like to stand up being stuck into ice cream, though the shape was correct).

The actual cake came from a new shop in the root clump of loops in my neighbor running course, Emporter (a name shared with a Setagaya shop). I asked for a recommendation, and had suggested Harmonie, which is white chocolate with a (suitably) limited amount of raspberry. The other cake chosen was the Gateau Fraise, though I would have gone with something dark chocolate.

I thought both cakes were good, though that standout good. However, my co-eater was quite impressed by the Gateau Fraise and its generous amount of whipped cream.

Since Japanese strawberry short  (which even the name card gave as a description) is not my thing and my partner definitely does like them, I'm to assume superior power of discernment and record the strawberry cake as excellent, which at least puts this shop in the solid part of the fine shops (important, since this this and the category above it are grossly bloated, so it would only take about ten more new shops to force me to create a new lower category for most of these shops).

En Vedette, Marron Vanille

Ended up at En Vedette again, after first striking out at Viron for their apple tart, going northwest up to Bien-être for the chance of something new (they do have something maybe new in the lineup---I needed to ask a more detailed question about what was in the chocolate chiboust besides the obvious, since I've had the chocolate raspberry)---but it was sold out) and back down south, past Viron to Shibuya Scramble Square. This time I went for the Marron Vanille, which is chestnut brulée, and lemon cream surrounded by vanilla mousse. It's very soft (except for the chestnut) and fairly mild, and my first reaction was that it was just good but not my kind of thing, but really its a nice change, like the last cake I got from them, and it qualifies as excellent. I'm going through their cakes pretty fast, but I just need one more to promote them and finally have a clear boundary between the quite fine and exceptional shops.

Toshi Yoroizuka, Hitachihime

Today I wasn't working so late, so, to get a new Toshi Yoroizuka cake, I ran to the Kyoubashi shop, which is a little farther than the Midtown one, but convenient to Viron as a backup. Not much selection that close to closing (there's a cafe, as well as a salon, so seems like pretty steady business). I went with the shortcake Hitachihime (which is a registered brand of strawberries). I asked for no ice packs , since its cold (though with a strong wind, not as cold as it feels), and I got 8 little ones: I brought a bag with a giant ice pack already in it, but the young person packing the cake put two little ones in the box and then dumped 6 inside, maybe to fill up the space? This made it rather heavy, besides being rather wasteful (as far as I know, no one wants to recycling my ice packs). However, a heavy bag was useful in the strong wind.

Well, the strawberry was definitely good and the cake was fine as standard Japanese strawberry cake, but didn't stand out, so Bien-Étre remains at the top of the quite exceptional group, challenging Pierre Hermé, except the latter as more cakes under it's belt and Bien-Étre already has almost enough even for a superb shop, so I'm not sure what I'll do. I should get another cake from Bien-Étre soon, but it's not a huge priority (and I haven't actually seen new cakes there for a long time). Besides En Vedette, though, I'm not sure I have any place that's a priority that also has new cakes, so maybe next week, as well as finally starting to hit some new shops.

En Vedette, Miel

Every day working later, but Shibuya Scramble Square is open until 21:00, I think, and the nearby Viron is open later, so no problem today. Like yesterday, today was to reward a cake-off winner, or at least that's my excuse for visiting En Vedette slightly early, though this time I ran, but no time for an indoor workout. They still recognized me, and pointed out that I was getting a different cake this time, after getting the same cake just a few days apart. I went with Miel, which means honey, which this had with apricot. Apricot is not a sweet fruit and they did not use as much sweetener maybe as other apricot cakes I had, so this was a little tougher for me to like. Also, it's a dome with gelatin inside. Yet, there were different textures, from the soft meringue on top to a coarse/nutty base biscuit, so I definitely respect this, and like it, so I think excellent isn't not just the prejudice of the moment for this shop. It's not a huge counter, though, and I've had 7 cakes from them now, so getting the next two new ones to catch them up for promotion to exceptional is going to be with limited choices. But that's next week's problem.

Frédéric Cassel, Inspiration Azalea

Monday, I worked a little late and figured I should take a rest anyway, so I used a bicycle to go to Ginza for cake. My first choice shop's new cake has coffee, so I'll wait for next month. My back up was Frédéric Cassel's new cake, Inspiration Azalea, which is the cake for this month's theme of Chocolat Banane, which is an improvement on recent coffee themes but still not what I would choose. Nevertheless, this looked like my kind of cake in terms of construction, and the card promised yuzu, so not just straight chocolate and banana. I figured I could trust them. Reading the details, there is also hazelnut chocolate cream and hazelnut dacquoise. But they were serious about the banana, with almost half of the inside being banana compote. While I'm still not enthusiastic about banana, with was excellent, so if they had another banana cake now, I'd be happy to try it, but they've scaled back on the introduction of new cakes. Out of order, at home, I first also did my indoor non-weights workout.

L'Abricotier, Oriental

As a second shop and a reason to keep running on Sunday, once Rue de Passy had secured its place among the exceptional shops, it meant I knew which shop was facing the chop, so I didn't have to visit the bottom shop of the group. In stead, I went to the top of the quite exceptional group, L'Abricotier, to allow them to challenge the group above. It's about 10 km from Rue de Passy to L'Abricotier, so it wasn't the easy choice for running, and I was tired enough after I got there, having done 3 hours of running Saturday, that I knew I was going to take my cake home by train, unless I could eat in. However, they were quite busy and all seats were full, but I preferred to have lunch at home first anyway, so I wasn't disappointed. I though I'd have to go with cream puffs, but actually they were sold out and there were two other cakes I haven't had, though I've seen their strawberry tart before, so I surprised I hadn't had it yet. However, I went with Oriental, which is mikan/tangerine  and chestnut with a chocolate base, which sounded interesting at least. Interest I might have been, but I can't say that the combination worked for me. It wasn't poorly made though, and it was as promised, so I can say that it was good. Maybe someone who likes mikan or chestnut more than I would appreciate this more. I've gotten a few cakes ahead with L'Abricotier, so it might have to wait awhile for me trying to get another new cake.

Rue de Passy, Mille-Feuille Praliné Citron

Started my Sunday run by heading down to Rue de Passy in Meguro-ku. They are on my exceptional shop list and were near the bottom, so I had been giving the top of the quite fine group a chance to challenge them but no replacement, so I finally went for the next two cake from them, #8. I ate in, which is usually the most convenient thing to do, but can affect the results. I decided that the Mille-Feuille Praliné Citron was the most promising even before noticing that it was the one recommend by the chef. The chef gave a good recommendation, as this was a great cake. Neither the praliné or the citron was very strong, but all the parts balanced well and I liked how a more buttercream filling rather than custard worked with mille-feuille. Not sure that it was actual butter cream or just there was enough nuts in the praliné to give that effect, but it worked either way. Too great cakes in less than a week: I feeling like I'm doing pretty good.

On the way I kept a sharp eye out for what shops were open, as I found too closures Saturday night and hadn't noticed some others. Lotus is looking different these days, and is hard to spot. I decided that Chavity right before them deserves to be a site on the neighborhood running map, but I'll need a different photo, as I got serious glare on the one I took. I'll also add Candyapple in Daikanyama-chou. Down near the Daikanyama Stn. the entire Tenoha shop block seems to have closed, so I'll probably need to revise that 10.4 km loop, but I'll put it off until its time do that clump.

Cake-off: En Vedette's Rocher over Pierre Hermé's Tarte Infiniment Chocolat au Lait

Did a cake-off today, even starting after noon, due to an appointment and a couple errands, though tomorrow I also have a morning appointment, so I'm not going to start that much earlier. I started, though, in terms of the neighborhood map, by getting something from Sakamotoya, which is a kasutera (an early Japanese cake) shop but I got something called Sugegasa, which is a wheat-based bean filled cake shaped like the traditional hat of that name. It was good, but I'm not that into an. If they had what I would consider a one-person size of kasutera, I would have gotten that, but the smallest was 650 yen size, which I'd give to 4 (not particularly greedy) people. I also found a patisserie called Emporter in Yotsuya 2 (not sure whether it's related to the Setagaya shop of that name), so I'm redoing one of the first loops on the neighborhood course to accommodate it. I had just told myself that next time I revised that loop, I was going to remove the overlap by using a 180 turn to the other side of the street, and at the same time I'm going to merge even one-point overlapping loops, though I'll wait until I get around to the clumps to worry about the other loops. For now, I have to redo the first clump, since merging loops effectively merged to clumps. 

A major errand later, I confirmed that Isetan had Pierre Hermé's Tarte Infiniment Chocolat au Lait and then went for a quick errand to Tokyu Hands, but stopped for a pastry at Fauchon in Takashimaya. It was excellent as Pain au Chocolat go, certainly high quality, but perhaps I should have taken something more original.

They still remembered me from last Tuesday and recognized that I had brought my own bag for cake, bigger this time, and then had the Rocher that I wanted, as well as their name-sake cake, which they had been sold out of Tuesday and I had wondered about. I took the train back, for speed and cake protection, and got the Tarte Infiniment Chocolat au Lait. With the errands, it was a late lunch, and then the cakes. It had been a couple years for the tart, so I had no idea what to expect. Actually, it's caramel chocolate and is little crunchy chocolate balls for texture. It's unique and well made of lots of good stuck that goes well together, so I'm keeping it as great, but the Rocher had flavor and a great balance, so it gets the win. However, I don't have anything to match the Rocher up with, so probably the next cake-off will be a second round for the Tarte Infiniment Chocolat au Lait, though I think that will have to be the 11th.

In the late afternoon, I had 2.5 hours to run (I would have had 3 hours, but I had to play "where is my F-ing key" for almost 30 minutes), so I first tried to do neighbor running course clumps and failed both. The first, I turned where I shouldn't have (following an old version briefly), but it the closure of a shop on one loop and the appearance of a chocolate shop on another, but opening onto the side street, meant I was going to have to revise loops away. Like in the Yotsuya case, I ended up merging three loops, which is going to seriously mess that up. With the severing of the link reversed the direction through Azabu, Hiroo and Roppongi Hills and the link between Ebisu-Nishi and Ebisu-Minami, as well as the detour to get to Jinnan, my map is a mess as far as the wider connections. At least failing there gave me enough time to get over the do the Akasaka--Azabudai--Roppongi--Toranomon loop counterclockwise, and count that and its clump as verified. Next new loop to try to confirm will be back to Aobadai, but I've got to deal with today's destroyed loops first.