Bien-être, Shimanami Lemon Fromage

Sunday, I visited some places I haven't been to for a while, first by running and then walking a loop. There was more running in the late afternoon. First, I visited Bien-être. I got a late start and arrived at noon, but no line fortunately (one person ahead of me and one person showed up just behind me). There was one new cake, Shimanami Lemon Fromage, Shimanami being a major (maybe the largest) lemon producer in Japan. This seems to be basically a lemon meringue tart, so I assume the cheese is the base for the lemon part.

On my route, as a last stop, I got a pastry for the road, my first from Atsushi Hatae. Rather than struggle on what to get, I went with my standard pastry, the Pain au Chocolat. It was tricky to find a place to eat it, but there is a kind of park-like area long Shibuya River; lighting wasn't idea, but my seat was precarious. I'm calling this excellent. It's fluffier than I consider ideal, but beautifully constructed, and it was fresh and had delicious chocolate, which they don't always have.

The Shiamanami Lemon Fromage cake was also excellent, after lunch. It was not particularly cheesy, but tasted like a normal lemon meringue tart. Among lemon tarts, though, it was less tart in flavor (and thus didn't need as much sugar to balance it) as the most traditional ones, but not as mild as ones that substitute Yuzu or something else, which are usually too mild for me. It is still challenging for a position in the superb group, so once they get a new cake, I can try another one, though how long that will take, I don't know. Maybe whenever they replace this one, since it's obviously seasonal. In other good news, their regular baked chocolate cake is back, so I can do a cake-off with it.

Sadly, Kantou remains under a state of emergency, so I'm not going to see department stores open up this weekend here. Kansai, on the other hand, is opening up, but I don't think I'm going to get to Kyoto or Osaka.