Pierre Hermé, Tarte Infiniment Pistache d'Iran

Skipped a day, since really I already used the week's cake allotment, though I always planned to get ahead on the next week, since I'll be busy the following weekend. Also, I was still hoping to find another great cake to pit against a JPH cake that ends its run Saturday. In response to the previous cake-off win, I had an excuse to visit Pierre Hermé in Jinguumae to get the special Tarte Infiniment Pistache d'Iran, which seemed a good bet based on the recent hazelnut cake. I needed a half-day off to visit on a weekday, since they are only open noon to 7pm now, which is a little tight. It was tight for a morning off, too, and the web site still shows 11 to 8pm, so I had an hour to kill after my first visit. 

Jumping ahead, I did get the cake. I note that the hazelnut cake is praliné, so this pistachio cake is a lot nuttier, and a different nut, so I couldn't get into as much, and there's a lot of it. It was good, of course, but won't make the great list as I had hoped.

Back to on the way there, I hit the Harajuku Sta. area on the first pass but spent the extra hour doubling back to a café on the Sendagaya-Jinguumae boundary and then confirmed that Dandelion Chocolate no longer has macarons in the Omote-Sandou Road shop, as well as that it was empty on a weekday. I also need to update my cake post, as I'm not sure what chocolate I had the opera. They have six flavors, and I think I mistook the chocolate that wen with almond. I need to update those posts next. New places I found/revisited included the Ron Herman Café, which is a top priority as a new place to visit, being the nearest along the neighborhood running route and having several cakes (it's a chain with a shop in Kobe also). I have to wonder if it's just cake from the nearby Amiri (formerly, Nana Gâteaux), but they don't seem to be doing anything right now, so probably not. Though I'm off at least weekend Harajuku cafés for the covid duration, a new building opened near the station that has a Café Aux Bacchanales with cakes out front, though not the same as the great cakes that used to be available from Ginza. Still, I should try them. In the same building (With Harajuku) is Eataly, which I should sample something from. The other one I'm most interested is the Depla Pol Chocolatier, which connects two otherwise dead-end back streets in the maze-like area there south of Takeshita Street, but there are up to four more, though one relates to Shiseidou Parlor, and is on the 8th floor, so maybe irrelevant for both running and take-out cake (which I can get from Isetan).

As a non-cake place, I got the An Scone from Toraya Café An Stand. It was good, which no problems with the an. 

 

Cake-off: Pierre Hermé's Tarte Infiniment Praliné Noisette over Viron's Baba

Tuesday, I ran to Viron straight after work to get their Baba to do a cake-off versus Pierre Hermé's Tarte Infiniment Praliné Noisette that I had gotten the night before and put in the chill room of the refrigerator. I also confirmed that Viron definitely a had another new cake that I could try. By rights, Dalloyau could have been the second cake Monday, but since I was already carrying the tart the previous night, I didn't try to run down to the Dalloyau at Meguro Station, which would have still been open (these days, the Dalloyau across from Virion closes at 18:30, so useless on a workday). Also, I trust the Dalloyau cake to be around any time except maybe right at a major holiday, when it might get pushed out by specials.

Back to the cake-off, these are both super strong tasting cakes (unlike the Dalloyau cake, though I don't usually think that far ahead when setting these up), as well as being focused on a single flavor. In this case, I'll give the win to the hazelnut praliné taste, though I'm still happy for the rum kick of the Baba (in taste only, not intoxication) as part of my greats. I shouldn't forget to say that this was only a second-round cake off between two losers, and I've got other cakes waiting for both to do third rounds (though some day I hope to get to another fourth-round cake-off for the winner's bracket). 

Viron, Moelleux Marron Chantilly

I was disappointed Monday that the Baba was sold out at Viron (Shibuya-ku). I wasn't surprised, though, since it was a work day, after which I went (running) to get my dry cleaning before coming back and then heading out to Isetan to get a PH cake. However, the latter cake definitely would be fine an extra day, despite them saying it needs to be eaten the same day, regardless of the cake (for JPH, for example, I note that the Paris website indicates 2 days for the same cakes as sold in Japan). Back to Viron, I was happy to see new cakes, since their new items appear slower that I would like, so I'm always looking for something new. In this case, I went with the Moelleux Marron Chantilly, which pretty much tells you everything there is to know, at least with the picture. On one hand, it's just a soft chestnut-based cake with whipped cream with candied chestnut pieces. On the other hand, this creates a well-balanced dessert that I have no hesitation about calling excellent.  

Dandelion Chocolate, H2O Chocolate Mousse & Opera [Hacienda Azul Costa Rica x Hazelnut]

Went to Dandelion Chocolate at Harajuku and the most important thing to say is, don't eat in there, because you're going to be packed among young people who don't.

That done, I would like to go back for take-out. Their signature chocolate seems to be the H2O Chocolate Mousse. I'm not sure I saw anyone else get any other cake. It's an excellent cake, though be warned that you can't expect much in the way of variation, so splitting it with a partner seems reasonable.  

The other cake I got was Opera: Hacienda Azul Costa Rica x Hazelnut. This is a tiny cake, but super rich with buttery nut layers. I'm a little uncertain on this one as well, though I ate more than half, but I'm going with excellent again.  

There are pistachio and almond version of the opera, but looking for a great cake, I should probably try a more varied cake next.

Repos, Fromage Vanille & Fraisier (Muscat)

Got cake for two on Saturday from Repos (a.k.a. P. Ease), a fine shop that had given me one excellent cake from their new counter at Isetan. This time, I chose the cheesecake, Fromage Vanille, and a Fraisier, though with Muscat grapes substituted for traditional strawberries (also cheese based, but mascarpone is tasteless, so it doesn't really count; it's just a medium). 

While more soufflé-like than my preferred cheesecake, it was still definitely good. 

The interesting thing about the Fraisier, besides the contradictory name, is that it comes with olive oil that you pour over it (though I guess that's a standard thing with them for this type of cake, Muscat or not). It also was good, and interesting, but I was less convinced. This will remain a fine shop in my list.

Le Salon Jacques Borie, Pistache

Was busy on the weekend, but catching up, midweek I had one cake, La Pistache from the (Le Salon) Jacques Borie at Isetan. Actually, I was looking for something else at Isetan, since I haven't finished bringing up the exceptional shops to 8 net cakes, but I didn't mind getting back to this quite fine shop that I had three excellent cakes in a row. 

This was definitely a good cake. It's got a great sablé and the whipped cream, but the latter tends to drown the pistachio flavor (perhaps the pistachio part is pistachio cream rather than a stronger paste). Nice cake from someone who likes something on the light side, though I assume this shop will safely stay in the quite fine category, even though I'm hoping to cut 1/3 in this pass.

Frédéric Cassel, Mille Crêpes Potiron

The last of the cakes on Sunday was from Frédéric Cassel and catches me up with new cakes from them with still two weeks to go until the next month. This is Mille Crêpes Potiron, which has several things going against it. One, is I don't appreciate crêpes, at all, though my biggest exposure is milk crêpe, which makes rollcake look sophisticated, by my estimation, though actually stacking crêpes is does seem more technically difficult. The other is pumpkin (or at leas squash) as a cake flavor. Lastly, decoration cakes, even from good shops often sacrifice the eating experience for appearance. On the other hand, Frédéric Cassel has a good track record for taking types of cakes I've dismissed and impressing me. Also, this is not milk, it's rum and raisin, along with the pumpkin and the ever present FC staple mascarpone cheese (a neutral texture and taste medium for whatever you want to do). As it happens, this was the best of the cakes I had, and definitely good, which certainly puts it at the top of crêpe-based cakes and would make be consider future cakes, though I'll try to stay clear of milk-flavored, really in any kind of cake.

 

Toshi Yoroizuka, Figue Noire

 Another quite exceptional shop visited Sunday for a new cake was Toshi Yoroizuka in Kyoubashi, Chuuou-ku, where I got the Figue Noire, I think (based on the phonetic Japanese). Not sure whether it has cassis (black currant), but it was certainly fruitier than I would expect from just fig, and quite sweet, more than I wanted, really, but I wasn't really feeling in the mood for sweets, which is more timing when I have cake. Nevertheless, it's fair to say it was good.  

Still one more exceptional shop to hit, but I have to wait until next month for Pierre Gagnaire to finish the current line-up. Being in an international hotel, they are hit hard by travel restrictions, so they don't even have all the cakes displayed on their poster. 

Éclat des Jours, Chou à la Crème

The goal today was to bring the exceptional shops up to 16 net cakes, though Éclat des Jours has manged 9 cake-off wins, so this was actually number 25. I went with the Chou à la Crème. These are the kind with nuts, though I think they still called just Chou à la Crème, or some close variation. They are half the price of a cake, so I got two to get a fair sample, though it was more than I needed for that. I ran most of the way, being a little lazy, and there being a good number of lights and me setting off reasonably early. Definitely good and certainly comparable to those of other high-quality shops.

Cake-off: Jean-Paul Hévin's Longchamp Feuilleté over Au Bon Vieux Temps' Pourriture

I followed one cake-off by another for two reasons. The original reason for the plan was because I'll be busy next weekend and I like to keep to one a week. A new reason appears when Jean-Paul Hévin's Longchamp Feuilleté won the previous cake-off, because I don't have any new cakes, or even excellent cakes for a retry, from Jean-Paul Hévin. Also, I'm not sure how long Pourriture will stick around at Au Bon Vieux Temps and I've been waiting for a year for it to appear. I think the fruit is fig, which seems to be in season now, at least as far as cakes goes. 

It was rainy Saturday, which feels fairly redundant for the last few months. At least Sunday was better. I decided that it was rainy less hard than the last time I went out that way, so I didn't bring the big umbrella and ran about two thirds before I decided that I was wet enough and the rain was heavy enough that I wanted to pull out the portable. No problem getting the Pourriture. I came back by train as far as Isetan to get the Longchamp Feuilleté from JPH. I'm afraid the Paris-Brest isn't going to manage a first-round cake-off before it's gone again, but I'll survive that.

I must of been pretty jaded with JPH cakes when I first rated Longchamp Feuilleté as just excellent, because it didn't have any trouble eclipsing the pour Pourriture, which which has cheese and fig to impress me. This was only a second-round cake-off, so it might get a chance for a third round, if it can hang on until the beginning of November. 

Cake-off Jean-Paul Hévin's Longchamp Feuilleté over Pierre Hermé's Tarte Infiniment Praliné Noisette

Thursday, I took the afternoon off. It was raining, so I got a haircut rather than immediately run, but I did got to Isetan afterward and of course had no trouble scoring Tuesday's cake, Tarte Infiniment Praliné Noisette from Pierre Hermé, and one of the recently promoted Jean-Paul Hévin cakes, Longchamp Feuilleté. I cake the cake first, after lunch, but did do a 2 hour run in the evening, when the rain had stopped. In terms of quantity, the tart has the obvious advantage and both are great, but Longchamp Feuilleté has that crunch going, and maybe a higher sugar density, along with chocolate, so in the end I have to give it the win, but I'm still happy with the hazelnut tart and hope to get to the pistachio version (only at the mother store) before it ends its run, which is not until December. 

Pierre Hermé, Tarte Infiniment Praliné Noisette

It's been years maybe, but it's finally Pierre Hermé's turn to get a new cake not related to a cake-off win (though it has earned a good number of those so far), as I've already had a new cake from FC and no where at the same or higher level either has a new cake or has had few enough for me to be looking for one. The timing is good, too, because the Tarte Infiniment Praliné Noisette is in the form of their best tarts (the vanilla one is a standard) and also promising in terms of the ingredients, at least for me. It lived up to expectations and was great. Since I've promoted two JPH cakes in the line-up to great, the plan for Thursday became an early cake-off, again sourced from Isetan.

 

Éclat des Jours, Passion Chocolat

The final cake of last Saturday was a second cake from Éclat des Jours, as it comes time to lift the exceptional shops up to 16 net cakes (plus cake-off wins). However, since Éclat des Jours won the cake-off, this was the reward and I still need that next cake, though maybe I'll let the Toshi Yoroizuka go first.

Taking a break from running through the fruit tarts (though there might only be a mixed tart left), I got a cake new to the line-up, as well as me, Passion Chocolat. As one would expect, this is passion fruit and white chocolate, an excellent cake.

 

Frédéric Cassel, Mille-feuille Colette

As I posted previously, I loaded up on cakes Saturday, out of efficiency, though my cakes/week is fixed. At Ginza Mitsukoshi, besides the JPH cake for the cake-off, I got Frédéric Cassel's latest seasonal mille-feuille, Mille-feuille Colette. In this case, the cream is cinnamon cream and the gelatin middle is fig and raspberry, which was an interesting combination that harmonizes well, so I would say this is excellent, which most of this series is.

 

Cake-off: Éclat des Jours' Tartelette Mûre over Jean-Paul Hévin's Matcha Marron

I got all my weekend cakes in on Saturday, despite the typhoon-induced rain, or maybe because of it. I started off by walking to Éclat des Jours out in Koutou-ku to get Tartelette Mûre for a third-round cake-off and came back by train, stopping at Ginza Mitsukoshi to get Jean-Paul Hévin's Matcha Marron, both one-and-one great cakes.

These are both niche cakes, so hard to compare. In the end, I went with the more distinct, Tartelette Mûre. Matcha Marron is nice and has a distinct combinations of flavors (chestnut, powered green tea, chocolate, and rum) and the great construction of a JPH cake mousse cake, though there are several cakes like that, which I'm thankful full.

Atelier Kohta, Shortcake and Tarte Tatin

After verifying that Pierre Gagnaire wasn't going to give me a new cake Wednesday morning, I walked and ran with an umbrella down to Paris S'éveille Thursday morning (this time taking half-day off work), which hasn't changed it's new cakes, though the recent new cakes are excellent. I came back by train to Atelier Kohta, but I went to the wrong location and had another 1.5 km to walk, plus it isn't close to the station I wanted to come back, so maybe half that again, besides the final walk, so I had an active morning. 

I actually owed them for a cake-off, plus the whole category is about to get reviewed, so I got two cakes to be efficient. Actually, there wasn't much choice, though there was also a tiny tart that I suppose would count as a cake. When I got was the Shortcake and the Tarte Tatan. I've learned to appreciate shortcake, and I guess I was in the mood for whipped cream, as I decided that it deserved an excellent rating.

The Tarte Tatin had so much cinnamon on top, that I could really see how to eat it to balance that out without a lot of drink, but I don't want to rate it too low, because I accidently left it out on the counter for a few hours (and put it back for a couple hours before eating), so it obviously wasn't in peak condition. Still, I can't see how that would change my appreciation of the amount of cinnamon, so I'm going to rate it as good, which sort of balances out the first. This shop should remain in the quite fine category, I think.

En Vedette, Annette

Monday night, even though I did exactly the same thing Friday, I ran down to Viron in Shibuya to see whether they had a new cake, which they didn't. From there, I went to En Vedette, since they were close and I'm coming up on wanting another new cake from them (and several other quite exceptional shops). As it happened, they had one that tempted me, so I went for it: Annette. Unfortunately, I've already forgotten what the fruit was, but the picture shows strawberry, which I can believe. It wasn't so strong, obviously, nor would I want it to be in this kind of cake. Also inside was pistachio cake, but again, mild, so not my kind of cake so much. But the outside was white chocolate, and that is a fine taste, with the others just there to accent it. So even if it's not along my usual lines, it was a high quality item that I enjoyed, so I can say it was excellent.

While I'm blogging, I'll admit that I was lazy and walked back, protecting my cake. Tuesday, I did a run just out to Tokyo Midtown for my favorite grocery chocolate, also stopping for some Lindt chocolate that was 63% discounted at the local supermarket. Wednesday, I got up early and ran before work (which I wasn't taking the morning off). A little more crowded on the streets than my evening runs around there, but felt good. I stopped by Pierre Gagnaire and confirmed that the folks working there aren't actually told about the cakes (green tea is the theme, but one of the cakes on the posters I haven't actually seen in person). In the evening was rain and Thursday I am taking off the morning (though the rain is predicted to be even heavier then, so probably just walking for cake), so I worked out indoors, more than I usually do, which means three rather than two NHK muscle training clips (but the level 2 ones, so...) and a couple sets of curls, which is a couple more than I usually do lately.

This was really the second cake (and third for the week, so three left for the weekdays), today, but the first was repeat, so I'll save it for if I come up with a cake-off with it. I ran in the early afternoon for research and wasn't surprised when the weekend-only mille-feuille was sold-out in the evening, but I was surprised to see Addiction, so apparently it's not ended it's run yet, just I'll have to ask for it if I want it early in the day, as they don't have display space, at least on the weekend. I've run into this before, but hadn't thought to investigate it that thoroughly. I should have asked whether the Framboisier is really done, but I'll wait until I'm sure that I want to do a cake-off with it if it's not. Anyway, I got the Saint Honoré Noix et Poire, which is the cake corresponding to this month's "inspiration". This is the 5th saint-honoré and was excellent, like 3 out of 4 of the others (the most traditional caramel one was the only one that didn't especially impress me). This is walnut and pear, as the name says, which is not a combination I've run into before, but both are mild but seem seasonal. Unfortunately, I forgot to take a picture of it, so I've lifted this from their site. Hope they don't mind, though I only had one.

The other new cake they have is a pumpkin (?) Halloween milk crepe cake, which sounds terrible all around, so I'm going to try to avoid it but might feel compelled. It might be the milk crepe cake that convinces me that milk crepe cakes aren't terrible, but that seems like a lot to ask. 

Sanjikken, Sachertorte and Cheesecake

Had a visit to a café/coffee salon (with waiters) on Aoyama-doori near Omote-Sandou Sta.: Sanjikken. It's on the second floor, so I had never seen inside. We (cake for two) were lucky, as we were seated rather quickly. When we left, there were at least ten people waiting. I considered it worth visiting even if I don't need to hit every café and coffee shop, because they advertise cake, specifically the Sachertorte by picture, on the sign by the door. I haven't had a sachertorte for a while, but it seemed excellent, perhaps the best I've had. If I finding myself needing something in a Starbucks again, I'll get their to compare as some sort of reference so I know I'm not just imagining things. This seemed to be a one-layer type, with apricot jam on top of the cake, under the icing, but I suppose it's possible that there were two layers and I just couldn't tell. I'm too hurried to check the two main schools of sachertorte now.

I also has some Cheesecake, which was soufflé-type, I think, rather than the dense type I prefer, but still definitely good, so the shop gets in the stable part (won't get denoted when I finally have enough better shops to split this bloated group) of the fine shops group.

Ease/Repos, Nut, Dried Fruit, and Caramel Tart

Not that I was in a hurry, just I wanted to know how it was before this weekend Repos, so I sent to Isetan a lunch time and got a cake from the new counter, Repos (by P. Ease). It's pretty pricy and away from my usual tastes, so I momentarily gave up but after looking at the visiting counter of the week (a fine shop) and not finding information about when Repos might leave (though they replaced a shop that was there maybe 6 months?), I reconsidered and got the  Nut, Dried Fruit, and Caramel Tart, which was relatively reasonable (nothing exotic or seasonal in it) and looked promising. As the name states, it's a tart, specifically an almond cream tart, on top of which is a crème mousseline of custard, butter cream, and pistachio paste with bittersweet caramel. The topping is nuts (walnuts, almonds, pistachios, and cashews) and dried fruit (raisons and cranberries). Definitely hots of things I like in a substantial tart, so no surprise that I thought it definitely excellent. The name they put on top of the each is Ease. I assume they want to differential the location names because the offerings are different, but they have a pretty big space, offering various bake goods besides the fresh cakes. I should definitely get back there for a second cake earlier rather than latter when it comes time to go in for second cakes from shops that had at least good cakes.

Yu Sasage, Montélimar Noisette

Took a half day off and didn't accomplish many things. That's normal, but I actually did try and did accomplish a few things, as the list of things is pretty long now. However, especially because I mistook the Sadaharu Aoki schedule (there was a new cake today, but only in Nagoya, which gets special treatment from JPH as well), I did go for cake, by bicycle. Yu Sasage is along the borderline between the exceptional and quite exceptional shops and was in line for a cake to try to make the jump. There were a couple promising new cakes, the other a chiboust, but I went with the Montélimar Noisette, which was explained as having Montélimar mousse, which I didn't find informative, since Montélimar is a place name, though I guess I new it was associated with honey. Actually, they were using it to mean honey meringue, which I'll have to try to remember and confirm that as tracking with what other shops mean. Other components are, obviously, hazelnuts, in mousse form, as well as dacquoise. It was definitely good, but is maybe too small and light a cake for me. This might be a case were some fruit would help.