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I wasn't expected to have a chance to get cake from here, but they had a counter in shopping area and we got three cakes. The main Kobe shop is in Chuuou-ku, though so I'm sticking with that. I started with the Sachertorte, which was in three layers with apricot jam on top of each (my vague memory of differences in disputed recipes is about where to put the jam and/or layers). It was definitely good.
Two days behind blogging, Tuesday I was particular lazy about running, doing only about 15 min. There was a lot of walking before that, as it took extra distance going home to get cake, and of course I did indoor workout components. I'm also working various stretches at night, as I was getting some hip pain.
The cake was, working through the exceptional shops, a new cake from Ladurée. There most exceptional aspect is their prices, which are high. I went with cheapest, though it also was perhaps the most promising. I got the last Religieuse Pistache. Although the Saint-Honoré Pistache hadn't impressed me, I had rated the Religieuse Fraise as excellent. This is large and small choux pastry balls filled with pistachio custard and covered in thick pistachio icing. It's not subtle, but I like pistachio, and sugar, so for me this was excellent.
I got the cake take-out and it came with whipped cream, which I wasn't able to add very artistically. Being a café, I wasn't surprised that it was pretty hard cake, but not so extremely that I can't say it was good. I wish them luck, opening during this unfortunate time. If I ever get back to actually fully running neighborhood courses, they're added to the cake shop one.
Sunday, as another cake-off, which was not my original plan (my original plan was that I would hit a couple exceptional shops, to finishing raising that category to 8 cakes each). However, the day before I saw that Pierre Hermé had their Tarte Infiniment Chocolat au Lait in for the Christmas season, like other years (the connection is that it's robust enough that they can make them far ahead). It's complicated, but both it and Lenôtre's Feuille d'Automne Rouge had a mistaken 3rd round, where I accidently pitted them against something that had already had a third round. Officially, they are both one and one but each secretly has a win against a 1-win-of-3 shop, so the winner of this cake-off will get credit for 2 wins out of 3, and the loser has their previous match count, so they become 2 winds out of 4, so win-win, essentially, except only one can get a new 4th round whereas the other will probably sit next year out, since they have two losses.
The tart remains in good favor. Though the name indicates milk chocolate, the caramel and crunchy pits define it. However, I have to give the win to Feuille d'Automne Rouge. At first glance, it's a simple variation on their star cake (in Japan), but I'm coming to think it's a real upgrade, though one might not always want raspberry. Haven't seem they try any other variations, but I'll keep hoping. In any case, both shops win a chance for another sample, but that's going to probably wait until next year, as I'm busy, unless I get something the 31st.
Well, I'm not sure about this local tea salon, Nanatea and Tsutsumi, on the south Omotesando part of Kitaaoyama. I was there early (before noon), before they had any customers and asked about take out cake. They asked themselves about what they had ingredients for, which seems strange, as I was at the display case, but then I ended up waiting a long time to get this, so they really did make it, which sort of makes it café dessert rather than patisserie cake, even if I got it take out. Now that I know that "aburu" means "to broil", I know this is Broiled Cheesecake, which is exactly what it seems like, with the top soft like melted cheese but with an overall texture between typical cheesecake and cheese. I have to wonder if you get it hot if you order it eat in and I should have broiled it, but they didn't tell me and I didn't know until now, when I finally looked up the kanji for the name in the menu and recalled what I was told at the time. I'm going to say it was good allow it, so eventually I expect I'll get back, by which time hopefully they will have other cakes (menu also includes classic chocolate and cake of the day, though they only had the cheesecake as far as cakes.
Took off Thursday morning and did a run for cake-off cakes, or at least for the first one, Éclat des Jours' Tartelette Mûre. It seemed early when I started, so I took a longer route, but I paused enough and I'm slow enough that I wouldn't have been early if I had taken the shortest route. I decided to take the train back in two stages, stopping at the Marunouchi Viron to get their Gateau Chocolat. They don't have the selection of the Shibuya shop, but they have the basics.
Monday, working through bringing the exceptional shops up to 8 cakes, I paid a visit to Libertable at Akasaka. According to their homepage, they shut down their department store counters in March and now only have the main shop. Glad they are still going, as they have very high-class cakes. Another nice point is that they are open late, so no problem visiting them. Was surprised that the huge selection compared to the past, though the space is the same as always, so maybe just I usually go when most things are sold-out. A relatively new cake for me, and a seasonal one, is the D'or, which is obviously in the mont-blanc family. Since my favorite from them (Charm, which they still have) also is, it seemed a reasonable choice. Besides the usual chestnut paste on the outside over whipped cream, this has an almond and chestnut center, red, rather than black, currant and fig as the fruit accent. It was definitely excellent, so I was satisfied. It's a pretty short run down there, though, and I walked back, but I'm rather lazy lately, I suppose.
Finally really got a first cake from a shop in the Omotesando--Harajuku area, Pariya, which is a kind of eat-in deli. They also have a shop in Tokyo Midtown as of maybe a couple years ago. All their cakes are short cakes and bit enough that you could easily share them. I went with the pecan and chocolate, despite a recent complain about nuts slivers in an otherwise soft chocolate cake. This one has reasonably large pieces, all in the center, so you know when you are getting them. This cake is maybe 75% whipped cream, with very little cake, which is fine. I thought the chocolate as reasonable and the nuts were fine. It was good. I'm not sure whether the aftertaste was from nuts, milk cholate, or some unusually sweetener. It had a soft of banana flavor. I didn't care for it, but it wasn't actually nasty or anything. Milk would have probably been a better match for this than tea.
Monday, because of a cake-off win with a seasonal cake, I went to Lenôtre at Ginza Mitsukoshi for a new cake, which was also seasonal. My target was actually a different cake that I had only imagined, having not looked closely apparently (or just misremembered), but the real cake, Schuss Fraise, looked fine (there is a season glass dessert, but never my first choice). This is a "rare" (unbaked) cheese mousse cake. I'm usually more a baked cheesecake person, though the dual rare+baked one are often the best. Anyway, their usual is citrus, but this one uses strawberries on top and strawberries and raspberries (for some tang) for the sauce. Definitely excellent, though when I reviewed, the Schuss Citron was also definitely excellent, so I shouldn't have been surprised. It doesn't get them back into the quite exceptional category, but they aren't far off, so something will eventually slip low enough that they'll get another chance at a new cake.
The exercise was running there and fast walking back, followed by dancercise, though I skipped other indoor exercises.
Ran down to Au Bon Vieux Temps on Sunday, and not by the shortest way, just because I wanted to keep running rather than wait for lights to change. Got there a little bit after 10 am, which is a little late, since they open at 9 am. Their Marjolaine was down to the last piece, and that's their best cake, though I was there for new cake, not that. I'm actually two behind on them because of cake-off wins, so I decided that if they had two new cakes (and that don't seem to vary the line-up much), then I would get them, which I was able to do.
I went with two other semi-traditional cakes. One was Ali-Baba, which was closer to the original version that became the Baba in that it had custard inside rather than whipped cream, though it was still rum, which was a later change. It was good, but traditional isn't always best. Note sure whether whipped cream would have been better than custard, but that would be my choice for this type of cake, now that I've tried a custard version.
Sorry for being negative, but the other traditional cake was Belle Hélène. Of course, making this level of fruit replicas is really a new thing, a result of the ease of making silicon molds and access to refrigeration, but the desert of pear with chocolate sauce is old, or at exists independently. It was good, but the semi-solid outer covering round the pear pieces and chocolate (which is most of the cake), is pretty tasteless and doesn't have a texture I find very appealing, though it's interesting to know that pear and chocolate is nice. If I'm look for dessert and there isn't cake I want, it seems like a good option.
There was and was not a lot of running for this cake-off, in poor weather. Friday night, I ran to Pièce Montée's and got one of the last Mont-Blanc. Weird thing this time, they asked me to pay first, which is totally normal, but by coming around the counter and (telling me) just holding out their hand for the money. Japanese use trays to pass money, so I was expecting her to bring a money tray like in JPH (though it is a pretty unstable to carry money). I visited FC (again) on the way back and confirmed their two new cakes this month. They're both petit version of their main Christmas cakes, one chocolate with some whipped cream and one strawberry of various forms, including mixed with (coating) chocolate for the outside. They might great, but I've got a lot of other shops to visit, so I'll wait until I'm in more need or they have something that looks like it could become a regular thing. I walked my cake back, though at a good pace. This shop opens and closes late, so getting cake at night for the next day is the only way to go (plus, limited selection on Saturday's and closed Sundays).
Saturday, I woke up with balance problems (still feel a little odd) that are unnoticeable when I exercise. I assume something broke off and worked its way to the wrong part of my ear. If it's bad again tomorrow I'll have to look up what one does about that (since I've seen this on a health shop, I assume I also saw some home exercise, but I can't remember what it is). Anyway, I let myself sleep in longer, so Viron was almost open by the time I left the house, and I went to the bulk grocery out that way to stock up on nuts and walked from there with an umbrella. Still no problem getting the Baba. Still no new (non-coffee flavored) cakes. Last year they had some special Christmas cakes and in their case I should indulge, since I'm just getting more behind on them, due to lack of new cakes.
The Baba and the Mont-Blanc are both standards in general. Viron's is the only one I'm calling great, and it still satisfied me with its strong taste from a generous amount of rum, and nice volume overall. The Mont-Blanc is the opposite, being rather small and being pretty plain, but not in a bad way at all. It's definitely something that, after eating, I could eat another one, which is one sign of greatness. But I liked the Baba better, so it wins. Also, the Mont-Blanc it's not really special in it's class, so while its a good enough representation of that class, I've got enough other one's, including ones that I would miss, that I can't say it's great. That's two times in a row, so it gets demoted to semi-great. Either way, it's a quite fine shop, though I've had enough of their small collection that it will probably be a long time before I get back there, if ever.
Thursday, I took the afternoon off and got back to Éclat des Jours to get a new cake to balance a cake-off win (I'm more behind on ABVT, but they open at 9am and would not likely have anything new by the time I could get there). Managed to get the last of the only cake new to me from there, Tarte Tatin. It was a long run there, as I went around the imperial grounds to the north so I could swing by the Palace Hotel. Going back, I didn't run, to protect my cake, but I did walk as far as Ginza Mitsukoshi, to check out the new cakes at FC, since they aren't posting about this month yet, before catching the train back, so it took more than 3 hours total. I'll confess that I also got high-calorie bread at Éclat des Jours, which I failed to stop myself from eating all of, so it probably wasn't a successful day as far as getting my weight back down. Anyway, the tatin was quite nice. I'm making some allowance for the simplicity and my appreciation of the shop, but it was definitely one of the better tatins that I've had and I enjoyed it, so it should be fair to say that it was excellent.
Like my Tuesday plan, my Wednesday plan veered off course, with good results. The Tokyo Palace Hotel was visiting Isetan, and I wanted to get a second cake from them. The cheapest options were a tiny grape shortcake for 800 yen and a similarly priced chestnut whipped cream (not cake, apparently, just a mount of whipped cream). I'm not that into fruit-center stuff, so I wasn't too excited and decided I could wait until next week. Getting ahead (because I'm late writing), I swung by their deli and sweets shop the next day and found that they had those two cakes, at lower prices, as well as the broader section that I was hoping for. Since the Isetan counter just mentions the hotel, I'll assume they are selling things from the café menu, at their eat-in prices. Also, the Isetan counter had a least one higher-end grape tart that I didn't see in the shop, which fits that explanation.
But I was in Isetan and it was a new month, so while JPH doesn't have anything new (until the week before Christmas, as usual), Sadaharu Aoki does and I'm always behind on them. As it turned out, it was the same kind of cake as the previous day: Chocolat Pistache. In this case, the cake was about double the size, but less intense. Still, it was excellent, so I was satisfied again.
Left work on time and went looking for a new cake at a new neighborhood shop. I had been thinking that Cafe Casa had a couple cakes, but the apple turned out to be just baked apple, versus a tarte tatin, and I suspect that the banana tart is a bakery tart rather than a fresh tart, so it was just as well that it was sold out. I had other business that I had to get home for, so after leaving, I went for Dandelion Chocolate, where I've had two excellent cakes in a category where the rest have 3 cakes and I'm working on raising them to 4 cakes (28 of 49 done). I had the hazelnut opera last time, so this time I went with pistachio. I'm still not confident about what kind of chocolate that one had, but in this case there was a hint on the receipt, so I'm confident calling it Sierra Leone Opera: Pistache, though it was the only opera on display, so I'm not sure what chocolate any opera are now, and the bars online have already changed from last time I looked. It's a small cake, but dense, and I was quite satisfied with this definitely excellent cake.
Did a cake-off on Saturday with the newly returned Feuille d'Automne Rouge by Lenôtre and Dalloyau's Trois Chocolat, which is also a recent try (this having replaced the old similar chocolate cake). This was a second-round cake-off, with both having lost their first round. In this case, the Feuille d'Automne Rouge is definitely an unsubtle appeal to my sweet tooth, the same as the regular Feuille d'Automne, with chocolate cake and (straight baked) meringue inside a lot of decoration chocolate, only with raspberry sauce inside (I'm not sure whether the outside color reflects flavoring). That said, raspberry is a strong flavor, so this could go wrong, but it doesn't. Trois Chocolat is great in being an ideal light chocolate cake for me, but that isn't my first choice, so Lenôtre gets the win, though their cake is pretty messy to eat, as these types always are.
This one will be quick. I used my second coupon for the Odakyu food area to follow up on a second cake from a potentially fine shop. This time was Juchheim Die Meister, which is also found in Isetan, where I had gotten the first cake some time ago. There might not have been another choice, and certainly there wasn't more than one on a Friday evening, but I was happy to get Schokosahne, which is their chocolate cake. It's layers of milk and dark (I assume) chocolate cream between sponge layers. Not exciting, but the chocolate taste was not bad. The problem was almond slivers. Otherwise totally soft cake with little hard spikes (hiding somewhere)? Sorry, that doesn't work for me, but I'll give it an "OK". I'll actively avoid this chain in the future and be suspicious of the Juchheim family of brands.
