Ginza Sembikiya, Ichigo Shortcake

Last Saturday, leveling up my quite fine shops that are available, I went back to Ginza Sembikiya and got their Ichigo Shortcake, which is not cheap, so I wouldn't take it as a first cake but figured that it represented what they were best at, so I'd try it as a 4th cake. I was not disappointed. Though I don't know one strawberry variety from the other 500 Japanese varieties, so I can't really say how great the strawberries themselves were. They didn't have that many, so I would guess that they're pretty special. It's shortcake, so just whipped cream, sponge, and fruit. That was enough to make this a definitely excellent cake, probably the best I've had. I'll have to reevaluate my attitude toward other high-end shortcakes. This guaranteed that would make a cut of the quite fine shops under the theoretical assumption that I'll find a few outside members before I need to level up to 5 cakes, which is likely to take a couples years, so not an unreasonable assumption.  

Noliette, Sicilian

Saturday, I hit one more remote potentially quite fine shops, Noliette out west in the north part (relative to where I usually go, anyway) of Setagaya. I went with the Sicilian. I went by cycle, since I can't run so far and didn't get up early enough to walk very early. Actually, I arrived at opening time and was second. I went with the Sicilian, which in this case was (milk?) chocolate with pistachio. This cake actually survived better by bicycle than I should have expected, but the weak point was the macaron on top, which caused the top to to crack and sag. Chocolate and pistachio is actually a difficult combination, but this was working well. It was definitely good, so I was satisfied. However, it means that I have too many shops with 2 good and 2 excellent cakes to make a cut. I've got a lot of fine shops to go through, so I might find a great cake among them, which is what it would take to make the jump to quite fine. I more likely way to add to the quite fine shops would be to find an excellent cake from some new shops. I've still got three more 3-cake fine shops, two that are really far out (so I'm willing to wait on the off chance that they'll visit a department store in central Tokyo) and one that's pausing on their cake, so one clearly quite fine shop might not be enough.    

Ginza Senbikiya, Chocolat Orange

While already next door, I made an attempt to get more cakes from a shop that was on the path to be a fine shop, Ginza Senbikiya, Chocolat Orange. The orange (or mikan) was seemly high quality, the combination of chocolate and orange wasn't really harmonizing in any useful way. Still good. Note, on a Thursday, no short cake. Guess it's too high-end for a weekend.

Cake-off: Frédéric Cassel's Choux Vanille versus Jean-Paul Hévin's Guayaquil

Thursday, I took off in the morning and did got cakes for the cake-up skipped last weekend, when I was busy. Since I didn't manage to find a new great cake, I worked through my list to run a 5th-round cake-off for cakes that have only one loss. This pair has the advantage that they are both available at Ginza Mitsukoshi: Frédéric Cassel's Choux Vanille and Jean-Paul Hévin's Guayaquil. These are both pretty basic cakes in their ways, but great. Guayaquil is JPH's base straight chocolate cake; I still haven't tried the thing he showed on public TV of microwaving it to experience the change in flavor chocolate flavor from change in temperature, but that remains a good idea. It's got various layers, so there are texture variations, but the Choux Vanille still has a better contrast, or maybe I'm just a sucker fro the sugar on the pastry, but once again I have to give the win to the one puff pastry on my greats list. Check it out if you get a chance.

Le Jardin Bleu, Tarte Chocolat Macadamia

Last Wednesday, for a third day in a row, I could get to a (now opening later) department store to get a cake from the current quite fine shop group. In this case, I wanted to get one of Le Jardin Bleu's cakes via Shinjuku Takashimaya, since the main shop is a long way away. Maybe because it is so far away (or because it was the end of the day, leaving only the least popular), I had only one choice, a fairly solid item that I imagine could be made far ahead. This is Tarte Chocolat Macadamia. The chocolate coating is fairly thick. The inside also has caramel, besides the macadamia nuts. So this is more like a candy bar than any typical cake, which is not a complaint. It was good, but that's probably not going to be enough to keep it in the quite fine group. 

Demel, Arriba

Tuesday, I again took advantage of Isetan being open until 8pm and my not working past that (not true every day this week) and visited Demel for a 4th cake. I got the Arriba, the other option having been a strudle, I think. Since Demel's signature cake is a Sachertorte, it's not surprise that Arriba is a very dense chocolate cake. It was good, with good chocolate, but I guess I don't need a whole piece of this dense of cake, not without some whipped cream or fruit sauce to bring in some variation, but it's unfair to imagine what I might like better, when it did a fine job to being as intended, I'm sure.

Shiseido Parlour, Mont-Blanc

The emergency declaration for the Tokyo region as been rescinded, so Isetan is now open until 8 pm. Searching for a new great cake within this month but still working through the quite fine shops, I hit the Shiseido at Isetan. The 8 pm closing time was new, so it was pretty empty just after 7 pm and already discounts from the non-dessert areas had started. I had two shops to choose from to visit and I went with Shiseido. Actually, I may not have had a choice. At Shiseido, I definitely didn't have a choice because they only had their Mont-Blanc. As it happens, that was pretty lucky, because this was definitely lucky. The special feature of this is that the cream inside (I think) has white chocolate. The result is a mont-blanc that tastes like (not wet) ice cream to me, and not much like chestnut, which actually I'm fine with. There were actually also exercises. Besides walking, I did squats, presses, and curls. The squats were only 5 per set, but I did too many sets, I found out afterward, so I was limited the next couple days. Now I have an incentive to building up those muscles. 

La Précieuse, Montelimar and Waguri Mont-Blanc

Though it doesn't feel so long ago now, last Saturday I got a couple cakes for two from one of the shops on my quite fine group, La Précieuse on the north side of the Yotsuya Station building. I got the take-out, though they have a café space that I've used before. My choice was Montelimar, since I've had good luck with at least one cake of that name, and I like pistachio (hard to see in the picture, but the bottom is pistachio cream) and I think the top is mousse with honey and fruit. It was good. 

The other cake was the Waguri (domestic chestnut) Mont-Blanc. The sign says that you have to wait a couple minutes, because they make them fresh, but I think they didn't take so much time in the backroom. It also was good and had a meringue base, if I'm remembering correctly. So it's definitely a fine shop, but will get cut if I every manage to do a cut (I'm running out of shops to test, so it will probably depend on whether I add any new shops that make it to that level).

Atsushi Hatae, Chocolat Noir

I was busy and then put off blogging, but not eating cake, so I'll update. On Thursday, I set off for Atsushi Hatae for a fourth cake, the target for the quite fine shops. Since the first three were all excellent, it's in no danger of getting bumped, regardless of the result, but I am urgently looking for something great I can put in a cake-off against the new to Tokyo JPH cake. This is the one I passed on last time for a less obvious choice, which means this is the obvious choice for me, as is also pretty clear from the picture: mostly chocolate. I think this is Chocolat Noir (tricky, because Noix would also fit, so I might have to update this later, but I'm not as mobile as I used to be, so I'm not sure when it's going to be convenience to do that). Anyway, thick chocolate, a little layer there at the bottom of pralin, and a good biscuit. Like the other cakes, sophisticated modern French petit gâteau, and excellent. 

Dandelion Chocolate, Mascarpone Chocolate Cake

Ran marginally farther than last run, which was Thursday, which means maybe an extra couple hundred meters, but probably still under 1.5 km. It wasn't as comfortable as I would want. Anyway, I made it to Dandelion Chocolate and got a new cake. They have perfect excellent record so far, which is enough to be quite fine and get a fourth cake. They don't have a huge line-up, so I could hardly double that anyway, but I would like to find a great cake, of course. I went with Mascarpone Chocolate Cake, which I've seen there before but haven't gotten. I was actually a little skeptical, since mascarpone is notoriously tasteless and just used as a medium for other flavors in cakes. I thought just the visible mousse/cream was the cheese, but the chocolate was fairly dense but cuttable, apparently due to cheese, and it definitely tasty cheesy, which is a first for mascarpone cheese cake for me. It was definitely excellent, so Dandelion Chocolate keeps their perfect record. Next I'll try the other shop with a three excellent cake record.

Très Calme, Printemps

Started Sunday (today!) with a cake-off win inspired visit to Très Calme, where among the new cakes I went with the Printemps, which seemed a longshot, but something different appealed to me more than just something with my favorite flavors. Not that it was obvious what flavor a pinkish mont-blanc-shaped cake named 'spring' from the shop of someone on the record for not liking mont-blanc in general, due to the taste and texture of chestnuts. This particular cake was strawberry flavored, with the, I assume, chestnut paste used to cut that and vice versus (wasn't any distinctive chestnut flavor). The base was consistent with the fruit, being like a flaky pie crust, though just on the bottom, not folded up on the sides like a pie or tart. It was good.

Jean-Paul Hévin, Kibune

Lacking enough new cakes to keep Jean-Paul Hévin even even with the next lower shops, I've been giving any excellent cakes that come back into the line-up a second chance. This time it was the Kibune, which was an exclusive in Kyoto when I had it before. Top to bottom, this is pistachio nougatine over a matcha mousse that's half the cake, then a griotte cherry flavored biscuit, a little Brazilian cacao chantilly, and then a chocolate (I assume) biscuit base. Seemed great to me this time, certainly not inferior to other great JPH mousse layer cakes. I've supposed I've had a lot more experience with green tea by this point and also found other cherry cakes that I appreciate. So after getting lucky and quickly finding a partner for one great JPH cake for a cake-off, I'm back to having another seasonal cake needing a partner (which is better than the alternative of not needing one). Guess I need to needing to prioritizing shops with the best records among the ones I'm trying to visit.

Cake-off: Viron's Menton over Jean-Paul Hévin's Maya

For the weekend, I started off
going to Isetan to get cake for a Cake-off at Isetan. It's the weekend of White Day, so even getting there at opening, there was a long line at Jean-Paul Hévin. Fortunately, they closed the bar and were using the space for people who didn't need to individually select chocolates, so I got my cake. For the cake-off, I needed Maya. I figured I had time, so I walked it home before setting out for Viron to get their new Menton, which involved a little waiting but was no problem. It's a rainy day, so no attempts at running were involved.

Both these new cakes stood up to evaluation. As much as I like chocolate, its a crowded field, which might be why I'm giving the Menton the win. It's lemon, but there seems to be a lot else going on, even if I'm not sure what, and a satisfying mix of textures.

Viron, Menton

In a rare (though repeated the following day) event, I did not have to work late and went out to try to score a cake from one of the two three-excellent-cakes shops on the neighborhood running map. It occurred to me that I hadn't checked in at Viron, though, so I did that was was pleasantly surprised to find that they had a new cake, Menton. Like the only other Menton I've had, lemon was the main flavor, so I assume that's what Menton, France is famous for. Can't remember what the card said or tell for eating it what else is there besides custard, which seems to be the lemon part. There is thicker lighter area above it (and a nice nutty biscuit below it, almond I assume from the top) that's light brown; can you make just the burnt part of crème brulée, since this was uniform and mousse-like? Guess I need to swing by there again, though they won't have another new thing. Great cake! This works a lot better for me than a lemon tart in terms of balancing the texture of the custard against mousse, reasonably solid biscuit and some solid nuts and coating. I was looking for a great cake especially since I just had a new one from JPH, so this determines the next cake-off.

Tadashi Yanagi, Mont-Blanc

Working through the quite fine shop list to get them all up to at least 4 cakes, I picked up a Tadashi Yanagi cake, Mont-Blanc, from the counter at Shinjuku Takashimiya, as they are featured there on Mondays. It was good and had a meringue base, I think, both huge improvements over my previous Mont-Blanc. Unfortunately, that probably isn't enough to keep in it the quite fine category, but we'll see.

I note that I'm also going to want to go back there to get cake from Le Jardin Bleu for the same reason. Yanagi actually isn't that far away, even for Setagaya (they used to have a shop on Aoyama-doori Ave., but that's been closed for a while), whereas Le Jardin Bleu is deep in the western suburbs. Not that far but not as close as Yanagi, I note that Noliette doesn't have their counter there any more, so I should have visited them earlier at Takashimaya.

Juri's Tea Rooms, New York Cheesecake

As a partial sampling, I had most of a piece of New York Cheesecake from Juri's Tea Rooms, as takeout. Previously, I've had the afternoon tea set there, the best of which is the scones, though the cake was fine. This was also fine, or rather good, so it gets on the list of fine shops that I need to get a second cake from.

Vie de France, Mont-Blanc

Full disclosure, since a bakery with cake moved into the Shinanomachi Station, I felt compelled to give it a chance, but I wasn't that surprised that the result was not good. It's close enough that I could actually run the entire way. This Vie de France is in the Atré café space, next to a Starbucks. Anyway, I got the Mont-Blanc, which is in the same old-fashioned early-Japan style (in my imagination, anyway: when they were just recreating western desserts in the early days before studying cakemaking in the west) or maybe it's just a café style that is more robust. Anyway, the base is dense like pound cake but overly dry for fresh cake and making up way too much of the cake, and the top has little make up for it. It's a style, I suppose, but I can't call it more than okay, so no need to every eat cake from there again, much less buy it.  
 

Éclat des Jours, Tarte aux Fruits

While I was visiting Éclat des Jours for a cake for a cake-off, I also got a new cake for their previous cake-off win. My choice was between a tart and a glass dessert, so I went with the latter, even though it obviously wasn't a great back for me. Specifically, I got the Tarte aux Fruits. It's not the first time I've had this kind of tart. The good point is it features various kinds of small fruits, all high quality. The bad point is that's about all there is to it and I'm not sure a connoisseur of fruits. Still it was good. 

Cake-off: Très Calme's Pistache Apricot over Éclat des Jours' Rhum Raisin

Last Saturday, I got cakes for a cake-off. Due to leg problems, I went by bicycle, which doesn't seem to mind. I was looking at a fifth-round for two shops with 3 wins to only 1 loss. The first was Rhum Raisin from Éclat des Jours and the second was the Pistache Apricot from Très Calme (which also has a great Kouign Amann, if you like fairly solid ones versus more puffed up ones, which I do). It's kind of obvious what the winner is, based on my over preferences, and yet somehow the uniqueness of Rhum Raisin among my great cakes has enabled it to be in a high bracket. The need for it is less now that I have a Baba on my list, but it still has merit, I think, though I'm giving the win toe Pistache Apricot because I like pistachio cream a lot, which is well balanced, and this is a nicely solid cake as well.

Lenôtre, Carré Citron Yuzu

Thursday last, I caught up for the week with a cake from Lenôtre. They got demoted, so they only get cakes from cake-off wins for the foreseeable future, but I saved one of those until now, when there is a new cake. This is Carré Citron Yuzu. It's not so different from the other Carré cakes, but these are nice moist fruity cake (versus cream, mousse, or sauce) cakes that have been excellent so I was interested in this one too. It's definitely nice, and I don't have other cakes like these from other shops, so I don't mind saying that this one was excellent too.

Jean-Paul Hévin, Maya

Thursday, I had the morning off and slightly ran to Fiorentina Pastry Boutique down in Roppongi Hills to find out whether they still have Estate in the line-up with they don't. That was as much as I could manage as far as running, so I walked to Ginza Mitsukoshi. The big goal was to get one of the new cakes at Jean-Paul Hévin, which I've never had before. There is also one that I've only seen in Kyoto previously, which was excellent, so I might have that again. I let one of the great ones from last month go without having again, just because I couldn't do a cake-off, which is unfortunately. This month, I don't have a match for Bergamot.

But for now, what I got was Maya, which follows the usual JPH pattern as far as chocolate cakes with layers of mousse. This uses Ecuador chocolate mousse, Provence honey nougatine, crème brûlée, a chestnut biscuit, and croustillant. This gives it relatively sharp taste (I don't really know how to describe chocolate), but that's good, great actually. 

Lotus, Matcha White Chocolate

The other new cake from last Sunday was a second cake from Lotus, from which I had an excellent apple cheesecake. Selection is limited to things that slice well and probably have good shelf-life. I went for Matcha White Chocolate, knowing it was a long shot. It wasn't bad and lived up to the name that I can call it good, so I'll call this a fine shop and leave it at that.

(Café) Le Pommier, Mont-Blanc

I'm probably not going to catch before the weekend, but last Sunday I hit a couple local shops. Imperfect is a chocolate shop that's gotten out of the cream puff business, so they no longer have anything that qualifies as fresh cake. Next in that neighborhood was (Café) Le Pommier, from which I got a Mont-blanc. I'd probably have a bigger selection if I went to one of the regular shops, but I was only looking for a fourth cake, so this seemed good enough. It's got the meringue-type base but the unusual feature is a chocolate coating. That's not a bad idea, but wasn't really making this special. Still a good cake, but probably not enough to keep this shop in the quite fine category. 

Ginza Sembikiya, Setoka no Mousse

I had an excellent first cake, so I finally followed up and got this cake. On the minus side, once you take the plastic away, it's not that good at supporting itself, but so it goes. The official photo is a little better, but they went for texture over strength, which I appreciate. This from Ginza Sembikiya, maybe the least widespread of the Sembikiya. They have a main shop in Ginza, but also a counter at Ginza 6, where I went, since I was coming from Mitsukoshi and it's connected underground, though I guess the main shop almost is. They also had a +1000 yen sponge strawberry cake (which is huge for a piece of cake in Japan), but I passed. This is Setoka no Mousse, where Setoka is a kind of mikan, as one can see. It's really nice and I can say excellent, especially since I don't get so many mikan cakes. The mousse is mascarpone cheese, of course, so it's just a medium. I guess I'm going to need to get back there and try the strawberry cake. Hopefully I can get it when I can split it with someone.

Pierre Hermé, Tarte Infiniment Chocolat

I'm coming back to pick up a cake I skipped reporting, accidently, from before last weekend. From their cake-off win, I owed Pierre Hermé a cake, which I picked up from the Isetan Shinjuku counter. I really like the Tarte Infiniment Chocolat au Lait, so I thought I'd try the Tarte Infiniment Chocolat, though I think I misread the card, as I thought it had some pralin going on, but no, just chocolate. Still, it was up to their Tarte Inifiniment standard, and the chocolate was excellent, so I can't complain.