Café Le Cordon Bleu, Opéra au Thé Vert

Sunday was rain but not so much or so cold that I couldn't run. It did stop me from taking photos along the way, but I did some reconnaissance along the way that made the trip a little longer. My goal was to get a new cake from Paris S'éveille, in response to a cake-off win. Previously they had two new cakes that I was not excited about, because they were coffee flavored, but I've had another similar cake with coffee and tonka beans and it was fine. At the shop, though, they only had one that was coffee cream on coffee gelatin, which I'm pretty sure would make me sick, so I gave up. I'll check again next month (actually, I'll probably be back before that for a cake-off, since they have so many great cakes). I've had plenty of pastries from there (including great ones), so I'm not stiffing them on what they are due in terms of number of items tried. Still need to get back to the two cake-off winners after that, but they're both open after work on a workday.

Instead, I ran back and stopped at Café Le Cordon Bleu, which is one of the shops I've labeled as quite good based on only two cakes. The cake I choose as the third was Opéra au Thé Vert, which is chocolate and chocolate. It was mostly green tea, and maybe its legitimate for it too seem watery, since so is green tea, but I don't find that acceptable in cake. My experience with green tea is maybe too limited (I tend to drink the same cheap stuff at work every day) for the nuance of the chocolate to get through. I've going to give this the benefit of the doubt and say it was okay, since it was reasonable, but the shop goes straight to the good group, where I'll probably never hear from it again, since it's going to be a long time before I'll want fourth cakes from Tokyo cake shops that are just average. Next in the list of holiday only places: Ces Jours. Actually, I only have a few to go, and not so many workday-accessible ones.

Ogawaken: Marron Soufflé

Masuda-sei Pan

Friday, I went for a one-way neighborhood course run for some new loops, including ones that I needed to take more photos for. On the way, I finally found Masuda-sei Pan ("Masuda-made Bread") open, so I went in a bought a little French Toast. It is on the eggy side rather than the sweet side, which I'm fine with, and the bread was French breach like, though not hard (though if it is really old bread, then it should not be). It was good. Glad I could have a visit. In Harujuku, I visited Anywhere Door, which has "shots" in wafer-style flat-bottomed ice cream cones. They describe it was tiramisu, though they are different flavors. I decided that I wasn't interested, so I don't need to adjust my map to swing by their alley. I'm looking for solid food.

I had a little trouble with doing the Kita-Aoyama--Jinguumae--Shibuya loop clockwise. Even though I new I had to turn at the Ao Building, but I couldn't remember whether it was before or after before I had already overshot. I went back and ran it correctly, but I need to practice. I expect I'll need to come the same way again soon, so I don't have to make a special trip.

The main target was side loops from the Daikanyama-chou--Dougenzaka--Ebisunishi--Hachiyama-chou--Nanpeidai-chou--Sakuragaoka-chou--Sarugaku-chou--Shibuya--Uguisudani-chou loop. First is what I'm calling the Shibuya south loop, which is just temporary until they finish new pedestrian bridge south of Shibuya Station. The loop goes by the shrines and temples around the site of the former Shibuya Castle.

In another first of finding a shop open when I wanted something (though it was a little early after the French Toast, and I did have a proper lunch first), I stopped by Ogawaken "Western Confectioner" Daikanyama, which is next to their restaurant (versus their salon in Meguro), which seems to be most famous for raison sandwich cookies. Anyway, I tried their oddly named Marron Soufflé, which is a roll cake with chestnut bits inside. It was good and convenient finger food, so my respect for roll cake has increased somewhat as a result. I ate it in a park on the new Ebisuminami--Nakameguro north loop. I tried to do the Ebisunishi loop along the way, but I've had to revise it since then, so I'll need to redo it.

After that, I did the Aobadai--Kamimeguro loop, taking pictures in the fading light (at ~4 pm). Still not certain about the Happy Pudding Factory, but I suppose if I return the jar there, it could be okay.

On the way back, I discovered a basement cafe/bakery/patisserie near Café Le Cordon Bleu, which I was going to for a pastry. The new shop is Maison Ichi Daikanyama and I should have about there. I had previously had two excellent pastries from Café Le Cordon Bleu, so wanted to take advantage of being there when they were open. I got a Croissant Chocolat Amonde. It was good and I'm used to these being sugar and butter bombs and soft, but it was too much for be at the time, more on the sweet side than oily. Still, it's fair to say that it was good, just not the best I've had.

Ryoura: Waguri Mont-Blanc

Monday (a substitute holiday for the September equinox), I tried running to a local cake place in Daikanyama area, but they took a holiday as well, though in theory they are open Mondays. It was not a very direct run there, as I wanted to get a new picture for Shibuya 4-choume Town Park (which Google maps kept substituting a different picture of mine for, even if I deleted it, so there is some corruption in my Google map) as well as a couple places around Shibuya Bridge and Ebisu Station. Since I was running, I had decided on Ryoura as a backup, which is several kilometers away, and then back by train. First, though, I stopped at Café Le Cordon Bleu for a second pastry. This time, they had a big selection, so it sells out fairly early. Back-translating the shown English name and receipt name (not the same) to the Japanese and then back to French, it was Torsadé Pistache (pistachio twist, which I should know). This also has some chocolate twisted inside, as well as pistachio, and the outside nuts and chocolate are held well by a hardened syrup coating, which made this chewy over the flakiness of the pastry. Definitely excellent, so I would like to get back there again.

They just started the Waguri Mont-Blanc at Ryoura (and I had seen the photo on Facebook), and last time's Mont-Blanc had been great I thought, so I got that. It was good, so I enjoyed it, but it did not standard out as a mont-blanc. The simplicity of just a simple meringue base, whipped cream, and chestnut paste means that it pretty much depends on how the chestnut hits me, and it was fine but not my favorite for cake, apparently.

I'll mention that it was more weekend running than other weeks, but I'm doing stretches for my foot pain twice a day now, and it seems to be improving nicely, so not too bad this morning. Tonight, I did some local shopping running around places looking at drinking vinegar. I've gotten some recently, and it has more honey in it than expected, so it's not very low calorie. I ended up getting some black vinegar today that has about half the calories, though it still says add honey to taste, so I'm not sure how it's going to work out for drinking. I can still use it for other things.

Before finding that, I've added several alternative dessert locations in the Omotesandou/Harujuku neighborhood area to my neighborhood running course, and tentatively changed it for future runs. Still on the old course is the Aoyama-douri Pudding Shop, so I bought a little baked non-fresh (packaged, actually) cake there today, called Chocolat Aoyama Sanpo (stroll/walk). It would be pretty messing to try to eat it walking, so I'm glad I didn't try. This was much better than I expected, so I might even try their other "white" version of this. It certainly qualifies as definitely good.

Paris S'éveille: Arbion

Did another cycling day, about 3 hours, this time out to Paris S'éveille. It was a little soon to go back there, but it seemed like a good choice for a weekend and I wanted to check the Dalloyau line-up at their main store (their two mont-blanc are in, but none of the cakes I'm looking for). On the way, I took a few photos in the area around Meguro Station, but even before that, I stopped at Café Le Cordon Bleu for my first pastry from them, which I think was called Croissant au Chocolat (or at least should have been), and ate in. This was super fresh, complete with the fresh bread smell, whereas I'm used to buying pastries late in the day on weekdays. I think that they brushed it with egg white, because the outside is well sealed. Definitely seemed very "by the book", so no complaints and I can say that it was excellent.

At Paris S'éveille, they no longer have signs on their tables saying "no photographs", so I ate in. I choose the "chef-recommend" Arbion, which is new and features Japanese apricot mousse, almond milk mousse, and lavender flavored milk foam surrounded by white chocolate. The taste balance was fine for me, as a light fruity concoction, but not really my thing; still, definitely good. Maybe fall and winter will bring some new heavier cakes. Completely forgot to confirm up-coming cake-off cakes, but I wouldn't get to them this month anyway, so I guess it's okay.

On the way back, I confirmed that Les Cacao still doesn't have Cuba, the only great cake that I've had from there, swung by Toshi Yoroizuka to confirm recently spotted great cakes remain, though no new old favorites. Lastly, I stopped by Bubó Barcelona and got their Croissant au Chocolat (I think), which I ate at home. Wait, I also confirmed La Vie Douce still doesn't have a yuzu chiboust, or any kind of chiboust or yuzu cake right now. The second croissant had a balance of buttery flake, fluffy interior, and chocolate that makes we want to say that it is great.

Café Le Cordon Bleu: Earlgrey Chocolate, Macaron Chocolat Gianduja

Saturday, went to a new place for cake for two, which is to say I had half of each of these first two cakes, Café Le Cordon Bleu (supposedly the current name, though the old name is still on the receipt: Le Cordon Bleu La Boutique). It is close to the old Asakura Family Estate, which dates from early Showa (about a hundred years ago), which is a cheap (100 yen/person) visit. Back to the cafe, it is self-serve and has a limited selection of cake, pastries, bread, and simple cafe lunch, salad maybe. On a Saturday, they ran out of at least one of our cakes shortly after us, maybe a little before 3 pm.

Both of these are chocolate (there was also a strawberry mousse/cream and a cream puff), but are quite different. One is Earlgrey Chocolate, a fairly standard mousse cake, but definitely good. The tea gives, well a tea taste, but I would say it makes the chocolate a little fruity. The other cake is a macaron, Macaron Chocolate Gianduja, and I advised cutting it, though it turned out that picking it up was very possible, as there is a center of chopped nuts (I assume hazelnuts) in chocolate that acted as a central post while not offering resistance to biting (so it was sort of sticky rather than solid). This sort of heavy cake is more my preference, so I thought this was excellent. Based on two cakes, it seems a quite good shop, which is a fairly good find for just a local shop I noticed on my neighborhood route.