Camélia, Reine

I was free from late afternoon on Sunday, so I half ran half walked to Ginza and visited P. Camélia and got Reine, so a princess cake, perhaps. Anyway, lots of pistachio, including a nicely textured biscuit and a suitable balance of red fruits and a touch of chocolate. No surprise that I found it excellent, which makes four in a row from this shop. Still, haven't found a great cake yet, so it's staying in the quite fine group but I might get back to it sooner than otherwise from getting cake for two, as they'll have a counter at Isetan from April (I assume it's a 6th-month gig).

 

Camélia: Chocolate Cake

Wednesday, I worked the latest I had for some time, but since the plan was to go to Camélia in Ginza, which closes at 2 am (the shop that is; I'm sure Ginza is open for business much later), no problem. Also, it was an indoor workout day, so I went by bicycle. This time I remembered to bring my own (insulated, zipper) bag, so I didn't have to waste another super fancy one of theirs for my one piece of cake. Since this was my third cake, after two excellent ones, I figured it was my last try to get a great one from this new shop for a while, so I went for the Chocolate Cake (the Japanese name didn't include Cake, but I can't remember whether it was just the Japanese "Choco" or like the French, "Chocolat"; also, the actual Latin name was written without a space and I'm not sure whether it "Chocolatcake" or "Chocolatecake"). This is chocolate glaze over chocolate mousse over probably chocolate cream or ganache over a chocolate sponge/biscuit. Very simple, but nice chocolate, so I can say that this was excellent two. This shop is firmly in the quite fine category of shops, so I hope to get back to it in about a year.

I'll need to find a new, new shop and I've realized that I can't ignore the one in Meiji Memorial Hall any more (on the groups that it seemed more of a restaurant and the building smells bad to me), because I realize now that they have a dessert counter at Ginza Mitsukoshi. That means I have to breakup revise my neighborhood map near there, so now I've got three loops that I thought I had memorized that need to be re-verified.

Camélia, Carmelina

Camélia, Carmelina

Went to Camélia in Ginza for a second cake, since the first one was excellent. Got the cake I was looking at, Carmelina (the "n" is silent in the Japanese at least). This is a relative thick dacquoise base with large bits of hazelnuts under cream made of caramel and mascarpone cheese (based on a user post; I didn't try to research the card that closely, since I forget during running anyway). Definitely my kind of thing and excellent. I like the flavors, though the usual ones, and the texture mix is great. This seems to be a quite fine shop. I'll probably be back next week for the third cake. I only ran one way, walking back to protect the cake, and my side, which is still giving me trouble. I'm probably over stretching it, so I'll watch it. It's not the side that needs the most stretching anyway.

Camélia, Myu

Ran to a get a first cake from a relatively new shop in Ginza that I saw on TV, P. Camélia. Looked very nice, in terms of atmosphere and selection. I got Myu, a blackberry tea chocolate mousse cake marked as the recommend cake. Unfortunately, because enduring my run back, which was longer than I expected, I got distracted and didn't get it into the refrigerator quickly, so it was probably in poorer shape than it should have been, and I wouldn't have minded a colder temperature when eating, but it wasn't overly sweet (which warmth can do), so it was fine. I'm giving this the benefit of the doubt and saying it was excellent. Certainly the flavor was good, particularly for a mousse cake, including a good aftertaste.