Clair de Lune, Passion Chocolat

As planned, I ran up to the Clair de Lune in the Marui just across from Ueno Station, which is about a kilometer closer each way than going to the main store. Taking the shortest route, I run down a short seedy hostess bar street, which is no big deal (it's well lit and loudspeakers repeat the local police saying that I shouldn't trust anyone who tries to lure me in and that such action is illegal, though there are still people in front of individual clubs/bars who presumably know what they can get away with; probably they'll talk to you if you go up to them, but otherwise are just standing there or talking to each other while they wait for someone interesting to come along) and then the crowded back streets of cheap shops and food stalls on the other side of the main street, but it's okay.

I hadn't looked around in the basement of Marui before, just verified that Clair de Lune was there (and they're right at the bottom of the escalator), so I hadn't noticed that it was mostly eat-in places rather than counters for take-out, not like the department store food areas, maybe more like parts of Tokyo Midtown, but cheaper. Anyway, I could eat in-at a spacious counter next to the cake shop counter. I got the Passion Chocolat, though there were a few other more basic options that I haven't tried yet, and I probably should have chosen a piece having more chocolate, since there was variation in the balance between them and I was given a choice. Still, it was a good flavor, as good as I've gotten in good passion fruit and chocolate cakes from elsewhere, maybe even from JPH, though the bottom biscuit did not impress me. The aftertaste of the cake was sort of gingery, which I couldn't detect over the passion fruit when I was eating it and also might be unrelated to the biscuit. The biscuit was not bad, just it was a dense chocolate cake with no particular character and I wanted something more dramatic to contrast with the passion fruit and chocolate cream/mousse. There was some crunch element between cake and cream as well, but also not sufficient to make much impression. It was definitely good cake and I wasn't really disappointed, but it's going to be hard to keep this shop in the quite excellent group, which I knew from the beginning. I need to get another cake from Del'Immo before visiting Clair de Lune again, since it's a potential rival.

Clair de Lune, Mandarine Napoléon

I had done my planned weekday cakes and still not found a new great cake to match up against Mont-Fuji, so I turned my thoughts to the alternative, finding an old great cake that hasn't had a first round (which means I've been searching for it unsuccessfully for more than two years, so little chance). I had the four or five most convenient candidates to check again in mind for over the next three days, and today started with the nearest (fail: no Chiboust Yuzu) and the one with the latest hours, the Clair de Lune, where I preferred to get a pastry if they had a new one (not the case), considered getting a cream puff, but decided to get the Mandarine Napoléon, since it's a long run and this is now a top priority shop, since I tentatively promoted it to quite excellent.

Just in case, though it was not on display, I asked the chef about their Chiboust, which I have down as a great cake from 3 years ago. He said he makes it sometimes (which is what I've been told before, but no schedule) and that I should call ahead. Well, yeah, but I don't do that and it takes my excuse away from running.

The Mandarine Napoléon was very nice. Perhaps very conventional: vanilla and fruit mousse cake with a thick gelatinous outside to hold it together on some kind of cake (seemed like chocolate) base. But it was well made and I really appreciated the mandarin/mikan, which I don't get enough, versus chocolate version, which are almost ubiquitous and often not very good. This qualifies as excellent.

Since I was still there (I ate in) and so was the chef (making something in the back), I asked again about the Chiboust, like would he make it this weekend, for example, and could I specifically order it (which PS seemed willing to do for me the other day, if I could wait 2 hours, which I couldn't). He considered and I managed to persuade him to make it for Sunday (Saturday would be too tight for him). I've repeatedly asked about a cake until they finally made it before (Fraoula), but I've never talked someone into making a specific cake, so this was new. So no cake for me Friday and Saturday. I can do a second round on Monday (holiday) if Mont-Fuji wins (if the Chiboust wins, then I will have to call and see if they carried it over for another day). In principle, I could do a third round with either to matching something else that I can get on a weekday (again, assuming that the Chiboust is not just a one-day thing).

On other JPH news (besides Mont-Fuji), they seemed to have retired one cake from the lineup without notice and announced the end of another along with the Mont-Fuji for Jan. 15. I hope this means that the Mont-Blanc will continue, or I'll be trying to do four cake-offs in three days, which would mean no more cake for a week.

Clair de Lune, Criollo

Wednesday, I finally went to P. Clair de Lune for cake agine. I have them down as an excellent shop, but my my metrics they rate over the supposedly quite excellent shop L'Abricotier. However, I've had twice as many cakes from L'Abricotier, so I've had to dig deeper in their line-up, making it a not very fair comparison in terms of selection bias. To compensate, rather than swapping them between the two groups immediately, like I've done in the past, now that I should have one more cake from quite excellent shops, I instead got one from P. Clair de Lune, as a substitute. It's complicated, so fortunately I'm currently not doing this for any other pair of shops.

The short course there is over 8 kilometers, though I missed a turn, so maybe it reached 8.5 km. However, I realized why I usually don't take that course (not the missed turn; I should be used to turning there by now), which is it goes right past the JR station, making it much too crowded for running for a relatively long stretch. So actually my mistake would have been correct if I had followed the course I tried on the way back, if only I had known. Total was probably around 17 km, which I did in 110 minutes, faster than I expected given my foot problems. Also, my stretching and icing in the evening was apparently very effective, as I had surprisingly little trouble in the morning. I'll try to repeat today.

The cake was Criollo, which was chocolate cake with the criollo variety of Venezuelan chocolate, supposedly the best and most expensive. I've become jaded with chocolate cake, but I ate this in and exchanged a few words with the propriety, so I would feel guilty rating it poorly, but I think excellent is a reasonable, honest rating. An important point was the pink pepper on top, for accent, but it is still mostly just straight, excellent, chocolate.

Google says they also have a shop in the Marui at Ueno Station, which is slightly more convenient. That one is confirmed on the shop's website (which I also had not known about), but it also says there's one where Google Streetview shows a hotel. Next time I run by either (which would probably only be to go to the main shop), I should check out what they are selling, since the Marui branch might not have the fresh cake.

Cake-off: Sadaharu Aoki's Marron Fruits Rouges over Viron's Bonaparte

Sunday, for cake-off day, as the earliest great cake available for a second-round, I tried Viron's Bonaparte again, this time against something not another chocolate cake, Sadaharu Aoki's Marron Fruits Rouges, which was conveniently next in line, though it is available through November, so there was no hurry with it. I ran to Viron first and then ran carrying it north at least as far as Shinjuku Takashimiya, and then walked from there to Isetan to get the second cake and walked both home.

This time I had the Marron Fruits Rouges at my preferred temperature, and it made all the difference: definitely great cake. Again, the Bonaparte was not working for me, so I can't keep in among the great cakes. It was an early choice and from when I was more enthusiastic about Viron (though their Mille-Feuille is still definitely my favorite). These day, maybe I'm used to a moister cake. I wouldn't have minded some whipped cream on the Bonaparte, if I were ordering it in a cafe (which is not possible, since their cafes' serve different desserts than they sell in the bakery section).

In the afternoon, I went and checked the current line-up at Clair de Lune, which I should get cake from soon (they are third to sixth in priority, in no particular order). Since the previous pastry I got there was excellent, and I didn't get any during the last week, I got their Boulette au Marron and ate it within a kilometer (though I arrived by an unnecessary detour) at a park. I've never had this seasonal pastry from anywhere, I think, though I'm seeing everywhere now, it being the season. This is pastry around a baked (I think) chestnut, but also there is marzipan inside, which makes a differences, as far as balancing. Again, I don't have much comparison, but this seemed great to me. I also got a small bag of chocolate almonds as service, which I've saving to share, and I could have gotten a flower, but passed. It's their 5th year anniversary.

I also checked out L'abbricotier and Jun Honma, again to verify their lineups, again. This time I made proper notes, so I can move on the checking other places. I did go to check out a new loop in Honmachi, Shibuya-ku, and found that I was mistaken about there being an underpass to cross back over Yamanote-dori Ave., so I was wrong about being able to reach the north part of Yoyogi by curling the course back east. I can just barely get into Nishi-Shinjuku, where there is not actually anything I need to reach. At least I found a crosswalk with a signal for getting to Tokyo Opera City, where there's a bakery cafe.

Clair de Lune: Passion Chocolat

Did a fast run to Clair de Lune. Got hot on the way there, but it was a clear night and I expected the temperature to drop, as well as my speed. This was a run for my sixth cake from this shop and the second since I promoted them tentatively to Quite Excellent. I choose the Passion Chocolat (I might have gotten that backwards, as I wasn't looking at the card when I wrote it down). I ate in, as the picture shows. This was definitely good cake, but fruitier than I like: I prefer the chocolate to dominate, and passion fruit is pretty strong, and this does not skimp. Also, this is very soft in a creamy way (versus a light mousse), so I'm not that thrilled by the engineering, being a step toward pudding on a biscuit, though just a step. However, I don't want to loose sight that this was a definitely good cake, if not the level I was hoping for, so they have a place as an Excellent shop (which isn't bad: in the top 28 of Tokyo shops). The way is now clear to promote L'Abricotier back up to Quite Excellent now, but there is no hurry while I'm still working through other recent promotions.

I was running pretty fast I think (there's always the chance that I just mistimed, but I don't think so): 11 km/h there and 9 km/h back, which is not too bad for +8 km each way.

Plans for the next three days are to run every day, do one cake-off and one new shop. If I can get do the cake-off on a weekday (tricky), then I'll go to a distant recommended shop. Otherwise, I'll do a neighborhood one that I haven't blogged yet. I suppose eventually I get around to cake at other local chain coffee shops and general cafés, but there is no hurry for that, either.

Clair de Lune: Saint-marc

Decided to do another long run to one of the three shops new to the Quite Excellent category, Clair de Lune. Roundtrip, about 17 km, with a low 10 km/h out and a low 9 km/h back, which is still faster than I expected, since I had a long run Monday and another run Tuesday, so was still a little creaky, though not so stiff.

I past last time, so this time I took the Saint-marc. This is a simple cake that I like. This one was not particularly special among saint-marc, but they did a good job so I'm rating it excellent.

Was surprised to find myself running through a shopping arcade (though I often start on one main east-west street going back and work my way down to the next main one as the stoplights require. This is apparently Satake shopping street. Obviously, things close down mostly by 8:30, which is not very surprising.

Clair de Lune: Dalcey

Backstreet northeast of central Tokyo.
 Just people's houses.

In reviewing Excellent shops and bring them up to 4 fresh cakes each, I finally got to P. Clair de Lune, which is 8+ km away. Used Runtastic for the distance and route and had the first failure: it stopped recording the route near the end of the outbound trip, although it kept counting the time. It seemed to have the distance about right, though, for what it recorded. I was around 9+ km/h going out and 9- km/h coming back, so it averaged out. I chose to get take-out rather than eat in (the eat-in space is pretty cramped, so it's not very attractive at night and the rain took another night off, though the next incoming hurricane is going to keep it coming back for the next week). On the way back, I took some back streets of part of it for the usual reason of not waiting at the first light to get down to my preferred east-west road right away, Kuramaebashi-douri (I don't like the nearest big round from the shop, because it crosses the JR lines in a very busy area, in terms of pedestrians).

The cake was the Dalcey (I avoided the temptation of getting the St.-Marc this one time). It's a mousse cake of caramel and passion fruit. Either flavor can be overpowering but were reasonably mild in this case and harmonized well. Also the texture was very nice, so I'm calling this excellent. Related to recent concerns about temperature, I actually ate this straight from coming home without refrigerating it, so maybe I should give up trying to figure out what optimal conditions are.

Excellent was actually high enough that I decided to swap this shop into the Quite Excellent group, taking out Abricotier, which I've visited a lot, so I'll be back to Clair to Lune relatively soon. Now 3 of 8 Quite excellent shops are now new to the list, but they have so few cake that all their positions are pretty fragile.

(FSa) Cake-off: Paris S'éveille's "Monsieur Arnaud" over Clair de Lune's "Chocolatine"

Friday, I went cake-less and ran to Toshi Yoroizuka in Kyobashi and got their Chocolat Croissant (350 yen) as a snack. The run was about 6 km out at 9 km/h and 5 km back at 8 km/h, as it was hot and I was still tired from Thursday and thought I would need some energy for Saturday, more than expected, as it turned out. Besides the chocolate, the croissant had orange confit, which was nice. I would say that it was excellent. The colors of the tables outside the building, though, are are not a good background.

For Saturday, the plan from the beginning was a cake-off between Monsieur Arnaud from Paris S'éveille and something. Originally, I had been thinking of the Marjolaine from nearby Au Bon Vieux Temps, but going in order and matching ingredients, actually Le Piemont from L'abricotier should be next, and since it seemed just not hot enough for that to be reasonable, I went with it. However, I was getting a late start, so I probably should have struck at least to a direct course rather than wandering, though I did not add that much distance and did go down a couple streets (not new, but not used recently) that might be better that those of what has become the standard route. Fortunately, it did not add much to the 12 km route. It was still pretty hot, so only 8 km/h. On the way, as other times, I noticed at least they've been working on preparation of the new national stadium, although the picture is not wide enough to show the full breadth of the site.

Because of the late start, by the time I got to L'abricotier, they were sold out of what I wanted (or at least I assumed so, since they were low on everything and there was no placeholder card for the Le Piemont, though I probably should have asked). Of course, at this point I was regretting not having gone to Au Bon Vieux Temps when it was convenient, as well as not just putting off the cake-off until Sunday, when I had the morning free (greed is a problem). I had not planned the course, but it was faster to go straight to Clair de Lune from L'abricotier than to go home first, so I tried that, though I went about half a kilometer out of my way up along Nakano Road when the light went against me (I ended up following Seibu Shinjuku Line east until I met up with New Mejiro Road, taking that until passing Tokyo Dome and then following the usual route).

At Clair de Lune, I wanted Chocolatine, though I had already decided that if they did not have it, I would give up and get something else for today and save the Monsieur Arnaud for tomorrow (it looked like it could take a wait). It too seemed to be sold out, but the card was still there, so I asked. They were still making things in the back (which is just a meter from the front, being a tiny place) and as it happened, they were just finishing some more Chocolatine. This second leg of the run took 22 km (still at 8 km/h, but at least it cooled somewhat and started raining, which I didn't mind).

As for the actual cake-off, the Chocolatine is a standard mousse chocolate cake with pistachio cream in the middle and I can't remember what I thought was great about it other than the service. Still, I can call it excellent. The Monsieur Arnaud has a hazelnut biscuit with a nutty crunch on top, chocolate cream and solid chocolate, all things I like very much and put together well in this cake, so I can see why I thought it was great and was happy to have it again.

Clair de lune: Chocolatine

Big walk mid-week, using a half-day of soon to expire vacation days. Trying to avoid overdoing it, and was a little too successful: the first 8.4 km averaged 4.5 km/h, which I'll count as 3/4 load of 5 km/h. Actually, that was to a pastry and bread goods pro shop first, which was not particular exciting (they had lots of forms for making different shapes).

Nearby in the cheapest looking place I know (it's about on the level of a 40 year old dry cleaners, with a heavy manual sliding door), but the cakes are at a more sophisticated level than one would expect to the exterior. They were working hard in the back (also tiny) seemed like, so I suppose they have contracts somewhere.


Anyway, got the Chocolatine for 540, which is just your standard chocolate mousse cake under chocolate glaze with a little pistachio mousse in the middle. They asked if I wanted take out or each in, which surprised me, but there is a sort of shelf bar created by one side of the baked goods display table, so you can sit back there under the liquor bottles and next to the mini-fridge or freezer with a couple bags of almond powder on top (see first photo), for lack of anywhere better to store them. So I ate in (declining the 200 yen coffee, since I don't drink coffee), and when she brought the cake, she said that ideally I should wait 1 or 2 minutes for it to reach the optimal temperature, so I did. And it was great. Still just the standard cake, but it totally worked as chocolate mousse (pistachio wasn't very strong) and I doubt that I've have better, and I've had several I think, but only blogged a couple, from Yamamuro and Toshi Yoroizuka. So, still an excellent shop after three cakes.

I walked back at a more normal but tire pace, 10 km at 5 km/h. My plan is for the next two shops to also be third cakes from they same tier, since I did three supposedly great jobs in a row, and there are only three of them left with new cakes anyway, so it the blogging and visiting was getting kind of repetative, but most other places are farther away, so I either need to go slow or weight until I build up my distance. I'll rest tomorrow (well, stretch inside) and then hit a near by one Saturday, maybe, and do another similar distance one to day on Sunday.

Culture Day run: Hidemi and Clair de Lune

Today's run is the one shown on the map, if you check before I add another one. It was 21+ km and involved 2 h 12 min of motion (mostly running, but there were crowds and a pedestrian bridge to requiring climbing stairs. Went through some crowded areas, but also was still sore (back and hips) at the beginning (now my feet are sore). Since I have a long run planned for Saturday, I've only got Wed. or Thu. for intervals to try to build actual muscle. Not sure whether another long run after only 6 days from the previous is okay, especially with 20+ km today, but we'll see.

Wanted to go to the cafe Kneten, as a Joshi+ recommendation, but they are closed Tue, apparently even when it is a holiday (I tried calling by phone, but no answer). I had several other places in mind, though, so no problem. I ended up visiting Patissier Hidemi Sugino's place. It's a cafe and 6 of the cakes are only for eating in, but the line for getting cake was not so bad (people go in groups, so it can look worse than it is). Since I was in no condition for anyone to want me in their crowded cafe, and it was 30 minutes after opening so the cafe space was already full with a few people waiting, I got a takeaway cake: Framboisier for 680 yen, which was great, so I'll need to visit again.

Sorry, not a great picture. Too bright outside to see what I was doing (and too tired to have the sense to realize how the shadows were falling). This is raspberry, obviously. Under the whole raspberries are almond bits. There should be a couple almond cake layers in there, but mainly raspberry butter cream, although fairly light buttercream as buttercream goes. Also, some red currant gel, although not sticky or wobbly (if there were enough of it) jelly, but more of a solid sauce that cuts easily. This is very fruity cake, probably from using fruit as the sweetener rather than some other kind of sugar, but the sweetness is just right.

After another 5 km, I got back to Clair de Lune for a second time this year. Maybe this was too short a distance (even though it took several more minutes to get to a park to eat it) for cake again. As I seek quality, I find that I have to cut down on quantity, and not just due to expense. The name is The Apres-Midi (I think something else might have been written in Latin characters, but this makes sense to me and matches the Japanese phonetic name) and was 600 yen. It's almost frozen and gives off a faint ice-being-cut sound, although it does not taste icy. Obviously there are figs on top (I put them on flat-side down, so they wouldn't roll off outside) of a sort of crumb topping. Not sure what the flavors are. Could be a little chocolate or could be fig. Not vanilla. I assume tea, but not strong. It was very good, but I became less satisfied with it afterward over time, which may have more to do with what happens in my stomach when I eat and jog. Anyway, probably not great, and the shop is still not convenient (in terms of distance and crowded areas that you have to pass through to get back inside Yamanote Line) although I'm getting a little more used to jogging on that side of town, so I've removed the shop from special consideration. If I'm in that neighborhood and need take-out cake, I would go again.

Wako and Clair de Lune

Okay, (Patisserie) Clair de Lune and the patisserie at Wako Annex are now marked on the map as patisseries of interest after recent visits. It also shows (until I update it again, since there is a limit on layers) today's route somewhat (Google is not good about tracking some things and I don't know how to get it to map exactly where I want rather than using best-route find a letting me just tweak a few points, although I got lucky once and it really let me draw the route).

I started with a chocolate tart of Wako Annex, but I was out of the habit and hungry, so I forgot to photograph it; here's a Japanese page with a not very hi-res version. It's called Comme (?) Tarte Chocolat and was 648 yen, which is not cheap, but considering this is Wako, it's not as much as it could be. It was extremely good, maybe great. Certainly one of the better chocolate tarts, possible the best, that I've had. The linked article claims that there are are some nuts mixed in, although the chocolate is smooth. Hard to get back there, but I'll try.

The run was good. My times were 52 minutes going and 48 minutes coming back to 100 yen shop carrying cake. This seems to correspond to 5'20'' per kilometer and 6'12' per kilometer, but I caught Google overdoing and shortening the route, respectively, so the truth is that they were probably closer together, although running with cake with some wind after a long run out certainly was slower coming back (plus, I'm not sure what roads I actually took toward the beginning, but I think that they were at least parallel to what's mapped).

The cake was Chiboust again, for 540 yen, with the traditional (?) apple. Usually, these things are round cakes with a flat base, but this one had a crust that curled up on the two sides (seemingly, this was sliced from a longer cake). This crust is several layers of flaky pastry crust and there are large apple pieces, so it was more apple-pie-like than Chiboust usually is (which is a kind of semi-frozen mousse). It makes me think that this is a more home-made style, but it is really good, I'll say great, so I should get back there, despite the distance route problems and try some of the other things. It's a really small operation, so I probably didn't respect it when I went there before, which is why I didn't write any note on the card. Pretty cramped store right on the street and the kitchen seemed tiny, too.