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.

(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. 

Dandelion Chocolate, Sierra Leone Opera: Pistache

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.

Pierre Hermé, Tarte Infiniment Pistache d'Iran

Skipped a day, since really I already used the week's cake allotment, though I always planned to get ahead on the next week, since I'll be busy the following weekend. Also, I was still hoping to find another great cake to pit against a JPH cake that ends its run Saturday. In response to the previous cake-off win, I had an excuse to visit Pierre Hermé in Jinguumae to get the special Tarte Infiniment Pistache d'Iran, which seemed a good bet based on the recent hazelnut cake. I needed a half-day off to visit on a weekday, since they are only open noon to 7pm now, which is a little tight. It was tight for a morning off, too, and the web site still shows 11 to 8pm, so I had an hour to kill after my first visit. 

Jumping ahead, I did get the cake. I note that the hazelnut cake is praliné, so this pistachio cake is a lot nuttier, and a different nut, so I couldn't get into as much, and there's a lot of it. It was good, of course, but won't make the great list as I had hoped.

Back to on the way there, I hit the Harajuku Sta. area on the first pass but spent the extra hour doubling back to a café on the Sendagaya-Jinguumae boundary and then confirmed that Dandelion Chocolate no longer has macarons in the Omote-Sandou Road shop, as well as that it was empty on a weekday. I also need to update my cake post, as I'm not sure what chocolate I had the opera. They have six flavors, and I think I mistook the chocolate that wen with almond. I need to update those posts next. New places I found/revisited included the Ron Herman Café, which is a top priority as a new place to visit, being the nearest along the neighborhood running route and having several cakes (it's a chain with a shop in Kobe also). I have to wonder if it's just cake from the nearby Amiri (formerly, Nana Gâteaux), but they don't seem to be doing anything right now, so probably not. Though I'm off at least weekend Harajuku cafés for the covid duration, a new building opened near the station that has a Café Aux Bacchanales with cakes out front, though not the same as the great cakes that used to be available from Ginza. Still, I should try them. In the same building (With Harajuku) is Eataly, which I should sample something from. The other one I'm most interested is the Depla Pol Chocolatier, which connects two otherwise dead-end back streets in the maze-like area there south of Takeshita Street, but there are up to four more, though one relates to Shiseidou Parlor, and is on the 8th floor, so maybe irrelevant for both running and take-out cake (which I can get from Isetan).

As a non-cake place, I got the An Scone from Toraya Café An Stand. It was good, which no problems with the an. 

 

Dandelion Chocolate, H2O Chocolate Mousse & Opera [Hacienda Azul Costa Rica x Hazelnut]

Went to Dandelion Chocolate at Harajuku and the most important thing to say is, don't eat in there, because you're going to be packed among young people who don't.

That done, I would like to go back for take-out. Their signature chocolate seems to be the H2O Chocolate Mousse. I'm not sure I saw anyone else get any other cake. It's an excellent cake, though be warned that you can't expect much in the way of variation, so splitting it with a partner seems reasonable.  

The other cake I got was Opera: Hacienda Azul Costa Rica x Hazelnut. This is a tiny cake, but super rich with buttery nut layers. I'm a little uncertain on this one as well, though I ate more than half, but I'm going with excellent again.  

There are pistachio and almond version of the opera, but looking for a great cake, I should probably try a more varied cake next.

Sanjikken, Sachertorte and Cheesecake

Had a visit to a café/coffee salon (with waiters) on Aoyama-doori near Omote-Sandou Sta.: Sanjikken. It's on the second floor, so I had never seen inside. We (cake for two) were lucky, as we were seated rather quickly. When we left, there were at least ten people waiting. I considered it worth visiting even if I don't need to hit every café and coffee shop, because they advertise cake, specifically the Sachertorte by picture, on the sign by the door. I haven't had a sachertorte for a while, but it seemed excellent, perhaps the best I've had. If I finding myself needing something in a Starbucks again, I'll get their to compare as some sort of reference so I know I'm not just imagining things. This seemed to be a one-layer type, with apricot jam on top of the cake, under the icing, but I suppose it's possible that there were two layers and I just couldn't tell. I'm too hurried to check the two main schools of sachertorte now.

I also has some Cheesecake, which was soufflé-type, I think, rather than the dense type I prefer, but still definitely good, so the shop gets in the stable part (won't get denoted when I finally have enough better shops to split this bloated group) of the fine shops group.

Kouhiichakan Shuu, Marron Chocolat

Spent the day hitting neighborhood shops around Harujuku. Only one really counts, so I'm leading with that one, Kouhii Chakan Shuu. I've visited one of their "Natural Cake" shop, but they have a different line-up. This time I ate in (since no smoking now), though they do takeout. I had Marron Chocolat, which is a seasonal cake. It's on the sweet side, so it would be better with a drink, which is what this is for, after all. It's comparable to the other coffee salon I know and at least as a first cake, I can say it was excellent.

Other cakes were from shops that don't deserve being marked as cake shops for my running map (and were cheap). One was Brook's, where I got the Basque Cheesecake. This is my first time with this kind of cheesecake and I can't say I get it. It was okay.

The other was the new shop in the Aoyama Grand Hotel, The City Bakery. I went with the Lemon Pie (if that's the correct name) which is their lemon tart. This also was just okay, not very lemony, which is the only thing it had to work with.

Imperfect, Choux Cream Chocolate

Last Saturday, I was busy, so no running, but I did make a first visit to Imperfect in Omotesandou Hills. They do nuts, chocolates, ice cream coffee, and choux cream, which I count as fresh cakes, since they require refrigeration for the filling. Only one of the three types was available, and I could buy the one in the early afternoon. I got Choux Cream Chocolate (not sure how to spell with the French-English mix). The choux pasty didn't seem like anything special (though also not bad), but the chocolate filling was definitely rich, so it gets an excellent.

Pierre Hermé, Bayadère

For last week, I had three cakes left for the weekdays, but didn't expect to find that many. However, if I wanted to try a lot of new shops, there are places out there on my neighborhood running map, such as this cafe, which was open close to 9 pm in Roppongi, with an outdoor cake case and a "take-out" sign, so it gets added to the map. There are still closer in ones open on the neighborhood course.

One major player that is still open until 7 pm is Pierre Hermé, which I owed a cake from a cake-off win a while back, so I got something new, Bayadère. This is lime in the white chocolate with strawberry and rhubarb compote, passion fruit with lime gelatin and a sablé breton base. It's definitely good and interesting, but perhaps I should have gone for the new cheesecake, though I can't regret taking a gamble on something more ambitiously different. Among my supposedly superb shops, this one is most precarious, so a couple challengers from the quite exceptional list once again have a chance to overtake it (not that either has enough new cakes to match it anyway).

Lotus: Apple Cheesecake

Monday, I worked late, of course, and Isetan closed early, so along with verifying my knowledge on some revised neighborhood running courses, in that direction (though doing that particular one came later) I finally visited Lotus, on the Jinguumae Shopping Street. Eat-in requires a drink order, but they do take out and they're open until at least 3 a.m., last I checked. I got the Apple Cheesecake and ate it in the park in front of the new Olympic Museum. It's a dense cheesecake with a thick layer of apple on the bottom, well balanced to the cake. Definitely excellent, which surprised me. It's solidly in the fine shop group, so I should get around to having a second cake eventually.

Bio Ojiyan Café, Gateau Chocolat

After a long pause, I hit the highest priority of the open cake places on my neighborhood running course, Bio Ojiyan Café. I made the safe choice and took Gateau Chocolat, which is a traditional baked chocolate cake. It came with whipped cream, which it needs, as it is a little dry (being baked). It was good, though at a café price for a pretty basic café. I have to wonder how it compares to something from a chain coffee shop, though it was probably bigger. Wouldn't mind going back, but it's not high enough among fine shops to probably ever rate another visit. Still another cake place on that loop, a loop closer to the Suga Shrine loop (my new base loop) that closes at 18:00 hasn't been visited yet. Maybe next week.

Running, I did the revised Takeshita clump, with the revised Jinguumae northwest loop (clockwise) and had no trouble. Maybe I'll do the counterclockwise direction for the loop tomorrow, as I expect to be running down toward Shibuya Scramble Square for cake from En Vedette again.

Ralph's Coffee: Cheesecake

Wanted to try a new shop on my neighborhood route and the nearest loop is the Jinguumae central loop, so I looked around and found a coffee and doughnut shop away from the main route that I hadn't noticed and completely reworked it. I failed the new loop, but then I found another shop I wanted to add near the first one and the only way to accommodate both is to give them their own tiny loop, so I didn't need to mess with the loop anyway. It will take awhile to undo all the changes.

I did manage the goal of visiting Ralph's Coffee shop and had their cheese cake. It was definitely good, and different from other cheesecakes I've had recently, maybe coarser, if that makes sense. Not really worth the price, though, but then it's trying to be a nice shop in a nice area. The pastries looked more reasonable, though I've sworn off evening pastries.

Cake-off: Michalak's Paris-Brest over Bien-être's Pistachio and American Cherry Chiboust

Monday, I did prep work for today's cake-off by going to Bien-être and reserving a Pistachio and American Cherry Chiboust (to use the first name I recorded this under, though I think the name has been permuted since). This was by running, which I did in intervals of 3 min walking/1 min slow running/ 3 min running/ 1 min fast running. Next running watch will have more than time intervals, now that I know why I would want more. After Bien-être, I ran to Jinguumae to try the new Jinguumae 5&6 loop, though I messed up the end, which is not surprising since I had never even walked it before. Also, I'm not sure that I took the planned path to climb east from Cat Street, but I've decided that it's worth lengthening the route a little to avoid cutting between buildings like that. I stopped at a couple shops before I found one open and with something sub-cake as a snack (at the 1 hour point). I got Cheese Cake from the Roastery by Nozy Coffee Cafe, which you can see is a stick, sort of a half-size cake. It was definitely good, in an enough sugar kind of way. I ended up doing 9 intervals of running, which is the longest I've gone recently and enough fast running to leave me a little sore the next day, so I hope I'm building up some running muscles now.

For the other cake in the cake-off, I went with a recent one that also won its first round, Michalak's Paris-Brest. The chiboust is the new style again, but I think I'm over worrying about the change. Until there are more pistachio chiboust, or any kind of chiboust, from the good shops, I'd like to keep this on the great's list, but I can't resist the super sugar bomb that is Michalak's Paris-Brest. And it has seriously dark praline with a strong caramel taste, in a good way, so it gets it's second win. However, the chiboust will be gone soon, so if I can get it in a third-round cake-off over the weekend, I'll do that.

Michalak, Monak Pablova

Intended to do a short run and got sucked into a long run after starting the day thinking I should really rest, as my feet were hurting in the morning, but the lure of the road called me (and my feet felt fine). I was practicing my minor deviation of my Jinguumae central loop, which covers the north end of Cat Street to the Jinguumae shopping street and looping around to Michalak to get the last available type of fresh cake for this exceptional shop. This is the Monak Pablova, which is a take out cake consisting of a shell and filling. There was space inside, so I stayed in. This is the cheapest of the ones of this type listed on the web site and the only one I've see lately (now is jar dessert season). Actually, the other two are listed under cakes rather than take-out, which confuses me, but they are all called Monak. The Monak Pablova is lime meringue (also, they put some freshly grated lime peel on top) with raspberry confit and lychee cream. It's take out because it will dissolve if you don't eat in within 30 minutes, they said. It was good, but not enough to make me impatient to try a different flavor of these (pear-yuzu and chocolate-hazelnut are listed on the website). I might have to wait until fall to get new regular cakes, assuming they'll have new ones.

While eating in, I looked at Facebook and saw that Bien-être's mille-feuille had gone American cherry, so I need to run over there to confirm that so had the pistachio chiboust. I was able to make it in time and did confirm. They were semi-confident that they would have it for another week or two. I'm busy this weekend, but I might try serving one early next week any getting a cake from Isetan for a mid-week second-round cake-off, probably with a Michalak cake, though I have one other possibility at Shinjuku Station for a backup. If that works, and I want it, I can do a third round the following weekend, though I'm not sure ahead of time what the availability will be (the opponent would be either FC's Choux Vanille or ABVT's Marjolaine, depending on whether the chiboust loses or wins.

Because the actual run was intended to be shorter, rather than try to do 11 intervals of 4 minutes running, I made the intervals 5 min with the additional 30 s intervals for warm up and a semi-dash, but the deviation to visit Bien-être had me reach 40 minutes of running before I finished, so I walked after 8 intervals. Still haven't decided what I'll do tomorrow. It's rain every day in varying amounts, but I'll rest either Tuesday or Wednesday and am busy Thursday and the weekend, but maybe I'll squeeze some running on nearby local loops.

Anniversaire Café, Blanche & Porto Rouge

Yesterday, I had a relative short run, less than 6 km, and today (Saturday), I didn't run at all, though I walked a similar distance. This was partially because I was busy, partially laziness, and partially acknowledging that I need to take a full day off running sometimes to let my feet rest. Continuing with reviewing the quite good shops, I went back to Anniversaire Café above Omotesandou Station on Omotesandou Avenue. After a very nice lunch at the same place, I shared cake for two: Blanche & Porto Rouge. The first is a kind of light strawberry shortcake, with low-fat cream, strawberry, and sponge cake including rice flower. I thought it was definitely good, though I'm not much into shortcake to begin with.

The Porto Rouge was similar flavors, with port wine, berry gelatin, and some white chocolate. Maybe also not my thing, but it was definitely well made and I feel excellent is reasonable classification, so I think this shop will make the final cut. We won't necessarily wait until I need a fifth new cake from them to visit again.

Franzè & Evans London, Yuzu Meringue Tart

Thursday, I made my first attempt to obtain JPH's new Longchamp Chocolat, which is dark chocolate accented by pistachio in the coating. No luck at Isetan, but it was only its second day. For running, I went out for about an hour and did the planned running of neighborhood course loops, confirming my knowledge of the Kita-Aoyama central and Mianmi-Aoyama north loops, and the clockwise direction of the Kasumigaoka-machi--Kita-Aoymama loop (which is long, but is just a big loop with streets to cross). So far, I've reconfirmed only 26 km of loops, so a lot of work yet to do, but I'm still planning to try to do my first full run of a new 35 km loop plus the neighborhood course access route to it on Sunday.

I was considering resting Friday, based on sore feet in the morning and big plans for Sunday. However, I failed a second time to get the new JPH cake, so instead I started out for the Marunouchi/Ginza area to try other outlets. By that point my feet felt reasonably okay and I didn't try to run fast. Lots of cakes still at the Marunouchi JPH chocolate bar, but not that one (they had greater variety than I expected, though). After a brief detour to see whether Viron had any new since the first half of January (no), I wend down to Ginza Mitsukoshi, where they were also sold-out. After a similar brief walk to Origines Cacao, I decided that I was will to pay extra (in buying outside Isetan/Mitsukoshi), and ran to Tokyo Midtown. The original route would probably have been okay, but I deviated for lights around Shinbashi and the updated Google route had me going up a steep curved hill where the sidewalk disappeared due to construction and I was left running the street against incoming taxis (though that's a normal legal Tokyo thing, and I passed a walker near where the sidewalk resumed). At this point, it was past 8 pm and Midtown had all of two Longchamp Feuilleté (which I noticed Saturday Ginza Mitsukoshi had labeled as "nouvelle", which is technically true, though it's been in the line-up for over two months by this point and they are clearly working on selling off the current stock). Figuring I might as well finish off the set, I ran to Omotesandou Hills, where they still had an enormous about of cake, but not that one.

When I set out for Omotesandou Hills, I was planning to settle for cake from Lotus, which is a café along the Jinguumae Shopping Road. However, I also have a long list of theoretically quite good shops that I've only had two cakes from that I want to visit again, so I did that instead, Franzè & Evans London being open. I went with the Yuzu Meringue Tart (I've still yet to get anything not meringue from there), which probably closely resembles a lemon meringue pie. It definitely met my needs after the unplanned long run (I didn't have any energy foods prepared, or I would have opening something up around Tokyo Midtown). In a way, I didn't respect its crude appear to my sweet tooth, but on the other hand, I rarely see meringue cream (the topping is still soft), probably because pie and tart shops aren't my thing. In the end, I decided that excellent was a fair evaluation by my standards, so Franzè & Evans London will make the cut.

Bubó Barcelona: Montblanc

Did a relatively short run, about 50 minutes, and ran into a good crowd on Omotesandou Douri (I hadn't thought about people coming to see the holiday lights). On the way, I swung through the part of Sendagaya that had been closed yesterday to practice running that part of the course in reverse. Mostly I was okay, but one road is more like a driveway and I didn't remember that there would be a slight curb to it and no street marks indicating a road (the road/drive goes to a temple, and then I use their stairs to go down to the main street, which triggers a couple automatic lights going past but the path is open even when the gate to the temple is okay, so I assume it's okay to use until I hear otherwise).

Even on Christmas, Bubó Barcelona was not sold-out yet, though they were getting close. They had several Xabina and a couple Montblanc (their spelling). I've had the Xabina, so I got their Montblanc and took it home by the usual route. It was basic, being chestnut paste around whipped cream on a cookie/pie base. Decorations were white chocolate and, on top, baked meringue, which were what probably tipped this over into Excellent territory, or I just was feeling the Christmas spirit.

I'm busy toward the end of the week, but I'll try hitting Isetan Tuesday and Wednesday, which is not faster, but avoids having to do research to see who's open and selling individuals.

Thursday: Q-Pot Cafe.

Did a longer walk, close to 6 km, which probably took 1 hour, so longer than Tuesday's, but no hills, so it might not be a good comparison. Didn't feel any problems, so I'm thinking I'll try to run down to Yotsuya Station tomorrow night and get some jam, good milk, and dark rum for cooking from the grocery and something sweet from Paul.

It's been a while since I went somewhere new that wasn't in Isetan. "Q-Pot Cafe." was listed as "Unvisited" on my map for a long time, so I finally visited. I should probably be more selective about what I put on my map from Joshi+. I know better than to do cafés, but I like to try something new sometimes, and this was within range. The cake was Sachertorte for 690 yen. It was fine. I assume there was some actual apricot in it, because there were a few pieces of some chewy fruit. Not really anything special, and definitely not my first choice for Sachertorte. Not much else among the selection that I would be interested in. I'm tempted to just mark them "Unworthy" so I can just forget about them, but it doesn't seem fair after one cake that was fine, so I'll mark the "Good".

I also got a croissant from the nearby Rituel (par Christophe Vasseur), which was 350 yen and, while artistic and good, definitely not as good as some 200 yen ones I've had.