Le Pan, Yasutomi Yuzu and Praliné Paris-Bres, Gateau Le Pan, & Chocolat Orange

My first choice was Yasutomi Yuzu and Praliné Paris-Brest. The choux pastry was typical. The Yuzu cream was fine. The pâte pralinée was quite dense, like the chestnut paste of a mont-blanc, which I don't have any problem with in general. The cake was good and did balance some different good tastes, though maybe the whole wasn't exceptional compared to the parts. Still, a good cake that increases my confidence in this shop.

The second cake, which I only had one forkful of, is called just Gateau Le Pan and is a standard Japanese strawberry shortcake. It seemed good to me and was confirmed by the other partaker.

The third cake we could agree was the best, the Chocolat Orange. While a traditional combination, the balance is not automatic. This was a very rich chocolate which went with what was like a mikan orange, though I don't know the details. I say rich, but it was not dark chocolate, but rather Valrhona milk chocolate mousse, apparently (I found their whole cake ad). Anyway, it works for me. I'm going to label this was great, as I'd like to have it again, which makes my first great Kobe cake, though that's from a small sample that isn't likely to get that much bigger, as I don't get down here so much as I might have first expected. What I can I say: Tokyo is more comfortable for all evolved. Anyway, next time I come back this shop should be my top priority, as I think I've visited all the main ones that aren't available in Tokyo. I'm curious about the main shops of a couple of those, which might have something to explain their longevity despite the low level of good they exhibit in Tokyo. 

Fiorentina Pastry Boutique: Paris-Brest

Working through catching up the established exceptional shops that aren't under threat from below before going back to Hilltop, I did the short run to Fiorentina Pastry Boutique, with the plan to do some non-weights indoor working out afterward, which I did. As a 7th new cake, I choose the cake Paris-Brest, which in the tradition of many Japanese cakes, is in almost now way what it calls itself: it's not tire-shaped and no hazelnut praliné. Instead, it's custard cream, whipped cream and strawberry sandwiched between choux pastry, which is also pretty common. Actually, they got the balance of ingredients just right for me, whereas usually I don't like mixing custard and whipped cream, much less popping strawberries in. It's still not my thing, but it was definitely good and I enjoyed it.

Sadaharu Aoki, Paris-Brest Chocolat

Wednesday, I went to Isetan to pick up my already reserved Paris-Brest Chocolat, though this time they had extras in stock, even though I arrived significantly later: the newness has worn off. As with their last "Paris-Brest", it is not a Paris-Brest, but rather a cream puff with some hazelnut praliné cream. Then even called it a choux cream when they brought it to me, so they know, but so did I going in. It was good, but pretty mild, as chocolate and praliné don't really stack well, as it were. They just changed over the new cakes, so I'll have to wait at least a little before any specials appear. There are a couple cakes with fairly short and unpredictable line-up times that I'm watching for.

For exercise, I tried some of the revised Sendagaya loops, confirming one, failing one, and getting one way for one, so maybe I'll hit them again tomorrow, as well a couple farther away, as I'll have more time.

Jean-Paul Hévin: Paris-Brest

Only a tiny bit of running today. I started by cycling to Ginza Mitsukoshi to check out the special classic series at Jean-Paul Hévin. I've been watching for this for a year without realizing what I was looking for, just that sometime they sneak in cakes there unannounced and checking once a month is not enough. For the first half of September, is Paris-Brest which is new, which differs just slight from their Paris-Tokyo, which has chocolate sheet in the base. It's excellent. I'll able to get a new cake from JPH next week too, since they have one other new cake, but otherwise I need to get the second one from the series the second half of September. The one for the first half of October is excellent, and the one for the second half of October is maybe great, so I'll want to get it in at least one cake-off within the two week window. Haven't checked in on Sadaharu Oaki in person, but the Maron Fruits Rouge is back thru November, so I'll be able to get that in a third-round cake-off before it disappears again.

After getting cake, I went out again and did what I had suggested last time, which was ride out to the Dougenzaka south loop, which is one largish block, and do it counterclockwise to check it off, which I did. Then I went to get groceries and rode past a Natural Lawson that should be on the Maruyamachou--Shinsenchou loop next door, so I'll have to redo that one, which, which the added block, becomes 1.33 km. One step forward, two steps back. I had originally planned to do indoor exercises, but it was more than 2.5 h after all the shopping, so it will have to be tomorrow, when maybe I'll also ride down to the Maruyamachou--Sinsenchou loop.

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.

Cake-off: Michalak's Paris-Brest over L'Abricotier's Montelimar

I went by bicycle in one outing for both Michalak's Paris-Brest and L'Abricotier's Montelimar, in the opposite order, so the latter got a little beat up, as the vibration seemed to make the cake base lose it's adhesion to the cardboard base, although the latter was not actually taped down, I think, so maybe it's pointless to try to find a cause other than the bicycle.

My previous evaluations of both these cakes hold: I don't want to give up either as great cakes, but I'm on the look out for better versions to replace them with. I'm going with the Paris-Brest as the winner, as a guilty pleasure, but this thing is really decadently sugary, even for me, so have a glass of milk or lots of straight tea ready to balance it out.

I had said that the winner of this first-round would be in a second-round cake-off next, but I had already realized as soon as I posted that the Paris-Brest would be around for a while, so maybe I should do the other two one-win no-losses cakes instead. I'm debating between that and saving all three for match-ups with anything seasonal that appears, because I think there is no hurry for any of these three. Montelimar, however, I'll do a cake-off for as soon as I get another one-loss cake, which might take time.

Luciole: J'aime, Paris-Brest, & Gateau Meringue

Gateau Meringue

On day 6 of GW, I got cake from Luciole, which is a shop at the Hotel Piena in Kobe, as takeout. I don't recognize the name of the shop, though I've gotten cake from this location before, just the hotel name. Anyway, it's pretty big as a café space, since it might also be the hotel's breakfast space. However, they have a problem with takeout, in that they give you a huge box in a huge bag, which provides some stability, but the protection of the cakes within the box is completely inadequate.

Paris-Brest

There were one centimeter high paper walls to separate cakes, which did nothing to keep the tall, delicate meringue cake (above from their website) from falling over, even with fairly careful handling. I thought I told them something strange last time I ordered at that location that made them just leave the cakes loose inside (and maybe I did), but this time all the blame is on them. That said, the cake was good, better than average from places I've sampled in Kobe when I was sampling for essentially everywhere (which I don't do in Tokyo very widely these days). The Gateau Meringue was still good, but it's just meringue, white chocolate, and some berries in a decorative package. The Paris-Brest had an unusual pastry, not the usual choux pastry, but maybe the soft version used for Japanese-style choux cream. It was good, but I like a much more decadent style.

The final one, J'aime, is pistachio over chocolate. It is much airier/spongier that other dome cakes I have had, which one should guess from the air bubbles, again (like the previous day's) seemingly in keeping with a local style. It also was good and well balanced, but the texture was boringly soft.

Michalak, Paris-Brest

Thursday's vain attempt to get the 7th year anniversary cake item from Sadaharu Aoki at Shibuya ended with me betting the Dutch Crumble from the Granny Smith counter. It was okay, but I can't say that cold cooked apples with soggy crust is good, though I'm not sure what was different from good pie. There would be more cinnamon and sugar in the recipe I know, and maybe I should always heat it up. Certainly. vanilla ice cream would be traditional, but I was never a big fan of adding to the sogginess. I can image trying the cheesecake or maybe even the French apple pie version, but I'd rather have cake.

Friday, I had other things to do, but it took me to Isetan, where I decided to make up from only one (normal fresh) cake during the work week to get cake from Michalak. Since I was not impressed by the previous tart, though I see how my choice was not likely to suit me, I went for a different type of cake, their Paris-Brest. This is a sugar bomb of praliné creme, which is just what I like. It was great. I will stop complaining about things being called Paris-Brest even though they are not wheel-shaped. Since other great Paris-Brest I've had was a slice from a large cake, scale clearly matters for the texture and balance. It should be possible to get a delicious balance of praliné cream and choux pastry regardless of shape, but I won't begrudge the maker their choice of how to achieve that.

Libre: Fleure Pomme and Paris-Brest Marron

Friday afternoon, I took off, so I visited P. Libre down in Shirokane, which is peripherally connected to the neighborhood running course, but requires a long detour, so I haven't plotted out the specific path that would include it. This is the first shop recommendation taken from Sweets Magic! (see your local NHK Premium listings). The eat-in capacity is 11 or 13 people, and it's hard to image that many people there. Besides the chef (who took my order) and three other underlings there was a man and woman in black who were also staff, which was more than really fit in a place not that much bigger than my living room. They were busy though, so I suppose they were preparing for the night French restaurant time, as cake time was about over. The guy in front of me ordered 5 packs of 3 large bonbon-sized chocolate "pyramids" for >4,000 yen.

The closest thing they have for cake are the "fleure", which are mousse or sauce in a shell in a jar. I saw him make just little balls like that by dipping frozen mousse or sauce in the coating. If you eat in, you can probably see him do it, because the bar counter is both the eating and preparation surface. I asked for the apple version, Fleure Pomme.

The other like that I allow as cake is their Paris-Brest. They only had the Marron, but I didn't have a strong preference, so no problem. They both survived the train ride home. These are certainly interesting, and good. They were nice as something different, and excellent as art, but maybe too far from what I'm looking for in cake to take me back unless it is for the restaurant, which I bet would also be interesting.

Sadaharu Aoki: Paris-Brest au Marron Matcha

Need to catch up before I'm busy again. Thursday, I finally got to Sadaharu Aoki again, and got their Shinjuku Isetan exclusive, Paris-Brest au Marron Matcha, which is actually a cream puff, not a Paris-brest (it's not wheel-shaped), but what you can do. The matcha cream is hidden in the bottom (in a reasonable but necessary amount, as it provides a major part of the sweetening), and there are some hazelnuts visible there, in addition to the main flavor, chestnut. It was interesting, but in an excellent way, so they are still living up to their status as a possibly quite superb shop.

The run (which came before eating the cake) was my biggest of the week, I did a neighborhood course run down to Shibuya Station, which takes 45+ minutes, and on which I tried to verify some of the recent changes of Jinguumae--Kita-Aoyama Central loop. Then I tried to Daikanyama-chou--Dougenzaka--Ebisunishi--Hachiyama-chou--Sakuragaoka-chou--Sarugaku-chou--Shibuya--Uguisudani-chou loop, which is as complicated as the name and the last of my "11th" loops (ten loops from the Samonchou loop) that I'm doing one-way neighborhood runs for. The big change from last time I did any part of this loop (I don't think I've tried to do all of any previous version at one time) was to add a few more churches and a couple cake shops and not bother to cross back over to the west end of Shibuya Station by pedestrian bridges on the groups that the landmarks there are accessible on food through the corridors and tunnels of Shibuya Station, so Shibuya Mark City doesn't need a special visit. It took over an hour to do the loop and in fact I ran into a problem at the end: no bridge back to the station from the southeast side. The whole area is under construction and there are subway entrances that you can use to cross, so I'm not even sure that they are going to reopen that bridge ever. The north-south bridge worked to get to the loop, though it's a temp, so I'm not sure what will happen later, but it goes to a big new shopping area, so at least the people who built that have an incentive to keep that connection, but again there are (really deep) tunnels if they don't. As a result, I've split off the northeast part as a separate mini-loop (linked by a bridge that's still open); perhaps I'll separately practice it among the "12th" loops, presumably at the same time I practice the mini Ebisunishi loop again and try the Kamimeguro loop through Naka-Meguro Station.

Viron: Paris-Brest

Not well enough to run, but I kept a reservation at Viron today for lunch. As usual, the food was excellent. For desert, they had Paris-Brest, which they said they only make twice a month and it was what they were pushing, in that they brought the whole thing around on a platter for us to see. We got the first slice, I think, and it was a huge slice (for 1500 yen). This was quite different from the little individuals I've had called Paris-Brest and I can't remember what the slice from La Salon Jacques Borie was like (I was too shy to take a picture of it). Here, the balance between pastry and filling was much more to my liking than an éclair (that is, more filling), even though really there were 6 layers, as the top and bottom both had distinct inside and outside crusts with the praliné cream between, and there was also an small inner tube filled with custard, which I had not expected. Nuts were very large pieces, maybe halves. It made a strong impression, so I'm calling it great.

Also, the Baba au Rhum is still excellent.

Addict au Sucre

No running today, but my walking is basically normal again, unlike yesterday. Cycling (to go food shopping for nuts and oil) feels a little funny, but better than running (I ran a short way to make a light today), so I guess the first step is to get where I can cycle without pain.
I got cake at Isetan today from the visiting shop Addict au Sucre: Paris-Brest Noisette Orange, which is mousseline (Hollandaise sauce plus whipped cream) with orange in a feuillantine sandwich, so it is kind of eclair-like, as Paris-Brest always are. It was 561 yen, which seems a little high, but it was definitely good, though I'm not ready to go beyond that.

Henri le Roux and nonstop running 1/1 intervals

Got the fourth and last Henri le Roux cake type from Henri le Roux, Isetan. Need to get back to Henri le Roux Midtown for the Kouign Amann that I haven't had, since the two I had there were great.

For running, I went back to the unfinished loop of yesterday's run and continued the non-stop run. This time, inspired by a friend, I did 1 min/1 min intervals for an hour (as you can imagine, my ability to run all out was short lived, but I did continue to put out effort) and then did a normal run home.

The cake was Paris-Brest C.B.S. (caramel beurre sel) for 540 yen. Which is basically a round salted caramel éclair. It was excellent but I can't say great, either because I'm less impressed the second time around after having an éclair last time or maybe because I liked the chocolate better than the caramel. It still has a nougatine topping, more actually, and the cream filling has their specialty C.B.S.

About 11 km and Isetan cafe: Le Salon Jacques Borie

We went to the cafe Le Salon Jacques Borie at the Shinjuku Isetan and got cake. There, you choose the number of cakes and the drink that you want and they bring a cake cart around for you to choose. The selection of things that I would want is not large, but then this is only the second time I've been there, so that's not a big problem. The cakes are very good, as is their herb tea. I had a piece of a large Paris-Brest and a slice of apricot tart and also a couple bites of a very soft almond something, that was almost like a bread in sauce. Two cakes are 2400 yen, and one cake and tea or coffee is 2200 yen. That is before tax and 10% service charge. A desert wine was 1500 yen, I think.

It's been a few days since I've been able to run, and I can tell, and not just from the scale. I did a basic loop including the moat. The running felt fine at the time and the temperature was down and I could run hard, but my left foot is not in great shape now, so that's what I need to be careful about if I can't run for a few days.

It was decided that we needed new phones, so I'm trying out the camera on the new one. I took a couple night pictures along Shinjukudoori. These are statues along the route. The fishing boy gets different outfits, but the girl is stuck with a dress that is too short to be swinging around.