Atsushi Hatae, Chocolat Noir

I was busy and then put off blogging, but not eating cake, so I'll update. On Thursday, I set off for Atsushi Hatae for a fourth cake, the target for the quite fine shops. Since the first three were all excellent, it's in no danger of getting bumped, regardless of the result, but I am urgently looking for something great I can put in a cake-off against the new to Tokyo JPH cake. This is the one I passed on last time for a less obvious choice, which means this is the obvious choice for me, as is also pretty clear from the picture: mostly chocolate. I think this is Chocolat Noir (tricky, because Noix would also fit, so I might have to update this later, but I'm not as mobile as I used to be, so I'm not sure when it's going to be convenience to do that). Anyway, thick chocolate, a little layer there at the bottom of pralin, and a good biscuit. Like the other cakes, sophisticated modern French petit gâteau, and excellent. 

Atsushi Hatae, Griotte Pistache

Last Sunday, which was my most recent cake, from a relatively new place, Atsushi Hatae in Sarugaku-chou. Since the first two were excellent, I decided to take a chance on something a little different from what I might usually choose or the several nutty or chocolaty cakes and get the Griotte Pistache, which of course has nuts but pistachios are the fruity nuts and I've not particularly appreciated cherry cakes, but this one looked like a good bet as far as having a lot of structural aspects in its favor. Half the inside is actually white semi-solid, which I'm guessing was mascarpone cheese, just because it shows up in cakes a lot and has no particular taste of its own. It was choice dilute the pistachio and cherry. In general, I want a strong taste, but I can see where that might not be the correct choice and here I respect the balance struck and say that this bet paid off, as it was excellent, so it's going to stay pretty safely among the quite fine shops, regardless of how the fourth cake is, but hopefully that will be great. Many other shops to visit, so I might not rush it.  

Atsushi Hatae, Caramel Noix

Still way behind, The last cake from two weekends ago was a second cake from Atsushi Hatae, that was nominally listed as a fine shop based on one excellent cake but a priority among those shops, so it's at the ahead of the line, along with a couple other one-cake-sampled shops that had an excellent cake. This was chosen because it was close to a quite fine shop I visited and was the farthest away of the high-priority fine shops. Anyway, they have pretty elegant cakes with varieties that appeal to me, so I was optimistic. I chose Caramel Noix, which I knew was going to be somewhat a challenge, since the basic construction is a dependably traditional but unexciting layer cake with what's a fairly mild flavoring. Nevertheless, they pulled it off excellently, so I can advance the shop to quite fine and expect to get a couple more cakes from there in the near future. 

Il Pleut sur la Seine, Le Turin

No cake and little running during the short week, but indoor exercise. Saturday I had a couple appointments, so didn't try a cake-off, but went for the last two (simple) exceptional shops I wanted another new cake for. After the morning appointment, I went to Il Pleut sur la Seine. They are only open a short time every week and they are expensive, but their main thing is the school, so maybe they do best with the basics. I got Le Turin, which if not basic, at least uses basic elements. The biscuit is hazelnut, which gives a special flavor and a nice texture. As the name suggests, the main flavor is chestnut, in different kinds of cream. The chestnut flavor isn't so heavy and it harmonizes well with the hazelnut. So good quality, interesting combination, and solids basic elements make this an excellent cake.

Il Pleut sur la Seine, Today's Cake

Visiting exceptional shops, I hit Il Pleut sur la Seine second on Sunday, which opened after being closed from the beginning of the state of emergency being declared, I think. I got "Today's Cake", which was how it was labeled. I asked the name and they told me, but I've forgotten, something not helpful or original, 1 word, like "seduction" or "satisfaction", but neither of those, I think. Anyway, I don't think it's a regular, although it s standard type I've seen elsewhere and once thought was great: it's three layers of bitter, milk, and white chocolate. Really, my tastes have moved on, so I should no better. It's not cheap, either. Of course, it is well made with good ingredients, so it was good, but it didn't make me want to return soon.

Atsushi Hatae, Gourmandise

Foraging for food, I went out again today. I originally intended to do a neighborhood course clump, but quickly decided that the weather was too miserable, and that I wasn't actually confident about the changes I made in merging three loops into one, and combing that with two other loops, one new, to form the clump.  Fortunately, the miserable weather and general requests to avoid unnecessary excursions, kept people off the streets around the time I was running (i.e., during the March snow). I wasn't the only jogger, or the only one buying food that might not be vital to life, but it was pretty easy to keep a good distance from everyone. I'm remembering, now, that running, like alcohol, might not be best for maintaining good judgement, so I plan to be even more careful next time, if there is a next time (i.e., if the city isn't completely locked down). When I jogged in the evening, it certainly looked (from afar), that some shops were hurting for sales, as I would expect, at least for ones away from residential areas. But enough of the depressing stuff.

Working on the neighborhood sites, I got mini-financiers from Chavaty, which is a milk and tea shop (though I don't like milk in my tea), that has scones, but no clotted cream, so I'm not sure whether to trust them for scones. Thus, I went with the mini-financiers. They aren't like homemade, but maybe not everyone likes their financiers as baked/dry as I do. Also, these seem to be chocolate, from the color, though I can't tell so much from the flavor for this kind of baked good. They were good, but not impressive. I think I got 12 originally, but this was after the late run (after I dried off, had lunch, and then the first cake).

The first shop I got cake from was the Sarugaku-chou (the website, of course, says Daikanyama, since that's the nearest station and more sophisticated than "monkey pleasure") Atsushi Hatae shop that opened last year (at the same time as his other two shops). I went with the Gourmandise as likely to meet my tastes, as well as being strong for the return trip, which probably took me an hour through mush and detours trying to confirm other shops. Tea-flavored chocolate ganache, caramel and orange chocolate cream, and hazelnut praliné as the main components. Quite sophisticated, though not original, which is fine with me. I can call it excellent. This shop goes on the list of fine shops as one that I definitely want to get back to, in the next year or so (under the current strict system).

Chez Lui: Cassis Dijon

Went to another shop on the neighborhood running course, this one in Suragaku-chou, down southwest from Shibuya Station. Never had high expectations for this shop based on never having heard any recommendations and the line-up, but I did have an excellent (rather old-fashioned Japanese) pastry. I went with Cassis Dijon. The card claims that it has chocolate crunch, would would be expected to go with cassis/blackcurrant, but I don't remember any crunch, just the bottom layer is thick chocolate sponge, which doesn't really go with anything, but certainly not with a mousse top. It does explain the low price, although the size would also explain that. Anyway, this cake reminded me of other cakes from similar old chains, just those cakes are not my style, so I won't need to get cakes as such from them, though I will try more pastries.