Les Cacaos, Chuao

Thursday, I took the morning off, so I stuck to just my indoor routine Wednesday night and got to bed early. After a short run to the local government building to dispose of an old power block from a printer I was getting rid of the same day, I did a run out to Chez Lui near Shimo-Kitazawa for a mid-run pastry (resisting the temptation to stop to see what Paddlers Coffee, which was open, had). I went with the standard Pain au Chocolat, and it was good in a standard kind of way, so I'll try somewhere else next time. From there, I looped back south to pick up the trail that leads to Meguro River ran along there most of the way down to Gotanda. I stopped about about 2.2 km and 30 minutes out and walked from there (still arriving before opening and before anyone else had lined up, but just after they had put out the bench, so perfect timing). I went with Chuao, which is the name of a cacao growing region in Venezuela. Though this was new to me, it seems to be their standard chocolate cake, for a chocolate shop. Top is milk chocolate cream, whereas the layers are all mostly more substantial. Balance seems perfect, but like fruit, I'm not a great judge of gourmet chocolate perhaps. Not sure whether I'll make it that far before I give myself diabetes and have to give up sugar (I'm still getting an A on my blood sugar reports, though, so I'm safe for another year). Definitely good cake, which I enjoyed. They stay an exceptional shop, and I'll look forward when it's time to get the 9th cake. 

Les Cacaos, Ville Franchier

Still a week behind, on the return from PS, I also stopped at Les Cacao again, as I try to catch up on exceptional shops (that are didn't suspend business for a month), and got a 7th new cake. I ate it after neighborhood run that successfully (I think, or at least I've been successful by now) did the new Akasaka west loop, which is going to be part of a 4-loop Nogizaka--Roppongi Sta. clump that's 9+ km, plus access routes, that I've put running together so far. Since I've found flaws in both the Omotesando southeast clump loops, that's still the priority, though I've finished the Shibuya Sta. east and north clumps, meaning I've been spending time (on the ground and in front of the computer) figuring out the Diakanyama area, which is become a 12+ km main loop, a side loops that have also expanded.

Anyway, running, and then cake: Ville Franchier. This is a butter cream cake with almond biscuits and a layer of chocolate down there in the shadows of the bottom. It's basically a marjolaine, perhaps, though I hadn't been thinking that at the time. Anyway, buttercream cakes can be boring, and yet, with the right touch of flavor, such as a little chocolate, they can be great. This one comes qualifies as excellent, which boosts Les Cacaos enough to get them out of the bottom of their shop category. Just three more shops to do (though definitely 1 and maybe 2 are suspected for the state of emergency, but the hotel-based one hopefully is continuing).

Les Cacaos, Chocolat Noisette

Thursday, I took off the PM and went out for cake. Wasn't sure whether I would find it, since pandemic was exploding in Tokyo, but cake shops have materials, and expenses, so they go on. Under the circumstances, I changed from running and coming back by train to bicycling both ways. Still looking for a shop to promote to exceptional, I went first to Les Cacaos for a 6th cake. Chocolat Noisette seemed like a good bet, though not one that always pays off. This one had a nice thick biscuit with some toughness, reminding me of a cake from PS. For additional flavoring, this has orange, which worked for me. It's simple, but excellent, so I'm promoting them (Jun Homma will have to wait its chance).

Dalloyau: Chausson aux Pommes

Last Friday, wanted to get a pastry from Dalloyau, which is my top pastry shop, at least based on my limited data. I started by going to Ginza Mitsukoshi, but they were sold out, so I swung down to the Meguro Stn. Dalloyau and picked up the Chausson aux Pommes. This was all cycling, of course. Probably no running through June. It was late, though, so everything was already bagged, which means soft. Really, I want my pastries crispy, but I'm not sure how crisp it can be with apple filling anyway. It was good, but not really beyond that. There's a reason (besides cost) why I usually start simpler.

Les Cacaos: Chocolat Orange

I'm going through my list of Excellent shops and getting a fourth cake where needed. The Excellent group is a little bloated, but at the same time I'll like to promote one to Quite Excellent to fill the gap above left over from the withdrawal of Henri le Roux. There are a few Excellent shops that I can visit on a weekday, but Les Cacaos is not one of those, so I visited there today. I still get lost making the transition between the main streets radiating from Gotanda and Meguro, but it's not such a big area, so it's not such a big deal. Even though it was sunny, the temperature was forecast to peak at only 25 deg. Summer is over (and on a weekend, so no extra public holiday--bummer, but it averages out over time and holidays).

Les Cacaos seems to be expanding its lineup, though it still has the better two of the three cakes that I've had before. This time I went with Chocolat Orange. They have some non-chocolate ones now, but they are obviously first a chocolate shop, and I like chocolate, so I tried to stick with what they should do best. This is a somewhat traditional chocolate sponge layer cake with butter cream-based frosting, I think (though don't ask me to remember what the card said about it besides the obvious from the name). It was definitely good and at one point I considered rating it excellent, but I decided that this would probably not be my choice for this type of chocolate cake or for an orange chocolate cake, so I'm going to have to leave the evaluation at just good. I've demoted them down to Quite Good as a shop, but I've had one great cake from them, which will probably get used in a cake-off within this year (they're #9 of currently available cakes).

It's the weekend with two longish runs (compared to recent ones: I plan a near-marathon-length run for next Sunday, as part of a cake-off; wish me luck), so I got greedy and visited Il Pleut sur la Seine, partially to confirm currently available great cakes but also to sample their Bostock. It's of the soft variety with a relatively strong liquor taste. Definitely good but typical. The piece of matcha chiffon cake was okay.
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Tout le Monde: Gallia

Today I went down to P. tout le Monde for a first look/cake. It's a nice little shop near Musashi-Koyama on the Meguro Line, in Shinagawa. This was a day time run, which is necessary because they close at 19:00 and aren't that close to me (it's about a 9 to 10 km run, depending on how direct a route I try to do; in this case, less so on the way there). The run was fine, though I'm still slow compared to winter, being around 9 km/h around trip for 19 km.

I chose the chocolate cake, Gallia. This is sort of an everything-but-the-kitchen-sink kind of cake, as the base is maybe a chocolate feuillantine, above which is Japanais (hazelnut biscuit), chocolate whipped cream, cream, mousse, and ganache layers, and a couple kinds of chocolate covered nuts, as well as just some loose pieces. It was all good, and works good together. The chocolate itself was maybe nothing special but it was also not bad. Definitely a good cake. I cake on the terrace. No drinks service (which I didn't really want, but free water would have been nice), but I got a complementary financier, which is a pretty good score, though I'm not sure how good it is, because I'm saving it to share.

Plaisir: Cassis Chocolat

Went on a shorter run, but still felt long and was slow (10 km/h out and 9 km/h, 6.8 km each way). I went to Atré at Meguro Station (which is in Shinagawa) to visit Plaisir, which tends to move around (next two stops, Daimaru at Tokyo and Shinjuku Takashimaya), so catching them met a goal. The cake was Cassis Chocolat (カシスショコラ; 513 yen). Couldn't actually taste the chocolate or the orange that was supposed to be in there. It was good, so I'm not disappointed, but I don't need more.

Les Cacaos: Tarte au Chocolat aux Framboises

Well, I decided that I had recovered from my cold and took a run. So far, so good. But it was pretty slow, averaging close to 9 km/h over about 21 km (it would have been shorter if I had followed the route, but I zigzagged at lot and overshot by one station). I feel looser now and got rid of the cramp I had picked up over a week of not running, but I probably should have stretched more and definitely should do some stretching tonight.

This was my third visit to Les Cacaos in Shinagawa-ku and I got their third fresh cake (though they have a few other things, such as a cream puff). Specifically, I got Tarte au Chocolat et aux Framboises (580 yen). Besides the solid chocolate and fresh raspberries, the tart shell was chocolate and the filling was raspberry ganache. It was definitely good, but not exciting. The shell was about the same thickness as the filling, which was not very strongly flavored with raspberry. Still an excellent shop, but I won't need to another cake from there for a while, with works out well with the depth of lineup. Maybe they'll have something new by the time I visit again, which probably isn't that long away long (months, not years).

For energy, I stopped on the way back at Dalloyau at Meguro Station (which does not currently have a café) and got Pain au Pistache et au Chocolat (or so I imagine it was named, but don't really recall; 281 yen), which was excellent, for having a strong pistachio taste, which it manages by having only a little chocolate, so I wouldn't mind if they upped the chocolate a little more. A superb place for pastries.

[Saturday] Lily Cakes: Maori

Again, I started by going to Fraoula and was not surprised that they did not have my cake. Then I went to Lily Cakes, over southeast from Shinagawa Station, not keeping to my planned route very well around the Ebisu Station area down to near Meguro Station.

I ate in having the Maori, which is pistachio cream layered with cherry. This was the "chef's recommendation". It was good, I suppose, but it still did not convince me that I want cherries with my cake. The quality seemed good, though, so I won't want to discourage anyone from trying there, but I don't need to return.

My route home was similarly not very direct, though easy to follow. This time I did find the tunnel north of Shinagawa Station and guess that I really don't need to use that, since the 1.5 m clearance is pretty inconvenient for running. Total, I took 23 km, which even at a slow 9 km/h average, put be slightly over my running budget, I decided I should rest for Sunday.

In the evening, I tried Morozoff's standard Danish Cream Cheese cake, the 1000 yen size. It's good, but not special.

Dalloyau: Chou d'Amour Chocolat Tannea 72

Decided to combine a run to Dalloyau with researching Plaisir. Plaisir was where it was supposed to be (according to the paper posted on their home shop door), Meguro Station Atre and they had cake, so I'll head down there again to visit them before they shift operations again. Running was a little over 14 km, averaging a little above 10 km/h.

Maybe because it was Friday night or maybe because this was not the main shop, they didn't have any actual cakes I hadn't had, but I was resigned to trying one of their chou a la creme. Putting off trying a chou cubique, I got the Chou d'Amour Chocolat Tannea 72 (540 yen), where the name refers to the chocolate used in the cream. For chou creme, it was good. Compared to just cake even, and it was fairly cake-like, to the point that I used a fork and knife to get started, it was definitely good. Still not something I need to repeat, but not disappointing. I'll go to the main store in a week or so, though I have a good list of other places to go.

Les Cacaos: Cuba

Went back to Les Cacaos for a second cake, but on the way I stopped by Lily Cakes to verify their location (which I had conflicting information on) and that they were worth visiting, which they seem to be, though I didn't quite get the route right, so I need to make an earlier left turn or end up needing to plow through the crowd around Shinagawa Station (versus taking the tunnel north of the station to cross the tracks).

The cake that I chose this time was Cuba, which is a chocolate (what else) mousse dome flavored with orange. The orange is more subtle than I expected, or at least less acidic, which is probably good thing, and the chocolate had an usual usual but somehow nostalgic  flavor. I have to wonder whether it tastes like American chocolate, even though USA ('Hersey process') chocolate is famous for tasting like crap. It had a sort of syrup-like taste, though I was not other conscious that it was overly sweet, so I'm not sure what that means. In any case, it was clearly definitely excellent, and since the taste was unusual and I'd like to have it again, that qualifies it as great. So this place is quite excellent so far, but I'm not sure that they have more than one actual cake left for me to try (a tart, actually), their other similar items that I can recall being a cream puff (which I consider no more cake than ice cream in a cone is cake) and a verrine, which I've disparaged in the past but am willing to give a new look.

Les Cacaos: Madagascar

As my Saturday run, I tried a new place down in Higashigotanda, Shinagawa-ku (since Toni Coni is closed and F.O.B.S. is now open later on weekdays). It would be 8 km if I could follow a route, but ended up 10 km each way, for different reasons, at the fairly standard speeds of 11 km/h out and 10 km/h coming back.

The place, Les Cacaos, is actually a chocolate shop mostly, but they have a few cakes and related items. I took my chances with their chocolate mousse cake, which is a type I have a love-hate relationship with (they attract me, but often disappoint). In this case, it was the Madagascar (550 yen), which has red fruit gelatin inside, but nice gelatin/fruit and not a lot. The chocolate flavor was quite good and went with the fruit, so as far as chocolate mousse cakes go, this seemed excellent, especially giving the benefit of the doubt to the first cake, so I should go back next week and try the chocolate tart, for example. I should be able to get the distance down below 9 km each way, now that I'm more familiar with the area (if I'm patient enough to wait at the pedestrian signals).