Le Jardin Bleu, Tarte Chocolat Macadamia

Last Wednesday, for a third day in a row, I could get to a (now opening later) department store to get a cake from the current quite fine shop group. In this case, I wanted to get one of Le Jardin Bleu's cakes via Shinjuku Takashimaya, since the main shop is a long way away. Maybe because it is so far away (or because it was the end of the day, leaving only the least popular), I had only one choice, a fairly solid item that I imagine could be made far ahead. This is Tarte Chocolat Macadamia. The chocolate coating is fairly thick. The inside also has caramel, besides the macadamia nuts. So this is more like a candy bar than any typical cake, which is not a complaint. It was good, but that's probably not going to be enough to keep it in the quite fine group. 

Noliette, Noisettine

Due to a lingering health problem, I decided to get my cake more locally than I would have and a little out of order by going down to Shinjuku Takashimaya and visiting the Noliette counter (versus Patissieria, which also had 3 of their their cakes, but different ones). This brand is big on traditional forms and I chose Noisettine, which is hazelnut biscuit, hazelnut butter cream, and hazelnut praliné. I like nuts and this kind of tradition cake, so its not shock that I thought this was excellent, which keeps them in the quite fine category for now.

La Bicerin: Muscat Grape Cake

Monday, I went to Jean-Paul Hévin to get something small and non-cake to tide me over for a day and I choose Sablé Viennois Nougatine Pistache. I also saw that they had three new (at least to my posts) cakes and one new version of an old cake, so I really didn't need to supplement selections from JPH with the sablé, but I did anyway, because I hate to change plans and Sadaharu Aoki is still my priority for my next new cake. After my last big neighborhood run, I updated my map to include more non-cake/pastry places, including chocolate shops, which includes For running, I had decided that I should include Mon Loire, in Minami-Aoyama 6-choume, which required new loop, which I'm calling the Minami-Aoyama south loop and is also an 11th-level loops (counting from southwest of Yotsu 3-choume Station). However, if I apply the run of including things that are across the street from the course, then I should widen the Minami-Aoyama--Nishi-Azabu Loop in include the Yokumoku, which I did and used in this run successfully. The loop is tiny, but the link too it is relative long. Still, to do a one-way neighborhood that does the loop takes a few minutes short of an hour, though then I had to get home. On the way, I noticed that past Yokumoku is also an Inari Shrine that I should include, so I widened the map further, and then I refound in Google Qu'il Fait Bon, a sort of tart shop, so I added that, which expanded the course a little further. Later, the Sablé Viennois Nougatine Pistache seemed, although just one disappears pretty quickly, so its hard to judge.

Tuesday I was busy and then Wednesday morning being busy including going to La Bicerin for lunch at Shinjuku Takashimaya. This a fancy Italian caffè. Sorry, I didn't choose the cake or remember to get the proper name afterward (it wasn't one of the ones on the menu), so let's call it Muscat Grape Cake, though it's more a tart. It was definitely good with very high quality fruit. The half of the lunch set (or whatever they all it) that I had was also good chocolate cake and chocolate raspberry tart.

In the evening, I did the Tokyo Station rounds for the beginning of the month and discovered nothing new at JPH (either Marunouchi or Ginza Mitsukoshi), Viron, F. Cassel, 14 Julliet, or Dalloyau (I had other business and was running late, so I didn't have time to swing by Sadaharu Aoki, though I know they have one or two exclusives there that I want). However, JPH Marunouchi convinced me (the barrista gave me a pitch, recognizing me) that I should try their exclusive crêpe creation before it ends this month, so I plan to. Also, like other JPH stores, I can get the revamped Chocolat Framboise there, which started this month. Not sure how long the running was, but it's over 10 km generally and I had a lot of additional walking.

Königs-Krone: Kobe Bear Pochi Éclair Chocolate & Kobe Bear Pochi Éclair Custard

No running, just stopped by Shinjuku Takashimaya for the last unsampled counter there, Königs-Krone. They don't generally have fresh cake (though they have cakes), but they do have their Kobe Bear Pochi (little?) Éclair, of which I got the chocolate and custard (you can get a five-flavor set, but that was more than I needed). These are are a little crude as éclair, but close enough, and they are good. 

Wittamer: Chocolat Noisette

Had some business around Shinjuku Stn. (besides confirming the cake names for Bigarreaux from Sunday night), so I got cake from another "neighborhood" cake shop that I haven't posted from before, Wittamer at Shinjuku Takashimaya. Of course, Wittamer is a pretty standard department store brand, but they have a reasonable line up. I went with the Chocolat Noisette (chocolate and hazelnut), which seemed safe. The cake is good and definitely as avertized as far as flavor. The cross-section is pretty ugly, though, and I'm not that thrilled by the texture, as it was softer cake than I like (I like mousse or a drier biscuit, whereas this was mostly sponge cake, maybe). Still, not a bad choice if you're at Takashimaya.

I ran with the goal of Lawson 100, following neighborhood routes around south Yotsuya. Total, it was 27 minutes, though I wannted 30 minutes. Still, it was fine and I can increase the length tomorrow and run in the opposite direction, at least on the southwest Yotsuya part, and meet up where I finished today. As my running increases, I can get back to more distant neighborhood courses. Also, I still need to update the one today by Akasaka Palace, where they finished the construction around the park (now, there's construction around the north just north of Akasaka Palace, but that doesn't block my route).

Tadashi Yanagi, La Deux Chocolat

Monday, they told me my arm was not broken (no surprise) and otherwise just gave me drugs and told me to come back to reception if I want more. Actually, I have the same leftover drugs from previous visits for other ailments. Doctors, often not very helpful, and/or sprains, not getting the respect that they should, or so I've heard, so I'm going to try to be careful even once the pain subsides.

In the evening, I went back to Tadashi Yanagi for a third cake, La Deux Chcolat (I'm interpreting). This is a brownie under chocolate mousse with orange (I think; they have dozen of cakes on their website, but not this one). I was not optimistic really. It has structural advantages, but a hard brownie (best as a cake base) is not really a good brownie, so I've yet to have this type of cake work out. It was still good, but that's all. With two excellent cakes and one good, Tadashi Yanagi seems to be quite good, and so three cakes is enough for at least a year.

Tadashi Yanagi: Douceur d'Été

Decided to try for Tadashi Yanagi agian by going on the correct day to Shinjuku Takashimaya. This is a second cake, at least in the current reporting, and a new cake, so definitely not one I had pre-blog: Douceur d'Été ("sweet of the summer", I assume) this time, which is a harmony of lemon cream and milky cream (whatever that is; sounds awful but wasn't) several caramelized hazelnuts inside and decaration including chocolate and almond slices. Lemon cream can be very nice, if fairly intense, which this was and the hazelnuts were a nice surprice. So now I have two shops that I've had two excellent cakes from that deserve a try-out for the excellent shop list, which has openings, not even including a couple that probably should be demoted.

Cycling, I visted Bien-être again and found that the pistachio chiboust that I saw just over a week ago and wanted for a cake-off tomorrow has already evolved into another cake. Like last time, the window for this cake was very small. I'm disappointed, but wanted new cakes from them, so I'll get there again soon anyway. Still need to figure out what the cake-off will be instead.

P. Ikeda: Cassiser

Tuesday, I went to Shinjuku Takashimaya looking for something different and got a cake from Patisserie Ikeda via the Patisseieria, which may be their only Tokyo distributor. They count as a neighborhood cake shop, so I felt obligated to try them, though nothing looked very appealing. Maybe I should have gone with cheesecake again, but I choose Cassiser, or at least that is my guess at the spelling, if there is a French spelling. It's cassis mousse and cherry custard cream. Unfortunately, but not surprisingly, it was not any better than it looked. Not that it tasted bad, it was ok, but what seemed like a not very good idea was not improved by the execution, though I'm not an audience for the this cake, so this shop and its cake might be fine for someone else.

Exercise was about an hour of riding over the more extreme parts of yesterday's shadowing of the east Yotsuka neighborhood course, though in the reverse direction (so the worst slope I could do going up), plus one lap around Akasaka Palace Grounds. Then it was push-ups at home.

Wednesday, I cycled again, toward Ginza, stopping by P. Shima to verify that they still had the same pastries that I've tried previously, which they do. At Ginza Mitsukoshi, I tried again and failed to get the basic cream puff from F. Cassel (sold out), and instead got a couple Mini Pain aux Raisins from Dalloyau. Even perhaps a little not fresh at the end of the day, they were excellent.

L'Éclair de Génie: Chocolat Grand Cru, Caramel Salé, and Vanille Pecan

Wanted cake for two on Wednesday, so I went to Shinjuku Takashimaya. On the way, though, I stopped by Toshi Yoroizuka visiting Isetan and saw that Annya (tart-based rhubarb and red fruit cake) was back, which was useful information for the next cake-off (second round, loser's).

For Takashimaya, I didn't check which shops were available at the cafeteria-style patisserie counter, so I wasn't surprised when the ones that I wanted were not there (just need to remember not to go on Wednesday again). I selected instead L'Éclair de Génie from among by backups, and got the Chocolat Grand Cru, Caramel Salé, and Vanille Pecan. These were all good, so I wasn't disappointed, but not exciting, so I probably won't be back again.

Tadashi Yanagi: Praliné Croustillant

Friday, due to not feeling totally well the previous two days (maybe a mild cold), no running again, but I had skipped Thursday and needed to look at computers again (still using a loaner, which is very nice, except being tiny, though that was what made it easily portable so that I could borrow it), so I got cake in the Shinjuku Station areas again, again at Takashimaya; I'm nothing if not a creature of habit. This time, I could and did choose from Tadashi Yanagi a new cake (apparently) called Praliné Croustillant, which, besides the totally obvious, has chocolate. This cake has some of my favorite elements, so it should be no surprise that I like it. That and erring on the positive side, I'll say that it was excellent. This brand might be the best choice at Takashimaya, though as a shop, I recommend Au Bon Vieux Temps, just I'm not sure that their best stuff gets to Takashimaya.

Ecole Criollo: Slim Rarecheese Fraise

Last Wednesday, I went to actually pick up my broken computer and do some shopping. Didn't do any actual running, but I think that was the day I went out by bicycle and stocked up on roasted peanuts for making peanut butter.

As cake, I went down to the Shinjuku (Station) Takashimaya and got cake there from Ecole Criollo, whose shop I could visit on a weekday, if I wanted to run down to Nakameguro. I got Slim Rarecheese Fraise (though the card might have abbreviated this as just Cheesecake Fraise), which is half rare cheesecake and half sponge cake and strawberry gelatin (in the picture, it looks like the cheesecake dominates, but actually they are equal. This was definitely good and had a good balance between cheesecake and strawberry flavor. This shop is associated with low/no sugar cakes and I was previously unimpressed, so I was not in a hurry to revisit them, but this was better than expected.

Peck: Connoli (Chocolate)

Had to go check on my still broken computer on Monday and start shopping for a new one. For my pasty, I got a connoli from Peck, the chocolate one (which includes hazelnut cream). It was definitely good, which is probably why it often sells out so that I wasn't even sure that Peck had anything of the pastry variety (though they have a cinnamon bun).

Puissance: Delice

Monday was a pastry day, so after checking Bubo B. and finding nothing, I went back to Toukyuu Food Show for a third time and finally visited Boulangerie La Terre, which had the best selection of pastries (ignoring Andersen, which I visit at Isetan). I got their Pain au Chocolat, which was excellent, in that it was a proper pain au chocolat and did not disappoint. After my previous two visits to the Food Shop, the bar was pretty low, but I would like to go back to B. La Terre.

For running, I worked on learning my big neighborhood course loop southwest of Shibuya Station. Just there and back is a sufficient run in itself, so I just did three kilometer markers worth and came back.

Tuesday, I went to Takashimaya to hit another new shop from their selections and scope out a café fpr tje weelend. This time, it was Puissance and I got Delice, which is a standard almond buiscuit with layers of flavored cream, in this case strawberry. It's simple and not too exciting but it was good. My main worry with this type of cake would be that it would be too sweet or too strong a strawberry flavor, but no such problems.

The run was continuing where I left off previously (at The Bake, actually). This time I only did 2 kilometer markers. Tomorrow I'll probably practice the last part, although really only half of that will be on the next run, since I want to continue on toward Hiroo, though I won't get to much far this time.

Platino: Opera Griottines

Wanted to get a puff pastry from Sadaharu Aoki, but it was not available, so I went back to Shinjuku Takashimaya and got a cake produced by the shop that I intended last time, Platino (though there were cakes from at least two others that I've not blogged on). I wasn't sure what I've had in the past from them, so I chose the Opera Griottines, which I'm more open to now than a few years ago (the raspberry looked very familiar).

The running was through Yoyogi finding a few kilometer markers that I had set on my neighborhood map so that I can use them in my next long run (actually, my last long run). No trouble spotting memorable landmarks to mark the spots (I could take pictures, but I'm not that interesting in making these permanent, just I'll keep adding ones until I find my maximum for my target long-distance speed). This was my first time to run through Yoyogi Park at night. Actually, the sign outside says that it's not open for use after 5 p.m., but they don't close the gates or turn the lights off on the main road/walk and there were a few people walking through it and the lights were on in the public restroom (and someone was standing in there, maybe just to keep out of the light rain). I hope tomorrow to finish off the far side of that loop by coming from the north and heading south (and ultimately to Jiyuugaoka, same as last week and probably the same as Sunday), taking a few pictures of places I haven't yet around there.

The cake was fine, so I'll call it good, but boring. I realize that I'm interested in a fairly narrow set of cakes, perhaps. This was layers of chocolate ganache, at least one, presumably with griottines (and maybe framboises, since there was a raspberry on top as well as a cherry). The ganache was not memorable and the sponge was soft and spongy (I suppose it had pistachios, since it was green, but the flavors were all rather weak or mostly canceled each other out. Not that I couldn't taste the cherry, just that's not enough for me.