Cake-off: Paris S'éveille's Théatre over Au Bon Vieux Temps's Marjolaine

Saturday morning was rain, so I went for a walk to Jiyuugaoka for cake-off cake. I used a compact umbrella, but it didn't stop before I got cake, so I kept using it. At Paris S'éveille, I got their Théatre. Didn't look like they were open for eat-in under current conditions, but that was okay. No wait (unlike when I looked in there Sunday afternoon). From there, it's not such a long walk to Au Bon Vieux Temps, where I got their Marjolaine, a classic. These are both three time winners in a fourth-round cake off, though three wins isn't really so much, so it might be more chance than anything, though they've definitely proved themselves as great. It was hard to decide between these until the last couple bites, and then it was definitely the multiple textures and chocolates of Théatre: it was melty from the beginning, but actually that turned out to not be bad. Seems like you want to eat this on the edge of collapsing. No big shop that PS is dominates, as this is the second of only three 4-time winners so far and they have the most three-to-one cakes as well, though I'm not sure how many of those are in the line-up right now.

Cake-off: Paris S'éveille's Théatre over Pierre Hermé's Carrément Chocolat

Did a slow run to Jiyugaoka, not wanting to strain anything before tomorrow's endurance run. Still, I took the time to swing by Bubó Barcelona and verify that they really have only the one type of pastry now, and down a proposed Shibuya--Minami-Aoyama link and the terminal loop, which seem fine, though I won't use them tomorrow. It's a sign of how slow I was going that it took over 1 hour running time to reach this park just under two stations away.

The purpose was to get cake for the first 2nd-round cake-off from the 1st-round winners group, Paris S'éveille's Théatre and Pierre Hermé's Carrément Chocolat. Those are both mainly straight chocolate cakes. Both have good quality chocolate and both have an upper milk chocolate mousse layer, I think, so it was difficult to choose between them. Paris S'éveille's has a denser cream/mousse bottom, so it needs a chocolate shell around it, whereas Pierre Hermé's has a chocolate biscuit/cake and chocolate icing/glaze holding it together. Paris S'éveille's also has a little crunch in it and a little praline or something on top. That accent and the closer balance between the layers worked maybe better for me, so I'm giving this match to Paris S'éveille, which reveals the same bias for cream and mousse over biscuit that I revealed in last weeks' match-up. My next cake-off or two will also be basically straight chocolate (either 1st-round of a recent pair or my top-priority 2nd-round cake that I failed on initially, both of which involve a Jean-Paul Hévin cake as the second cake, which is not too surprising, given the number of great chocolate cakes from them).

Cake-off: Théatre over Quartette

 Today was a winding, not particularly in control run (in terms of route) from shop to shop, though relatively short for a weekend run.

First I went to Fraoula, where they still did not have the cake I wanted.

Then I stopped by La Base Secrète du GAMIN, to see whether they had actual had cake, which they did have, a little of, so I guess I'll try them as a weekday run some time, if I can find a route I can keep track of (which today's wasn't). I was about 1 hour in, so I tried their Pain au Chocolat (350 yen), which was mille-feuille-type, though still fairly soft in the middle, which I think means less butter and more flour, though I've yet to make this kind of pastry. It was excellent.

Then I managed to get to Rue de Passy without overshooting too much and verified that they had the cake that I would have paired against Fraoula's, so now I know.

Then I went to Origines Cacao, where they still didn't have the first great cake I was looking for of theirs, but I forgot about the second one I was looking for. Still no customers there, but they were announcing reopening in Ginza, in Ginza Six, so I hope that works out.

I then verified that Paris S'éveille had the cake I needed before proceeding to Au Bon Vieux Temps to get Quartette, which required standing in an actual line for the first time there (more than a dozen deep, when I left, but about half that when I arrived, but slow). Mostly, people were buying little baked cakes and cookies of the gift type, which involves conversations about how many of different things they need, in how many boxes or bags, and how long they are fresh for. So it took a while.

Back at Paris S'éveille, the line for cake was not so long, but there was a long line at the register and they to had relatively more people buying gift-type package items (in the area were they usually have little baked cakes, they had packaged macaron sets). There are three possibilities: noon to 1 pm is a terrible time to go, so everywhere that isn't a creepy second-floor shop on the farthest edge of the shopping street is super busy (probably always true); White Day is coming up on Tuesday, so people are buying things, although it wasn't just men buying and they were not buying white chocolate; today is the 6-year anniversary of the Tohoku earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear reactor disaster, and people are sending gifts to friends and family in that region (I've never heard of such a custom, but that is the topic of the day, and if people were visiting people in a consolatory visit, these would be the kind of gifts that they would need).

Took the train back, because my experience with Quartette (as well as some other Au Bon Vieux Temps cakes) is that it's melty. So today it was about 17.5 km at an average speed of 9 km/h. I'll probably run a little farther Sunday, but not that much, so I'll have a good deal of running budget for Monday thru Friday.

The cake-off this time was easy to decide: Theatre is great but I couldn't see what was special about Quartette, though it was still good. They are both chocolate, although more so Theatre, which also has some crunch, whereas Quartette includes some white chocolate, but is just creamy (supposedly it's mousse, but it's not fluffy). In the past, the richness of Quartette impressed me, but I wasn't feeling it today.

Cycling: Fraoula, Paris S'éveille, and Bigarreaux

Since I ran long yesterday, just leisurely cycling (and it would be more leisurely if I had a bicycle better geared for slopes).

I started with Bigarreaux, since they open at 9 am, and got the Mille Feuille (for 500 yen). It's a standard cake, so I'm not sure how to tell whether it is great, but I like it and had no complaints. They use 100% Viron Co. flour and fermented butter for the crust. The display-case picture looks better than the other one I took outside, so I'll use it. I'm running out of things to get from there.

Next was Paris S'eveille (where there is a sign telling you no photographs of the display case), where I am definitely not running out things, certainly not things to blog about. This Theatre is two kinds of mousse inside: milk chocolate and bitter chocolate. This was great, although I'm not that into milk chocolate. The balance seemed okay, but heavy on the milk. It would probably be better in colder weather. This is not a cheap place: it was something like 620, or maybe 670 with tax. They have people lining up, so they can charge high, although their location is no doubt more expensive than the other two today and most places outside of those in central Tokyo.
Finally, I stopped by Fraoula. This is called Paradis and has a completely unhelpful description on their card. Obviously there is chocolate on top and some browned orange with that. I'll guess Bavarian creme and chocolate mousse of some type for the main layers. I also got the Bostock and confirmed that it was better than Aux Bacchanales'. The moistness is better distributed, I think, rather than having gooey parts and drier parts.