A la Bonne Heure, Strawberry Shortcake

Maybe due to little running, I haven't been as motivated to keep up, but I'll do one now. On Saturday, after a wasted morning, I went to Midtown to see what they might have for me. Still the same couple cakes from Ryoura, no surprise, but I'm now ready to work through the huge list of fine shops needing a second cake and it's convenient to get an A la Bonne Heure from there, even if the selection was only from two. I went with the Strawberry Shortcake, which I'm appreciating more these days. As it happens, I appreciated this one too: cream, strawberries, and some sponge to balance it and make it cake. Sometimes simple is best, and this seemed excellent, so I guess this shop will make the cut, which is only going to leave a minority but is going to take a long time to get around to. 

Sadaharu Aoki, Cheese Cake Fruits Rouge

Tuesday last week, I optimistically went down to Tokyo Midtown to see whether they would have a Ryoura cake on a Tuesday, which is actually crazy because the shop is closed Tuesdays and Wednesdays (they didn't have any cakes a holiday Thursday morning either, so I won't try that day again). If I had researched and thought ahead, I could have saved myself a trip (which I did using 1-min intervals of walking and running, which is all I'm managing these days, but I'm working on it) and gone to Isetan, since the other purpose was to check whether Sadaharu Aoki had a particular cake that I want for a cake-off versus a seasonal JPH cake. They didn't but instead had the rare new cake, as shown. It's Cheese Cake Fruits Rouge, versus their standard citrus one. It's not a flavor I associate with cheesecake or one I seek and is mild as accents go, but actually turned out to work, so I wasn't disappointed at all. And it was the usual SA quality, so I'm fine saying it was excellent. I'm assuming that the red fruits are raspberry and cassis, as that's what was in the Noel Cheese Cake (as an online item last year). 

Now if I can just get Millefeuille Mâcha, which is still on their site as at Marunouchi, but last time I checked it was suspended due to pandemic state of emergency, maybe.

Toshi Yoroizuka, Tarte Myrtille

Back on August 25th, so still no memory of the running, but I was certainly on foot, and it was Toshi Yoruizuka's turn for a new cake. It's blueberry season and I went with Tarte Myrtille. It was definitely good, but not act the same level as FC's, though that was special domestic berries, versus berries from where I'm not sure.

Toshi Yoroizuka: Mémorial

Sunday night, I ran first to Ginza, where FC was sold out of what I wanted, not sure whether I checked in at Pierre G, but they would have been closed by the time I could have gotten there under current hours, but went to Tokyo Midtown, which also was closing early, but has later base hours, so I could get a 21st cake from this quite exceptional shop. I went with Mémorial, which was memorializing probably 10 years at Tokyo Midtown. It's chocolate, yuzu, and nuts, or at least that's what I can remember, and what was obvious. It was good, but the flavor combination wasn't really working for me as anything special.

Toshi Yoroizuka, Récolte

Wednesday, I went by bicycle again to Tokyo Midtown to run the Akasaka loop (even yesterday's two days in a row was more than recent running, so it seemed reasonable to speed up the first part), but also to get a cake from Toshi Yoroizuka because of the previous cake-off win. I choose the Récolte (I'm guessing), which is earl grey tea and orange. It's good quality, but too subtle for me, perhaps, so just good. I ate at one of the tables outside, so that lighting wasn't great.

I had a good run, but I noticed at the appropriate point that my map had a major flaw in that I no longer went by one of the parks, though I was very conscious of where it was (the street in front of it is blocked off at the cross-street that the new course follows). I did a on-the-fly swing past the park, which had me coming down the stairs of another park, so I was able to successfully complete the counterclockwise route, but it meant that I still need to do the clockwise route.

Thursday, I was back doing the same thing, only clockwise with the corrected route, so four days in a row of running at least 7 km. I seem to be okay from it, but still need lots of stretching for my plantar fasciitis. I was successful, so I'll finally be able to move on to a different loop, but I got comfortable with rather than tired of the Akasaka loop. On the way, I tried something from Honolulu Coffee, thinking that I would add this to the course. Strictly speaking, I got a café item, since they had to make it for me, but since it's actually a type of age-pan, which I've already allowed elsewhere, I can't complain. This Hawaiian treat is a cinnamon Malasada, so similar to a yeast cinnamon donut, without the hole.

I had originally planned to a fourth cake for the week, but say that Pierre Hermé's now was featuring Fetish Infiniment Citron, which includes two cakes that I rated as great but never followed up with a cake-off, so potentially I could need to run extra cake-offs with a month's time to catch up, though there's a pretty good chance that at least one won't make the cut, since I became more selective over time. Since I don't do cake-offs with two cakes from the same shop, though, I've going to have to hunt to get another new cake, so this weekend I plan to review all the shops that also haven't had great cakes that I later couldn't find, probably a hopeless search. Otherwise, I'll just have to focus on my top shops as much as possible and hope that I get lucky.

Toshi Yoroizuka, Rouler

Resting up somewhat, I just ran to Tokyo Midtown and back Thursday. I noticed that D&D has cake from a shop I haven't sample yet (couldn't remember the shop name correctly later when I tried to look it up), but it has to get in line after other local shops that I haven't sample yet (Lotus, you are my #1 back-up, since you're open the latest as well as being on the closest loop that I haven't finished sampling from). Today's goal was to get a new cake from the shop providing the last cake-off winner, Toshi Yoroizuka. Not a great selection at night, of course. There were a couple cheesecakes that I haven't had, but I just had cheesecake on Monday and I think my previous new cake from Toshi Yoroizuka was a cheesecake (they still had it, as well as a variation with a little whipped cream and a strawberry). So, for the first time, I got roll cake from them. I'm going to call it Rouler, but between the ambiguity of Japanese pronunciation and French spelling, I'm not sure. Maybe Roule. Anyway, it's strawberry roll cake. This was much better than I expected from the type, though not from Toshi Yoroizuka. The cake was not too dry, having absorbed a good amount for strawberry juice, I think, but not mushy, the strawberries were good, and the amount of whipped cream was restrained even that it was not dominant and I could enjoy the other parts. It was sort of like eating café strawberry and whipped cream pan cakes. Still not my thing, but definitely good, to the point that I'm tempted to call it semi-excellent, but I'll still to the base rating system.

I'm not disappointed, though I still keep hoping for another great cake. I might need to do a run to FC, even if it isn't a priority. Friday, I rest (or rather, buy a new pair of running socks, since they don't last very long).

Toshi Yoroizuka: Tarte Tatan

Was somewhat busy (or my computer was) until now, so it might take some days to catch up, though I was busy for running and cake as well, so there is less to it than might otherwise be the case. I'll try to reconstruct my movements and cake from the photographic evidence, but there are gaps. Actually, I had a headache today and took a break from running, but there was still cake, which I'll eventually get to.

On last Friday (Dec. 27), I took a shortish run to Tokyo Midtown, where I could get Tarte Tatan from Toshi Yoroizuka, in response to their recent cake-off win. This has been in their line-up for a while, so I was happy to get a chance to sample it. It's very nice. I'm not big on fruit in my cake, and apple is not a common choice, but the mildness of the fruit did not overpower the tart aspect, and the texture is a nice variation. This was excellent.

Toshi Yoroizuka: Käse

Wednesday, I did a fairly short run down to Toshi Yoroizuka at Tokyo Midtown, since I owed them two new cakes for two cake-off wins. The Käse was recommended and the other two options did not stand out, so I got it. It was advertised as a cheese soufflé with a deep flavor, but it was about as boring as I would expect cheese soufflé to be. It might have been deep as soufflé go; it's really hard to for me to tell. But there was nothing wrong with it, so I'll rate it good. Certainly I can imagine times when this was just what was called for.

Cake-off: Sadaharu Aoki's Moelleux Chocolat over Toshi Yoroizuka's Monsieur Kitano

Saturday, ran to Tokyo Midtown to get a Moelleux for a second-round cake-off, and was surprised to see Monsieur Kitano (the cake) at Toshi Yoroizuka there. It's not convenient to take a train home from there, so I ran. I stopped at SweetsHolic, along the Minami-Aoyama south loop of my neighborhood course for the first time and got a Chocolate Chip Cookie. I put away the cake and ate lunch and cookie first. It was hard, as I was warned, but that was find with me, and a great improvement on the near-raw one I had recently in Harujuku.

Then I went out by bicycle to finish up photographing sites along the main Hiroo loop of my course, which actually didn't take long, relative to other projects. Then I went down to Jiyuugaoka to check what the line-up was at Dalloyau, but nothing I'm looking for. I would have checked out Paris S., but it was late on a Saturday and there was a huge line, so my expectation of useful information, as well as my patience, was insufficient for the wait and I went home, stopping at Bien E. to verify that they had nothing new this weekend.

The cake-off of chocolate versus chocolate went find. This time they gave me an explanation sheet, and I had already planned to microwave the Moelleux, so I was really comparing a different cake. It could have been warmer, but I'm not sure that I don't prefer it cold. I like moelleux but not so interested in fondant, maybe. However, though was still interesting, so excellent seems reasonable, I wasn't feeling the greatness from Monsieur Kitano, so it's getting retired from the list. The Moelleux will have to remain undefeated for now, unless they manage to hold it over until Friday, which is longer than the announced plan (but they aren't ones for wasting cake, so they will probably keep it going until they're all gone, so I'll try to check in before I get something else).

Sadaharu Aoki: Mille-Feuille Azuki

Thursday, I tried again going to Sadaharu Aoki, and this time I was successful at the first shop, Tokyo Midtown, and got the Mille-Feuille Azuki. I'm not that fond of azuki beans and was avoiding this, but it's the only new fresh cake there right now and I figured that I could trust them. I was right to, as there was none of the usual azuki bitterness or aftertaste, though it's hard to say how much of the real flavor was left behind the sugar. As assume so, since there was a flavor there, but anyway it was excellent, so I'm happy, and I had a short run, which met with my plan to have a long run on Friday.

Sadaharu Aoki: Moelleux Chocolat

Tuesday, I thought I would get a Moelleux Chocolat from Sadaharu Aoki and maybe workout inside, out of the rain, but they were sold out. Also, the rain mostly stopped, so not a big deal to run. After some other quick shopping, I went home, changed clothes, and (after stretching of course) went running to the Marunouchi Sadaharu Aoki looking for the same thing, though I was reluctantly willing to settle for the mille-feuille azuki, or whatever it's called, which sounds terrible, but is probably at least good if they make it. However, both were sold out, so I ran to Tokyo Midtown, which is open until 9 pm and it had (only) the Moelleux Chocolat. I walked it home.

Moelleux Chocolat (Sadaharu Aoki)

Even though the online advertising mentions microwaving it and shows the inside melted, they didn't make any recommendation at the shop, so I just ate it cold from the refrigerator. It was still soft (moelleux), just not fondant-like. It was not dramatic, but it really seemed like a perfect chocolate cake, great cake. There is a visible core that obviously would melt first if warmed up, so I'm curious how they make it. In fact, I'm curious enough to look for it in a Sadaharu Aoki cookbook, if I can find one.

Ryoura: Soyeux

As planned, I got a fifth Ryoura cake via Dean & Deluca at Tokyo Midtown. Of course, there was not much selection and I'm not sure home much it varies from week to week. Basically, they had three desserts from this shop, one cake that I've had before, one in a glass, and the one I got, Soyeux. On the one hand, it was pistachio. On the other hand, after pistachio mousseline (though fairly solid), it listed cherry gelatin, two things I don't want in my cake. But further on, actually there is some chocolate inside which smooths out the cherry and harmonizes with the pistachio. Also, the bottom is meringue, but a very powdery almond meringue that crumbles fairly easily; I haven't seen this kind of meringue before. Mostly reflecting my appreciation for good pistachio (though I've had plenty of bad pistachio cakes, especially with cherries), this was great.

I've been avoiding promoting shops recently, but two great cakes out of five puts this one at the top of the next higher category by one measure (but I apply a two-measure system, so not necessarily the actual top), so I'm designating it Quite Excellent. There was an opening even without demoting any suspended shops in that category, so no general shake up. That's a second great cake this week and the second shop (beside Yanagi) to get promoted. I've had good luck recently.

Matsunosuke N.Y.: Cheesecake

Tuesday, jogged down to Midtown, since it was close and got the Matsunosuke N.Y. Cheesecake via the basement Galleria (?) Dean & Deluca (there's another one around the side, though still in the basement). Actually, I was looking for Ryoura, but I had never asked their schedule for them (I was just told that it was Friday and Sunday). I should have let this cheesecake warm up more, maybe into to room temperature, as it was just a cold slab of cheesecake, nothing special. Nothing bad either, it was good enough but disappointing and that's the closest they have to fresh cake, I think (apple pie is their other main thing, though they may have some sort of carrot cake or something like that).

The Ritz-Carlton Café and Deli: Mont-blanc

Overdid it today, to the extent that I got tired of being out doing running-related stuff, not so much that I ran too far. Even before breakfast, did a run for food supplies. After breakfast, the drugstore opened, so I ran there, and then finished off with a trip to the main grocery store for different food supplies. It was about 11:00 before I actually went out for the planned run. That was mostly confirming locations on the neighborhood map and taking photos, so I should have limited it since that gets boring after awhile. I'm working on Roppongi, which is not turning out to be my favorite place, though its okay and its not a deadend; I'm more interesting in expanding southwest in Shibuya.

I decided that I had enough around 13:00 and headed home by way of Tokyo Midtown, where I finally made a follow-up trip to The Ritz-Carlton Café and Deli. It's fairly big (and on a holiday, fully booked for inside seats, not that I wanted to eat in) but has a limited and fairly conservative variety. The Mont-Blanc seemed to be the top fresh cake (their chocolate cake is on a different shelf of the display and looks like it could make it through the day okay, but it's their premium item and they sell as both 1000 yen small cuts and whole cakes, as well as with special café sets which special high-end coffee or wine). The mont-blanc was definitely good, being standard and yet not too thick for my tastes.

They also have breads, also conservative Japanese (such as curry bread), with only one or maybe two (non-savory) pastries, so maybe I don't need to be in a hurry for trying that versus getting back to Christa for a second pastry.

The Ritz-Carlton Café and Deli: Earl Grey Bergamot

Sunday, without running, I went to the The Ritz-Carlton Café and Deli and, after some wait (because we didn't want to eat outside), I got the cake set with the Earl Grey Bergamot (this was the English name on the card, but the Japanese name was completely different). Anyway, it is a chocolate mousse ovoid disk flavored orange (I'm assuming the tea as well). The base was chocolate and crunchy, which helped it. It was at least definitely good and I've giving it the first cake benefit of the doubt and calling it excellent, so I'll be back there before too long. They also have a selection of pastries. The other available cake with the cake set was the strawberry short cake, which I only had one bite of. It seemed good, but I'd like to have more to form a full opinion.

Monday, much of Tokyo closed down due to a few inches of snow. It was still reasonably nice for a run, so I went to Bubó Barcelona and got Gianduja Raviolo, which is a croissant-type pastry encasing some, but not a lot of gianduja (hazelnut and chocolate). It was a nice change of pastry from must a simple croissant, so I can call it excellent. They did not actually have anything else, so I'm not sure what's going on with their pastry selection. Even if I don't get a pastry, I'm going to have to stop in their next time I go by. However, the nearby pedestrian bridge was taped off, which means that right now that neighborhood, which I haven't quite got memorized, but close, is cut off, so I don't have 60 km of continuous neighborhood course prepared any more. I thought it might have just been for the weather, but later pedestrian bridges on other paths were not closed.

Toshi Yoroizuka: Jungfrau

Yesterday, I did reconnaissance for cakes I had planned doing a cake-off with today, as well as other visits which did not give any new information. Along the way, in a park, I ate a Croissant from Bigarreaux that was fluffy but with a sugar coating on the outside, I think. This was done by bicycle over about 3 hours. In the afternoon, I did an hour or so of neighborhood running, but it's a little hazy now, but the photo evidence is that I was working on the east part.

Today, I started in the opposite direction but realized before crossing Meiji Doori that I didn't have enough cash with me for a cake-off. That made me reevaluate what my priority should be and instead I explored a proposed western Harajuku route first before swinging back to the extreme southeast neighborhoods (running the opposite direction as yesterday) and finding that I really don't know that route well yet, so I'll have to work on it more this week (at least one day will be Isetan, so that shouldn't be a problem, except that it is a little far even going the most direct route). I ended at Midtown, after about 90 minutes of running, and mostly walked back with a Jungfrau, which seems to be a Swiss version of a Mont-Blanc, though I don't know what's in it besides the usual whipped cream under chestnut paste and chestnuts. Inside the cream were pieces of actual cake sponge, which I think were the source of a ginger flavor. The base was a very interesting meringue cookie, very thick (around 1 cm at most), which was baked to a quite dark outside but white on the inside. It was definitely good but not really good enough to keep Toshi Yoroizuka in the top 7. Before I officially demote them, though, I'll see whether either of the top contenders, Bien-être or Éclat des Jours, can do as well with the same number of cakes.

Toshi Yoroizuka: Monsieur Kitano

After a couple-day cake-fast, I ran to Midtown Toshi Yoroizuka and they had a pretty good selection, including maybe three new cakes that I wouldn't mind trying. One was a chocolate mousse dome, Monsieur Kitano, which I took as a challenge, because these always look delicious but rarely are. This one was. Although it reflects a certain chocolate bias, a strong desire to recognize new great cakes after a poor showing last month, and appreciation of success where others have failed, this cake deserves to be eaten again, and that's what I call great. Note, I ate it coming straight from the cool box, or whatever that special programmable drawer next to the ice drawn was set on, and the ice pack from the shop was still in the box with the cake and frozen. The cream filling part was seasoned with Hanasanshou (Japanese pepper flower). There was also pink pepper involved in this cake, although the pepper was too subtle for me (I shouldn't have used hot pepper in my dinner right before). Rather than a weird biscuit or nut cluster in the middle (though there was a little nuts in the cake), there was a solid disk of chocolate to support the mousse and cream, and you can see there's a hard cookie-biscuit-type base, all good, so I approve the construction. 

Running was just a little over 6 km at just under 9 km/h, which is pretty good, given that I'm sore from yesterday and the sidewalk is narrow and a little crowded leading up to Midtown.

Toshi Yoroizuka: MT Chocolat

I felt better today and tried running, though maybe not a great idea. We'll see if I'm still okay tomorrow. Didn't even bother timing myself (though regretted not remembering my watch for the blinking safety light). Sort of wander there, after passing through Gaien, which was lit up for a festival celebrating the trees.

At midtown, I got MT Chocolat, which I had avoided until now, though I hadn't remembered why. The answer is bananas, ack. I should have gotten the chestnut shortcake, even though I don't much appreciate shortcake-style Japanese cakes. Anyway, it was not bad but bananas are usually a bad idea, raw bananas more so, and I'm not sure I've ever had any good cake with banana and chocolate, which this one did not break. There was not that much banana in it, just a thin layer, but was enough to leave a banana after taste. The probably is not that I hate bananas, just I associate them with breakfast and yogurt, so they are spoiled (so to speak) for all other usages.

Toshi Yoroizuka: Choux Paysanne

The rain continues and will get worse through Tuesday as a super-large typhoon sweeps through. Despite that, I went out Thursday night, late, and did a quick tour of the very small neighborhood course, which I'll probably revise (so the link will disappear, but I'll update with a more stable link to a total neighbor map that includes it). I shaved a couple minutes off my time but still came just a fraction under 9.500 km/h for the 3.93 km. No cake or even cake substitute, like a pastry or bread.

Friday, I went to Tokyo Midtown, where the choices were few again. One thing that I've been seeing for a long time was Choux Paysanne, which has praliné cream, which I like, so rather than get one of the chestnut or pumpkin cakes that I haven't had, I got it. I like the cream, but it needs something more substantial in terms of texture and taste. Instead it comes with choux pastry, which is just a light shell without providing much taste, and custard, which needs at least something substantial in terms of texture but does not really go with any other taste as far as I can tell. This is all more criticism of my choosing skills rather than the actual cake, since these probably meets my needs and was good even to me, just I should have taken a chance on chestnut shortcake instead.

[Su] Toshi Yoroizuka: Cassis

Not sure of my distance for Sunday, but I went to Midtown by a not totally direct route, as I checked out some neighborhood sites, but also I think I was running pretty slow, so maybe around 8 km in an hour.

Haven't decided that Toshi Yoroizuka is the best candidate to be promoted from Quite Excellent to Superb, I'll looking to double my number of cakes from there, which is going to be hard, at least if I keep going near closing time. But I neglected them from a long time so even late on Sunday I could get something new to me, Cassis. Actually, the fig dominate this, not the cassis (black currant), and it has a fairly heavy biscuit (?), though I won't be able to say what it is until I get back there ask or check the card. It wasn't flashy or intense but it was good and interesting enough that I'll give it a tentative great rating and see whether that holds up (or how long Yoroizuka maintains interesting in making this). Still should go back there during the day and look for great one's I'm missing.

Okay, I did not upload that picture in a smart way, but now I've given Google permission to upload my photos, since it's getting everything eventually anyway. From now on, no more swapping SD cars, which is a huge improvement. Going to calculate Monday's route now, before I forget, but the next step is to get my phone to record it automatically.