Caffarel: Gianduia

Had reason to be inside JR Station, so I finally got a cake from Caffarel to blog on, their signature Gianduia, which is gianduia brulée cream on top of chocolate cream with a some raspberry filling. It was definitely good, but not especially compelling among the crowded field of chocolate cakes. Strictly speaking, this was not my first cake from them, or even maybe even my first cake from them since starting to blog (and probably not my first time to even have this particular cake), but my other encounters were in Kobe.

For running, I finally got back to my neighborhood course and finished doing a one-way neighborhood run completing the Jinguumae east loop, Kita-Aoyama central loop, Minami-Aoyama north loop, and newly added Kasumigaokamachi--Kita-Aoyama loop.

(Mon.) 14 Julliet Tokyo, Nuit Saint George

This will be quick, as there was no running. Actually this cake was reward for getting a flu shot and not running on Monday. This was the sixth cake from a potentially Quite Excellent shop, 14 Julliet Tokyo in the Shin Marunouchi Building. Unfortunately, this cassis doom cake with a layer of vanilla Bavarian cream was only good, so 14 Julliet Tokyo joins Clair de Lune down with Excellent shops and L'Abricotier rejoins the Quite Excellent shops, were Bien-Etre is the only remaining probational Quite Excellent shop. In the near term, besides new shops, I'm working to get it up to 8 cakes, Toshi Yoroizuka up to 16 cakes, and Pierre Hermé up to 32 cakes to catch up all the probational ones. Not that I'm likely to get to any of those this week, as Isetan has a new visiting Tokyo shop tomorrow for the first time in a while, Thursday is Labor Thanksgiving Day, so I'll go out by bicycle and research what great cakes are available and visit one of the few remaining recommended shops that I haven't hit, Friday will probably be a rest day from cake, though not from running (though I might get a pastry somewhere; one idea for next year is to get my pastry ratings organized and start doing at least one pastry a week), Saturday will probably be a cake-off, and then I'll hit another new shop by bicycle Sunday.

14 Juillet Tokyo: Délice Cassis Marron

Ran out to 14 Juillet Tokyo for a fifth cake, and also toured the shops of interest in the Marunouchi-Kyoubashi-Ginza area without finding anything interesting except that Frédéric Cassel still has one of their standard cakes that they just put back in their line-up, so no surprise. On the way, I saw this shop, Christa, open for the first time along the main road. I've never been there, or their incarnation under their previous unfortunate name, but they're the Neues guys, so I have them covered. Still, I should cake something from them some time just to be neighborly.

The cake, Délice Cassis Marron, was simple and cheap, which is not a bad thing. Shockingly, the cake is mostly (spongy) cake, though you can see some cassis (black currant) and marron (chestnut) layers in there. Had it with Earl Grey. It was good and I have no complaints about the quality, but my preference is toward something more decadent.

Jean-Paul Hévin: Chausson Chocolat and O de Chocolat Venezuela

As planned, I went to Marunouchi to visit the Jean-Paul Hévin chocolate bar in the Isetan Men's Salone. I had a Chausson au Chocolat reserved and also got an O de Chocolat Venezuela. The former is a traditional pastry made chocolate with a center of almond paste and chocolate (maybe 3:1). The pastry is very thick and the filling is sufficient but not too much. Very well balanced. The pastry itself, though chocolate, does not show it off much, since the butter tends to dominate, though still good. As I progressed, though, the sugary and chocolaty paste kicked in. This is really heavy and probably equal to at least 2 if not 3 pieces of cake, in terms of energy. My stomach was not too happy about running back, though it was not too bad and I recovered mostly by the end. The French means "slipper" and the most common type of chausson is apple, in my experience, though I generally choose something else as a pastry. The pastry was great, though that's partially because it was at least excellent and I have nothing close to compare it to. It's not cake, so it doesn't really effect my evaluation of the shop, although some time I'll have my pasty reviews organized enough that it will matter.

Jean-Paul Hévin usually does not have pastries, so I got this for it's rarity, because I like pastries, and because I owe JPH two items from two cake-off wins and I've already had all the current cakes. The other item I mentioned is water-based (versus milk-based) hot chocolate using the indicated source of chocolate (other options are Brazil and Columbia). The hot chocolate was good, especially as a drink, but not something I'm very interested compared to other items found at patisserie.

The run was about 5 km at about 10 km/h and 4.5 km at about 9 km/h (I took a slightly longer route back but stopped for groceries).

[Wed] 14 Juillet Tokyo: Au Lait Noix

Sasadera at night

The little Inari shrine on the same grounds as Sasadera

Worked a little late, but 14 Juillet Tokyo is open until 9 pm, which is not the same as having a good selection that late. Still, I can't complain, as it happens. I left Runtastic to measure the distance, which worked out. It's about 5.5 km to "New" Marunouchi Building, where the shop is, and I did 10 km/h and 9 km/h back with cake. For a change, and because the distance is not that much different, I returned going north, completing the loop around the inner moat (though I left the course at the northwest corner).

The cake I chose was Au Lait Noix (actually, it was written "Noa", but let's pretend not), which has some aspects of a chocolate tart. Milk chocolate is not my favarotie and often fails, but the walnut and jasmine made this something different and the base gave a good texture contrast to the creamy top, so I'm going to say that this was great.