Jean-Paul Hévin: Verrine Chocolat Apricot & Verrine Truffle Blanche

Was at Isetan Monday afternoon (taking a half-day off) and decided to visit Jean-Paul Hévin and tried the other two verrines, Verrine Chocolat Apricot and Verrine Truffle Blanche. The first also has a layer of pistachio cream and the bottom biscuit has sansho, which is unusual. The other one obviously has truffle besides chocolate (it's a chocolate shop, so always expect chocolate). These are both definitely good, but I'm sticking with my original opinion that this is a bad substitute for cake. Actually, the biscuit on the bottom sort of ruins the smoothness of the rest (from the texture, not the taste), so my best strategy going forward, I think, is to try to avoid it until the end, as the chocolate apricot one was maybe excellent as just gelatin and mousse.

In the evening, I wanted to check at Yoshinori Asami, just to see if they had the Van Dyke (which, as expected from their website, they did not) and I could get there before the closed. Despite getting lost and taking a long way, I did make it (someone else was before me, or maybe they would have closed, but they didn't seem impatient to get rid of us). The selection is not really very special, although sometimes what looks simple and basic is quite good. I had already had verrine, so I just got a canele, which was excellent (and a lot bigger than the ones I make at home). Total, the running was about 15 km of running averaging 10 km/h.

Jean-Paul Hévin, Verrine Chocolat Pamplemousse,

Yesterday, as planned, I did a cakeless run. I went to Midtown to check what Toshi Yoroizuka had, since I'm interesting in their TM (Tokyo Midtown) Noir and I don't expect to see it elsewhere, at least with that name. No luck yet, but I saw that Sadaharu Aoki had a supposedly exclusive cake (Zen, which I've had), so it reminded me that I need to check out other options, since I plan to get a cake from them soon. The run was about 4 km at 11 km/h and 3 km at 10 km/h, which is faster than lately.

Today, I went to Isetan, also as planned, and got the Verrine Chocolat Pamplemousse for 729 yen. I liked the caramel and figs on top a lot and the chocolate mousse, but the grapefruit gelatin did not do much for me, either separately or mixed with other layers. Overall it was definitely good, so probably I'll sample at least one more of these this month, but it's still not cake and it's okay if I don't get to them all.

For the run, I went to the Marunouchi Sadaharu Aoki, where they had the cake I decided that I want most from Sadaharu Aoki, so it looks like I'll be going back there tomorrow rather than buying from Isetan again. The run was again 11 km/h our and 10 km/h, this time about 5 km each way.