Viron, Menton

In a rare (though repeated the following day) event, I did not have to work late and went out to try to score a cake from one of the two three-excellent-cakes shops on the neighborhood running map. It occurred to me that I hadn't checked in at Viron, though, so I did that was was pleasantly surprised to find that they had a new cake, Menton. Like the only other Menton I've had, lemon was the main flavor, so I assume that's what Menton, France is famous for. Can't remember what the card said or tell for eating it what else is there besides custard, which seems to be the lemon part. There is thicker lighter area above it (and a nice nutty biscuit below it, almond I assume from the top) that's light brown; can you make just the burnt part of crème brulée, since this was uniform and mousse-like? Guess I need to swing by there again, though they won't have another new thing. Great cake! This works a lot better for me than a lemon tart in terms of balancing the texture of the custard against mousse, reasonably solid biscuit and some solid nuts and coating. I was looking for a great cake especially since I just had a new one from JPH, so this determines the next cake-off.

Viron, Praliné Orange

Wednesday (and I found this draft, but not sure what order they were originally), I visited Viron, thinking that they might bring out some new cakes just for Christmas, since they at least had one special Christmas cake last year. As it happens they did. I don't have my notes, but I got lucky and found a picture on Tabelog, so I got the name and confirmed the flavors. The memorable part was pâte pralinée, and I correctly remembered that the fruit flavor was orange. My memory is that it was definitely excellent, enough to consider whether it should be added to the greats, as a representative of fairly traditional cakes of nutty biscuit cake and cream layers, but I have Marjolaine, so I'm fine with not making a special effort to have this specific cake again, though I high approve. Also, it seems like a bakery patisserie kind of cake, so it's reasonable to want more like this. Considering that my backup plans was to try 1st cake from Pronto (which I was reminded recently has a shop in Aoyama, I was quite pleased. 

Viron, Pomme Caramel

Thursday (sometime in December, as I just found this draft), I had the day off to prepare for a busy long weekend. In the morning, I had a hard-to-get-to shop lined up, but more cakes from Viron is a higher priority and I'm not sure how long cakes introduced at Christmas will stick around, so I went there first and got the Pomme Caramel. This is was definitely a nice cake, but apple is a pretty weak flavor in general and they choose not to go so heavy on the caramel as to drown it out, which I can respect, so while good and enjoyable, and of course high quality, it wasn't something particularly interesting to me.

Viron, Chocolat St. Valentine

Second cake midweek from Viron was Chocolat St. Valentine. Note much to say about besides it being excellent. Lots of different textures in there and good base chocolate flavors sets this apart from ordinary good cakes.

Viron, Foret-noire

Thursday was a public holiday, so I planned visits to two quite fine shops. On the way, though, I stopped at Viron in case they had new cakes, having in mind that St. Valentines Day might bring something new to the slowly varying lineup, which it did. I decided after some hesitation to go ahead and get both cakes from Viron, leaving the quite fine shops for another day, even though one cake might drop Viron low enough in ranking that I wouldn't necessary need another. I have no regrets. The first cake (choosing and eating) was Foret-noire (as written on the card), which is chocolate and cherry mousse and some other mousse that I'm not sure about, maybe custard and chocolate. Anyway, the cake is quite creamy yet fairly stable for mousse. Overly, it gets a nice balance between chocolate and cherry that works better than another other such cake I've had (noting that I'm not big on cherry and chocolate). I won't hesitate to say that it was excellent. 

Viron, Tarte au Chocolat Framboise

Saturday, between appointments and walking back from getting a cake from an excellent shop, I took the path by Viron. Actually, I was looking for scones, though the French-style bakeries don't usually have them, so I wasn't surprised that Viron didn't, however, I'm still several cakes short from them, so when I found they had something new, I got it: Tarte au Chocolat Framboise (which might have lost a particle in transliteration). It was definitely good, but the limitations on chocolate tarts as cakes I mentioned recently extend to ones that include fruit flavoring. Still, a high quality product for those looking for a chocolate tart, so my respect for Viron as superb shop remains, though it's getting close to it's challengers at the top of the quite exceptional group.
 

Viron, Gourmand

Got a second cake ahead when Viron had their other new came available Friday. This is the Gourmand (I think), and besides nuts it's meringue. It might actually be all meringue, just with different nut additives. It's certainly quite dry, making it quite light, and quite decadent, in keeping with the name. No complaints about any of that, as it was excellent. 

Viron, Moelleux Marron Chantilly

I was disappointed Monday that the Baba was sold out at Viron (Shibuya-ku). I wasn't surprised, though, since it was a work day, after which I went (running) to get my dry cleaning before coming back and then heading out to Isetan to get a PH cake. However, the latter cake definitely would be fine an extra day, despite them saying it needs to be eaten the same day, regardless of the cake (for JPH, for example, I note that the Paris website indicates 2 days for the same cakes as sold in Japan). Back to Viron, I was happy to see new cakes, since their new items appear slower that I would like, so I'm always looking for something new. In this case, I went with the Moelleux Marron Chantilly, which pretty much tells you everything there is to know, at least with the picture. On one hand, it's just a soft chestnut-based cake with whipped cream with candied chestnut pieces. On the other hand, this creates a well-balanced dessert that I have no hesitation about calling excellent.  

Viron, Baba

I was so behind on blogging, that I got behind on updating rankings and it wasn't Viron's turn. Lucky! I've had a baba from Viron at the Marunouchi restaurant that was great (as eat-in dessert), so I was optimistic about this take-out version, which I got from the Shibuya shop. (As it happens, it's not at the Marunouchi shop, as I found out after going there the long way, taking 17 km. Fortunately, another 7.5 km run across Yamanote was just what I wanted then.) I decided that this was also great, taking into consideration its presentation of a class. Super simple, of course, and not really anything special about it other than being perfect.

Viron, Tarte au Citron

As a weekday destination, Viron in Shibuya is pretty reliable about not running out of cake, though actually I went in the morning. This was the second-to-last of a long run of mornings off to use up my expiring paid holidays. In response to a disappointing lemon tart/pie over the weekend, it was natural to hit Viron for the Tarte au Citron. This seems so traditional for them that's surprising that I haven't had it before, though that's probably because tarts were low on my priority list. This has meringue on top, naturally, and is excellent, thankfully. 

Viron, Coloré Pistache

Went down to Viron the following Monday, the one in Shibuya, which generally has a better selection late at night. Actually, they had three new cakes, so I got one, Coloré Pistache, even if I wasn't sure that it was their turn to have a new cake. Despite the decoration, the inside accent fruit for the pistachio outside is cherry, which is a common pairing with pistachio, and yet I haven't been happy with it until this cake. This was excellent, so I'm glad I gave in to it. This was to last me for a few days, until I did an early cake-off on Thursday, and put Viron back in the running to keep it's superb shop slot against BE and another challenger.

Viron, Montélimar

I saw that Viron, which is nominally a superb shop (even though I hadn't had enough cakes from them, there was hole in the category when OC closed) had a new cake when I was out the Saturday before passing through Shibuya but decided not to get too greedy. It wasn't at (nor was there a card for it) in Marunouchi when I visited later (not that I was ready to buy then either), which might be a pattern for these two shops. So I did run to the Shibuya shop on Monday (not my usual pattern, but it's not farther) and late though it was, they still had plenty of cakes and I could get Montélimar. I was hoping it would be similar to a cake of the same name from L'A because that is great (almond mousse, I think) and this shop might make a better one. However, not the same kind of cake at all. It's been a while, but I think it was coconut cream honey mousse and fruit, which could still be okay, but this was not so exciting, though it seem appropriate as a bakery shop cake somehow. Unfortunately, I like more extravagant things, so this put the shop under threat from a couple shops in the quite exceptional category. 

Actually, I didn't take the shortest path and got a picture of the new Aoyama Grand, which would to be on the old neighborhood route, since it's going to have a bakery, which is not yet open. What is open (though maybe not actually at the time of night) was a tea shop. Still haven't visited after a couple weeks: it's more of a taking-a-walk kind of place, which it's too hot and mask-requiring now to do any of.

Viron, Abricot Amande

Last Sunday, I did an early run to Viron before my 10 am appointment. The Shibuya shop opens at 9 am and had a cake I was not expecting, the Abricot Amande (or maybe it was Apricot Almond or some mixture of French, English, and Japanese). I also got a pastry, since they've had pretty nice ones so far. I went with the big Croissant Amande, which is a meal by itself, appropriate since I hadn't eaten since the night before. The croissant was excellent, so I'll keep getting fresh pastries from their as I have the opportunity.

The cake was definitely good, and certainly had a traditional feel. Not exciting, but nice, and I could see trying to pair it with a nice English tea, if I wasn't always moving on to the next new thing.

Viron: Petit Bûche

Christmas Eve, I went to Viron, my highest priority shop (among places with new cakes available), in Shibuya, since that's on the middle three loops (formerly 5 loops) that I'm reconfirming now. I didn't want to do the loop in the middle first or do more than one loop running with cake, so after getting cake (which came, while I was waiting, with a sample of hot wine, a little more than maybe I should have taken, but it served as my snack for this run), I crossed the street and finished off the sleaziest loop, running clockwise the Dougenzaka--Maruyamachou--Shinsenchou loop, which is now part of the Southwest Shibuya Stn. clump, making it almost 15 km long.

The Shibuya Viron shop is open until 22:00, which is why I choose it, because I knew I'd be busy until about  20:00. All they had were Christmas cakes, but they had a couple choices. I looked at what was probably chocolate mousse on the outside and fruit inside and decided that was a dangerous combination (it doesn't take much fruit for a bad balance), and was attracted by hazelnuts and praliné, Petit Bûche. It was very traditional, in it's way. Good but not exciting and the frosting falls off easily, since it's pretty firm and chosen for keeping the log texture.

Viron: Bourgogne

Went to the next in the list of priority shops: Viron. I went to the shop down in the Shibuya Stn. area, since I wanted to (and did) run the Jinguumae 5&6 loop counterclockwise, to confirm the recent revision. That leaves one revised loop reconfirm (at least until next time I go exploring). I got Bourgogne, which is mousse  of cassis and strawberry in win, a cassis mousse cover, and cinnamon cream. The outer cassis jelly dominated, though I could taste the cinnamon and win influence. For me, it was just okay. I took this as the most conventional thing sold as cake, but I probably should have known that it wouldn't suit me. Still, I don't know until I try. Still, one new cake that doesn't impress me doesn't stop them from being a high priority shop, for now. As a note on the picture, this is what happens when you take a full running carrying cake. It actually survived pretty well. I only had to rescue the currant from the roof of the box and wipe off the Viron marker and little bit.

Viron:Tarte au Chocolat

Tried the Daita-... loop again, having just updated it. I failed again counterclockwise, but quite a bit further along than any previous attempt, in Kitazawa 3, which might be half way, though still outbound on the larger southern section that is maybe two-thirds of this route (my next map update might make it easier to quickly clarify that) and at a point that I modified during attempts clockwise, so at one point in time my left turn would have been correct. I wasn't so disappointed, as this is my biggest challenge and I expect I'll be trying it one way or another for a long time, so I'll keep alternating with other routes. I continued on, though not necessarily all running, to Kitazawa 2, to confirm in person the last revisions around there and take photos. 

Extra snacks were only on the way back (besides a couple Calorie Mates cookies). I got a Pain au Chocolat from the Crossroad Bakery inside the laundromat in Uehara along the main east-west road by The University of Tokyo's Komaba Campus, which I think has either mathematics or economics. The outside of this pastry was really well layered, as shown, but the inside had soft white layers, which usually makes me think they are lazy, but actually I can see where this works and I should be appreciating the different textures, since the inside wasn't raw or bread-like: excellent, even if not my ideal.

I decided early on that Viron would be on my way back, since they are one of 4 shops in four different shop categories challenging a shop in the category above them. Before that, I wanted confirm a coffee shop, but that took me through the sleazier parts of Dougenzaka, where I found a tiny park. It's hard to believe this is a real public park, but it's got the signs to prove it, so that destroys two loops, since I think I'll merge the Maruyamachou--Shinsenchou and Dougenzaka loops to fit this in, though I haven't done that yet.

At Viron, I got a Tarte au Chocolat for home and their huge Croissant for eating just outside. The latter was fluffier than I usually like, and yet they seemed to completely nail what they were after and it wasn't bread-like, so I'll have to say that this also was excellent.

On the way home with cake, I stopped by the Flipper's Stand near Harujuku Station and confirmed take-out that qualifies them being on the map, so once again I'm revising the Jinguumae 5&6 loop to add something. At least during the main run I detoured to get the Tomigaya loop clockwise, so I have something achieved, however trivial.

Chocolate tarts are inherently limited, but Viron's seem well made and with good chocolate, so I can rate it as an excellent 17th cake, which leaves them still a challenger for the superb category, though they've got a lot of cake to go to join Origines Cacao there.