Bien-être: Anzu Fraise Chocolat

It's been a while, but its been a busy week. First, Monday and Tuesday I tried to get the new cake from Bien-être (the last time I had a new cake from there was more than 11 months ago, though I haven't been looked so frequently of late) and failed, though I was fairly late. Wednesday, I had the afternoon off, so I reserved a piece to pick up in the afternoon. I also tried to get the new cake from JPH, but I dallied elsewhere, and so the last piece disappear in front of me. One place a dallied was the quite superb shop Sadaharu Aoki, which does not have a new cake, so I resorted to trying something else again. I prefer to get fresh baked goods in the morning, so I went with the Sablé Choco Chocolat. It's a chocolate covered chocolate sablé-type cookie and was excellent.

I got my ordered cake, passing through the Takeshita area, which I've completed the neighborhood running course clump and by now I have done both the new loops, clockwise and counterclockwise, though I was still working on them then (not necessarily successfully). As expected, the shop was full for eating in, so I brought back my cake for later. Then I went out by bicycle to see if, by chance, I could score the JPH cake at either the Marunouchi or Ginza shops, but no such luck. At Ginza Mitsukoshi, I did hit another quite superb shop which doesn't have enough new cakes to satisfy me, Frédéric Cassel, where I got one of their moelleux, Moelleux Pistache Figue. It was good, I'll say, but I don't need to try others in that line. Still looking for other good types of things from them.

For my second run, I did another neighborhood course, the Suga Shrine clump. I'm mention now that Monday and Tuesday I decided to start sampling the bottom-layer of cake purveyors in that neighborhood. I started with a cheese tart from Lawson 100 and a chuu cream from the Family Mart, both ok to bad (not sure which one left the nasty after taste, because I ate them on the same night): just tasteless. The Waguri Mont-Blanc from the Ministop on Tuesday was definitely bad whipped dairy with a bad aftertaste. Wednesday, though, I got a Chuu Cream from the 7-Eleven, and it was relatively good.

The main event, of course was Bien-être's Anzu Fraise Chocolat. They have this instead of the Cuit Chocolat that had been looking for last weekend, so I thought it might be just that with a different topping, but it's not a baked chocolate cake. I'm sure it's as designed, but it was not working for me at all, so I can't rate it higher than ok (which isn't as devastating to my rating of them as it used to be, but still they were only marginally open to promotion, but not any more, though another shop among the quite excellent shops is, so that should be at least one of my destinations Monday). I should say that this does not reflect what I assume were azuki beans on top, which were fine (though not particularly strong in taste, so maybe not azuki beans, or just ones soaked in anzu juice).

Thursday, I did the large loop of the Suga Shrine course counterclockwise to confirm my memory of it. I didn't try to get real cake, but instead got the Whipped Cream Roll Cake from the grocer My Basket, and it was reasonably good (which is the best any roll cake as been for me).

Friday, even though they failed on the tart, I got a Chuu Cream pack from Lawson 100, because I used to buy these probably years ago now, and found them reasonable. They still are reasonably good.

Looking forward to the weekend, when I can get to shops early enough to get good cake. Actually, based on my reconnaissance Wednesday, I'm planning two cake-offs this weekend, to take advantage of limited availability. 

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: Matcha Azuki

Having failed yesterday with Dalloyau, I went to Sadaharu Aoki for a new cake, the Matcha Azuki, which follows the pattern of Sadaharu Aoki's praliné cakes with both matcha (powered green tea) and azuki, a type of beans used in traditional Japanese sweets, as well as chocolate ganache.

It was raining today, in fact all day and will continue tomorrow, but was pretty light at the beginning and is coming with a warm air (tomorrow with be 10 degC warmer than today), so it wasn't too bad. I ran down to confirm that Pierre Gagnaire does have pastries, should I should get one some time, but not their Tarte au Chocolat still, after about a year, and that I can't take a shortcut I mentioned yesterday regarding a pedestrian bridge in east, as the entrance for Saikouji is at the south end. Now if I can figure out where the entrance is to Dougenji: I need to shift my route to catch that temple, though I'm running beside it and can see the graveyard.

The Match Azuki was excellent, especially considering my expectations. I consider at the end designating it great, as it was certainly the best azuki cake I've had, but decided ultimately that would be too far. Now I'm more sure, as the azuki as a stronger aftertaste than other components, which I don't appreciate. As full disclosure, I should say that I've actually had this before, maybe 4 years ago, before I started blogging, though not a full piece.