Jouvaud, Douceur aux Mûres

Working my way through the potentially fine shops (I need to cut more than half), since Jouvaud visited Isetan, on Wednesday I went to get a second cake from them. The name was definitely Douceur aux Mûres, and that's a blackberry on top, but it's seasonal, so nothing on their homepage. I plan to get back there Saturday morning, so I'll get what else is in it. I suspect fig and chocolate, but I'm not sure. Certainly, it has an odd taste and I wasn't happy with the uniformly soft texture, but I did feel they were trying to do something, so I've giving them the benefit of the doubt. Still, two good cakes isn't going to make the cut, so I can't expect to ever get cake from them again. [Update] As I suspected from info on another berry cake, the other mousse besides blackberry is earl grey tea, which isn't that unusual.

In other news, Tuesday I actually tried to get new cake from the list of neighborhood shops. I was told the Stadium Café was open later when there is an event, but they weren't open Tuesday, when there should have been an event. I'll try again Friday, maybe. Instead, I tried the Glorious Chain Café. Their cake of the day was actually apple pie, so they aren't going to be a cake place for me. Still, I decided to try it. They heated it up without warning me (which took more than 5 minutes) and it was ok but sort of looked like a perfectly manufactured pie, which is what it was. Came with ice cream, which was good as ice cream. So I wasn't so satisfied except about checking them off the list of local places that need visiting.

   
 

Bien-être: Martinique

Did a run to Bien-être, since I knew they had new cakes as of last Saturday, so I hoped the Christmas cakes would be over and I could get something my size. New things included a tart, a couple roll cakes, and one fancy cake, the Martinique. This is a thick banana, raisin, and rum tart on the bottom and an ample amount of white chocolate ganache flavored with vanilla. My first impression was that it was probably excellent. Certainly, its a lot of cake for its size, since it's dense. I was hoping for great, since JPH's pistachio mont-blanc is back and I haven't done a first-round cake-off with it. I've got a little more than two weeks to find something, and of course I'd like to do second and third rounds after that, before it disappears again. Unfortunately, this was not the great cake. It was excellent when I was eating it, so I'm sticking with that, but I think especially paired with rum, the banana taste lingers, which I'm really not fond of. Maybe I should have gone with the pastachio and apricot tart. I'm almost caught up with this shop, or at least It's now one of many that I'm ready to get one cake from.

Running back, I worked in some neighborhood course loops on the west side, so I've now got both ways for the Sendagaya west loop and clockwise for the Jinguumae northwest and west loops. Yesterday (Christmas) I messed up again on the west side of Yotsuya, but at least I got clockwise for Sendagaya central and southeast right. That was not a very long run, less than 60 minutes, though intense running up and down stairs cutting through the nation stadium station tunnels and then going through Wakaba and Suga in Yotsuya. I repeated the subway route today in a 90+ minute run, but didn't need to get groceries, so I didn't have to go as far as Suga Shrine.

Bien-être: Seasonal Tart (berries)

Did a run to Bien-être, who I'm still trying to catch up with Paris S'éveille as superb shops. I got the Seasonal (Fruit) Tart again, since the season has changed. It's cold and rainy, but not windy and the rain was not heavy, so I wasn't uncomfortable. A counter seat was open, so I ate in. I'm not that excited by tarts, which is why I waited pretty late to have the first one and I guess I'm already tired of this one, or maybe it's just that I don't like strawberries much. It was good and no complaint about the quality, I just am not that into the fruit. The new cake right now is a strawberry mille-feuille, which I'm not sure whether I'd like better. Maybe I'll find out next week. I was not tempted to walk back (though I did have a pocket umbrella with me). I'm still building up my amount of exercises to strengthen my ankles: up to 100 one-food hops on each side and then the same number of ankle raises (or whatever you call raising to tip-toe). This time I did 10 on a step, though both feet at the same time in both cases.

Ryoura: Beauté

Trying to make this quick and catch up, though I'm still not great working with this computer (it's a little small and no mouse). Should have the new computer in a week.

Forgot to mentions (should anyone cake), that I visited Crossroad Bakery Friday and got a Croissant, which was definitely good. They had other things and definitely good is really above average for a croissant, so I'll try to get back there. I still have one more local shop that I want to get to and then I can finally use previous rating to focus on quality rather than novelty. I'll say the goodness was that it was pretty flaky, leaning on the cake-shop pastry type versus the more bread-like type of most bakeries, though it was still seemingly trying to strike a good balance, which I think it achieved.

For cake, I went to the recently promoted Ryoura and got Beauté, which apparently was introduced last November. I like this kind of cake with a hard coating and don't mind the whipped cream on top (I've cheated and turned the Ryoura insert 180 degrees so I can take a picture of the less damage side, but it traveled pretty well for a long trip hanging from my handlebars. (Still cycling, but I'm ready to start running, I think; I'll start small tomorrow, cycling first). This is earl grey mousse flavored with blackberry and raspberry gelatin and cassis cream. It's a very nice harmony, so I don't think I'm relying just on the style of cake and prejudice to a newly promoted shop when I say that it was excellent. Still, I'd like to get to some of the other shops that it currently looks like I might want to promote before getting back to Ryoura, but I look forward to more cakes from them in the near future.

Jean-Paul Hévin: 4 cakes

Was at Ginza Mitsukoshi last Thursday (I think; I got confused by the long weekend) evening and went for cake for two people with me not choosing (just I pointed out what was new). We got 4 cakes that just became available in the last couple weeks, Passion, which is a regular cake that was new to me this month, Éclair Chocolat, which is only available on weekends, and two verrine, Verrine Chocolat Apricot and Verrine Chocolat Trente. Only the latter (in honor of the 30th anniversary) is new to me, so I'll mention that it is bay leaf scented Peruvian cacao mousse and strawberry, raspberry, and blackberry gelatin.

I thought both verrines were excellent, which is an upgrade for the first one and decided that they were cake enough to count (versus pudding with a little cake). The eclair was also excellent, as previously, but I thought that the Passion was actually great this time (maybe due to a lighter temperature or just chocolate intoxication), also an improvement over last time, though an average of semi-great is not enough to get it into cake-offs yet



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Addict au Sucre: Chocolat mûre

Had some other chores around Isetan and I've only 

had one cake from Addict au Sucre, who is visiting, and it was good, so I decided to try a second one, Chocolat mûre. This is chocolate cream flavored with blackberries on two layers of macaron. These are the soft kind of macaron, where you let them soak up some moisture for a couple days. That can be good, and the chocolate flavor was good, along with the blackberry accent, but the texture isn't really my favorite and this just didn't work as cake for me. Still, good cake, so I still think it's a good shop. 

The run was along long one, over an hour. I confirmed the location of the first 5 new kilometer markers and the part of the course in the new Jinguumae-Jinnan loop, as well as the changes to the loop leading to it, both of which were fine, so can add more kilometer markers for the next run.

Paris S'éveille: Mistral

Changed my Sunday from going to a new place to going to Paris S'éveille for a new cake. I was thinking of going to a new place, since I hadn't visited one for a week, but then I decided that places should remain new until I catch them up to other shops of the same level, in terms of numbers of fresh cakes. Since I'm still doing that with Eclat des Jour, I'm covered.

I did some more exploring of new paths at the beginning (adding maybe half a kilometer and not really finding anything I want to use, though going into Meiji Gaien might still be worth it to stay off the main road longer) and then used the route under Old Yamanote Road that I was on yesterday to do the short path including it, which included part of the route into Gakegei Daigaku Station and avoiding the randomness of my route past Nakameguro Station. It was over 12 km, but just barely closer to 9 km/h than 8 km/h. It's been a while since my knees were sore at the beginning. There will be a 30 hour rest before the next run, so hopefully that will be enough to cover and I won't have to take an actual rest day (again, greed is the issue).

They had a couple new cakes that the "Chef" recommended that looked good, but they also had Mistral, which seems like something I've seen before but not posted on, at least. This is a pâte sucrée chocolate base, with a biscuit biscuit, lavender Bavarian cream, chocolate coating, and the fruit is black currant and blackberry, plus there is wine, though I forget the details. It all works together and of course I like chocolate, so I thought it was excellent.

Heritage: La Mûre

Got my most difficult cake shop goal for this week out of the way early by getting to Heritage before they closed (and it was earlier enough that there was a good selection). Unfortunately, I'm not remembering the name of the cake well, so I should have made a note while I had the time. The name in Japanese seemed close to La mûre (500 yen), which is French for blackberry, so I'm going with that rather than L'Amour, but I'm not confident. Anyway, this was chocolate biscuit with maybe blackberry (certainly not as strong as raspberry). It was not a strong fruity taste, not super sweet, not super creamy, or at all nutty, so it didn't really press any of the usual buttons for me. But it was definitely good and over time afterward I decided that I respected it and consider it an example of excellent quality. Certainly, I was happy to eat it and enjoy my tea. So I've three cakes from a shop that seems excellent, which is my currently goal for this level of shop (in the bottom half of the top ~31 cake shops for Tokyo).


For running, I had to start out fast, which was only 3.2 km at 12 km/h, and I took a long way home going past Iidabashi for another 4.5 km at 10 km/h. Then, because that still seemed short to deserve cake, I took the Gaien Walk around as far as the Lawson 100, which was another 3.6 km at a deliberately slow 9 km/h.

Les Cacaos: Madagascar

As my Saturday run, I tried a new place down in Higashigotanda, Shinagawa-ku (since Toni Coni is closed and F.O.B.S. is now open later on weekdays). It would be 8 km if I could follow a route, but ended up 10 km each way, for different reasons, at the fairly standard speeds of 11 km/h out and 10 km/h coming back.

The place, Les Cacaos, is actually a chocolate shop mostly, but they have a few cakes and related items. I took my chances with their chocolate mousse cake, which is a type I have a love-hate relationship with (they attract me, but often disappoint). In this case, it was the Madagascar (550 yen), which has red fruit gelatin inside, but nice gelatin/fruit and not a lot. The chocolate flavor was quite good and went with the fruit, so as far as chocolate mousse cakes go, this seemed excellent, especially giving the benefit of the doubt to the first cake, so I should go back next week and try the chocolate tart, for example. I should be able to get the distance down below 9 km each way, now that I'm more familiar with the area (if I'm patient enough to wait at the pedestrian signals).

Paris S'éveille: Tarte aux Fruits Noir and Pont Neuf

Walked to Paris S'éveille, as planned, averaging almost exactly 6 km/h. Coming back was slower, but still closer to 6 km/h than 5 km/h. Next exercise plan is go to track and try a kilometer at 7 km/h again.

At Paris S'éveille got one "fresh cake", the Tarte aux Fruits Noir for 600 yen, and one "pastry" (my terms) , the Pont Neuf for 450 yen. Both of these are good, but nothing special that I would want them again.

The picture of the tarte didn't work out, but came out super bright, as it tried to use the really dark fruit as a light reference maybe. It was blackberries and a dark blueberry or something similar on a custard tart. Good fruit, but I want cake and the tart doesn't really add anything (I'd rather eat each alone). This was the "Chef"'s (their term) recommendation, or I would have gone for the pistachio eclair. One more not-excellent cake before a great one and I'd have to demote them, and the other unsampled cake is another fruit tart. However, I've left out the Fondant, which I count as fresh cake (although it has a separate display) and I'm optimistic about.

The Pont Neuf is a standard type that I see around patisseries but have never tried before. It's sort of a butter tart with a baked custard dome (not solid custard, but more like the inside of a canele). Also, there was a lump of fruit baked inside the bottom, maybe apricot, as well as some fruity (?) glaze.

Photos of the shop were also poor, so instead I got one of the entrance to a shrine that is an official sightseeing point in Meguro District (#55) that I've often seen the edge of just off my main route but not the entrance. Now that I've found it, sometime I'll actually go in to see the old trees and statues.

Très Calme: Ebene, Savarin Orange, Soleil

Over a couple days, I had a few more cakes from Très Calme, all good but none excellent. I also had the Mont Blanc again, which I might reclassify as excellent, but I should again emphasize that it is probably only excellent/great if you're not that into chestnut flavor, so the mildness in a meringue is a nice surprise.

The Ebene (my guess from the name  エベーヌ) is chocolate, like almost a block of chocolate on, although the bottom is not quite that hard, so I would probably a ganache, maybe with blackberry, since there is a blackberry on top and blackberry is not such a strong flavor that it would dominate chocolate. It's very similar to a chocolate tart. I've already thrown out all my receipts, but these were all 500+ yen with tax.

The Soleil was quick choice when I found out that there was no Mont Blanc. It is (mascarpone) cheese, I think with red fruit (strawberry and maybe raspberry shown). Also good. 

Finally, on the second day when we went back to get the promised Mont Blanc, we also go Savarin Orange. I hadn't see a Savarin in a class before, but obviously you need something to keep the rum in the sponge, so I have no objections and the orange worked well. Again, good.

Sunday afternoon run: Rue de Passy and S'éveile

In running, I was looking for a better Marjolaine, so weaved a little and stopped in a few places. I looked in at Takagi at Gaienmae, then Chez Lui (which is just somewhere I go past frequently and doesn't look particularly promising, although it might be fine for what it has) in Shibuya, then Cacahouete just inside Meguro-ku, by Sourire again, just because that was the best route, a pop in at Matterhorn by Gakugei University/College Station (where I wouldn't expect to see a fancy cake), to Rue de Passy a couple blocks away, where I got the Opera Pistache which is related, in being nutty, and closely related to Opera Praline, which is the second recipe in the same book, although it a recipe that is much more complicated and so I would not imagine trying it.

I'll call this a great cake (and it was not particularly expensive) and say that I should consider whether this is a great shop. Unfortunately, it closes 30 minutes earlier and is one station farther away than Sourire, so I don't think I can easily manage a weekday run there unless I learn to be faster.

I continued on to Jiyuugaoka and stopped in at the Dalloyau, just in case, on the way to m.koide, which I decided to downgrade from a great shop just because the selection is pretty small, although they were open on a Sunday this time.

That leads to my actual second cake, which was Le Suprême from (Paris) S'éveille, for 620 yen. This was blackberry and chocolate mousse, so I recommend eating it in the shop, although I managed to get it to a park with minimal melting despite that it was not well packed. Still, great cake, even with the limitation of being mostly mousse. There are still lots of cakes I need to sample from there (for blogging: I've probably had this cake before).
Later, I had some of the chestnut cake below (1200 yen from Aoki). It's fine. Sorry, but I don't know what it's called. It might be exclusive to Shinjuku Isetan.