Lenôtre, Plaisir

Was busy Sunday and most of Monday, but Monday afternoon went to Jean-Paul Hévin, since the cake I wanted from Sadaharu Aoki was sold out at Marunouchi and I needed someplace for two to test. We got hot Chocolate (Chocolat Chaud Mangue and Viennois), which is relatively cheap there, and two macarons, Frambois'in (not sure what the "'in" concatenates from) and Mésange. The first hot chocolate is mango, obvious, and wasn't anything special, though good of course, and the second is whipped cream, which also was nothing special but good. I liked the Macaron Mésange most. This is passion fruit and matcha and was excellent. The Frambois'in was raspberry and Venezuelan chocolate and was good but not exciting.

I hadn't had cake Sunday and I was already at Yuuraku-cho, so I got a third cake from Lenôtre, Plaisir, which seems like a Saint-Marc from the components (milk chocolate and vanilla mousse), but isn't. For running, I ran down to Akasaka again (like Saturday morning) and tried to do the revised Akasaka loop that split off all the stuff south of Roppongi-Doori, and a little on the Akasaka 2 side and I was successful, but realized afterward that I didn't like that the route doubled back where it could have gone around the block, so it was a failure of route making. I finish practicing Akasaka 4, doing it counterclockwise, and did the new Akasaka 3 east loop clockwise, so I had to be satisfied with that.

Plaisir is nice and well made, but definitely not a Saint-Marc and ultimately, though it's definitely good, I can't rate it higher, as it's just not that exciting. Still, with two great cakes before this, Lenôtre easily is a top the quite fine category and is challenging the quite exceptional one, so I'll be back there again early next week, regardless. Also, I need to find another great cake, quick, but I should get to that later as I catch up with this week.

Jean-Paul Hévin: Fondant du Menu

Decided for a change to catch a new café dessert from Jean-Paul Hévin, since I'm maxed out on the number of cakes. Should still have checked their cake line-up for additions, though I could have asked. Need to do that for the Ginza store tomorrow, since it's around the end of the month where they were sneaking things in last time.

Anyway, this is the Fondant du Menu, which is a fondant chocolat with maybe additional chocolate syrup and lots of whipped cream on the side (not shown, but maybe equal in mass). It was excellent, I'll say, maybe generously. I have less experience and appreciation of café desserts, maybe. This was part of a drink set, so I choose Chocolat Chaud Africain, which I've never had. I'll generous say that it was good, but I really did not get much taste of it. The texture was normal, but I just wasn't feeling even chocolate, really, though that may just because because it was with and following the fondant. Among their regular menu, the standard Parisien seems to remain the best. The chestnut was the best, though, so I'll have it again when I get the chance.

For the run, I practiced the pruned and otherwise modified Hatsudai--Tomigaya--Yoyogi loop. I was okay east of Yamanote-doori Ave., but the new west section is tough, so I'll practice again when I practice the loop that used to be on the north end, the part north of the highway. I also notice a pedestrian "Pleasure walk" on the south end that I should expand to cover the entire length, but that's easily done without needing to change much.

Jean-Paul Hévin: chocolat chaud and macarons

No new cake or cake-off today, but did get a little shared Orly at Jean-Paul Hévin's at Marunouchi. My order, though, was Chocolat Chaud Framboise Yuzu and two macarons: Super Amer and Pablino. The hot chocolate was good, but I think I prefer just the raspberry without the yuzu. If I ever get serious about macaron, I'm going to have to really deliberate about how to rate these, as I think my current ratings are pretty unreliable. These certainly are a good texture and taste so I'm going to say that both are excellent. All the macarons are pretty much straight chocolate, unlike at others of their shops. These were "super" bitter, that is, dark, and ones made with Pablino chocolate, which is a line made from a Peruvian chocolate.

The run was neighborhood courses again. My app is still refusing to track me, so it seems to be some kind of energy-saving feature blocking the GPS feature. Note sure whether I've got it switched off again. Might have to go into the shop or Google the problem in Japanese to find the right setting to fix it. Anyway, I expanded the Southeast Sendagaya course to try to include Senjuin (a Buddhist temple) better and rearranged the Jinguumae 3 & 4 and east KitaAoyama 3 map to stay off the main north street, which I didn't like jogging, and to include a couple parks on back streets around public housing that Google Maps doesn't identify. I ran 50 minutes, but I've already changed the map, so I'm not sure how far or fast I ran.

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).