Ryoura, Mille-Feuille Mistral

Finally got back Ryoura a while back for a new cake. I can get their one (available) remaining great cake at Tokyo Midtown, but the selection there is fairly limited so I did a bicycle ride. I wasn't quite as crazy there as last time. They have actually been limiting the number of people inside, but probably I can't remember well. Anyway, even at the main shop, I've pretty much had all their standards already, so it's touch choice. On the grounds that Mille-feuille are a fairly safe choice and I have had one excellent one from there (and one just good), I tried the Mille-feuille Mistral, which is F.Cassel like in having a gelatin layer for the flavor, which honestly I'm not that convince is a good ideal but is a reasonable simple variation. A Japanese source reminds me (not that I probably read in this detail at the time) that its passion fruit and mango mousseline and the gelatin is rhubarb and strawberry, which sounds about right. It was good, but I'm more convinced that gelatin in my mille-feuille is not optimal, but not the worst, as I've found out.

Frédéric Cassel, Mandarine Mangue

Was over at Ginza Mitsukoshi last weekend and picked up one new cake, Mandarine Mangue. It was good, but not too exciting. Maybe I'm just not into fruit enough. 

Jean-Paul Hévin, Bûchette Pop Music and Bûchette Victor

I got ahead with the second cake (but the following week I'm busy), but I got the two individual Christmas cakes from Bûchette Pop Music, Bûchette Victor (the third design is just the first one below with a different color, though the large scale cakes with the correspond themes are different from each other and from these individuals). I got these when I was in Ginza Sunday morning, reasoning that it was my best opportunity to avoid long lines and them selling out and that both are robust enough that a day at zero degrees in the cooler isn't going to hurt them.

There was half an hour of running, dancercise, and other indoor exercises, as usual. I had the Bûchette Victor first, the second one below, which is mango, like the full-sized version, and I think another fruit, though I can't remember what. The fruit wasn't so strong and it wasn't so exciting, though of course it has all the quality JPH parts of biscuit and mousse, so it was good. I liked the Bûchette Pop Music much more. It's suppose to be pistachio, and it has it's own posting on the web page (not sure why the other doesn't), but it tastes like whisky to me, or at least what cakes that say they have whisky taste like, which is all I have to go by. Anyway, the flavor went with the chocolate and nuts well, along with the texture and it was an excellent cake, as I would expect.  

 

Bien-être, Verrine Tropique

As one of three shops battling for the bottom slot of the superb shops, I visited Bien-être for cake. This is Verrine Tropique, but unlike other verrines I've had, there is no token sponge in there, so really it's a straight out glass dessert. It was good, with mango and passion fruit, obviously, but forces me to start creating different rankings for with and without verrines. So no more verrines from here based on the with verrine rank, but if they actually got another new cake, I could still get it. At the same time, I feel free to work on the other shops that do have cakes.

Jean-Paul Hévin, Verrine Rhubarbe Mangue

 Way back on Tuesday, after working late, I stopped in at the Isetan Jean-Paul Hévin and was able to get the last of the new item: Verrine Rhubarbe Mangue, which has the obvious ingredients. The top is probably mango gelatin, then white chocolate mousse, and finally rhubarb sauce cut with lime. It was the usual high quality of JPH, so I can say that it was excellent. 

I'll note at this point, I'm far enough ahead on FC that JPH deserves a second sample of an excellent cake, but I've already done that with those in the current line-up, so I'll have to wait. That leaves at least a couple non-cake items to try, maybe next weekend. I haven't tried any of their sauces.

Paris S'éveille: Tarte Matcha Mangue

Now I'm almost two weeks behind, so it's not clear when I'll catch up. I've gotten a little head of revising my new neighborhood course map, but mostly I've been wasting time on other obsessions are just exhausted from the heat. Way back on Aug. 1, I stopped in at Paris S'éveille on the way to ABVT (since it was their turn to try to enter the superb shop category, though they have the farthest to go) and happy to get this cake. Actually, it wasn't chance, as I had seen it posted online, so I suspected it was a new cake. The base is holding mango and mango cream, so it has to be pretty moisture resistant, thus it's a pretty hard tart, which it's great for texture but is necessary. The top is matcha, of course, but I forget in what, probably white chocolate, though coconut cream would fit with the theme. Sorry, I can't remember. The important thing is that it was excellent. Their new cakes are all fruity, whereas their classic great cakes are mostly nutty or chocolaty (their most fruity great cake has been out of the lineup for a while), but the new fruity cakes keep improving, so I'm actually looking forward to the next one. Still slightly behind on this one, because they don't have so many cakes and I don't have such a great way to keep up with them, plus they will a lot of cake-offs, so actually I've had more new cakes from them than any other superb shop, and two of those I'm ahead on because they got dropped down from quite superb and only gotten new cakes from cake-off wins for years.

Bien-Étre, Mangu

Sunday afternoon, went out by bicycle to see what was available at shops, as well as do some cross-training. The first stop was PS, where there was a line outside and nothing new visible through the window, so I didn't wait. No surprise there. The second stop was Bien-Étre, where I wasn't expecting anything, but mango had come into season, which included Mangu, so I used up my week's cake allotment. This cake was excellent, with the base sable's strong flavor memorable. BE remains at the top of the quite exceptional shops.

At the beginning of the trip, I stopped at Nikka Block Cafe and got their sable. I didn't stop and eat it until just after buying the above cake, but I really needed it. It was excellent, so I should try their eat-in cake some time. They still close fairly early for weekdays, but they are a neighborhood priority. Meant to do a long run in the evening, scaled it down, then found that I could keep to the route, so I gave up pretty early. My muscles felt energetic, but mentally perhaps I had had enough exercise for the day. If only rotating images was still an option with Blogger (or my phone or Google wouldn't automatically rotate them versus how I took them to begin with).

Frédéric Cassel, Addiction

Finally, the last cake of May was Addiction from Frédéric Cassel. This is coconut mousse, passion fruit, mango, lemon biscuit, and raspberry. It's a cube held together by rigid wall and is really white. It definitely would be about the last cake I would choose from anywhere else, but it was a new cake from Frédéric Cassel and I just couldn't get that excited about the strawberry rollcake. As it happens, this was a great cake that I could recommend to about anyone, though maybe someone who wants something light, because coconut is high in fat and there's plenty of sugar as well, so I'm not saying whether it's healthy. If I'm lucky it will stick around long enough for me to find another cake to do a cake-off with, as right now I don't have anything to match it with.

Éclat des Jours, Tropicot

Last Monday, besides the cake for the cake-off, I got one extra cake from Éclat des Jours, for efficiency in the era of virus, long work hours, and short store hours: Tropicot. This has been around for a relatively long time, though not as far back as the first visit. It's a mango, passion fruit, and banana tart, with some shredded coconut. I knew it wasn't really my thing, but I was running out of choices as a 20th cake, but it was their turn or a new cake as one of the quite exceptional shops, at least until this one, which was only good. Betting cakes from here and with tropical fruit coming up, so I didn't give up on either. For some reason, blogger has gone back to the old interface, now that I've figured out the new one. There's probably some way to toggle between them.

I realize, I should really get some pictures of things other than cakes, because there are actually a couple people besides me that read this blog. I'll see if I can come up with at least some shops or pictures of the returned crowds, with more masks than typically this time of year (it's getting too hot for my surgical masks, which I already don't run or bicycle with, but I have other options).

Mandarin Oriental Gourmet Shop, Mango Short Cake and Tart Lemon

Sunday, I was busy, but I got a chance to do cake for two at Mandarin Oriental Tokyo Gourmet Shop, which was on the list of shops to get third cakes from. Actually, I got two cakes of course. There was not a big selection left at a little bit before 5 pm on a Sunday, so I recommend going earlier (there was also some sort of glass desert and a coffee desert), but we could get the last Mango Short Cake and the Tart Lemon, both at hotel café prices.
We would have rather eaten inside, due to the heat, but having stopped walking and purchased iced tea, it was actually fine at an outside table. Both cakes were good, although difficult to eat (big pieces of mango don't cut easily and the tart was designed for looks), but not any more than that. It's a fine shop, but this will probably be my last visit. Only five shops to visit, and I might get to two over the next week, if plans go as expected.

I didn't actually run on Monday but instead did a fuller upper body workout than I've done for a long time. The next few days will probably also keep me from doing runs on the neighborhood course, but even if I do indoors again on Friday, Saturday evening I should be able to hit the neighborhood loops from last Saturday again. I need considerable running to burn off this weekend (extended to Monday), so maybe I'll fit in some extra running on a smaller or more convenient loop, like around Akasaka Palace to Jinguumae--Kita-Aoyama.

Michalak, Mangue

Needed to go to Isetan today, which is why I didn't go yesterday. Michalak has a new cake and I owe them for a cake-off. The cake is Mangue, which is one of those fruit-shaped cakes that I've heard a popular among young pastry chefs, where it's made to taste like a cake version of the fruit (versus cake in the same shape that includes the fruit as a taste). I don't want all my cakes like this, but I now see the appeal. Definitely excellent.

I decided that it would be foolish to try the Akasaka--etc. run again today, since really yesterday was about as long as I've run lately, and the real course takes a little more. Instead, I did a food shopping runs by bicycle after bringing home the cake, which ended up taking longer than I expected, since my first stop turned out to be closed for reasons I didn't bother to read in detail about on the sign, so I ended up going to a branch on the other side of home, as well as stopping a couple other places, so it took about 1.75 hours, leading me to give up also on doing an indoor work out. Stocked up on roasted peanuts, crackers, sesame seeds, energy cookies, vegetables, canned fish, and got one cheap chocolate bar, which I haven't tried yet.

Yesterday and noticed and today I confirmed that the Akasaka Del'Imo closed (moving to Tokyo Midtown Hibiya). It doesn't really matter for the course, since there are other sites on the same street, but it inspired me to revised the big Akasaka loop and cut off one site to its own loop (dubbed the Akasaka 4 loop) and reroute the main loop to be more direct and take over the sites for the Akasaka 3 loop. I'll have to recalculate distances for everything west of there, but it shortens the loop somewhat, despite increasing the total number of sites on it, so it seems like a legitimate change, even if it was probably inspired by yesterday's failure (if you're losing the game, change the rules).

Origines Cacao, Saint-Honoré Passion Coco

Did a run to Ginza 6 and got my eleventh (type of) Origines Cacao cake. This is maybe the first time that I've bought from them at Ginza 6, though I bought several mostly great cakes from the closed Nihonbashi store (not sure why I've never seen those great cakes since; have to wonder if someone quit at the same time).

Anyway, very unstable weather today but there was only a little rain while I was out. It was fairly hot (close to 30 degC) and quite humid, so I didn't push it that hard, though I did run most of the way back (I stopped a Marusho for groceries and walked after that).

Like with éclairs, I seem to appreciate fruit flavors with saint-honorés more than with other types of cake. This was passion fruit and coconut, of course, but also mango. Definitely excellent.

Paris S'éveille, Tarte Mange Caramel and Ryoura, Éclair Pêche

After some morning business, I set off for Ryoura by way of some sights I wanted to photo and Paris S'éveille. First, I got new photos for an Aoyama neighbhorhood park because I thought Google Maps had lost them when my map crashed, though it turns out not. Then I went looking for a shrine that Google Maps showed on my Aoyama route, but that seems to have an echo of the one 1 block away, which I already have, because I couldn't find another one. From there, I was more productive (in a sense) and got pictures for the Shibuya--Minami-Aoyama Loop, which I've yet to do as a one-way neighborhood run but expect to soon. I added Clinton Street Baking and expanded the loop, since they have "baking" in the title and seem to have cake, if not the kind I'm looking for (these were sort of American dinner-type cakes, perhaps, though I only saw one type walking by, not the several on the website).

At Paris S'éveille, I had a few choices for a new cake, so I went with the "recommended" one again. It was called Tarte Mange Caramel, which I assume was supposed to say Mangue (mango), except I didn't recognize what they were talking about in the description that included the corresponding word; thought it was something about tea. I ended up eating this nearby rather than carrying it. It's, I think, an orange baked tart with a top that definitely has mango chucks, maybe has caramel (not sure how the caramel works in, since the mango is raw), and is gelatinous but in a disgusting sticky way. Not sure whether the decoration is coconut, which it looks like. Fruit is not much my thing, but this had a nice balance of textures and the fruit seemed well served by the cake rather than better on its own. I can say that it was excellent.

I continued running to Ryoura, which I got cake to take home this time. This was cake number 10. I'm trying to get this shop up to 11 cakes, as a new quite excellent shop, though it's near the top of that group, so it's theoretically in the best position to make the jump to the next level, but there's a pretty big gap. Next weekend I'm busy, so maybe I'll go next the following Monday, when I'm off early for other business. This time, I decided that I would give one of their two éclairs a chance, the Éclair Pêche. Similar to the other cake, while not my usual thing, I would say that this was excellent. The crispness of the pastry went well with the softness of the fruit and its flavor, so I'm really believing that fruit is better for éclairs than chocolate, on average.

Bien-être, Mille-Feuille au Mangue

It took me two days, but I got a semi-new cake from Bien-être. On Monday, they did not have anything new left in the evening, so I kept running down to Shibuya Stn. area, reviewing part of my neighborhood map where I missed a turn before,  and got a Pain aux Raisons from La Terre in the Toukyuu Food Show, which was a second excellent pastry from them. Not that my standards are that high, but it was layered, in a ringed way, and moist (though flaky can also work), so I'm happy with them so far. On the running side, I worked in 10 1-min intervals and managed to get to the cake shop in under 28 min of running time.

Tuesday, they had a couple choices, a short cake and a mille-feuille, so I went with the one I knew I would like, the Mille-Feuille au Mangue (or something like that). As usual, their mille-feuille was excellent and mange might be the best combination yet, though there is still the danger that I'll get tired of their mille-feuille, so next time there is a new one, I'll try to get something else. Tried to take the shortest route until I had to wait for a light and ended up running in a U and took more than 35 this time, though slower running was also a factor. I only ran a little bit on the way back because I stopped soon for groceries and then had a 4+ km walk home.

Unfortunately, my next priority for both a new cake and the next cake-off is closed for summer vacation for the next week. I guess I'll finally get back to Libertable for cake, but first I'll take a rest from running tomorrow and do some shopping.

Bigarreaux, Citron Vert and Sampa

No running or cycling and only normal walking involved, but on Sunday night I shared cake for two from Bigarreaux, which was the visiting patisserie at Isetan until today. I didn't really need more cake from them, but they are an excellent shop, so I was happy to share.

We got Citron Vert, which is obviously lime. Citron is one of their signature cakes, so it seemed a reasonable choice. Also, Sampa (I checked on two days, but it's still possible that I was misreading the diacritic on the last character and it was actually Samba), which is milk chocolate with layers of mango and passion fruit. They were both definitely good, but only the Sampa really interested me enough to call it excellent, though I have to wonder whether I was just seduced by the sugar rush, since it was certainly not its sophistication, not that sophistication is much of a substitute for great cake.

Monday, I went down to Paris S'éveille, which is my #3 shop but doesn't have new cakes, so I got Chausson Pomme (maybe, though Chausson aux Pommes sounds better) and Pain aux Raisins. These were both definitely good, but didn't excite me as much as their top pastries. They still have a few more pastries for me to try, mostly baked tarts, before I have to try something else or revisit an excellent cake. I went by bicycle, which was quite painful to begin with, due to my sprained arm. But at this point, nothing is going to get better without rehabilitation, so I put up with the pain and my arm improved over time, though it was a little tricky nonetheless.

Éclat des Jours: M. Cola

Was busy in the morning, which included shopping for my next computer. (Got a two-week extension on the loaner, though still not ready to order and delivery could take 3 weeks). Still cycling to see how much that improves the right foot. Lie Wednesday, didn't have a high priority place that I couldn't get to on a weekday and also didn't just get cake from in the last week (Ryoura), so went with the highest priority weekend target, which was Éclat des Jours, where I got M. Cola, which is apparently a summer thing, since I found a one-year all reference to it by Instagram's jum.2525 (in Japanese), though with different decoration bits, because the reading conditions for tiny handwritten cards at calf level behind glass in Japanese with lots of phonetic loan words (often mostly French, though English is common) is not that great, even if you aren't tired from exercising.

Despite the name, there does not seem to be any cola in this, which is consistent with the Japanese phonetics, which is a short (in the Japanese sense) rather than long "o". What it does have milk chocolate and orange and mango (what I didn't identify by myself--maybe that's the "M.") gelatin on a bottom of puffed rice layer. I'm hoping the name didn't put me off too much, but I didn't find it too exciting. I prefer more and darker chocolate and less fruit, though of course it depends on the fruit. I can still call this good, but they're slipped further from the top of the Quite Excellent shop pack.

Frédéric Cassel: Mille Feuille Finger Framboise

Cool with a mist of rain today, so should have been comfortable, but I felt slugish. Not sure why, since actually my average time over 9.6 km was 9.9 km/h, which was faster than I expected.

Visited Frédéric Cassel at Ginza Mitsukoshi again and got Mille Feuille Finger Framboise, which was excellent, as their Mille Feuille Finger series usually is. This is layers of white chocolate, two layers of cream---mango and passion fruit, and raspberry (thus, Framboise)--- and mille-feuille.

[Fri] Yu Sasage: Chiboust Mangue Passion, Deux Fromage ｄ’Été, and Savarin Pêche Melba

Did my running early, in a winding path through Akasaka to Tokyo Midtown, where Toshi Yoroizuka continue to not have old favorites (though I'll visit for something new soon, so it matters that they have something, though I'm not sure that I'll go to Midtown for it). Set off thinking I might do some sort of speed or pace training at Meiji Gaien, but it was too hot and humid (i.e., not raining). I think I did 9 km at about 9 km/h, but I was using paths that Google Maps does not allow (cutting through the park-like path and bridge between a couple buildings), so couldn't calculate very exactly.

In the evening, there was a request for cake, and since Yu Sasage was available and convenient, we went there.

The first cake I had half of was the Chiboust Mangue Passion, which is what it sounds like (a mango and passion fruit chiboust). As chiboust's go, it was more gelatinous (versus airy) than I expected, but still I thought it was excellent. The "egg wash", if I'm getting the translation correct for the Japanese-French, for the bottom caramel tart has mango, as well as banana, whereas the chiboust part has the passion fruit, according to the description. I look chiboust and this as different without being bad, so I found it excellent.

The second cake was Deux Fromage ｄ’Été, which is a summer two-layer (baked and rare) cheesecake flavored with pineapple confit and passion fruit and mango gelatin. I thought the cake was a little grainy, somehow, and also, the rare was pretty soft and the baked part was harder than some I've had, so I was really not appreciating the texture and construction of this one. However, the taste was still good, so this counts as good cake.

Unfortunately, I can't say the same of the last one, which was Savarin Pêche Melba, a baba with a peach liquor and white wine based syrup, a raspberry glazing, some peach confit, vanilla cream, I think accepted with baked white chocolate somewhere, though I'm not sure where, and uncredited almond slices. This was just too dry for me and did not have much taste. Not it was was bad as sponge goes, but what's the point of a dry baba?

Dalloyau: Chou Cubique Mangue

Tried running to Frédéric Cassel, at about 10 km/h in the rain, but even though they still had three types of cakes I hadn't bought yet after my last purchase, last week, this week they were sold out except for two that I've already had, so I'll wait until next Monday, maybe, to visit again.

Instead, I went to Dalloyau and abandoned my "choux à la crème doesn't count as cake" rule and bought the Chou Cubique Mangue for 540 yen. I figured that I've had prejudices against various types of cake that I've overcome, so some day I'll find a cream puff that changes my mind. This wasn't quite there, but it was definitely good. It seemed to be the soft Japanese-style rather than the traditional crisp chou. For the traditional, you really want to get them filled at the time you buy them (e.g., try Ryoco's, if you're willing to order ahead).

(Tues) Dalloyau: Tarte Mangue

Had a long run under the impression that Eclat des Jours was open Fri to Tue, when actually they are open Thu to Mon, but sometimes Tue (yesterday was not one of those open Tue times). On the plus side, the return run was much more comfortable without carrying cake. My backup was Dalloyau, which added less than 1 km (total run was about 22 km; 10 km/h out but 9 km/h average over the total). Another disappoint was that it did not rain as forecast, so it remained hot. My purpose in want to go to Dalloyau was to get the Tarte Mangue (540 yen).

The tart was the usual high quality. It was firm custard on sablé, or something similar, with a layer of mango gelatin on top. It was definitely good but very mild and not very interesting to me. To the best of my knowledge, that catches me up on all available fresh cakes at Dalloyau, but hopefully there will be something new next week with the start of the new month, though some shops wait for the first full week or maybe just the first weekend in the new month to introduce new cakes.