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, Roulé Pêche

As I mentioned in the previous post, I got a Frédéric Cassel, Roulé Pêche on Sunday, as my third cake. This is a peach role cake with cream and mascarpone cheese (a common ingredient at FC). The description doesn't indicate anything about the biscuit part, but it seems less spongy that roll cake usually is, so I suspect some almond powder. It it may just because it includes a crust, whereas usually they cut that off. Anyway, I think it's an improvement and the peach goes well and is a nice variation, so I can say this was excellent, which might be a first time for saying that about a roll cake.

On the running front, I think that was the day I tried the full cake shop neighbor route I've constructed, which extends from southwest Yotsuya Sta., past Sendagaya Sta. and around the park to southeast Shinjuku/Shinjuku San-choume Sta. It's about 12 km and covers 16 neighborhoods (though there are fewer than 16 cake shop sites and it doesn't actually enter every neighborhood, unlike the Top site course). Friday night covered a longer course, 16 km 20 neighborhoods. More recently, I'm working on a major park (namely, the ones with toilets) neighbor course, though I'm working late and haven't even done the part I know.

Sadaharu Aoki, Chou au Mâtcha

I'll make an attempt to finally catch up, and start with the picture of the cake so it shows up at the top when I do a search (I give the cake in the post title, but then I have to actually read). I didn't get my second cake of the weekday until Thursday. I ran every day, though.

Tuesday, I ran down to Lattest, a latte shop on Jinguumai Shopping Street. They close at 7 pm, and were closed during most of the emergency. Cookies come from a jar rather than a wrapper, but I don't know the actual source. At 400 yen, not cheap, but certainly big. They also have a pound cake and a muffin. I would say this was excellent, as cookies go, on the hard side, to maintain shape, but not too hard. Either that day or the next day I went on to shop for nuts and garlic and did a long run back with a heavy pack.

Wednesday, I went to the same street and stopped a few doors down at Neko Neko Shokupan, where they were sold out of their signature item, of course, but they had the French toast version. Even that was very soft, softer than bread really should be for French toast, but still good.

Thursday, I went to Isetan, where my plan was to get a cake-off winner cake from PH, or a repeat cake from JPH, but Sadaharu Aoki had a something I couldn't find any record of having had (despite conflicting memories), so I got the Chou au Mâtcha shown above. It like their usual cream puff, not the "Chou Ginza" ones at Mitsukoshi now. This was definitely excellent, with a nice rich custard balanced by the pastry and definitely flavored with powdered green tea. Unless you really had green tea, it's worth a try, and if you really love it, you shouldn't miss it.

I'll mention that on Friday I ran for 2 hours (though not quickly in the heat, humidity, and mask) to do my recently created top sites neighborhood running course from Yotsuya Sta. to Shinjuku Sta. and down as far as Jinguumae 2. I need to not wear those shoes for that long a run again: they're too light and old and my right foot is not so good.

Ladurée, Saint-Honoré Rose Framboise

My last cake, bought and eaten, of the weekend was a new cake from a reopened shop on the exceptional list, Ladurée. Usually I would buy from Ginza Mitsukoshi, which was still closed, so this is from the Aoyama shop, which also has indoor and outdoor eat-in space, which was in use, though I got take-out. This was the only new cake, as they were keeping their line-up lean for the first weekend reopening in a neighborhood that's still mostly closed. It is the Saint-Honoré Rose Framboise. I like saint-honoré, but I've had one from them before, and the pastry is different from what I'm used to. For example, the large bottom is flaky, which seems impossible, though I haven't experimented with choux pastry that much. Anyway, the rose and raspberry flavors were sufficient rich, that I forgave them this time and allowed that maybe this pastry could be allowed, at least enough to call this an excellent cake.

I had after an evening running where I got maybe 60% through my 13 km neighborhood running course around Daikanyama. I was coming up to a turn and noticing a red brick tower in the distance ahead and had trouble thinking what building by the station it might beyond to. Then I noticed a cross on top and realized that I had missed a church on a side street. It's a nice building, too, though there a couple bigger ones in this neighbor (which has more churches than any other I know in Japan), so I was happy to find it, and quite my run, went back to my bicycle, and got some photos I was missing for Shibuya sites.

Cake-off: Très Calme's Pistache Apricot over L'Abricotier's Montelimar

Working through fourth-round cake-offs for May cakes (based on when I first ate), I ran to L'Abricotier to get their Montelimar (for which I was successful). I went via Aigre-Douce, but the sign on the door indicated that, while they are still in business, they've shorted their hours and switched their holidays so that my working hours overlap theirs. It's a good measure to keep the riffraff out of the neighborhood, though it works better if they don't have to visit to find out. My backup was Très Calme's Pistache Apricot, which is somewhat out of order, but this cake is seasonal, whereas they always have their Mont-Blanc, and also this meant a match-up of two fruity nutty cakes, which seemed reasonable.

After getting the cakes safely home, I had lunch with a pastry rather than the cakes: a Canelé de Bordeaux from L'Abricotier, which usually doesn't have pastries (they also had a card for a chocolate tart next to it, but it was sold out, so I'm not sure what kind of product it was). It was definitely good, which a pretty thick firm crust.

It's a tough choice. The Montelimar is more distinctive among my great cakes, but I really like the pistachio better (versus almond), so I have to go with the Pistache Apricot.

En Vedette, Meringue Chantilly

In the evening of Saturday, I went out to do a neighborhood run for the Nezu Fine Arts Museum clump, which comprises the just revised Minami-Aoyama--Nishi-Azabu south loop, which I did my first clockwise run of, and the tiny Nishi-Azabu 1 north loop, which requires a long run through Aoyama Cemetery, a pretty popular running a bicycling route with a slope. With dinner I actually had a third cake (no holidays this week and I have a lot of priority shops, so I'm working), but I forgot to take a picture. It was Meringue Chantilly, and it looked like the last one I had, except there were some tiny blue/black berries of some sort and the whipped cream was caramel flavored. It's a basic desert and good, but not beyond that. En Vedette needs at least one excellent cake in the next two be able to get promoted at this point, and the choices are getting slim, which is how I ended up with Meringue Chantilly this time.

Paris S'éveille, Tarte Printanière

Got an early start, about 8 am, with the intention to try the Daikanyama-chou--Ebisu-Nishi--Hachiyama-chou--Nanpeidai-chou--Sakuragaoka-chou--Sarugaku-chou--Shibuya--Uguisudani-chou loop. I'm not too surprised that I failed, though large parts of it are unchanged. It's up to 13 km now and I did most of it before I saw that I had skipped a cafe in a religious bookstore; it was on the map, but I needed to make a little loop around it at around halfway. Otherwise, I made some on-the-fly changes, which would have be fine (I knew the official route, but could see how it needed to be fixed). Will try again tomorrow if I wake up early, which I tend to do. On the way, and only 30 minutes out (which wasn't that early with my breakfast before 6 am), I tried a Croissant d'Almonde (not sure if that was the name they used), from the Crossroad Bakery over in Ebisu-Nishi. They require a drink to eat in, so I got takeout and ducked into a garage next door to get out of the rain and maintain social distancing from anyone using the sidewalk, though the streets were pretty empty everywhere I went, except maybe near the supermarket coming back. The Croissant was the kind I liked: baked through, not wet. Definitely good, but didn't seem like the best I've had, or I'm just not into this particular pastry now. I didn't bother to get a picture.

After finding where I went wrong, at around 10:20, I had an hour plus walk (I had had enough running) to Jiyuugaoka, where I got a new cake from Paris S'éveille: Tarte Printanière (Spring Tart). This is a cherry compote tart (with a lot of cherry) as a base and I think almond and pistachio paste/top. I'm not that into cherry, but I'm trying to have an open mind. Certainly, appreciate the nuts and it's a quality tart, so I have to say it's excellent. I'll look forward to the next tart, if that's what comes next, but I'm up to day now, so probably I won't have anything to get from this this month unless it's for a cake-off, but next one with them probably won't be until August.

I also got a Croissant from them (which I ate immediately coming home, whereas the cake was after the first half of lunch), which I've give them the benefit of the doubt and say was excellent. Unless I want to include their brioche, I might be up to date surveying their pastries, though there are probably some pastry-like baked goods that I could retry, but don't necessarily need to be fresh, which is my excuse for revisiting shops for pastries.

En Vedette, Macaron Printemps

Only yesterday, when I was busy in the morning, I did a run out to Miyoshi (where the parks have lots of people, unlike more local parks, which have been taped off) to get a new cake from En Vedette. This time I went for a cake that was actually marked as new, Macaron Printemps, and took the last one on display. We're in the final month of strawberry season, apparently, and strawberries are the most popular fruit (apparently there are more Japanese varieties than any other country's, though China has the biggest production), so no surprise that this is full of strawberries.

Starting with the positive, I walked the cake all the way back, but first had a Pain au Chocolat, also from En Vedette. My breakfast was long before I set out, so I was pretty hungry, which might be why I found this pastry relatively light (so easy to eat), but I believe it was excellent.

Actually, I'm not so hot on this cake. I don't like my macarons too soft, even though that's a deliberate goal for some macaron desserts. The strawberries were fine (I have no idea what variety) and it's reasonable to call it good, but I would steer clear of similar cakes, given a choice. Still, they call all please me and this shop is still in line to be promoted. I'll probably get there back for a new cake.

The running was in the evening, where I finished off confirming my revisions to three of the loops at the corner of Omote-Sandou.

L'Abricotier, Fraisier

Sunday, my goal was just one cake, since I knew I'd have the coming Wednesday off, so I could get one cake during the week. As a challenger for promotion to superb, I got a 24th new cake from L'Abricotier; learning somewhat from the day before, I ran there and mostly walked it back, so it was mostly in good shape. Really, I need to walk my cakes back or use the trains (which are pretty empty these days, so they feel pretty safe, but I should still walk if I can) to maintain photo quality. This was another one of those I-can't-believe-I-haven't-had-this-yet cakes. It's a standard cake various places. On one hand, it's just a way to eat custard and strawberries in cake form, but on the other hand, there isn't anything wrong with that in principle, and I had to admit at the end that it was excellent. Still not the first thing I would go for elsewhere, but I respect it as a reliable standard.

The afternoon was me exploring/practicing the revised neighborhood course around Daikanyama, where there were way too many people out on the north side for a state of emergency, including a pack of about 7 elementary school kids, a procession of three foreign teens girls on bikes without masks, and a lot of people at the restaurants by the main area video/bookstore. I think I'll choose a different time of day than lunch time next time I run through there.

Citron: Tarte Citron

During last week, I tried a new place on the neighborhood running course (though not the part I was working on practicing at the time), Citron in Minami-Aoyama. Actually, they only have the one cake, Tarte Citron, though they also have pound cake. The Tarte Citron is reasonably good, though not special. It's like a giant lemon bar. So one shop got checked off. This week, I'll stick to priority shops.

Les Cacaos, Ville Franchier

Still a week behind, on the return from PS, I also stopped at Les Cacao again, as I try to catch up on exceptional shops (that are didn't suspend business for a month), and got a 7th new cake. I ate it after neighborhood run that successfully (I think, or at least I've been successful by now) did the new Akasaka west loop, which is going to be part of a 4-loop Nogizaka--Roppongi Sta. clump that's 9+ km, plus access routes, that I've put running together so far. Since I've found flaws in both the Omotesando southeast clump loops, that's still the priority, though I've finished the Shibuya Sta. east and north clumps, meaning I've been spending time (on the ground and in front of the computer) figuring out the Diakanyama area, which is become a 12+ km main loop, a side loops that have also expanded.

Anyway, running, and then cake: Ville Franchier. This is a butter cream cake with almond biscuits and a layer of chocolate down there in the shadows of the bottom. It's basically a marjolaine, perhaps, though I hadn't been thinking that at the time. Anyway, buttercream cakes can be boring, and yet, with the right touch of flavor, such as a little chocolate, they can be great. This one comes qualifies as excellent, which boosts Les Cacaos enough to get them out of the bottom of their shop category. Just three more shops to do (though definitely 1 and maybe 2 are suspected for the state of emergency, but the hotel-based one hopefully is continuing).

Pierre Gagnaire, Cheese Cake à la Fraise

Last weekend, as well as a getting a cake for the cake-off, I got one new cake for Pierre Gagnaire, which is challenging the bottom of the quite exceptional shops for a position there. I got Cheesecake (or maybe it was Fromage) aux Fraises, I'll say, but I should check next weekend. I ate this after some running down around Minami-Aoyama on neighborhood course loops. I added a couple sites in the process, a cafe with a sign for take-out cake (as well as closed for the declaration of emergency) and a vegan shop/restaurant with ads for vegan sweets that might have just been closed but it was night during an emergency. As cheesecake goes, this cake is very mild, to the point that I wasn't sure there was going to be any cheese taste at all, but then it cake. Still, pretty minimal. However, there is a lot of strawberry compote in the little ball and I decided in the end that I could credit for being excellent.

Albida Lounge, Chocolat Fondant

Tried a new shop as my second/last weekday cake. This was a spontaneous decision, though I had noticed the shop before, but the next neighbor running course shops was planned to be Citron, on the Minami-Aoyama loop in the Gaien clump, both of which I'm up to date on. But I was doing the Minami-Aoyama--Nishi-Azabu on the other side of the main north-south road and noticed that the hotel lounge/cafe had cake, so I went in there, and sure enough they have a few types and if was available for take-out (at least during corona times). This is Albida Lounge, for the record. I went with the Chocolat Fondant, which came with whipped cream, though I didn't take good care of it. The cake isn't cheap but pretty large as fondant go and quite a fine texture, so I think it's reasonable to call it excellent. That's not enough to take me back immediately, but its enough for it to keep its place in the fine shops long enough to get a second try when I get around to getting second cakes from similar shops.

As a result, I had to revised the loop. Actually, this shop is on an outside corner with sites on the two interior sides, so I had to make the block its own loop, but the clump stays together. I didn't feel a need to re-practice the whole think, just this slit loop.

Actually, I had one more weekday thing, but it counts of a pastry. Friday at lunch time, I got an Apple Pie from Yatsudoki in Shinjuku 1, on the grounds that it looks like a Chauson aux Pommes. It really is more of an apple pie. On the plus side, the inside is well cooked. On the minus side, though it might because I heated it up (3 minutes at 120 degC), but it seemed overly greasy. It was good, but it doesn't give me an incentive to explore there further.

Pierre Hermé, Bayadère

For last week, I had three cakes left for the weekdays, but didn't expect to find that many. However, if I wanted to try a lot of new shops, there are places out there on my neighborhood running map, such as this cafe, which was open close to 9 pm in Roppongi, with an outdoor cake case and a "take-out" sign, so it gets added to the map. There are still closer in ones open on the neighborhood course.

One major player that is still open until 7 pm is Pierre Hermé, which I owed a cake from a cake-off win a while back, so I got something new, Bayadère. This is lime in the white chocolate with strawberry and rhubarb compote, passion fruit with lime gelatin and a sablé breton base. It's definitely good and interesting, but perhaps I should have gone for the new cheesecake, though I can't regret taking a gamble on something more ambitiously different. Among my supposedly superb shops, this one is most precarious, so a couple challengers from the quite exceptional list once again have a chance to overtake it (not that either has enough new cakes to match it anyway).

Cake-off: En Vedette's Rocher over Pierre Gagnaire's Mousse au Chocolat et Yuzu

Saturday late afternoon, I went out intending to see if any shops on the Jinguumae--Kita-Aoyama loop that I wanted to hit were open (none were), but before I got that far, I ran into a new shop in Naitou-machi,

'A'ala Herbalbar Yotsuya, that was selling baked goods through a plastic screen, so I got what they were calling a Strawberry Scone, or at least I'm interpreting what they showed me as saying that. It's not particularly scone-shaped, but the structure is basically correct, except it's also got frosting, so it's pretty far from a scone. It was good, though, and I wish them luck. It means I have to expand my Naitou-machi loop to include them, but it doesn't effect the total distance of the clump much. It's on the way to lots of places, so I just have to remember to do it when I'm going or coming back from that direction.

I only ran about half of a long afternoon, walking the rest, as I was adding pictures for mostly convenience stores, coffee shops, and drug stores that to the running map. I started with Harajuku, went down to Shibuya Station and then worked back up Aoyama-doori until Aoyama 1-choume.

The main event of the day, and the reason I visited two shops, besides wanting new cakes from both, was for a cake-off between two recently discovered cakes that won their first rounds: Pierre Gagnaire's Mousse au Chocolat et Yuzu and En Vedette's Rocher. Even though one was mousse, I found that the cooler was too much for it, so I set both aside at halfway through and gave them another 5 minutes before I finished, which made both just right. Still both great cakes, but the Rocher has more flavors textures going on, so it gets the win, even though the chocolate mousse is a great presentation and I don't get tired of it (which is good, because I plan a 3rd round with it soon).

Pierre Gagnaire, La Fraise

Get up early due to not getting back to sleep and wet off to do the National Art Center clump of my neighborhood running course, which stretches from Aoyama 1 Stn. to the east and west most exits of Roppongi Stn. From the last, I made a side trip to Pierre Gagnaire, so it was a gentler trip home, which I reached a little before 09:00. I was success at the clump, which is 5.452 km by itself. I still have to do the farthest (but smallest) loops clockwise again.

After a carrot (as something to hold down a spike in blood sugar), I had La Fraise, which is a shape cake. This is obviously a solid shell. Inside is mostly very light strawberry mousse, with a little bit of custard and strawberry (I'm not sure whether the custard is needed to project the mousse from the strawberry). The "leaf" is pretty gummy, so probably best to eat it separately, unless you like that kind of thing. It was very nice, if light and a little hard to each, since the shell breaks apart (I assume it's white chocolate based). Still, a definitely good cake. 

Fiorentina Pastry Boutique, Strawberry Tiramisu

Monday, I didn't work late and ran to Ginza Mitsukoshi, where I didn't find what I was looking for (though I forgot then to look at Ladurée, so I'll need to visit their Aoyama shop on the weekend, since everywhere else is completely closed), and headed over the Foiorentina Pastry Boutique, working on the cakes from quite exceptional shops. They're in a hotel, so I have to pass a body temperature test, but they let me into the lobby. At the cake counter, there was not a huge selection, but they were open. I got the Strawberry Tiramisu, which is a standard I've often seen. I'll say that it was good, but not more than expected. Sort of like soft cheese (compared to cakes in general) with strawberry flavoring.

Tuesday, I went to Isetan the last day before department stores shut down, so almost everything was sold out. I got the Florentin Nature from Sadaharu Aoki, and this was great, for what's basically a cookie. I haven't said that about any other cookie, so I'll need to keep sampling there from the category, but I'll need to do it at he Marunouchi shop on a weekend or holiday if I want to do it over the next month.

Yatsudoki, Chocolate Pompette

As a new shop to visit while I wait for the month to run out, I visited a shop of the dessert chain Yatsudoki, which has cakes, among other things. For logistical reasons, I ended up visiting the Shinjuku branch rather than the Jinguumae branch on the neighborhood course, though I had gone by that one on the way out. I choose the dense chocolate layer cake, which is not on the website. It's layers of almond biscuit and ganache, I assume, with some, probably inconsequential, amount of alcohol, thus the pompette. It's a relatively new chain (or a new brand of a relatively new chain), compared to most of the chain stores of the same level. Anyway, it's still a low level, but it was still good cake, which is a huge improvement over some of cheap chain shops that are hanging on, it least based on my small sample of each. Next, on to better things, though (if I could just finish work on time or if shops could stay open later without spreading illness).

Atsushi Hatae, Gourmandise

Foraging for food, I went out again today. I originally intended to do a neighborhood course clump, but quickly decided that the weather was too miserable, and that I wasn't actually confident about the changes I made in merging three loops into one, and combing that with two other loops, one new, to form the clump.  Fortunately, the miserable weather and general requests to avoid unnecessary excursions, kept people off the streets around the time I was running (i.e., during the March snow). I wasn't the only jogger, or the only one buying food that might not be vital to life, but it was pretty easy to keep a good distance from everyone. I'm remembering, now, that running, like alcohol, might not be best for maintaining good judgement, so I plan to be even more careful next time, if there is a next time (i.e., if the city isn't completely locked down). When I jogged in the evening, it certainly looked (from afar), that some shops were hurting for sales, as I would expect, at least for ones away from residential areas. But enough of the depressing stuff.

Working on the neighborhood sites, I got mini-financiers from Chavaty, which is a milk and tea shop (though I don't like milk in my tea), that has scones, but no clotted cream, so I'm not sure whether to trust them for scones. Thus, I went with the mini-financiers. They aren't like homemade, but maybe not everyone likes their financiers as baked/dry as I do. Also, these seem to be chocolate, from the color, though I can't tell so much from the flavor for this kind of baked good. They were good, but not impressive. I think I got 12 originally, but this was after the late run (after I dried off, had lunch, and then the first cake).

The first shop I got cake from was the Sarugaku-chou (the website, of course, says Daikanyama, since that's the nearest station and more sophisticated than "monkey pleasure") Atsushi Hatae shop that opened last year (at the same time as his other two shops). I went with the Gourmandise as likely to meet my tastes, as well as being strong for the return trip, which probably took me an hour through mush and detours trying to confirm other shops. Tea-flavored chocolate ganache, caramel and orange chocolate cream, and hazelnut praliné as the main components. Quite sophisticated, though not original, which is fine with me. I can call it excellent. This shop goes on the list of fine shops as one that I definitely want to get back to, in the next year or so (under the current strict system).

Cake-off: Pierre Gagnaire's Mousse au Chocolat et Yuzu over En Vedette's Mont-Blanc

Only yesterday, on a necessary trip for food, I did neighborhood course run down through western Minami-Aoyama down to Roppongi. Coming back, I stopped for my first pastry from Nino Caffe, across the main north-south street from Nogi Park. They had various fillings, and plain, but I went with the chocolate. Note sure how they were naming this, so I'll call it a just Chocolate Croissant. The croissant is pretty soft and holds a lot of filling, which seems to be chocolate custard. Very rich and good, but of of course, not so sophisticated. It was too messy to each on the way, so I saved it for home, even though I was also carrying cake and still needed to stop at a grocery (where the shelves were pretty bare, so I just got bananas, which I was running low on).

The main event, of course, was the cake-off, though that required another trip, this time down to Shibuya through Jinguumae, where I found that Yatsudoki had built a shop deep in on a street not on the running course. In the end, adding it led to merging three loops, so I'm back to having one big loop south of Omote-Sandou Road to match the one north, for the main strip between Harajuku Stn. and Omote-Sandou Stn. That's turned this clump of loops (which include a new one using the remaining bridge over Meiji-Doori to get to a little loop under Yamanote Line that has a coffee shop and a convenience store. Under current conditions, Shibuya Scramble Square had almost no customers, so social distancing was possible.

Today's match up was a first-round cake-off between two recent picks, and I'm still a little tentative about both, but they both are great simple cakes, chocolate mousse cake in the form of Pierre Gagnaire's Mousse au Chocolat et Yuzu and meringue mont-blanc in En Vedette's Mont-Blanc. I'm giving this one to the mousse cake, because it manages to give a real dark chocolate taste to mousse and cutting it with yuzu so it doesn't wear out it's welcome. En Vedette should get a remain yet, as their Roche also has one win.