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.

Très Calme, Chic

Last Monday was a holiday, Coming of Age Day. I visited another exceptional shop, this time Très Calme. The new cake I chose was Chic, which is passion fruit and, I think, apricot. Though I haven't been bothering to report about pastries lately, but I want to say that the I'll mention that I also got a Kouign Amann as my first fresh pasty from there and I thought it was maybe great, being of the same form as Paris S'eveille, which has been my favorite. I look forward to visiting there further for pastries. I ran and walked there, but walked back, and not by the shortest route, so I got a good amount of exercise.

Back to the cake Chic, the fruit part manages to be firm without being stick-gelatinous or runny and the fruits harmonize into mellow but satisfying flavor. The texture along with the flavor make this an excellent cake for me, so Très Calme remain in good standing among the exceptional shops. This was my best new cake of the long holidays. 

Éclat des Jours, Passion Chocolat

The final cake of last Saturday was a second cake from Éclat des Jours, as it comes time to lift the exceptional shops up to 16 net cakes (plus cake-off wins). However, since Éclat des Jours won the cake-off, this was the reward and I still need that next cake, though maybe I'll let the Toshi Yoroizuka go first.

Taking a break from running through the fruit tarts (though there might only be a mixed tart left), I got a cake new to the line-up, as well as me, Passion Chocolat. As one would expect, this is passion fruit and white chocolate, an excellent cake.

 

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.

Sadaharu Aoki, Hassaku Passion

Sadaharu Aoki: Hassaku Passion

My running Sunday night was actually to get more cake, which was less ambitious than I originally planned, though I wasn't expecting to be successful, since it was late on a Sunday, when everything is usually sold-out. I went to the south Tokyo Sta. area and naturally went first to the Sadaharu Aoki main shop. I was looking for their yearly exclusive, which I still haven't gotten, even though the year starts in April. I did get something that they just promoted again, but I could have gotten to Isetan, if I were more patient, Hassaku Passion, which is hassaku orange (which is a Japanese variety which is apparently somewhat grapefruit like) and passion fruit on a coconut accented sablé. The description makes clear that it is mild, which it is, so not really my thing, but good.

En Vedette, Cocoanana

After a long week of mostly long work days (except Monday and Friday, which is the reverse of usual), I took advantage of the reopening of Shibuya Scramble Square and its relatively late hours even under pandemic conditions (compared to local department stores), and got a new cake from En Vedette, which is challenging the quite exceptional shop list. This time I got new cake Cocoanana as (maybe, I'm suspecting I'm overlooking one) the 16th cake from there. Note to parse as Coco+Anana, as in coconut and pineapple, though there is also, I think some passion fruit sauce. The coconut aspect was fine, but pineapple cake isn't so exciting. Good, but it's starting to look doubtful that the shop will get a promotion. Still, they have a great cake that's only done one round, so I'd probably get back there soon regardless, if I can get two new great cakes available and the same time.

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).

Paris S'éveille, Palet d'Or

In the afternoon, I tried going down to Paris S'éveille, as I was thinking they might have a new cake, which have been rare from them, so I've fallen behind in that respect. I went with Palet d'Or, which seem very familiar, as something that I ate in, but I can't find any record of it and the experience wasn't that familiar, so I'm not sure what I'm thinking of. This is a layer of dried fruits and almonds under passion fruit sauce (congealed). I suppose the sauce and the whipped cream on top are what make it a cake versus a cookie, but I'm not going to quibble, as, whatever you call it, it's quite nice. I can say that this is excellent, which usually I can't about their new cakes. They've been playing around with fruitier cakes for a while, but it seems now like they're finally getting the hang of it.

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).

Sadaharu Aoki, Cuneo

Got cake from Isetan again, this time Cuneo from Sadaharu Aoki. Had other shopping, so still got a late start on running. Again, I went by bicycle first and parked, this time right on my Roppongi 5 loop, which goes past Azabu-Juuban Station. It's an easy course only 1.09 km, so getting it correct clockwise was not a big deal. I almost got the next one, the Azabu-Dai--Azabu-Mamiana-chou--Higashi-Azabu loop, but there's a short turn after "Rat slope" that I missed because at that point I was not sure which direction I was supposed to go and went up the next slope to the main east-west street rather than curving back around to the main north-south street. At night in a dip, I couldn't tell what direction I was going, but now I know what to do, so next time should be easy, since I was almost done. The Moto-Azabu--Azabu-Juuban loop I knew I had no idea, though the main trouble is around the station, so if I can get through that part, the rest should be okay (if full of steep slopes). I might make it next time, but won't be surprised if I don't. I walked a lot of it and decided to then head for home to finish by 9 pm. The Minami-Azabu west loop will have to wait for Saturday, probably.

Didn't read the details and they haven't posted it yet, but the Cuneo is chocolate and hazelnuts flavored by passion fruit. Like last night's, if I was expecting a chocolate taste, I would be surprised. As a review from 2015 pointed out, it's sour (for lack of another English word), but not in a bad way. Certainly the balance was good, so it wasn't just fruit backed by chocolate/nuts but a real harmony (unlike last night's cake, where chocolate could provided little flavor against the fruit onslaught). This was the usual high quality and was definitely excellent.

Frédéric Cassel, Inspiration Passion Framboise

Managed to get to Ginza and back without seeing the rain that made the street wet. Just under 54 minutes, or 6 cycles at a 1:9 walk:run split, not counting forced stops and underground walking. I've finally got back to Frédéric Cassel for a new cake, in response to probably a couple cake-off wins. There were three new choices, which should be enough for this month. I went with the one cake from this month's inspiration series, Inspiration Passion Framboise, which is raspberry mousse, passion fruit mousseline, and a fairly thick biscuit in the bottom of that dome to balance out the texture. It's not a combination that I see or would think to search out, but I think it was great. Finding the next great cake was easier than I expected, I just needed to get back to the best shop with new available cakes. For cake-offs, it's not so convenient, since it will be gone at the end of the month and will probably never reappear, but that gives it time for the maximum three rounds, so it deserves its chance while its here.

Sadaharu Aoki: Choux Coco Passion

Not sure of the French, but I got the coconut (whipped) cream and passion fruit custard choux pastry, which I'll call Choux Coco Passion. This was a third try to get it, though it's supposed to be available through late August. For exercise, I fast-walked a neighborhood running course, a semi-new one, in that I decided that I should do the full loop around Akasaka Palace rather than just link up one side to the park on the north end. Today I did it clockwise (which is against the main running traffic). I walked faster than I sometimes run, so I'm feeling pretty ready to run, though I'm going to take it slow when I do.

The cream puff was good. The passion fruit custard is pretty strong, so I didn't particularly notice the whipped cream, though I usually don't like whipped cream on these, so that might reflect that I liked it. Unusually, this is not an ordinary cream puff in that the bottom part doesn't have a bottom, just the custard sets on the paper, although it's thick enough that you can still pick it up and eat it without more more trouble than you would if the bottom were pastry. I'm going to have to check the next variety to see if their cream puffs are always like this. It's fairly heavy too, so a match for your average cake, much less your average cream puff. I'll rate this as excellent.

Del'Immo: Noisette & Montblanc Chocolat

Went to the Del'Immo café for cake for two. I knew that they were not a high priority after the shop ranking reorganization, but I didn't like to give up on them as a back-up and the new Sadaharu Aoki Marunouchi exclusive cake seems to be Opera, which is no good for me. The cake was Noisette and Montblanc Chocolat. The noisette had a strong enough hazelnut flavor to stand out against the chocolate and there was also a layer of passion fruit and orange, which harmonized well. This was definitely good cake, but I was bored with the texture, perhaps. The Montblanc Chocolat was also good, as a mixture of cream and chocolate but stood out less.

They were still pretty good cakes for basically a café restaurant, but I may never get back there, as I don't think I'm likely to find anything great. Of course, it also depends on how comparable shops do.

Clair de Lune, Passion Chocolat

As planned, I ran up to the Clair de Lune in the Marui just across from Ueno Station, which is about a kilometer closer each way than going to the main store. Taking the shortest route, I run down a short seedy hostess bar street, which is no big deal (it's well lit and loudspeakers repeat the local police saying that I shouldn't trust anyone who tries to lure me in and that such action is illegal, though there are still people in front of individual clubs/bars who presumably know what they can get away with; probably they'll talk to you if you go up to them, but otherwise are just standing there or talking to each other while they wait for someone interesting to come along) and then the crowded back streets of cheap shops and food stalls on the other side of the main street, but it's okay.

I hadn't looked around in the basement of Marui before, just verified that Clair de Lune was there (and they're right at the bottom of the escalator), so I hadn't noticed that it was mostly eat-in places rather than counters for take-out, not like the department store food areas, maybe more like parts of Tokyo Midtown, but cheaper. Anyway, I could eat in-at a spacious counter next to the cake shop counter. I got the Passion Chocolat, though there were a few other more basic options that I haven't tried yet, and I probably should have chosen a piece having more chocolate, since there was variation in the balance between them and I was given a choice. Still, it was a good flavor, as good as I've gotten in good passion fruit and chocolate cakes from elsewhere, maybe even from JPH, though the bottom biscuit did not impress me. The aftertaste of the cake was sort of gingery, which I couldn't detect over the passion fruit when I was eating it and also might be unrelated to the biscuit. The biscuit was not bad, just it was a dense chocolate cake with no particular character and I wanted something more dramatic to contrast with the passion fruit and chocolate cream/mousse. There was some crunch element between cake and cream as well, but also not sufficient to make much impression. It was definitely good cake and I wasn't really disappointed, but it's going to be hard to keep this shop in the quite excellent group, which I knew from the beginning. I need to get another cake from Del'Immo before visiting Clair de Lune again, since it's a potential rival.

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.

Au Bon Vieux Temps, Nonetto and Ryoura, Passionemon

Had a long run out to, first, Au Bon Vieux Temps. Thinking that I had lost an umbrella (since found) I stopped by the doughnut shop and swung through Kita-aoyama and found that Q-Pot Café had moved northeast (I had seen the new shop, but wasn't sure whether it was a branch or also whether it included the café), so I can take the kink out of that neighborhood running course loop (the new shop is already on the adjacent northeast loop).

It took the usual 100 minutes to get to Au Bon Vieux Temps (since I always seem to take a detour), where I went with the Nonetto, which is chocolate, passion fruit, and hazelnuts. This was in reward for winning a cake-off, since otherwise I've already over-sampled this shop, which is quite excellent.

Since I wanted to go back by train, and it takes two lines, and also my priority is more to get two weekend cakes and run without cake another day during the week, I ran to Ryoura, which only too about another 20 minutes.

Google said I could get a bus and arrive in the same time, but waiting for a bus on Sunday wasn't attractive, even if the Nonetto got a little skewed. At Ryoura, which I've undersampled, I went with the first cake in the line-up that I hadn't had before, which was the Passionemon (Or I suppose Passion Lemon if you don't pronounce the L, but "lemon" is no French for lemon, so forget that), which is, of course, passion fruit and lemon, with whipped cream and I think light meringue on top.

The results are perhaps predictable. The Nonetto is lots of things that I like and Au Bon Vieux Temps doesn't lack skill, so it was excellent. The Pssionemon is fruit and more fruit with nothing substantial to cut it (I had tea, but not that much), so as much as a tried, though it was good and I enjoyed it, it wasn't special to me. Au Bon View Temps remains near the bottom and Ryoura remains near the top (and I've had about double the cakes from the former), so not much changed, just these are likely to stay settled as quite excellent shops, though my priority is still to get too more cakes from Ryoura, and that's even before I get them into another cake-off (they currently have one great cake available, but I've already done the first round).

Éclat des Jours: Safari

Éclat des Jours won the last cake-off, so I wanted to try a new cake from there, but I'm not ready to run that far or fast enough to arrive by closing time, so I went by bicycle. Today got up to 38 deg, so it was still plenty hot after work, but by bicycle was fine and was much better than under the sun Saturday morning. I got Safari this time, which I've seen before but hadn't tried. This is passion fruit and a little banana. It was good and I enjoyed it, but banana makes it sort of everyday (though I have cake most days), even though I approve of this sort of cake with a kind of outer shell.

More importantly, I noticed that their great rum raisin cake is back, just it's gone square from rectangular, so I'll probably have it in a second-round cake-off before too long.

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.

Pierre Marcolini: Éclair Saison (Passion Fruit)

Went to Ginza Mitsukoshi to finally get the choux cream from Frédéric Cassel, just to get ahead or not get behind on the top shop with available new cakes while I work on catching up excellent shops to 5 cakes each and  digging deeper in the line-ups of shops that might deserve up-grades (which includes one of the previous category that did well, Ryoura). Unfortunately, they were sold out of that item, maybe because of a SMS post of a similar item and it being a Friday night, when one is always lucky to find anything. Of course they had other cakes I hadn't sampled, but nothing I was particularly interested in, so, after verifying that Origines Cacao at Ginza 6 still has none of the great cakes of a few years ago, I went with finally visiting a new shop, Pierre Marcolini, which in Tokyo only has something cake-like at their Ginza mother store (they are a chocolate brand, but mostly use ice cream as bait at their shops/counters). I wanted to visit here because of their visit to Isetan (I waited to long to try to buy an éclair there, and they had switched to less perishable items).

I'm calling this Éclair Saison (Passion Fruit), which is slightly different from Éclair Passion Fruit (shown elsewhere online) in having macaron shells and white chocolate disks; no complaint here. Actually the filling base is white chocolate too, which makes sense for a chocolate shop. Interestingly, they rang this up with a 6 yen discount to round it down to the nearest 10s/50s/250s. This was definitely excellent. Maybe I should always choose fruit flavors when it comes to éclair (I choose it over pineapple and coconut, which was the only other flavor left that time of night, whereas they've been completely sold out the other time I went, to verify their location), though I suspect the choice of white chocolate over some sort of custard cream as the base filling is important.