Shiseido Parlour, Mont-Blanc

The emergency declaration for the Tokyo region as been rescinded, so Isetan is now open until 8 pm. Searching for a new great cake within this month but still working through the quite fine shops, I hit the Shiseido at Isetan. The 8 pm closing time was new, so it was pretty empty just after 7 pm and already discounts from the non-dessert areas had started. I had two shops to choose from to visit and I went with Shiseido. Actually, I may not have had a choice. At Shiseido, I definitely didn't have a choice because they only had their Mont-Blanc. As it happens, that was pretty lucky, because this was definitely lucky. The special feature of this is that the cream inside (I think) has white chocolate. The result is a mont-blanc that tastes like (not wet) ice cream to me, and not much like chestnut, which actually I'm fine with. There were actually also exercises. Besides walking, I did squats, presses, and curls. The squats were only 5 per set, but I did too many sets, I found out afterward, so I was limited the next couple days. Now I have an incentive to building up those muscles. 

Lotus, Matcha White Chocolate

The other new cake from last Sunday was a second cake from Lotus, from which I had an excellent apple cheesecake. Selection is limited to things that slice well and probably have good shelf-life. I went for Matcha White Chocolate, knowing it was a long shot. It wasn't bad and lived up to the name that I can call it good, so I'll call this a fine shop and leave it at that.

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.

 

En Vedette, Annette

Monday night, even though I did exactly the same thing Friday, I ran down to Viron in Shibuya to see whether they had a new cake, which they didn't. From there, I went to En Vedette, since they were close and I'm coming up on wanting another new cake from them (and several other quite exceptional shops). As it happened, they had one that tempted me, so I went for it: Annette. Unfortunately, I've already forgotten what the fruit was, but the picture shows strawberry, which I can believe. It wasn't so strong, obviously, nor would I want it to be in this kind of cake. Also inside was pistachio cake, but again, mild, so not my kind of cake so much. But the outside was white chocolate, and that is a fine taste, with the others just there to accent it. So even if it's not along my usual lines, it was a high quality item that I enjoyed, so I can say it was excellent.

While I'm blogging, I'll admit that I was lazy and walked back, protecting my cake. Tuesday, I did a run just out to Tokyo Midtown for my favorite grocery chocolate, also stopping for some Lindt chocolate that was 63% discounted at the local supermarket. Wednesday, I got up early and ran before work (which I wasn't taking the morning off). A little more crowded on the streets than my evening runs around there, but felt good. I stopped by Pierre Gagnaire and confirmed that the folks working there aren't actually told about the cakes (green tea is the theme, but one of the cakes on the posters I haven't actually seen in person). In the evening was rain and Thursday I am taking off the morning (though the rain is predicted to be even heavier then, so probably just walking for cake), so I worked out indoors, more than I usually do, which means three rather than two NHK muscle training clips (but the level 2 ones, so...) and a couple sets of curls, which is a couple more than I usually do lately.

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.

Pierre Gagnaire: Green Tea and White Chocolate Cake

Leading text. Thursday was a holiday, as part of a four-day weekend prepared for the Olympics. I used it to visit Pierre Gagnaire and get their other new cake, Green Tea and White Chocolate Cake, which follows the same literal naming as the other cake; can't say that I mind. In fact, I started the next week's cakes early, but I expected to be busy two days, and did not actually have any cake then. White chocolate seems a much better pairing with matcha than blond chocolate, and this was excellent. There might have been some sort of custard in the middle, or maybe it was just cream. Anyway, excellent cake. It was raining, so I walked there and continued on for a second stop. This actually brings this shop level with quite exceptional shops, as far as new cake count, and it maintained its rating edge, so Lenôtre loses it's place, as expected.

Il Pleut sur la Seine, Today's Cake

Visiting exceptional shops, I hit Il Pleut sur la Seine second on Sunday, which opened after being closed from the beginning of the state of emergency being declared, I think. I got "Today's Cake", which was how it was labeled. I asked the name and they told me, but I've forgotten, something not helpful or original, 1 word, like "seduction" or "satisfaction", but neither of those, I think. Anyway, I don't think it's a regular, although it s standard type I've seen elsewhere and once thought was great: it's three layers of bitter, milk, and white chocolate. Really, my tastes have moved on, so I should no better. It's not cheap, either. Of course, it is well made with good ingredients, so it was good, but it didn't make me want to return soon.

En Vedette, Fragola

Monday or Tuesday (can't remember which), I took advantage of the fact that, during the week, the food floors kept their regular hours, so I could go after work for another new cake from En Vedette, which is heading for promotion. I've run through most of their line-up, so I went for the shape cake this time, Fragola (which is Italian for strawberry). The outside is white chocolate and the inside is lemon cream and strawberry jelly. The cake provides some texture variation, but I think it needs something more on that front. It's good, but weak for me, maybe because I'm not a big strawberry fan.

Emporter (Yotsuya), Harmonie and Gateau Fraise

Was mostly busy over the weekend. Saturday, though, I went a couple new places. One was only semi-new, and without cake: the Pierre Hermé in Marunouchi, which sells drinks, some suitable gift items, soft ice cream, and a few baked goods. We got Marron Pie and some ice cream (orange and passion fruit, maybe). The Marron Pie counts as a pastry, though it was after 4 pm, so I'm not called it fresh. Still, it was well made, so counts as excellent within that scope: no complaints.

The soft ice cream was fine, though not within my scope of interest, even with the macarons (which were particularly hard and not like macarons I've made, so I'm suspecting the modified recipe to produce something more robust and cookie-like to stand up being stuck into ice cream, though the shape was correct).

The actual cake came from a new shop in the root clump of loops in my neighbor running course, Emporter (a name shared with a Setagaya shop). I asked for a recommendation, and had suggested Harmonie, which is white chocolate with a (suitably) limited amount of raspberry. The other cake chosen was the Gateau Fraise, though I would have gone with something dark chocolate.

I thought both cakes were good, though that standout good. However, my co-eater was quite impressed by the Gateau Fraise and its generous amount of whipped cream.

Since Japanese strawberry short  (which even the name card gave as a description) is not my thing and my partner definitely does like them, I'm to assume superior power of discernment and record the strawberry cake as excellent, which at least puts this shop in the solid part of the fine shops (important, since this this and the category above it are grossly bloated, so it would only take about ten more new shops to force me to create a new lower category for most of these shops).

Coffee Parlor Hilltop, Lemoncello

Ran to Coffee Parlor Hilltop to bring them up to 6 tried cakes, my target level for exceptional shops, so I can stop treating them as a new shop. It was a good run there, but I got lazy walking back about halfway, though I tried to keep it a good walk. I did basic indoor non-weights exercises at home. I had a late start, or maybe I would have done more.

As the 6th cake, I choose the Lemoncello, which is, according to my translation of the card, lemon cream and glaze and milky white chocolate mousse. It's a small cake, but elegant, and a nice change. I'll rate it excellent.

Wako Annex, Saint-Honoré Orange & Charmant Fraise

Was busy this weekend, but was out at Ginza Mitsukoshi Saturday later afternoon and was able to skip ahead (alphabetically) and visit the Wako Annex for cake for two, which is one of three holiday/weekend-only two-cake quite fine shops. I really like some saint-honoré, so I went with the Saint-Honoré Orange. The other chosen cake was Charmant Fraise, which is white chocolate and strawberry.

The first is a good quality saint-honoré with some orange compote, maybe, in the center. It seemed like a good idea and well executed, so I'm willing to say that it was excellent. The Charmant Fraise was also good, though less appreciated by me. I was hoping for more flavor from the white chocolate maybe, but its nice if mild strawberry cake with a moussy texture.

Fiorentina Pastry Boutique, Estate

After visiting a top 3 shop (quite superb) Tuesday, and a top 15 shop (quite exceptional) on Wednesday, I went for a shop in the quite fine group that I want to slim down to being part of the top 63 shops. This time it was the Fiorentina Pastry Boutique, which is the pastry shop attached to the Tokyo Grand Hyatt Hotel in Roppongi Hills. It's been more than two years since I was last there. On the way, I ran the 550 m bordering the Akasaka Palace grounds and walked the rest, but was a start at running again.

As cake, I got Estate, I think. My main concern was not to get the same cake as previously more than worrying about the details, so I didn't finish reading the card before ordering. From the card and the taste, this definitely has peach and liquor. It also obviously has a lot of white chocolate. I'm not sure about the cake layers, as there was a brown layer and a green layer. I ate with green tea and either the green in the cake was green tea or it was pistachio that harmonized with the fruit. In any case, it was very nice and different from other cakes I've enjoyed, so I'm going to say that it was great. I don't have any candidates to quickly get it in a cake-off and it seems seasonal, so the immediate consequence it to put it at the top of the quite fine category, making a candidate for promotion. I'll try to get back there in the next couple weeks.

Michalak, Tarte Pistache

Today, cake from Michalak again, as planned. I tried a second tart, the Tarte Pistache. The base is almond cream flavored with orange and rose, pistachio praliné, with mascarpone cheese, whipped cream, and pistachio paste in white chocolate icing, or some combination of those ingredients, as I got a little lost in the description online. The result is somewhat mild, as one would expect from mascarpone cheese and whipped cream, though still definitely good, and better from me than the previous chocolate one, though similar. This shop is currently beating some excellent ones, so it will probably get promoted from quite good, but it hasn't reached 6 cakes yet and I haven't tested either of the cakes identified as great yet in a cake-off, so I'll hold off a little while long. In the meantime, I'll try a new shop over the weekend, I hope, as well as the planned cake-off to test the first great cake.

Luciole: J'aime, Paris-Brest, & Gateau Meringue

Gateau Meringue

On day 6 of GW, I got cake from Luciole, which is a shop at the Hotel Piena in Kobe, as takeout. I don't recognize the name of the shop, though I've gotten cake from this location before, just the hotel name. Anyway, it's pretty big as a café space, since it might also be the hotel's breakfast space. However, they have a problem with takeout, in that they give you a huge box in a huge bag, which provides some stability, but the protection of the cakes within the box is completely inadequate.

Paris-Brest

There were one centimeter high paper walls to separate cakes, which did nothing to keep the tall, delicate meringue cake (above from their website) from falling over, even with fairly careful handling. I thought I told them something strange last time I ordered at that location that made them just leave the cakes loose inside (and maybe I did), but this time all the blame is on them. That said, the cake was good, better than average from places I've sampled in Kobe when I was sampling for essentially everywhere (which I don't do in Tokyo very widely these days). The Gateau Meringue was still good, but it's just meringue, white chocolate, and some berries in a decorative package. The Paris-Brest had an unusual pastry, not the usual choux pastry, but maybe the soft version used for Japanese-style choux cream. It was good, but I like a much more decadent style.

The final one, J'aime, is pistachio over chocolate. It is much airier/spongier that other dome cakes I have had, which one should guess from the air bubbles, again (like the previous day's) seemingly in keeping with a local style. It also was good and well balanced, but the texture was boringly soft.

Anniversaire Café, Blanche & Porto Rouge

Yesterday, I had a relative short run, less than 6 km, and today (Saturday), I didn't run at all, though I walked a similar distance. This was partially because I was busy, partially laziness, and partially acknowledging that I need to take a full day off running sometimes to let my feet rest. Continuing with reviewing the quite good shops, I went back to Anniversaire Café above Omotesandou Station on Omotesandou Avenue. After a very nice lunch at the same place, I shared cake for two: Blanche & Porto Rouge. The first is a kind of light strawberry shortcake, with low-fat cream, strawberry, and sponge cake including rice flower. I thought it was definitely good, though I'm not much into shortcake to begin with.

The Porto Rouge was similar flavors, with port wine, berry gelatin, and some white chocolate. Maybe also not my thing, but it was definitely well made and I feel excellent is reasonable classification, so I think this shop will make the final cut. We won't necessarily wait until I need a fifth new cake from them to visit again.

Angelina: Strawberry White Mont-Blanc and Orange Caramel Mont-Blanc

Angelina: Mont-blanc and White Strawberry Mont-blanc

Thursday through Saturday, I was semi-busy, so all the running was on my neighborhood course trying to review and confirm loops forward and backward, as I work through my list outward. Not sure where I left things off, but I've most recently completed the Jinguumae--Kita-Aoymama--Shibuya, Minami-Aoyama 3&4, and Kasumigaoka-machi--Kita-Aoyama loops, so those are probably, which brings me up to 32 km confirm. Of course, at this point, not that I've finished with the closer ones, I spend a lot more time reaching them than running them.

Angelina: Orange Caramel Mont-Blanc

Friday evening, I intended to visit the Salon de Thé Angelina, which initially survived its department store being renovated and renamed but apparently was closed at the end of the last year. The cake counter remains selling only the mont-blancs that they are famous for (they used to have a couple other cakes as well). Now, they have 4 varieties, not including the full-sized mont-blanc. This time we got the smaller regular mont-blanc, which I've had before, plus the seasonal and monthly variations, which are Strawberry White Mont-blanc (the name might not be in that order, but but I don't want to call it White Strawberry Mont-blanc), which I think is a white chocolate paste and a strawberry in the middle, and Orange Caramel Mont-blanc, which does not have an orange in the middle, but does obviously have some orange on the outside. I liked the orange and caramel better than the strawberry, whereas my partner's preference went the reverse, both of which were pretty predictable. These were all good, including the regular version, but I'm not that into the traditional monc, even if these are fortunately all mild in terms of the chestnut taste, which can be strong in some mont-blanc. I think this shop will take up permanent, or at least as long as they continue the counter (I have to wonder who the actual maker is these days, whether it's another shop a kitchen in the department store), residence as just a good shop, which is not a horrible thing, by any means.

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.

Frédéric Cassel, Planifolia

Did a run to Frédéric Cassel in Ginza Mitsukoshi, going for the second of three new cakes for the month. Was able to get one, Planifolia, as in vanilla. This is white chocolate vanilla mousse with strawberry (inside as well) accented with raspberry, and two kinds of biscuit. I really like white chocolate, the vanilla is good, the fruit harmonizes well without taking over, and the biscuits are excellent, though I'm not sure what they are; rather crispy in a cookie-like way, so maybe one is shortbread? Definitely excellent. This is the other small version of one of the two main Christmas cakes. Still would like to get the strawberry tart.

L'Essentielle, Cassisier

Thinking back to Wednesday, I went first Isetan from their visiting shop. I had one cake from L'Essentielle, so I figured I'd try another. I got the Cassisier. For running, I visited various parts of my neighborhood running course that I wanted to change and verified that they would work. I wanted to shorted some parts that I have to use to go most places and decided that I didn't want to cut through Keio Univ. Hospital, though people always have at that point. The original plan had been for a short run, but it ended up about an hour, once I connected up the parts.

The Cassisier, which is obviously cassis (black currant), is white chocolate based and has star anise as the spice accent (accents). This is just too soft a cake for me. I need a biscuit, cookie, or crunchy layer, I guess. There was enough going on with the top that I have some respect for it, so I'm calling it good, but I'm not in a hurry to sample from them again.

I planned no running for Friday, so Thursday I went for a long run to try to do a successful one-way neighborhood run to what I thought were the nearest new parts, as well as a little part that want to reacquaint myself with that was convenient to add.  These included absolutely confirming the Nishiebisu east and west loops, followed by the new Ebisu--Hiroo east and west loops. I'll have to change the last one, maybe, because I've since found a new religion church that I missed, but that's no big deal. I also did the Higashi north loop on the way home, just so I can skip it when I redo the central and south loops. I ran into one pedestrian bridge blocked off, so I cheated and used the intersection to cross, but I'm not going to scrap the run for that. If I had known, I would have crossed at a different bridge, though it's longer, but I wan't willing to double-back to get to it. It was a +2 h run, so I made use of a new snack source only the route, the Baking Shu in the Shibuya Stream complex and got Raisin Coupé, which is a bun. After an hour of running, I needed it. Actually, I sent my lunch hour trying to get a question answered by the cell phone company person, so I was pretty underfed that day (though more chocolate than usual). It might have been too much bread for another day, but it was 200 (approximately) well spent, and good.

Friday, I refrained from running, but there was shopping and exercising indoors, so I got a Chausson aux Pommes from Hediard. It's very precisely made, but ultimately boring, though still good.

Frédéric Cassel, Tarte Framboise

Run to Ginza as planned. Today was nice weather, so people were out buying cake. I had to go with my second choice, which was Frédéric Cassel, where I got their Tarte Framboise (available through August, I think). This is the raspberry version of their spring/summer tart and is excellent, like the wild strawberry and strawberry mint versions.

I was lazy coming back, not having a strong motivation to run, so I walked most of the way (except to make a few traffic lights). I expect to run tomorrow from late morning, weather permitting, so no reason to wear myself out tonight.