Dalloyau: Tarte Cerise

Ran to Dalloyau for something new, but didn't get what I expected. I knew that there existed a Tarte Mangue that I've tried to get once and failed. This time, I was earlier, and mid-week, so there were several, but I hadn't realized that the Tarte Cerise (marked "seasonally limited") was still available. I got the latter. The run was fine. Since I had a long run, I was a little slow today (plus it was hotter), but still managed 10 km/h for the 5+ km out and then 9 km/h for the almost 7 km back (I swung by Toshi Yoroizuka in Kyobashi, but did not see anything interesting).

The tart was excellent, in my Dalloyau-biased opinion. It's basically a small butter tart with a little cherry and pistachio on top, also white heavily sugared, which worked for me. It's cheap, at 324 yen.

Éclat des Jours: Chokochoko

Did my sixth run to Éclat des Jours for Chokochoko (French pronunciation, "shokoshoko"; 596 yen). It rained just before I ran, so the temperature dropped 10 degC, though it increased afterward and still was humid. Still, better than recently and, more importantly, I seem to have finally recovered from my tail soreness. Actually, this might have been the fastest I've done this run, though I was still going too fast through the middle, wasting effort for stop lights that I'll never make.

I've been disappointed in in sufficiently chilled mousse cake, so I might have gone too far this time. It did not freeze, but I'm not sure that the vanilla center should have been semi-solid rather than creamy. Still, I preferred this to too melty and am declaring this excellent. There is some crunch in the base, as their should be for a mousse cake, and a some berry mixed into the chocolate to just slightly modify the flavor. I'm thinking blackberry, but the time from getting the cake to eating it was more than 2.5 hours, so it's too hard to hang onto the details during a 10.5 return run, so it might have been raspberry. Either way, it harmonized and remained a very chocolate cake.

(Sun.) Henri Charpentier: Napoléon Pie

After visiting the pond at Ueno Park, we went down to a Ginza for a café. At was after 7 pm, so we went with Ginza Henri Charpentier, where the last order was 7:30 pm, which was fine with us. There might have been one other customer there, but a couple people might have arrived after us, though a friend said they couldn't visit when they tried. Guess it varies.

Went with the  Napoléon Pie, which inside is like mille-feuille (custard and strawberries), but only had a single layer of pastry top and bottom, covering sponge. It's definitely good but not that exciting to me. We also went with the full Crêpes Suzette package, with seasonal fruit (already forgot; peaches?) and ice cream. Again, not so much my thing, but an interesting experience. They make them next to your table, so it's a whole show with commentary. For the pictures, the picture of the cake was before splitting, but they split the crêpes for us (though we had to split the ice cream ourselves. so it was not perfect).

(Sat.) Bubó Barcelona café: Pear Caramel and Xabina

Was busy an also generally very hot for running (sunny with a high of 35 degC), especially with cake, [for this entire three-day weekend]. Fortunately, it's not too far from Omotesando Station to Bubó Barcelona, especially if you stop at Crayonhouse for a vegetable-intensive (I skipped the chicken) organic buffet. Bubó Barcelona is very modern, though the second-floor space leaves the ceiling and walls bare rather than covering the pipes and things. We went fairly early, I suppose, between noon and 1 pm, and were the only customers when we arrived (in the café/salon; a guy was taking phone photos of the cakes on the first floor). Only a few people came in upstairs while we were there, so I'm a little worried about their longevity. The bakery café nearby was packed on both floors, with people waiting. There were a lot of foreigners specifically coming there (it's a back street with not a lot of things, so most people we saw were going there, but someone got the $200 haircut next door).  They must have a good promotion scheme going on somewhere.

Though at the café, the cake comes with extra bits, as shown (and cost 200 yen extra), but it's still the same as the take-out cake, so it's reasonable to dual list this as cake and café. I only had about half of each, but the Xabina was about the same as before. I was less excited about the Xabina the second time and the chocolate seemed a little watery to me initially, but I got past that and will stick to my original excellent rating. The Pear Caramel was also excellent. Actually, walnuts are more very prominent in this and it's not actually very caramel flavored, but rather more syrupy, which probably depends on how long/hot you coot the sugar for the caramel.

(Friday) Il Pleut sur la Seine: Relaxation

Ran to Il Pleut sur la Seine again, probably at closer to 9 km/h this time. The cake was, I think, Relaxation (my katakana transcription was a little shaky in the middle). It seems to be in the family of roll cake. The meringue on top is interesting and the cake is courser than just typical sponge, but beyond that it's basically fruit (can't remember what, maybe peach) with custard. It was definitely good but not something that I need, which leaves this shop not so different from many Excellent shops, so I'll have to consider who is more deserving of Quite Excellent status. Toshi Yoroizuka certainly seems to be, but I'll need one more to balance out Henri le Roux's exit from the fresh cake biz.

On the plus side, they also gave me a financier, which I certainly appreciate. As a non-fresh cake, particularly a wrapped one, I did not expect it to more than good, but it is definitely that.

Cake-off: Viron's "Mille-Feuille" over Jean-Paul Hévin's "Bergam"

Ran about 13 km. We can just assume any running is 8 km/h. At least, my tail was less sore running today now that I've changed my pre-run routine as of last night to remove the part that has be flat on my back. First, I went to Il Pleut sur la Seine, which was my mistake: I was thinking that I could get great Mille-Feuille, which is true, and that it could be part of a cake-off. However, it's not technically cake, according to the criteria which I should use, because it's eat-in only, so it's a café dessertCake-off.

But I still needed something to pair something with Viron's "Mille-Feuille", so I decided to finally do Jean-Paul Hévin's "Bergam" in the cake off. Both cakes are great, so it the decision came down to the end, but the Mille-Feuille remains the favorite version of the this standard type. The frosting on top is really important, I think, since I like the spike of sweetness beyond what custard and the mille-feuille pastry provides. However, just 30 minutes or so in the refrigerator was not enough for either cake: they need to be cooler, so I'll have to watch that for future cakes, especially in the summer, even though JPH cake only had to travel a couple kilometers and I ate in an air-conditioned room.

Philippe Conticini: chocolate cake

Tried to go to Dalloyau to get their Tarte Mangue, but it was sold out (I'm running really slow these days). As a back up, I went with Philippe Conticini, which I did not have any recommendation for, but it was conveniently across the street and I was curious. Not sure what the thing that I got was called, since the name was not meaningful to me and I had no card to write it down on (and the receipt just says "cake" and I didn't find any online photos) but Chocolate E-something, so I'm just calling it a chocolate cake. It was tart-sized, but more like a pound cake or spice cake. It only qualifies as fresh cake because of the topping. I'm pretty sure it was chocolate, but like I said, it was more like spice cake, though I'm not sure what spice, either. It was good, however, and they had other things that definitely were tarts and couple things that online cross-sectional photos make look like a brownie buried in frosting or mousse. Since they have a café, I might want to try that some time I need a new café to visit in that area.