Le Chocolat de H/Paul Bassett: Tarte Fromage

Did another run down to Shibuya Hikarie ShinQs. I was trying to get something from Sadaharu Aoki, but I guess I should have been more efficient about leaving home, as it sold out just ahead of me, so I went for a fourth cake from Le Chocolate de H at Paul Bassett. They only had one variety left that I hadn't had, but I didn't mind getting the Tarte Fromage. It's simply baked cheesecake in a tart shell with whipped cream on top. But it's better cheesecake than I've been able to make (I've given up on the old recipes and haven't been looking for anything new) and keeping it simple avoided ruining it, so I'm going to say it's excellent. Actually, that's four excellent cakes in a row, so I'm going to go ahead and promote it to the excellent group, as the 15th member (still space for one more).

I did counterclockwise runs on a lot of little loops on the way back: Shibuya west and north loops and the Jinnan and Jinguumae-Jinnan loops. That brings me past 37 km in successfully reviewed loops. I need another 13 km before I'll allow myself to add a new loop, though I might make an exception for the newly created one that expands on an old link.

Cake-off: Toshi Yoroizuka's Saint-marc over Paris S'éveille's Gateau Vanille

Was busy Saturday, but did a run from the morning, about 8:15, Sunday, taking pictures and adding sites along old neighborhood course loops that I haven't reviewed yet, picking off the near ones. I recently switched my target for the next cake-off, since I realized both were so easy to get that I could probably do on a half-day, so I would leave them for when I was busy on the weekend. Next in line, then, was Paris S'éveille's Gateau Vanille as a two time cake-off winner. If I failed to find it, there were three other cakes with the same status. Paris S'éveille has the best record in that respect, better even than JPH. But I had no problem there at around 11 am.

Next, I took the train back as far as Shibuya Stn. and then walked to B-E, along the way discovering a couple things sufficient to make a major course revision that expanded what was once just a run around a small block (for the Shibuya Viron) to a few kilometers (from about Shibuya station to near the southwest corner of Yoyogi Park). I could move a couple sites from the largest loop to the expanded one, which shrank the former down 0.8 km, which is very slightly helpful, as well as making the corresponding parts much simpler. Unfortunately, E-B never put their raspberry cake back in the line-up when they took it out for Christmas, which left me hanging with one cake. Being tired, I decided to look along the near train route and found it convenient to visit Toshi Yoroizuka and get their Saint-marc. Ended up being three train rides to get two cakes despite the initial running, but I avoided transfers, so all low fares.

As hoped doing a third round with two two-time winners, these were both really great cakes, so the decision between them came down to the last bite. Paris S'éveille's Gateau Vanille is probably the best vanilla cake I know, but somehow Toshi Yorizuka makes a cake that's half cream and yet the chocolate does not seem diluted at all, where I'd expect to get a milk chocolate effect (though milk has a different taste than cream). The orange liqueur, perhaps (along with a good chocolate base), brings out the flavor. (There isn't noticeable caramel in this saint-marc version.)

Only one great cake from January and no reappearances of any of the as-yet-untested one, so I'm still waiting for the next first-round cake-off of the year. I'll perhaps do a second-round one with one of the four available ones left at the end of the month regardless.

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.

Libre: Fleure Pomme and Paris-Brest Marron

Friday afternoon, I took off, so I visited P. Libre down in Shirokane, which is peripherally connected to the neighborhood running course, but requires a long detour, so I haven't plotted out the specific path that would include it. This is the first shop recommendation taken from Sweets Magic! (see your local NHK Premium listings). The eat-in capacity is 11 or 13 people, and it's hard to image that many people there. Besides the chef (who took my order) and three other underlings there was a man and woman in black who were also staff, which was more than really fit in a place not that much bigger than my living room. They were busy though, so I suppose they were preparing for the night French restaurant time, as cake time was about over. The guy in front of me ordered 5 packs of 3 large bonbon-sized chocolate "pyramids" for >4,000 yen.

The closest thing they have for cake are the "fleure", which are mousse or sauce in a shell in a jar. I saw him make just little balls like that by dipping frozen mousse or sauce in the coating. If you eat in, you can probably see him do it, because the bar counter is both the eating and preparation surface. I asked for the apple version, Fleure Pomme.

The other like that I allow as cake is their Paris-Brest. They only had the Marron, but I didn't have a strong preference, so no problem. They both survived the train ride home. These are certainly interesting, and good. They were nice as something different, and excellent as art, but maybe too far from what I'm looking for in cake to take me back unless it is for the restaurant, which I bet would also be interesting.

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.

La Base Secrète du GAMIN: Marbré W Fromage

Still at the beginning of working through under-visited shops from my bloated quite good list. I'm skipping a couple A's for logistic reasons and ran to (La) Base Secrète du GAMIN, which seems farther than it is because of the slow down going through Shibuya station. I'd try running further north, in front of NHK Studio Park next time, but that's not looking necessary. Round trip is 14 to 15 km.

Got there several minutes before closing on the day before their rest day and the person ahead of be bought 4 pieces, so not a big selection, which is true every time I go there. This time I went with Marbré W Fromage, which is a baked cheesecake base with a marbled cheese souffle on top. Considered coming back by train, but it requires a line transfer and isn't that direct, so I was able to convince myself that there was not much benefit, plus I could use some more exercise after the heavy eating last weekend. I had a windbreaker in my backpack that I didn't get out, but I definitely was feeling that I was activating brown fat cells on the way back.

My major complaint is that this cake was put in the box with nothing to keep it in its place, so it was just rolling around in there. On the other hand, it's not delicate at all and was fine (it probably didn't roll around so much as settle in the corner and shift a little bit). It's a nice cake: nothing special but I didn't feel disappointed in it. Definitely good. When this shop category get's revised, it will probably get moved to the good group, but eventually that bloated group will get revised and it will remain in a definitely good group, I expect, though I'm a long way from needing to go through the good shops to see whether I overlooked something deserving more attention.

The plan for tomorrow is to visit the slightly nearer Ueno counter of a shop that otherwise is definitely farther (and open later, so I might end up there anyway, if I failed to find anything new in Marui Dept. Store.

Le Chocolat de H/Paul Bassett: Chocolat Earl Grey

Did a run combining various purposes. First, I ran to Il Pleut sur la Seine, where Saint-Marc is still in the line-up but Chiboust Poire has not returned (probably I need to wait for pear season is, whenever that is). Also, on the way, I notice Landtmann in the Ao building along Aoyama-doori, so that's another cake place on my neighborhood map to get to.

Then I went to Le Chocolat de H/Paul Bassett at Shibuya Hikarie ShinQs (my current newly visited neighborhood shop) and got, I think, the Chocolat Earl Grey (a seasonal cake). Like the previous cake, this was very much a café cake versus a patisserie cake. It was not solid like a torte, but softish biscuit or a coarse sponge, not sure which (it's somewhat spongy but not the spherical bubbles of a sponge cake, more a bread-like weave). The chocolate is also not dense, but enough for flavor and it is balanced by the small amount of fruit. I was completely ready to just call this good and keep this place firmly in the quite good category, but I ate in and had it with just water, so there was an after taste: I really nice harmony of chocolate and raspberry, it's inconvenient, but even though it's not what I look for, this was an excellent cake, so I'll probably back back soon, since now it's challenging a lot of my excellent shops.

Next, was a visit to the Shibuya Seibu, which I had overlooked. In stretches over a few buildings and the food section is tiny and fairly empty of customers. I wouldn't be surprised to see them go out of business, although I was probably going minutes before closing. Isetan or Mitsukoshi would have several times the density of people. Anyway, they have two places with cake Factory Shin, which I've visited in Kobe, so I've blogged them, but not as Tokyo cake. The other is Kihachi, which is at Isetan.

Lastly, it did the Jinnan loop of my neighborhood course correctly this time, so I can do it and the other loop in that clump counterclockwise next, though I'm maybe not going to get time until Saturday night.