I picked up a copy of Sweets Bancho’s The Ten Supreme Sweets at Sanseido, read the whole thing that evening and went straight into analysis mode. ^_^ Turns out there are so, so many cake shops I still haven’t been to. One of them was close to where I was staying, so I dropped by.
A street in Kagurazaka
A holiday morning is nice and quiet here. Most shops don’t even open until after 10, either.
The front entrance of the patisserie Le Coin Vert
It’s right in front of the entrance of the Agnes Hotel in Kagurazaka. The kitchen is huge, and it pulls in crowds to match. The recently released Patisserie Coin de Rue, starring Yosuke Eguchi and Yu Aoi, seems to have made the place famous by using its cakes, though I have no idea how much the number of visitors has gone up compared to before.
For the record, the film’s story was very ordinary, but Tokyo sweets shops turn up in droves, so I had a smile on my face the whole way through.
The cakes
Every single one looked delicious, but today I went with the recommended Mousse au fromage, a cheesecake, plus a tarte Tatin. I’d love to try them all, but that will have to wait for the next visit.
Marshmallows in every color
They’re big marshmallows at 80 yen each, and on top of looking pretty, every one of them tasted great. The framboise on the far right was especially fantastic.
The cakes on the right
They taste good just to look at.
The cakes on the left
Looking through the book, there are quite a lot of cake shops at this level around Tokyo and Kanagawa/Chiba. I’ve already decided where I’m going next.
Baked goods
Souvenirs are better when they keep, so I picked up some baked goods as well.
Marshmallows
These I bought to eat myself..
Cheesecake
Even as a cheesecake it had a refined, light flavor. The best cheesecake I’ve ever eaten is still Troika’s, with its extremely dense taste, and this is such a different concept that comparing them is hard, but it was as satisfying in flavor as it was flamboyant in style.
Tarte Tatin
The second one, the tarte Tatin, had a deep, concentrated flavor. It really called for a cup of tea.. but I had no tea ready that day, so I just ate it as it was.
Actually tasting the cakes, I caught a faint echo of what moved me in the film. It’s the kind of cake shop where Yu Aoi might suddenly pop out and strike up a conversation, so I have a feeling I’ll be back before long. Sadly they didn’t sell galettes, though ^_^
Chef Tsujiguchi’s Japanese-style doughnut
This is a doughnut I bought at Daimaru inside Tokyo Station, and it tasted more like a pound cake than a doughnut. I bought it as a souvenir again, and it served me well over the New Year holidays.