Pastry Boy Visits Tokyo

[nightscotsman]

A couple months ago I went to Japan for a week on vacation. Yep, just for fun. Of course I had to check out as much pastry stuff as possible so it actually ended up being more like some pretty temples and gardens squeezed in between stuffing myself with dessert. I swear there are more pastry shops in Tokyo than Paris. They are all over the place, in every train and subway station, from small cream puff stands to ultra-high-end French patisseries. Unfortunately none of the shops would allow me to take photos inside, but here's some of what I saw:

There are shops that specialized in just cream puffs all over the place. I don't know what they do to these things, but they are the best puffs I've ever had. Very addicting. This one had a panda theme with the little puffs decorated to look like panda heads - cute!

These are a couple of the many crepe shops frequented mostly by teenagers. You can see the cases of plastic versions of all the flavors they offer. These are actually right across the alley from each other in Harajuku.

A couple shots of Pierre Herme's place in Aoyama. Like most of the other high-end shops I visited, it's ultra modern and the pastries are displayed like exquisite jewels. Prices were in the $5-$8 range for individual desserts. The stairs lead to a chocolate salon/cafe on the second floor. The mounds in the display cases in front are actually piles of ginger root painted gold with one dessert balanced on top.

This another shop in Aoyama specializing in fruit tarts and pies.

Back at my hotel, here's what I bought at Herme. You're going to hate me, but I forgot what was in the one with raspberries on the back left, but I made notes on the rest. The long chocolate pastry is a version of his Plaisir Sucre which is basically various dark and milk chocolate elements with hazelnuts and praline. Nice, but it's a common combo. The dome is pistachio dacquoise, pistachio cream, praline and roasted corn kernels. This one mostly seemed sweet without much flavor interest. In the glass is light lychee gelee and thick mango gelee separated by coconut dacquoise with caramel mousse and coconut marshmallows. This one was a real winner - rich yet refreshing with a creative balance of flavors.

Here's what I picked up at Patisserie Sadaharu Aoki. The cream puff in the back has pastry cream, green tea cream, whipped cream and sweet beans. OK, but I was dissapointed that you couldn't taste the green tea. Same goes for the green tea napoleon next to it. The components are well done, but the flavor just wasn't there. The orange one the middle was very nice - very light orange mousse on top of dark chocolate cake, milk chocolate mousse, and a pastry base. The one in front casis and chocolate combo which had a nice balance of fruity acid, creamy richness and and dark chocolate.

Some of the carnage, in case you were wondering if I actually ate all of this stuff. Notice the stainless spork I picked up at Muji - very cool.

This is a machine making little bean paste filled cakes. It squirts batter into a mold, drops in the chunk of paste, tops it with a little more batter, then closes the mold and cooks it over a gas flame.

This is a guy making the same little cakes by hand.

These are photos of the window displays at the Shiseido Cosmetics building in Ginza. The exterior of the ground floor consists of two stories tall windows, most of which have been painted all red with a small one foot square left open at eye level opening onto these charming pasty scenes. Inside looks like a jewelry store with a round counter in the center selling pastries. You have to go the second floor if you're looking for lipstick.

Here is the Pierre Marcolini building (yes, he has an entire building) in Ginza. The door on the right is for the chocolate shop and on the left is the ice cream shop with stairs to the cafe. There are charming young ladies stationed in the doorways to greet and open the door for customers.

Here's what I got at Henri Charpentier. The chocolate cup on the right is a basic tiramisu with chestnut cream - nice flavor balance, but a bit on the sweet side. You see a LOT of chestnut items in Japanese pastry shops. I think there must be a law that requires all of them to offer a mont blanc. The one with the red top is actually a very traditional, but nicely done combo of pear mousse, poached pear and almond dacquoise. The rectangle is very light earl grey mousse with bisquit and chocolate mousse. The flavor was OK, but the cake was too dry.

Here are a couple things I got at the Mitsukoshi department store in Ginza. The flavors were just OK and predictable, but I thought the presentation and packaging was nice. Mitsukoshi, like most of the other large department stores, has an extensive food offering. However, they had two food floors with one whole floor devoted just to pastry - half western (mostly French) and half traditional Japanese. Definitely worth a trip.

A couple more items I bought at Mitsukoshi. The glasses in front are three flavors of barely set pana cotta - macha, sencha and black tea - each with a different textural component at the more liquid bottom, such as sweet beans. These were just lovely, complex, and not too rich. Very sophisticated. The pastry in back, presented in a little bamboo basket and real banana leaves, is a kobocha pumpkin cake with chunks of pumpkin and a light cheesecake-like mousse filling (mascarpone?). This was actually my favorite dessert of the trip - light and moist, not too sweet, with perfectly balanced flavor. The cake wasn't spiced like a western-style pumpkin cake would be, so could really taste the delicate pumpkin flavor.

A couple desserts I picked up at a shop called Tamagoya (basically "egg shop") in another department store. The one on the left is chiboust, sponge cake, chestnut paste, and crisp meringue eggs. The chestnut was very sweet, but the rest of the dessert was nice, light and eggy. I got it mostly for the irresistably cute presentation. The one on the right is panacotta over a rich egg custard with a barely sweet caramel sauce in a separate packet. Very good.

Of course I had to make a trip to the "pastry theme park" called Sweets Forest in Jyugaoka. It's small and painfully cute, obviously designed to apeal to young girls, with about 10 variouse pastry and ice cream shops. I'm glad I took the short train trip to see it, and the neighborhood is charming, but there is definitely better pastry to be had in the city.

I also spent most of a day poking around the restaurant supply shops on Kappabashi Dori. I found about eight shops specializing in pastry equiment with mostly great prices, so I picked up some small stuff like ring molds ($1.50 each!), cutters and cannele molds. You can also buy those plastic food displays you see all over in front of restaurants. They have ready made basic items, or they will custom make any "dish" you bring them, though they can be very expensive.

[alanamoana]

Neil,

Great pictures and descriptions. It is funny how some desserts, when made by different people, lose something in the translation (a little too sweet, not balanced, etc.), but when you taste a more "traditional" dessert it turns out to be your favorite!

I'm so jealous of your trip. It looks like you had a great time. Las Vegas seems to be treating you well.

Regards,

Alana

[pastrymama]

Thanks Neil, what a fun vacation that must have been. It is so interesting to see the beautiful pastries from different places and "hear" your descriptions and opinions of them. Thanks again.

[sanrensho]

Great photos. Very interesting to hear your impressions of Japanese pastry.

I had to laught at the chestnut comment. Yes, AFAIK, there is a law requiring Japanese pastry shops to offer cream puffs, panna cotta and mont blanc.

You mention a few times how the chestnut elements were too sweet. Did you find the chestnut elements to be sweeter than their use in France?

[Wendy DeBord]

Wow!

I just love seeing photos like this..........I could never see enough.

I've got a couple questions (maybe some dumb ones, but oh well).

The red one from Henri C. .... is it just red cocoa butter sprayed on then wrapped in chocolate?

How do you think they are making the perfectly shaped mini egg meringues? Could you get any clues looking at it closely?

The rectangular clear plastic containers..........the ones from Sadaharu Aoki look like thin sheets of plastic layed around neatly sliced desserts........and the ones from Charpentier and Mitsukoshi look like the desserts were assembled in the container.......is that correct?

The orange dessert from Sadaharu......is the garnish dried kumquats placed on an isomalt shard? Also from the same shop, the white name tags on each dessert......are they sheets of plastic?

Is Herme's signature on his pastries plastic or chocolate?

Thank-you Neil!!!

[Patrick S]

Cool! Thanks for helping us go vicariously globe-trotting through your pictures.

[Pontormo]

LOVELY! Your sense of priorities is impeccable.

One reason I would love to go to Japan is to witness what the country does to make their cultural borrowings Japanese. The admiration and respect for Parisian pastries is found in the absolute perfectionism that seems to dominate presentation in general, from the beauty of each pastry to the modern shops you capture in your photographs.

Yet no matter how "Westernized" the packaging is, exquisite, stylish packaging seems very Japanese to me.

[K8memphis]

Thank you, Neil, that was awesome!!!

[Tweety69bird]

Great Pictures! Thanks for taking the time to show us all!!!

[Abra]

Gorgeous! I can't help but wonder whether you were disappointed in so many of the pastries because you work with such an elevated set of desserts every day. Would the rest of us have oohed and ahhed over most of what you had, or do you think that the Japanese pastries are really more for the eyes than the taste buds?

[Tepee]

Whatever their taste, they are truly a sight for sore eyes! Such exquisite and impeccable finishing... Thank you! However, no matter how pretty a pastry/cake is, if I'm not blown over by the taste, I won't get it a second time.

[nightscotsman]

The red one from Henri C. .... is it just red cocoa butter sprayed on then wrapped in chocolate?

Yep. I loved the dramatic look of the finish, which is mainly why I bought it. It was very surprising to find the flavors were so tradtional, though well done. They also did a mousse cake that was a perfect cube sprayed the same red.

How do you think they are making the perfectly shaped mini egg meringues? Could you get any clues looking at it closely?

They aren't fully egg shaped, actually. The backs are flat where they were piped on the parchment and just placed so they look like eggs.

The rectangular clear plastic containers..........the ones from Sadaharu Aoki look like thin sheets of plastic layed around neatly sliced desserts........and the ones from Charpentier and Mitsukoshi look like the desserts were assembled in the container.......is that correct?

Yes, that is correct. I thought the Mitsukoshi ones were a nice, inexpensive yet "finished" looking, solution to doing layered dessert that would otherwise be done in a glass. By the way, the other items that look like they are in glasses are actually in plastic containers - except for the Herme layered desset which is in a real glass that you can keep.

The orange dessert from Sadaharu......is the garnish dried kumquats placed on an isomalt shard? Also from the same shop, the white name tags on each dessert......are they sheets of plastic?

Is Herme's signature on his pastries plastic or chocolate?

Yes, almost all of the shops were using plastic logos on their desserts. You would never see that here, because of the choking liability. I know, we started out using plastic logos at our shop, but we've long ago switched to chocolate versions. I think Japan and other countries aren't as litigation-happy as the US and expect a higher level of personal responsibility from citizens. You can see this in Japan in the gardens and historic sites as well, where there are far fewer rope barriers and off-limit areas, as well as virtually no graffiti or trash.

And the garnish on the orange cake is just as you thought, kumquats on isomalt.

[nightscotsman]

Gorgeous!  I can't help but wonder whether you were disappointed in so many of the pastries because you work with such an elevated set of desserts every day.  Would the rest of us have oohed and ahhed over most of what you had, or do you think that the Japanese pastries are really more for the eyes than the taste buds?

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I think you're partly right about this. Just to clarify - though some of the desserts didn't greatly impress me with their flavor, none of them I would call "bad" desserts. However, at the high level that they were presenting themselves, I frankly expected more than just beautiful decoration from everything I tasted. Of course I'm well known to be super critical, and there's always the factor of personal taste. In fact, there are a few desserts we make that I think could actually taste better or be easier to eat.

As far as Japanese pastry being more for the eyes, there are two major styles of sweets I saw there: traditional Japanese desserts and western, mostly French pastry (and often created by French, not Japanese chefs). For me, the Japanese stuff is all about being pretty over taste. I've just never warmed to the pasty, gelatinous textures and overly sweet, bland flavors. The western stuff, though, could easily go up against the best in the World in flavor and presentation, though some flavors and textures are tweaked to cater to Japanese tastes, which is why you see lots of chestnuts, very light mousses and whipped cream, green tea, less chocolate, and cheese cakes that are light and fluffy.

[nightscotsman]

Great photos. Very interesting to hear your impressions of Japanese pastry.

I had to laught at the chestnut comment. Yes, AFAIK, there is a law requiring Japanese pastry shops to offer cream puffs, panna cotta and mont blanc.

You mention a few times how the chestnut elements were too sweet. Did you find the chestnut elements to be sweeter than their use in France?

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Oh, and they always had the sponge cake roll filled with whipped cream and fruit, and the light, fluffy cheese cake. Always.

I think they use pretty much the same chestnut products as in Europe. I've never been a fan of chestnuts in desserts anyway. They just taste super sweet and pasty without much flavor. Plain, fresh roasted chestnuts are another story.

[alanamoana]

neil, you should definitely update your web site with these photos! less maintenance than a blog but a great place for us (and others) to see new things!

(i'm of course saying this because i'm just too lazy to do the same)

[TraciiTVCL]

As Tracii picks jaw up off floor.........

WOWSERS I can't believe the homage they pay to a pastry!!!

Thanks for this, food for thought!

Yes I'm sort of new here.....

[tan319]

Awesome Report, Neil!!!

Beautiful photos, the comments suck you right in.

Thanks again!

[confiseur]

.......some very succinct observations here...and nice pictures too...makes me more than ever determined to visit Tokyo this year.Well done Sir!

[tan319]

Neil, in the Hermes section, the dessert in the glass, how do you think they set up those gelees?

And are the glasses plastic or glass?

And, sorry, how large is the "Emotions" dessert ( the glass things are from that series, I believe

Thanks!

[Ling]

Love the pictures. Thanks!

[Hiroyuki]

Great thread. Thank you for sharing your experience with us.

You see a LOT of chestnut items in Japanese pastry shops. I think there must be a law that requires all of them to offer a mont blanc.

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But, you were in Japan in fall, right? Chestnuts were in season then. No wonder you saw a lot of chestnut items. Didn't you notice other seasonal items while you were in Japan, like regular (yellowish) and purple satsumaimo (sweet potato) cakes?

[JasonTrue]

In general, Japanese are not as impressed by strong, intense flavors as Americans tend to be. We have generations of people who grew up on overly bland food, and finally have discovered flavor; subtlety, and even simplicity, aren't necessarily rewarded in our current culinary scene.

While I can say I've had some pretty but unexciting Western desserts that looked beautiful, I'd say it's not entirely a fair characterization to say that appearance is considered more important than flavor. The flavor expectation is just not the same. The appearance certainly contributes to flavor perceptions in Japan, but it does not supercede the importance of flavor. Japanese just tend to enjoy tasting what's there; that's why you find kabocha-flavored desserts that aren't obscured by cinnamon, allspice, and powdered ginger as they would be in the U.S.

The traditional confectionary in Japan has generally been meant as a palate preparation for green tea, not as a dessert, so intense flavors are not appropriate, but a dominant sweetness is. Also, traditional confections are generally consumed in small quantities, so sweeter flavors are more acceptable, until the same confection makes its way to the U.S. and is made four times larger by Shirakiku or whoever. This is true for Middle Eastern confections like those from Iran: some of those are incredibly cloying, if you eat an American-sized portion, but if you're having a little pastry with a little Turkish-style coffee, it's just right.

Though not used in every kind of confection, the "gelatinous" character of sweets like daifuku, warabimochi, and tokoroten, to some extent serves the function that cream does in European desserts: it balances the sugar level of the dessert it's complementing. (Alas, American pastry chefs don't necessarily get this yet; our desserts tend to use cream as another sugar delivery vehicle).

The chestnut pastries are in abundance primarily October through perhaps January; after that, the chestnut options are mostly the obligatory Mont Blanc type pastries. I've had some pretty intense chocolate mousse or ganache-featuring cakes in Japan, which came as a bit of a surprise, but they were usually from the French companies that have set up shop in Japan.

As far as Japanese pastry being more for the eyes, there are two major styles of sweets I saw there: traditional Japanese desserts and western, mostly French pastry (and often created by French, not Japanese chefs). For me, the Japanese stuff is all about being pretty over taste. I've just never warmed to the pasty, gelatinous textures and overly sweet, bland flavors. The western stuff, though, could easily go up against the best in the World in flavor and presentation, though some flavors and textures are tweaked to cater to Japanese tastes, which is why you see lots of chestnuts, very light mousses and whipped cream, green tea, less chocolate, and cheese cakes that are light and fluffy.

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[duckduck]

Great thread! Thanks for sharing with us and good to see you out having some fun!