Lenôtre, Éclair Chocolat

Did the first run to Ginza of the week, but expect to be repeating it a few times. I only ran one way, as far as Hibiya, and then walked back with cake from Ginza Mitsukoshi, protecting my cake more than my feet. Pretty light exercise after two days without running, but the cake comes first and I'm hoping for longer runs Friday and Saturday. Today's target was Lenôtre, as the top shop in the quite fine category that was challenging all the shops in the higher exceptional category. I've gone through the traditional fresh cakes there and I'm starting on the éclair types. Today I got what seems to be a standard, the Éclair Chocolat. It's not easy to stand out as an éclair, but this convinced me that it was excellent, with a nice rich chocolate filling with some nibs (?) on top to add to the texture. This puts Lenôtre even in number of cakes with a shop in the exceptional group, so I have to bump the bottom of that group, Fraoula, back to the quite fine group (which doesn't have a great effect, as I've oversampled this shop even as an exceptional shop, so I wasn't getting a new cake from them any time soon). Now Lenôtre is tied for the top of the exceptional group with the fewest cakes and having new cakes available, and marginally challenging the bottom of the quite exceptional group in terms of rating, so it still remains a top priority, after cake-off winners. However, when I do get a chance, now Fiorentina Pastry Boutique is the top of the quite fine shops and is challenging at least some of the exceptional ones, but with fewer cakes, so it's next in priority. Probably won't get to it this week, though, as FC deserves another visit for its cake-off wins, and then I'll take another shot at the 2-cake quite fine list, which has two shops in Ginza that should now both be open.

Pierre Marcolini, Éclair Chocolat

Did a run to Ginza, the long way down to Aoyama-douri, to avoid congested areas and have some open stretches to do some faster running. I set my timer to 1-min intervals and managed to get in 5 60-second stretches of relative fast running, which was the first time for a while, so I wasn't too ambitious. That kind of interval training is supposed to increase stamina (specifically, mitochondria), though it obviously is good for building muscle as well.

Today, unlike last Friday, Pierre Marcolini was not sold out of éclairs, in fact they were sending people out into the street to make sure that you didn't walk by them without noticing the shop (they are not helped by the big construction on the main road, which sort of discourages people from going down their side road). They had four éclairs available, including the passion fruit that I had last time (or maybe it was a different passion fruit one; it's not worth checking now). Having had a fruit one, I decided to have the Éclair Chocolat, since they are a chocolatier. I was much more willing to run back until I got the bag and then reverted to not wanting to running carrying things in my hand (now that my left arm at least seems to be in good shape) and walked back. Of course, then I stopped to groceries and then had several kilograms to carry in one hand (because the right arm doesn't seem up to it), so I'm not sure I shouldn't have gone home first and come back with a big backpack and a bicycle.

Éclair Chocolat was definitely good, so I can say tentatively that this is a definitely good shop but it didn't convince me that I needed to be a hurry to try the caramel and pineapple ones, which were the other flavors available---maybe next time they are at Isetan.

Jean-Paul Hévin: 4 cakes

Was at Ginza Mitsukoshi last Thursday (I think; I got confused by the long weekend) evening and went for cake for two people with me not choosing (just I pointed out what was new). We got 4 cakes that just became available in the last couple weeks, Passion, which is a regular cake that was new to me this month, Éclair Chocolat, which is only available on weekends, and two verrine, Verrine Chocolat Apricot and Verrine Chocolat Trente. Only the latter (in honor of the 30th anniversary) is new to me, so I'll mention that it is bay leaf scented Peruvian cacao mousse and strawberry, raspberry, and blackberry gelatin.

I thought both verrines were excellent, which is an upgrade for the first one and decided that they were cake enough to count (versus pudding with a little cake). The eclair was also excellent, as previously, but I thought that the Passion was actually great this time (maybe due to a lighter temperature or just chocolate intoxication), also an improvement over last time, though an average of semi-great is not enough to get it into cake-offs yet



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Frédéric Cassel: Éclair Chocolat

It was hot today, not as hot as a lot of this summer, but it was also cloudy, so it did not cool off much in the evening. I went to Ginza to visit Frédéric Cassel at Ginza Mitsukoshi, but went underground from the corner of Hibiya Park. Coming back, I actually circled north as far as the International Forum, just to remind myself how to get there underground (I still want to see if that is a shortest route), because I was at Ginza last weekend and needed to get to Tokyo Station in the rain. Anyway, besides walking a lot underground for the crowded bits, I kept my speed down to 9 km/h out and 8 km/h back, running 9.5 km total.

Although I had seen some things I wanted more when I visited Sunday morning, today I had to be satisfied with my next choice, their Éclair Chocolat (600 yen), though there were still too other less attractive choices, a slice of roll cake and another flavor variation on the Mille-Feuille Finger (whereas, what I really want is the chocolate regular mille-feuille that I saw Sunday, but that might be a weekend only thing).

The éclair was definitely excellent and I had determined to call it great, but I've backed down on that. I can compare chocolate éclairs someday separately from cake-offs. This particular éclair is rather thin/flat and has a fairly thick crust, but the filling is also rather thick and it actually balanced out so that it seemed rather different from other éclairs, though my experience is still insufficient.

Sadaharu Aoki: Éclair Chocolat

As planned, I went on Thursday to Isetan and got the Éclair Chocolat (エクレール　ショコラ; 540 yen) from the Isetan counter of Sadaharu Aoki. It was definitely good, but didn't make me want to learn to make éclairs.

The the run was the similar to other recent ones, being laps around the Meiji Gingu Gaien course. This time was 5 laps at 11 km/h. Going and returning, which are about 1 km each, were 9 and 12 km/h, respectively, so it was clear that I could keep raising the pace, which has been reinforced since then.

Viron: Éclair Chocolat

Because I needed to visit a post office on a Sunday, I switched to going to Viron today, which is one building down from the Tokyo central post office, just across from Tokyo Station. My running was almost exactly 9 km/h the whole 10 km of the trip, though the first kilometer probably started slower, peaked above, and then settled back down. This also marks an expansion, finally, of my one-week  9 km-equivalent distance (not including the 21 km of padding to credit my routine walking) from 35.2 km on the 12th to 39.2 km today. Tomorrow, I'll take that to 40.8 km, if things go as planned, and stay about there for the next week, which I've already tentatively planned out through Saturday, though I'm not sure about Sunday, when I could expand to a 15 km run, though my only idea for a destination is Dalloyau and that's not enough to do an extra loop around the imperial moat course, although I could do a lap around the Akasaka Palace course, which I haven't done for quite a while. Also, there is a holiday on the first Thursday of November where I'm not busy in the morning but will be after that through the weekend, so I should probably do something special then, too, maybe get out to a new place that takes 15 km.

Unfortunately, I didn't see the new cakes that I thought I saw last time (so I'll need to try going a different time of day or day of the week, though it could just be that the other new cakes I saw were at the ends of their seasonal runs), so I settled for the Éclair Chocolat. It was definitely good, but I struggled between giving it the benefit of the doubt and calling it "excellent" and calling it just "good", and also possibly designating it not cake. Ultimately, I decided to go with good and cake, which still leaves Viron as a "near-great" shop, just closer to falling off that list. My complaint is that, though the chocolate custard (or cream; it wasn't obvious to me which) was definitely good, the crust was not as crispy as I expected. That's probably by design, since Japanese like their "choux" cream puffs (which Viron also had) soft, so it I'm not sure that the dough they use can even be called choux dough (though choux cream puffs in Japan still look like cabbage regardless of whether they are the soft kind or the crisp kind). This was also reflected in that this éclair was injection-filled through multiple holes in the bottom rather than being piped between to separate pieces. Of course, I'm not an expert on paté a choux and they're a pretty high-class place, so I expect that this éclair is without the normal range (i.e., not a doughnut with pretensions). On the plus side, it's only 432 yen with tax, so int terms of cost and calories, it makes up for the overindulgence of Saturday.

Nonstop local run and Henri le Roux (Isetan): Éclair Chocolat

Got a third Henri le Roux cake from Isetan, so for my running, I did a nonstop run, using what I had learned previously and starting by going west. Still ended up coming out of the wrong subway exit when using it to cross to a different block, so I could go farther, but it was okay. At 1 hour, I intended to finish my loop and go back, but hit road construction that closed the sidewalk, so I had to detour to the next street back, which is really what I should have been using since the light was out only because of construction for the Olympics. Ended with 1:12' run. Was sore at the beginning, especially when I hit the first slightly up-slope part, so yesterday's Akasaka Palace course work definitely had an effect.

The "cake" (and they call it cake there) was Éclair Chocolat for 432 yen, which has thick chocolate, a solid chocolate bar inside, the biscuit of course, and some caramel and nuts on top (nougatine, "brown nougat"). Best éclair I've ever had (which is not high praise by itself), and I'm going to call it "great", although it is simple rather than revolutionary. This is a third great cake in a row (and three of only four available), so I'm going to call the shop "great".

Probably go back tomorrow for the last cake. Not sure what I'll get from there after that, but won't have to decide until maybe next Tuesday, since I have other weekend cake plans.