Del'Immo: Noisette & Montblanc Chocolat

Went to the Del'Immo café for cake for two. I knew that they were not a high priority after the shop ranking reorganization, but I didn't like to give up on them as a back-up and the new Sadaharu Aoki Marunouchi exclusive cake seems to be Opera, which is no good for me. The cake was Noisette and Montblanc Chocolat. The noisette had a strong enough hazelnut flavor to stand out against the chocolate and there was also a layer of passion fruit and orange, which harmonized well. This was definitely good cake, but I was bored with the texture, perhaps. The Montblanc Chocolat was also good, as a mixture of cream and chocolate but stood out less.

They were still pretty good cakes for basically a café restaurant, but I may never get back there, as I don't think I'm likely to find anything great. Of course, it also depends on how comparable shops do.

Del'Immo, Othello

Wednesday, I ran down to Tokyo Midtown, looking for a cake at Sadaharu Aoki, and then continued looking by running to Marunouchi, a route I'm getting used to. Failed both times, so I went to the Del'Immo at the new Tokyo Midtown Hibiya and got the "Chef recommended" Othello, which is a chocolate mousse cake with crème brûlée flavored with vanilla, which is a pretty standard cake design that usually is quite disappointing, but this also included a layer of cinnamon streusel. This was definitely excellent. I'm still not that excited by the main cake design, but I wouldn't be surprised in someone rated this great.

As a result, Del'Immo get's promoted from the quite good to excellent shop category, where I had three openings, so I don't have to bump any of the underachievers yet.

Cake-off: Maison Douce's Trevi vs. Del'Immo's Royal Milk Tea

This is the view from a bridge crossing the Tama River.

Finally did the semi-long run to Maison Douce in Hachiouji City, on the west edge of Tokyo. Things went a little more smoothly than the last bike ride, though I still got a little off track and was uncertain about turns, because its in the part of the usual pocket map for the 27 Wards of Tokyo that's at 1:62,500 scale, so it doesn't really resolve the details. I stuck to the main roads and was okay until where I was supposed to follow a river and ended up following the wrong one, but that only took me about a kilometer out of my way, so no big deal. I kept it to a reasonable jog, which was about 8.5 km/h averaged over 37 km. I could have kept going (I did keep going for the kilometer after I got the cake, Trevi, since I was not sure how far the entrance of the train station was and ended approaching from the wrong side (I eventually realized that and back-up a bit and found an elevator that took me up to the right level so that I could see the station. It took about 90 minutes to get back with the cake, since I stopped in Shibuya and again went out the wrong side and spent a walked a long way to get to Hikarie, where Del'Immo has a shop, so I could get the Royal Milk Tea (at least, that's what's written in English on the card, but you have to keep in mind that the phonetic Japanese says something different, Earl Grey, I think, when you're trying to tell the counter person what you want).

"Big Chestnut" River, followed to reach Ouzawa.

This was the hardest cake-off ever because both cakes were excellent but I could not say which was better and I wasn't sure I was feeling the greatness. Both are impressive for what they do with what they have. The tea cake is very mild but has an interesting dry biscuit and the right about of sweetness, whereas Trevi is sort of chocolate mousse, nuts, and fruit at a low price (about 400 yen) that still works. I decided every combination and then took it back. I wouldn't try to be strict, but Maison Douce is so far, that I'm not going to commit myself to going back there lightly. In the end, I decided that I have a long list of great cakes and I'm glad to revisit them, but have enough doubts about their greatness that I don't want to give either the win, so I'm not: they both get excellent rates on the second taste and get demoted to semi-great.

The above was Sunday. Monday I rested from cake, though I still ran, after some errands, to check out any changes in Ginza shops. It was about 12.7 km on the low end of 9 km/h. Actually, my right ankle was very weak afterward, so another reason to be careful about distances (though it's also probably related to doing stretching exercises that I usually don't and the fact that I also did a long bicycle ride on Saturday, which my ankles probably haven't become used to). Knees seem fine, though. Rather than cake, I took the cheap and convenient choice of a croissant from Andersen at Isetan, which was definitely at least good.

Del'Immo: Remy Martin

Ran to Midtown to check whether Toshi Yoroizuka has Annya this early, but though the service person agreed that it was a great cake, they get the rhubarb from Hokkaido, so maybe it will come back in the summer. Next try will be one from Dalloyau, which I plan to visit tomorrow.

Next I went to Del'Immo in Akasaka, since I haven't been there in a while. Got the Remy Martin (レミーマルチン; 580 yen) , which is named for a kind of brandy. It also has tonka beans in it. Not sure what disagreed with me, but though I didn't mind eating it at the time, despite obviously not being my thing, since it was interesting, and I was initially willing to consider it "excellent", the aftertaste bothered me, so I'm afraid "good" is the best I can do. Still an "excellent" shop, but I replaced it by Origines Cacao for the new Top 15 "quite excellent" group, which I have visited enough for now.

The run was about 9 km and I wasn't pushing too hard, just 11 km/h for the first part, 9 km/h through Akasaka, and 10 km/h coming back with cake. Felt pretty good.

I'll also note that Andersen at Isetan had "Fondant Chocolat" for 320 yen yesterday (I was there because Le Petit Mec had no baggets), which seems in no way to be "fondant", but just a pretty thoroughly baked sweet, but it was excellent (sort of a like a lower fat higher sugar brownie).

Del'Immo (Akasaka): Royal Milk Tea

Went for a short run to conserve my budget, but have since found out that my first choice for tomorrow, Yu Sasage, is closed. The second choice was Tron Coni, also closed. Fine, I'll go to La Glycine, which had its summer vacation last week.

Anyway, I also went short today because I'm adding running (broadly speaking). I went only 5.8 km, 1.9 km of it "running", all at about 6 km/h, so really pointlessly slow running, other than to build up slowly. I'm way behind from last weekend of not running or walking much, so I'll aim for 3 km running 7 km/h tomorrow (not sure I have that much control), as well as another 9 km walking comfortably fast. Saturday, I'll try to hit the reopening Yu Sasage, with is more than 20 km round trip, and then Sunday I'll make up whatever deficit I have left (taking Friday night off) to get myself up to 110% of a week ago. I ran last Monday, so I can still head to Ginza next Monday, or save it for a long trip Tuesday (it took so long just to plan tomorrow, I'm not going to figure out Tuesday's target tonight).

Cake! The cake was Royal Milk Tea from Del'Immo (the Akasaka branch) for 580 yen, which is called phonetically "Early Grey" in Japanese, so the counter person had to confirm with me, since apparently she hadn't actually read the English on the cards (just like I didn't bother to read the Japanese). This is majority mousse, with chocolate and earl grey, maybe bottom and top, with a fairly solid chocolate base. I passed up the high-chocolate specialty of the "chef", since I just had chocolate cake, and was rewarded with great (but lighter) cake. Very nice and an excellent shop. The macaron was not bad (they also sell macarons there).

Akasaka Palace and Del'Immo: Cassis Chocolat

Went to the Akasaka Palace loop to set a benchmark time for 1 lap. Getting there and back and taking another lap around to get cake at Del'Immo, it totaled 9 or 10 km of running, which is not a lot, but that 1 lap I ran pretty hard, so I'm plenty tired. Managed just under 16'51'' for 3.3 km. Getting cold with just a shirt and super light summer jacket though, once I slow down for the rest of the run, anyway, so I need to add a layer now, I think (or wear one of my cheap heavy jackets).

At Del'Immo, I got the Cassis Chocolat, which is what it sounds like. Just seeing all those fancy cakes made me happy. So different from the new shops that I visited last weekend. The cake was 540 yen, has cassis mousse, chocolate mousse, and chocolate biscuit. Reading online, it says it is perfect with wine (or whisky), which is what I had decided when eating it, so I guess it's common sense. The chocolate is not that strong compared to the cassis, which is okay. They give percentages of chocolate, and this one is only 40%, although that is higher than my last cake from there. This cake was very good, so I'll keep them as a shop of special interest. I'm behind on that category compared to the great shops in terms of numbers of cakes blogged (I figure 1:2 proportion would be good).

Since I was satisfied with this one, I can try a new (or at least not posted about) shop next rather than needing to do a great shop. If the rain holds out, I'll go down to Hiroo, but otherwise I'll visit Isetan and see if I can resist the great shops to get something from somewhere different.

30/20/10 intervals and Del'Immo

Heavy rain and wind today, but there was a break at 7 pm, so I went out. My back is a little better again today and I ran with the backpack, but emptied it except for an umbrella on the not bad side and a phone, a couple cards, a 5000 yen bill, and a key in the front pockets. I did 2 sets of 5 30/20/10 intervals and started a third but only got thru the 4th (and that was through pretty heaving pedestrian traffic). I didn't take the shortest route, but still not long enough to Del'Immo for my first time.

Del'Immo is in Akasaka and has cake for adults. I choose the Duo Pistache for 600, starting at the high end, but I can't remember why I choose this over their other pistachio, which has figs whereas this one has cherries, so I was little surprised when I went to eat it. The full description is that it is thick pistachio cream and a pistachio and light white chocolate mousse (this cake rates only 35% chocolat) accented by morello cherry and bergamot orange. It was excellent, however, so I'll be going back.

Mostly walked home because (i) hard to sprint with cake, (ii) my back is not perfect yet, (iii) it rained some of the time (I did get bored and ran for a couple minutes, but then stopped when it started to rain again), and (iv) I was exhausted and very hungry, because intervals involving running at top speed, even for 10 seconds, are hard. Thinking I'll do 1 min/1 min intervals again to Midtown for Toshi Yoroizuka with Takagi (if I don't give up on them as great) or Neues (if I give up on getting great cake) as backups, although I'm tempted to try to get down to Ebisu to someone I haven't bought from yet (and I could go to Toshi Yoroizuka down there, if that didn't work out).