Libertable: Laitir

Finally got back to Libertable, which is an excellent shop that might be quite excellent, but so I need more information. This was only the sixth cake, I think. I went by the neighborhood route and finally finished a one-way neighborhood revisiting of the Kita-Aoyama--Jinguumae--Shibuya loop and the (central) Shibuya loop. It takes about 40 minutes by the shortest route on the neighborhood course to get to the south end of Shibuya station, from which I can cross into parts south. So actually I went to the ShinQ counter of Libertable, but it worked out and they had another cake that haven't had yet (Grace) so it's reasonable to go back there again, but I'll hit the Akasaka main store if that doesn't work sometime (there are a couple shops at ShinQ I'd hit for pastries as backup.

The cake is Laitir, which is baked cheesecake with epoisses cheese and cream cheese with marc cream and marc gelatin and streusel on top (soft of a reverse crust). This is the cheesiest-flavored cheesecake that I've ever had, I think, and is a pretty substantial ball of cheese, if obviously tricky to know how to approach it (radially, cutting between streusel and marc gelatin cubes). It's not my new favorite cheesecake, but it is definitely excellent and certainly recommended to anyone who likes cheesecake. Looks like more visits to Libertable are in my future.

42+ km to Etienne in Kanagawa: Casmarc and Asterisk

So the the extreme heat (35+ deg) record for Tokyo now stands at 8 days and ended on a peak of 37.7 deg, I think. Today was more reasonable and it was not hot or that bad when I finished compared to previous weekdays. As shown, it was a long straight shot south to the Tama River. It's not that great south of Minato-ku, but it's okay. I crossed the river to Kanagawa, despite there being a nice looking running path on the Tokyo side, but I'm not sure how long there is a good path there. I'd like to try it sometime. This put me 6 km from the mouth, and I ran to at about 23 km, I think. Early on there is a horse crossing, which is something I don't see every day.

Leaving the river, my course deviated a lot from the planned course, at least until a little past the second train station due to navigational problems. And the road was not that great for pedestrians, although that maybe was true in Saitama last week. I guess in either case, I don't really need to repeat the same course. As usual, my skin was the weak link as far as my body (I sweat a lot, and I skin doesn't like the sweat). I didn't do any jogging on the way back, but I was okay and still walked faster than most people and could go out on foot walking later in the day, but I may be approaching my limit. I'd like to do 50 km, including up the trail of Takao Mt., but that might not be reasonable. I expect to be busy next weekend, so no long run. So I'll have to decide what to do for in two weeks. I'm thinking I'll go to Aplanos in Saitama Urawa (same neighborhood as last time), so maybe I'll prepare both a direct route and a 45 km route.

But onto cake. The goal was Etienne, which has been to Shinjuku Isetan and I've had at least one thing I liked from there. For the cakes this time, I've made up the English spelling based on the meaning of the Japanese-English names rather than use asutarisuku (or astarisku, since the "su" were small) and kashimaru

I ate the Casmarc (cassis fruit and Marc, the alcohol) first (480 yen). I don't usually show eating-in-progress shots, but this one shows some of the hidden layers. The Marc is in the Bavarian cream and the red is the cassis. The base is a nice flaky crust, which I respect, but overall this is just okay. I'm not particularly into either ingredient, so people who are would appreciate it more. As you see, they have outside tables, although it is hard to keep the trash from blowing away.

The Asterisk (also 480 yen) was so-so. It's lemon and hazelnuts, which sounded interesting and is not bad but I wasn't satisfied.

There was only one other cake I was interested in, pistachio, and a lot that I wasn't (more than one tea-based cake and about several peach ones, for the season, one of which might have been a better choice). Overall, I don't mind that this shop is so far away.

37 km inside Tokyo to Patisserie Partage: Aphredite, Marc, and Chocolat Pistache Griotte

Sorry, no pictures today due to camera preparer failure (got to put the memory card back in the camera before you pack it).

The important thing was that I could go 37 km safely, more or less by this route. I looped around north to avoid leaving Tokyo (otherwise, it's about 30 km and passes through Kanagawa Pref.), although the initial turn was supposed to follow the river just for the sake of following the river, but initially I found myself up on the hill/bluff above one side, which surprised me when I got a look beyond the first time. Also, the whole loop took me up, down, through, and under (really wide sidewalk in the tunnel, a whole lane, but it's noisy in there; the shade was appreciated, but it really was not that much cooler: not such a long tunnel) hillier areas, so it was much different than my normal flat runs.

Lessons learned:
  I need to get up another 30 minutes earlier, 3:30, although today was mostly okay.
  The new running-shop socks seemed to work much better than the old general athletic socks; that is, my feet from the top of my sock down to my heel were not bright red after my run, just somewhat pink. So I need more of these expensive socks (or find cheaper thin ones that are good for running elsewhere).
  Need to simplify the path: the residential section at the end was a mystery, with roads on different levels of hills. I should have traded the river path for a main road to the road along the rail line (which runs by the shop) to my destination, or at least zoom in with Google Maps on the parts that might not be clear. For these runs outside the Tokyo core, I have to rely on a 1:50,000 scale map, although I already frequently was using the 1:25,000 part from than the 1:12,500 of my Tokyo's 23 (special) districts map.
  Two pieces of cake is enough.

For the cake, the first one looked like this, because that is what it is: Aphrodite. It resembles an ice cream sandwich, but is more of a firm mousse. It's tayberry, as far as the jam, which is a cross between red raspberry and blackberry. But the middle is cinnamon Bavarian creme (if I'm translating ババロア correctly) and the cookie is sablé, with almonds I'm guessing. Very good, like ice cream (I'm not that into actual ice cream, but I find that really rich cake reminds me of ice cream flavors). Getting the cookie to break to edible pieces without squishing the middle is a challenge with this cake. I think taking off the top, as messy as that is with the jam, and breaking that up separately to the side and putting it back is the best bet. I would definitely get this again.

My second pieces was the Marc (マール) (as in Marc Brandy) for 490 yen, which has a baked tart base under cassis (black current) and vanilla mousse. Very good. This person has a picture, the red one. I've only made custard tarts, so I'm not sure what you do to get the solid crumbly but rich middle. Something involving butter or almond butter and flour, I assume.

The last is the only one on their website, the Chocolat Pistache Griotte. I really need to stop getting chocolate pistachio everywhere I go, especially mousse in summer. It was fine as this standard cake goes. The griotte is the cherries, which are under the pistachio core. I don't really like cherries in my cake, but these were okay, not a bad idea.

Although not convenient, if they come back to Isetan again (which would not be for a couple years), I'll want to visit their counter again.

Now to plan the 39 km run for next week.