[Friday] Angelina: Mont Blanc and Mont Blanc Chocolat

No running, but I went out for lunch a Angelina and get Mont Blanc and Mont Blanc Chocolat (demi size; 500 yen each). The tea salon and cake counter just reopened in the new building (or maybe it was renovated; I wasn't really paying attention to that part of Ginza), which is now called Marronnier Ginza 2, mark of Marronnier Gate, since, I guess it marks the start of Marronnier Avenue, so chestnut dominates everything.

There are many styles of mont-blanc. This particular one follows the more common reverse form of putting the white cream on the inside and the chestnut paste on the outside. The base is a sugary (no almond) meringue, and the inside is only cream. The chestnut cover is relative thin, but not inappropriately so. The balance if the standard Mont Blanc cake is actually excellent, although people who like a heavy chestnut flavor would be disappointed. The chocolate version is relatively sweet chocolate and complete hides any chestnut flavor; it is good but in this case the balance doesn't really add up to anything special, so I'm not in a hurry to try the other flavors and variations (they also have a couple token cakes).

Pierre Gagnaire: Mont Blanc & Tarte aux Fraises

Ended the short (for me) week with a short, slow run (<10 km at 9 km/h) to the ANA Intercontinental Tokyo in Akasaka to get cake from Pierre Gagnaire. Company was coming, so I got two cakes, a Mont Blanc and a Tarte aux Fraises (600 yen each). Nothing unusual about the Mont Blanc, which seemed to be good quality and was excellent. The strawberry tart was also excellent, a very buttery tart, I think, and sweet.

Only ran about two-thirds the current base level this week, but just five days of running after missing a week from illness (and I'm a little off now) and really, I'm running enough that I don't really need to expand my week distance much further. My plan is to try a marathon-length run on Sunday for the first time in about a year, so resting up a little right before maybe is okay.

Dalloyau, Mont Blanc

Somewhat as planned (at least the route was right on), I went to Kappabashi and bought some cake making things, Silikomart silicon forms for canele and 4 cm cylinders (I really just needed fairly shallow disks, but I'm hoping these will work close enough). The shop is already cheap, and they were on sale. Forgot to look for macaron cases (the same company makes them, although they probably don't import them, since they aren't on Amazon, where I got my mini canele Silikomart one). Only about 20 km cycling today, but got soaked (should have waited an hour). More rain tomorrow after noon, so maybe I'll wait for the afternoon to run to the Marunouchi/Ginza area, with Viron my main aim.

Next was to Mitsukoshi, where I picked up some coating chocolate and a couple 6 cm d, 3 cm h cake rings. While I was there, I got the Dalloyau Mont Blanc (and forgot to get my card stamped, I just realized). The chestnut is more the familiar flavor than the special seasonal one I posted on before, although still very mild. It's very buttery, so maybe a chestnut butter cream is what they work with. Still, excellent, although someone who wants a stronger chestnut flavor might not think so.

Asukayama History and Culture course

Today's goal was to do the Asukayama History and Culture course, which is the Tabata Calligrapher & Artisan Village Walk, from Tabata Station to the NW corner of Asukayama Park next to Oji Station, and the Nikko-onari Road Walk, which starts at Asukayama Park and goes up through Akabane Station to the park area between Sumida River and Arakawa River.

I didn't take a very direct route to the starting point, less direct than I intended, and it was a slow (actually, I'm surprised it was that fast) 12 km. The H&C course is just over 9 km and mostly follows a single street. My map is not completely accurate as far as the side of the route was on, but it switched without warning, and you might be better off just picking the side that you like, depending on where the sun is, although certain crossings require you to get over to the appropriate side. Not a very exciting course, so I don't expect to get back there again.

I went back mostly following the same route, although I took a more direct (and crowded) route toward the end of doubling back, and Ueno Park to Akihabara was very crowded.

Just to extend the run far enough, I went to Tokyo Yogashi ("western confectionary") Club, for the last time, probably. I got their signature Mont Blanc, which I've never had before, for 400 yen. It has a kind of closed tulip shape, and the chestnut (I assume) outer petals are only a couple millimeters thick before you're down to the vanilla cream, so it's sort of a Mont Blanc for people who don't like Mont Blanc so much. The base is a fairly thick sponge disc. It seemed good at first, and I liked the vanilla flavor, but it wore out its welcome and the base somehow did not agree with me. Certainly the whole thing had a kind of homemade feeling that put me off. I have to average my feelings and call it "okay". Recalling, the other things I've had from there were not much better, so I'm just going to change its icon on my map to a square, which means, I can ignore it.

Stopped at Cuoca to price a couple cooking supplies, but did not buy anything and ended the run at the 100 yen Lawson shop.

Total run was 43 km, all very slow (or slower) except for the first 12 km of slow running. With 12.8 km Thursday, 10.8 km Tuesday, and 25.4 km last Sunday, I've got 91.2 km, which is fine. I can repeat last Sunday's run to Yu Sasage (I hope) and Tuesday's run to Frédéric Cassel, and still have a few kilometers for Wednesday to stay within the 95 km running budget. Next Saturday shouldn't be such a big increase (just a few kilometers), so I'll have more distance for weekday running after that, even if I keep making about 25 km runs on Sundays.