Cake-off: Jean-Paul Hévin's Bergamot over Sadaharu Aoki's Mont D'or

Friday, I went for a long neighborhood run that combined practicing loops to confirm that I have them memorized and doing a one-way neighborhood run to and around a new loop, which means that it was really long neighborhood run, because I was doing full loops and then having to run back from the start point of the loop to the official link to the next loop rather than just use the part of the loop (once) that I needed. I was successful at doing clockwise runs on the Jinguumae east, Kita-Aoyama central, Minami-Aoyama north, Minami-Aoyama east, and Roppongi 7 loops. On the Minami-Aoyama north loop, I stopped at P. Takagi and got a Chausson Napolitain as my first pastry from there. Related, I made a decision to stop using the sidewalk that cuts through it as part of the loop, because it's really not somewhere where one should run and it's easy enough to go around, which still takes one by the signs saying what's inside. The pastry was definitely good. I've never seen such a flat chauson, though my experience is limited and this seems to be normal for this kind of chausson. It contained sufficient fruit for me (and apparently alcohol), so no complaint about that.

The new loop was the Azabu-Juuban--Moto-Azabu loop, which I'm going to add a little loop for to reach a Tully's. On that loop and coming back, I took some photos of places that I had missed or had second thoughts about leaving out, since as the photo at the right, which is a temple, though their business is pet memorials.

The cake was another cake-off (trying to get through the potentially soon to got out of season cakes from the majors): Jean-Paul Hévin's Bergamot and Sadaharu Aoki's Mont d'Or. The latter is scheduled through February; it's not clear when Bergamot was leave the line-up, but it's listed as seasonal and some sort of shake up is scheduled for mid-January. These were both working for me. The Bergamot is just one variation of a type of JPH cake that I think is great, but I haven't gotten tired of it yet and it takes the win in this third-round cake-off, where previously it had one win and one loss.

(Saturday) Takagi (Aoyama): Bruxelles

Went to the Takagi in the Aoyama area and actually entered the large cafe section for the first time. I usually go there after work on a weekday, when it is completely empty (I don't know what the capacity is, but a few dozen, probably), so it was interesting to see it packed with people. It's still not clear why they keep it open until 9 pm on weekdays, since often there is no one there or just a couple people, but at least I can see how they avoid going out of business.

In the non-cake category, we had the brioche in maple syrup. Very good, although I prefer bostoc, although it probably depends on the bostoc. It was 1,458 yen and it would be a whole meal, and not a light one, but we split it between two people.

The cake was a new one, supposedly (new at cake shops doesn't mean that they've never had it before, I've noticed, just they are not promising that it will appear on a regular "seasonal" schedule). It was the Bruxelles (I think that is spelling they used) for 605 yen. It's layers, with the dominant flavor being citrus. Obviously there is chocolate, too. The soft "biscuit" layers are to keep it together, but in my mouth there is only a creamy feeling. It is excellent and the opposite of the Marquise cake from Friday, as it is not subtle. Not that it has an overly strong taste, so much, but strong enough and sweet.　

Takagi: Fontainebleau

Today is a day to make excuses about running/shame myself, which is one purpose of this blog. The excuse is that I did 21 km yesterday, which is two day's running. Still, I wanted to do strength training that I can rest afterward from so I'm still ready for 40+ km Saturday morning. My running was 1 min/1 min intervals and I tried to run as fast as possible (as embarrassingly slow as that is, I still run out of air and I'm not that sore), I did not take the shortest possible route to Takagi in Aoyama, but it was close enough that I only had time for 6 intervals, because it's really close. Then I ran back with my cake, and that was it. I tried working out in my room, but I was really tired and hungry, and only got a third of the way through my normal routine. I'll try running to Ginza/Shinbashi tomorrow and doing a better inside workout Friday. I really need to get some dumbbells, but apparently the nearest Biccamera with them is Akasaka, which is okay if I go by bike on Sunday, I guess.

From Takagi, I got Fontainebleau (my spelling), which is almond and hazelnut praline around caramelized nuts with a layer of chocolate. It's a seasonal cake, so perhaps this is what got me thinking this place was great back when I started seriously looking around for nearby places to run to get cake, since this seems designed to appeal to me. It was 562 yen, which is not too bad these days of the weak yen. The cake is very good, is well-balanced, and was not something that I got tired of. No reason to call it great, though, so I think I'm going to have to downgrade my evaluation of Takagi. Still, very convenient and has good cake. And they give me little chocolate/nut something for free fairly often, as a kind of appetizer, I think. It's always the same, though, so I have to watch out or I'll get tired of them when they give me two. I should freeze them and save them for sharing, but I'm too greedy for that so far.

13 km loop through Takagi: Emile Framboise

Too hot again, but a little better. Anyway, I kept going. I ran past La Vie Douce and the main shop of Chez Cima, so I added them to the map, along with today's route, although I'm getting an error so I don't know if it's actually working yet.

The goal was to get some good cake from Takagi, but I got the Emile Framboise, which I was not really into. Summer, of course, is not a good time for cake if you don't like the jelly ones. It just wasn't doing much for me, although better than Short Cake. Takagi was always sort of a marginal choice for great shop, being more convenient than great, but I know I've had better, in other seasons at least, so I'll keep trying.

I also had a quarter of homemade cheese tart with chocolate on top, which was excellent, so no complaints.

Just a few kilometers

So I said no cakeshop cake today, but I meant I was not going to buy any. If someone else buys it, I'll eat it. Today was a company anniversary and there was surprise cake. The person who chooses the cake really likes strawberry short cake, which is what we got last time, when it was a surprise cake for the president's birthday, only this time from Takagi. It was okay. If you want a little yellow sponge and a lot of white cream with some okay strawberries, Takagi is not bad, but I prefer more taste with my cake and less air. It's so light, and yet it was heavy in my stomach, sitting at my desk.

It was really hot and humid tonight, so I did not follow my somewhat planned course much. It rained for a while, which was not too bad, but it did not do much for the humidity and made me think it would be stupid to be caught far from hope if a lightning storm began, which could still happen. A pack of runners passed me around Akasaka Palace, which was more crowded than normal. For me, though it's not worth getting heat stroke to do hard training. It's get permanently grounded for summer running if that happened. Tomorrow will be hotter during the day, but less cloudy, so maybe it will cool off. Looks like the typhoon will swing around north to the Sea of Japan side and keep things clear but hot here in Tokyo for the next week (and more). I'm busy Saturday morning, so I plan to get up early (or stay up late) and run Sunday morning for the big run this weekend.

I did, by the way, melt a chocolate bar over a cheese tart, which works, but the chocolate is hard and just breaks when you cut into, of course. Can you just put chocolate in the bottom of the tart shell and put the cheese filling on next and bake it normally? Even if it just mixes in, that would still be good, but I've got to deal with the 4 1/4 cheese tarts that I have before I experiment that way.

10+ km to Takagi's: Arpajon

I added extra up-and-downs in Wakaba (Yotsuya) and twice on Sannou Hie Shrine (I was aiming to go up and come down the big front stairs but first ended up going up and down on the side once first), but here's the route that I had planned to follow. Looks like I went wrong at East Gaien Road halfway through the south leg. The first half was quite a work out, as was jogging up and down shrine steps, so I'll try it again the next time that I go that way, although I don't think that I can really cross the next main road where Google says I can. There are some shops further along Aoyama Road that I want to try some time (although I think I can find them elsewhere), so maybe I'll try that path in reverse. Tomorrow I need to rest (and get a package: wine), but I'll probably go over to Isetan and grab cake from Aoki or somewhere, which I haven't hit lately and is on the list of greats in my head. Thursday will depend on the rain. I'll take a cake rest then if I can't run.

Patisserie Takagi is convenient (on Aoyama Road), in terms of hours and time and has pretty good cake. I'm not sure whether it's great, but I appreciate it. Today I got the Arpajon for 605 yen, which is mostly bitter (not really so much) chocolate mousse with significant amounts of pistachio mousse and some raspberry mousse. It's got three kinds of nuts on top, which I appreciate, but is not enough to save it from being just enough chocolate mousse, which is all it's really trying to be. Some asymmetry in the chocolate spikes is due to breakage: I should bring my own bag next time, as theirs have too short a handles for good cake running. Had trouble with the camera again, apparently, but wasn't patient, so too late now. All my night photos were also fails: can't keep the camera steady enough for buildings and none of the settings for the view from the stop of the shrine stairs really gave good results.

The cake was okay, but too much mousse for me again. That's about what I expected, but it's their #1 seller (it's pretty, so no surprise; I hate when I ask a shop person what is good or what they recommend and they tell me what's the most popular, as if that proved anything) and I wanted to confirm what it's like and get Takagi listed in this blog, since they are at least on my list of ones that I want to run through their complete line-ups and compare, just I won't be needing this cake again.