Yoshinori Asami, Mille-feuille

In the afternoon, I hit the last of the exceptional shops that I intended to visit for new cake at this stage. I didn't even try to run with my current problems, I went by bicycle, which was fine for what I got, Mille-feuille. This shop sticks to rather basic/Japanese-semitraditional (not Japanese sweets, but relatively old Japanese versions of western-style sweets). Since mille-feuille fits in with this, and this being an exceptional job, I found it an excellent cake, which I usually do for traditional mille-feuilles, so it's sort of an easy cake to impress me with, if you take the trouble to make it, which I appreciate that they do.

This leaves Les Cacao as the low shop to beat as I start more seriously on the quite fine shops, which are going to take a while to get through.

Yoshinori Asami: Caramel Pomme

Last Thursday I caught Yoshinori Asami and got the Caramel Pomme, which is a modern shaped cake, though it got a little mangled on the wrong side, so I took the picture from the top. The bottom is an apple tart and the main part is caramel mousse with apple compote. I haven't had much luck with these in the past, but this one was definitely excellent, so Yoshinori Asami stays as a exceptional shop.

Yoshinori Asami, Tendresse Orange

For Wednesday's cake from Isetan (since I'm still not running, though I'm definitely much better), I took advantage of the visit by Yoshinori Asami to get a 6th cake from this excellent shop. This time I got Tendresse Orange. I might have to go back and check the details, but obviously there is orange and definitely chocolate, though not so much as to dominate, and I think caramel. The base has poppy seed sized elements that give it some texture, maybe chopped orange peel? Not sure, but the cake really showed off a nice orange flavor without being too fruity for me and with a good texture, so I can say that this cake was excellent, which confirms my evaluation of the shop.

In other news, Sadaharu Aoki has a pistachio cream puff, through May, they told me, though it's not on the web page. Haven't heard what the featured cake at the Marunouchi salon will be this year and JPH also hasn't updated their line-up yet, so I also have those to look forward to. Next week, perhaps, I'll get out by bicycle for some weekday cakes, even if I'm not ready to run. I was fortunate in my timing for being limited to Isetan in terms of a new counter opening, two visiting shops worth trying, and many excellent cakes, even if I haven't found the next great one yet.

Yoshinori Asami: Étoile

Again today, I went to Isetan for the visiting pâtisserie, which had changed to Yoshinori Asami. It's only a priority because it's convenient and a little cheaper there due to cards. Fortunately, this time I got there before they sold out, which they sometimes do on the first day, as they did yesterday on the last day of Blondir. I was disappointed that they did not return with their Van Dyke, since I've only ever found that when they were visiting Isetan and its my favorite of theirs, but I still had a reasonable selection of mostly things I haven't had before. I went with Étoile. Despite the name, this cake reminds me more of cakes from German or Eastern European cake shops. Rather than a few layers of almond-flour biscuit (or some of it might have been hazelnut; I didn't finish reading the card) and heavy ganache balanced by cream layers, this was alternating biscuits and ganache all the way down, with one fruity layer, though I'm not sure what. Very heavy, but still definitely good: I really appreciate having this type of cake occasionally, so I'm not at all disappointed, but it's drier than the cakes I like the most and maybe I don't really have enough experience to judge well whether a particular one is excellent or even great. That's a project I'll probably never get around to, focusing on specific types of cake.

The running was on the neighborhood course, where I verified kilometer markers 12 to 20, which took me to the other side of Omotesando Avenue, and came back home, so over 11 km. For the measured ones, I kept my target long-distance pace of 7 min/km pretty well, despite some slowdowns for congestion or automobile traffic, so I'm ready to try 20 km at that pace (which shouldn't be very hard, but takes time) but have other plans for at least through Saturday.

Yoshinori Asami: Orangerie

Finally got to Yoshinori Asami again and bought cake (I've often gone there this year looking futilely for a particular cake, but not to actually buy something new). It's +7 km, which I did 10 km/h going out and 9 km/h coming back. They close at 19:30, so the schedule is a little tight but I was fine. They are relatively new and in a big building (didn't get it all in the shot) a few blocks from the station on a fairly quite street. It's outside the Yamanote Line, so I guess we're in car country and you need to have parking, though I'm not sure I've seen anyone with a car the few times there were other customers.

The cake was a chocolate dome, Orangerie, which is always risky. It was pretty standard in construction. I'm assuming it was something like Bavarian cream inside the chocolate mousse, but that was not exactly what was written on the description (which I didn't bother to figure out the French from the phonetic Japanese). I'm pretty sure it was Bergamot orange flavoring the cream. The chocolate was suitably dark to go with the orange and this was definitely excellent.

Yoshinori Asami: Zebra

Walking and condition same as yesterday, started (from Yotsuya Sanchoume Station) with 6.26 km in just over an hour with some soreness but without seeming to strain anything.

Been a while since I was this far north, to P. Yoshinori Asami, where I got Zebra for 500 yen. It's alternating biscuit (maybe almond based) and (praliné?) ganache under chocolate glazing. It was good chocolate cake, but not any better than that. Disappointing compared to the two cakes of his I had via Isetan (which I did not see in the shop). Could be that higher-class stuff is sold at Isetan or could just be that the cakes during a heatwave (tho here only 35 degC, the heat being centered in the west) or summer generally are different. Parfaits seem to be more popular now. The piece of (actual) coffee cake (for eating in) was okay with me. I may get used to coffee someday. 

Went on to visit Kappabashi Street to see kitchen stuff, which ended up making the walk 23 km. So, guess I'm okay to do a round trip to Jiyugaoka.

Yoshinori Asami [@Isetan]：Van Dyke

Didn't run, but decided that my cake was overly linked to my running, which led me to run more days than I should. Or at least that is my excuse for going back to Yoshinori Asami again while they are at Isetan. This time I got the Van Dyke (? written phonetically as vandeekku, which is the correct original pronunciation of Van Dyke, for all I know), which is milk chocolate mouse and cassis mousse. The construction was similar to yesterday's but I was more satisfied with that aspect, somehow. I'm not particularly fond of cassis, but I don't dislike it and the balance was perfect and the mousse was so thick yet good, that I'm going to say that this was Great cake, for 540 yen.

Yoshinori Asami: Royal Chocolate

Did a very slow 1.5 km to the starting point of the Gaien course, partially intentionally and partially just I was really having trouble, because of my left knee and because I was not running toward cake. But when it came time to really run, I could do two laps (2.65 km total) very fast, which was the main goal for today. After that, I went to my start point (NW corner) for the Akasaka Palace course, did half a loop, and then went down to Akasakamitsuke and on to the Inner Moat course, which is 3.33 km and done at a moderate speed. Once around the Inner Course (taking the 5.1 km path) was also moderate, and then back to Akasakamitsuke and to where I left off the Akasaka Palace course to finish that lap, from where I took the unnecessarily hilly route up to Gaien Walk, following it only as far as the Lawson 100 on Shinjuku Street, which is 4.91 km and was very slow. Oddly, although my knee bothers me when I start running, running very fast sort of numbed it out and although it gave me trouble later, it didn't mind the hills at the end. Then walking home after shopping, though, was the worst, so it's stopping and starting that is a problem. Feels okay now. So about 17.5 km, which took a lot of time, so I can't run that far the next too days, because I really need to get some stuff done at home that isn't getting done.

The cake for today was from P. Yoshinori Asami, which is visiting Isetan in their newly expanded space, with really big display cases each holding only one example cake. Seems out of control, but it was crowded before. The cake was the Royal Chocolate for 540 yen. There are a couple fruits on the top, maybe cherries, but I couldn't tell, and a raspberry layer. Then there is a chocolate mousse layer and I think an almond mouse layer, although I need to go back and check the card. Finally, cake on the bottom. It wasn't hugely sophisticated but a long way from homemade-style, as it should be. It was excellent without really telling me what to expect from other cakes, since I selected the most likely to appeal to my tastes. Anyway, I'll need to get back there while they are convenient, which is until next Tuesday.