Antendo: Chocolate Babka

Tried a fast run to Éclat des Jours, which was successful in that I ran shy of 11 km on the 12 km/h side, which is as fast as I've run this route (and I was going faster for the first part, slower in the middle where it was not helping me make the lights, and slowest toward the end, getting tired). As I half expected, they were closed on a Tuesday again without warning/mention on their Facebook page (they last posted closings in October). I should see whether there is a pattern since officially only Wednesday is a regular closed day, but I wouldn't have run if I wasn't prepared to be disappointed. I'll probably hit them again next Monday, when I'll have a better chance.

I took the train back, because I have other things to do that I'm behind on (like writing this), and did a visit to (Bakery Cafe) Antendo, which is the nearest bakery for Yotsuya 3-choume (not a particularly hip area, with just the one train line through it). I got the Chocolate Babka, which I've read should be moist in the middle, though that wouldn't last to the end of the day, maybe, even if it was every true. It's ok, but this version has only a slight claim on pasty-hood. I wasn't expected much, but just wanted to hit this as a local place, as I try to make pasties a twice a week thing.

(Tu) Tokyo Fuugetsudou Ginza: Framboise Chocolat

As a safety measure, and because of problems in the past, I avoided running for a full 48 hours after my flu shot. To enforce no running, I got another cake from the (self-proclaimed) patisserie next to Yotsuya Sanchoume that is within my neighborhood. It's been years since I've tried here, but not without reason. This is more of a café and it is also a chain. They've got a pretty big seating area and lots of packaged baked goods for gifts, for when you need to bring a present of food and you care enough not to just get what's sold at the convenience store, but maybe not beyond appearances. They also have a regular cake counter and probably take orders for whole cakes.

I got the Framboise Chocolat, intrigued by the idea of a chocolate raspberry dome cake. As I suspected, this was a bad idea, and it was not executed poorly, though not incompetently, so I'll hold my rating at "ok" rather than "bad". (Also, bad really requires a bad taste, and though the raspberry was not good and the chocolate left no impression at all, it was okay). Not sure why the bottom chocolate layer had a sort of chocolate ball in the middle, which was not significantly different in texture from the rest of it, being a fairly firm but not gelatinous mousse. No reason to go here instead of a chain coffee shops, at least for fresh cake. I assume that they continue to exist here because there isn't another patisserie near this station, it's part of a big chain, and the building is old so their rent is probably low, though it could be a matter of being a franchise and the owner not really having a better option at this point.