Yu Sasage, Montélimar Noisette

Took a half day off and didn't accomplish many things. That's normal, but I actually did try and did accomplish a few things, as the list of things is pretty long now. However, especially because I mistook the Sadaharu Aoki schedule (there was a new cake today, but only in Nagoya, which gets special treatment from JPH as well), I did go for cake, by bicycle. Yu Sasage is along the borderline between the exceptional and quite exceptional shops and was in line for a cake to try to make the jump. There were a couple promising new cakes, the other a chiboust, but I went with the Montélimar Noisette, which was explained as having Montélimar mousse, which I didn't find informative, since Montélimar is a place name, though I guess I new it was associated with honey. Actually, they were using it to mean honey meringue, which I'll have to try to remember and confirm that as tracking with what other shops mean. Other components are, obviously, hazelnuts, in mousse form, as well as dacquoise. It was definitely good, but is maybe too small and light a cake for me. This might be a case were some fruit would help.

 

Cake-off: Paris S'éveille's Monsieur Arnaud over Yu Sasage's Perfum

My Sunday plan for a cake-off worked, other than falling asleep too late and waking up too early. I hope to better tonight. First was a run to Paris S'éveille, by way of Takeshita, so I could get some pictures I forget yesterday. Note sure either of these places qualifies, as candy itself does not, and I'm not sure whether the cakes on a stick are something you make, which would also not qualify. Fortunately, the current version of the neighborhood running map doesn't depend on them either way.

At Paris S'éveille, I got the required Monsieur Arnaud and carefully verified that they have no new cakes. Because this places has the best pastries I know, I also got their Croissant d'Almonde, and, no surprise, it was great, which few are. My requirement, I discovered, was that it be baked to hardness on the outside: a soggy croissant is not a croissant, or much of a pastry (thus my problem with recent Pain aux Raisins). See the nice feet?

I took the train back and got Yu Sasage's Perfum from Isetan. The next best place I've confirmed for great pastries is Sadaharu Aoki, which only has things rarely, so I could pass up getting a fresh new one: Cannelé au Chocolat. Unfortunately, though I should have predicted, chocolate and cannelé doesn't work for me. The taste is good, but I'm not thrilled by the texture, so I'll be kind and say this was good and see what they produce next month (not that they are that frequent or have the big a back catalog).

Since I had a pastry after the first run and then after lunch, I went out running again before getting to the cakes. I'm completely redoing my running maps to add all the coffee shops and convenience stores I ignored before. Even if they don't have good cakes, they have some sort of packaged snack or energy cookie that is at least good, and they sort of define the pain points of the neighborhood, so just in terms of navigation, I should include them. What a mess though. Along this, I tried a Machi Café scone from Lawson, rather than my usual during running snack. It was okay, but I think I'll stick to my rule of ignoring packed breads/pastries, at least from convenience stores, as well as cake from Caffe Veloce (my other running snack was their cheesecake, with similar results, and only slightly better tasting than the Lawson 100 cheese tart).

Finally, cake-off. This is a fourth-round cake-off from the winners bracket. Paris S'éveille's Monsieur Arnaud is heavy decadence and Yu Sasage's Perfum is light elegance. I'm into the heavy, though it was a tough decision nevertheless. So becomes the second cake to reach four straight wins, and I'm caught up with the winners bracket at least through July.

Cake-off: Ladurée's Plaisir Sucré over Yu Sasage's Ardèche

Friday night, I tried again to get the Matcha Croissant from Sadaharu Aoki at Roppongi, but they were sold out. In good news, they had the new seasonal cakes, right on schedule (the main seasonal change is every 3 months, whereas I'm not sure when JPH well change, so I have to keep watching, though the café menu has). I also decided that the Nino Caffe next to Nogizaka Station deserves to be on the neighborhood course, so that loop needs a slight adjustment. I didn't get cake from Sadaharu Aoki, since it wasn't a cake day, but got a Cinnamon Raison Roll from Cinnabon near Roppongi Hills. It was okay. I should have microwaved it; I knew better. Notice that it isn't doused in frosting. The guy at the register seemed to have never heard of it and had to take the sign I pointed at and ask someone else. It's not a regular menu item, apparently.

Met someone in the morning, so I set off a little before noon for running. I limited myself to just a few pictures to add to the neighborhood map. I like to break up the run a little, but figured I didn't have much time, since I wanted specifically Ardèche from Yu Sasage. I would have gone to Ces Jours if that had failed and done a cake-off tomorrow. I took the train back as far as Shinjuku Station and got Plaisir Sucré from the Ladurée there (which still has take out, even though they eliminated the seating). Ardèche was relatively subtle next to the brute force of Plaisir Sucré, which I gave the win. I think Ardèche maybe doesn't need to be on the great list. As much as I like this type, I have enough already on the list that I like better, tough this was definitely excellent.

After lunch and tea and cakes (and a rest to update my map), I went out again around 4 pm and tried to capture photos of some missing sites and found a few new sites as well, so needed more time to adjust the map. The Moto-Azabu--Roppongi loop has gotten rather convoluted. This chocolate shop is probably the most important addition. Still shows up as a luxury fashion shop on Google Maps.

Cake-off: Jean-Paul Hévin's Longchamp Chocolat over Yu Sasage's Fondant Chocolat (aux Framboises)

So I decided that Yu Sasage's current Fondant Chocolat is close enough to what I previously labeled as Fondant Chocolat aux Framboises (let's pretend I spelled it correctly). The store card said "aux Rouges" or "aux Fruits Rouges" (I forget, and it was phonetic), but the Facebook post about it just says Fondant Chocolat, though the fondant itself is chocolate and raspberries, even if the decoration includes a couple other berries. I should note, I didn't ask whether I was supposed to microwave it with or without removing the decoration first, to make it fondant ("melted"), though I don't actually need it to be in the fondant state and wouldn't have anyway. I've been looking for this as previously rated as a great cake and it's only available until the 14th, so even though I just found a different perhaps great cake from Yu Sasage, I went with the old one as a match to Jean-Paul Hévin's Longchamp Chocolat. I'll need another great cake now against the new Yu Sasage, which will at least stay in the line-up through to the beginning of March, so it's not impossible. My priority is the JPH cake, of course.

Put two kinds of cream and a bandage on my sore toe and was also very conscience of putting the weight on the other side of the food, which is where it should be centered anyway, I think. No problem running today. I went out around 8:15 and was running on and off until 11:00 (and again part way from Isetan to home). Took several pictures of new (to being included) food places that I'm adding to nearby neighborhood course loops, which required going 90 degrees from the direct path to Yu Sasage. That course turns back, so I didn't have to retrace myself, but it must have added a few kilometers to a longish run. When I left the old loops, I picked up a couple sites that I hope to eventual need for loops further out, a park, a green space, and the above shrine.

The cake-off was fairly predictable. The Fondant Chocolat was definitely excellent, but I've had more experience now, including with fondant, and am harder to impress the second time around, so this one will get demoted to semi-great, but it's still my favorite fruity fondant chocolat (not sure I know any straight chocolate ones that are great, but there's still at least one more hanging on for the third round of cake-offs to be tested). Also, Longchamp Chocolat is dark chocolate, nuts, and almond meringue in one of my favorite forms of cake, made by my favorite shop, so it's tough to beat.

In the afternoon, I went hunting for discount mass-produced chocolate (Look 3 is my favorite now) by bicycle. It took three shops to find it, but I went to stop by Les Cacao just to see whether Cuba had turned up (no, though it would only matter if another first-round loser still on the great list becomes available), so I just made finding the chocolate part of that quest. It was a long ride, as I stopped by Shin-marunouchi Building also, where I also didn't find the cake I was looking for at 14 Juillet, though I should check again when Valentines day is over, as they had several cakes that were obviously seasonal.

Yu Sasage, Ardèche

Did a west run to Yu Sasage in Minamikarasuyama, Setagaya-ku, in response to their cake-off win with Perfum, the only cake of theirs that I've put to the test. I tried to take pictures along the way, though I only seem to have a few. Anyway, the weather was cold and there was a little snow, so I didn't want to expose my phone with a cracked edge.

I always have trouble choosing, as my mind is not that organized after running and people are waiting in the cake shop so I feel pressure. The thing that made me pause was that they have a Fondant Chocolat ? Rouge, whereas I've been looking for their Fondant Chocolat aux Framboises for cake-offs for a few years. This is apparently the correct season, as I had it originally in Feb. '16, so the current Fondant Chocolat is probably a close match, but maybe not. Instead of finding out, I got Ardèche. This is very similar to the JPH cake I want great cake to match against: a chocolate cylinder with a hard coating. In this cake, the inside is very moussie: chestnut mousse and (Western) tea mousse chocolate, along with chocolate caramel ganache. This is actually a fairly mild cake, almost a milk chocolate taste, whereas I'm easily impressed by less subtle applications of sugar and nuts. This did have some crunch in the base, along with the coating, so there was sufficient variation in texture.

I'm not sure how it will hold up against further scrutiny, but I think it's not unreasonable to designate it as great. I'll try to get it again Monday and put it in a cake-off against the JPH cake. I don't have anything to match the loser against a second round, though, assuming that I still think that cake is good. My best bets are if 14 Julliet has reintroduced Au Lait Noix (they were back with having small cakes again last time I checked, but a smaller different line-up that definitely didn't have that one) or Les Cacao has put Cuba back in the line-up (haven't seen it since 2017). Not sure that I'll have time to check that latter this weekend, but I wouldn't mind an east run Tuesday or Wednesday, not to let F. Cassel go too long without a visit.

Cake-off: Yu Sasage's Perfum over Viron's Mille-feuille

In the morning, I ran down to Viron in Shibuya by way of practicing/confirmed the two loops in the Jinnan clump of the neighborhood course and then getting roasted crushed peanuts from Nikunohanamasa, since I was running very low. Both the loops are newly revised and I failed on the smaller further away Jinnan loop but could do the simpler and closer but longer Jinguumae--Jinnan loop clockwise. This year, for the third-round cake-offs, I'm working through the list in order of the month I first sampled the versus just chronologically, so that I can match things up in the main season better and am not look for winter cakes in summer, hopefully. This time it was the Mille-feuille, which is available year round, like most of their cakes (the repeat rate on specials is pretty low, though the Fraise, for example, is strictly seasonal, though it's off the great list. I had a delay coming back, as I took the wrong exit (I'm being carefully and using the train to bring back my cakes) and was briefly trapped north of the Shinjuku Marathon runners.

After a half-lunch, I went out again to go to Yu Sasage and was trapped longer on the east side of slower runners, though eventually they let us through. As in other recent outward forays, I took a several photos that are aspirationally future sites on neighborhood loops, should I ever add loops that far out. Yu Sasage still doesn't have either of the other two great cakes of theirs, which have never been available for a cake-off since their appearances in '16 and '17, but they had Perfum.

I like to give honest reviews, so while Viron's mille-feuille was excellent, as a traditional mille-feuille, I wasn't feeling the need to have it in the great list at this time. I've had a lot of mille-feuille since I've last had this one, and though none of those was great, maybe I'm becoming more demanding. Or it could just be natural variation. Perfum remains a combination of fruit, pistachio tart, and meringue that I appreciate, so I don't mind giving it the win, though it's a lot less convenient to report them with an additional visit for a new cake (but the only way I visit these days, so they need the visit more).

Cake-off: Yu Sasage's Perfum over L'Abricotier's L'Abricotier

Short post. Got Yu Sasage's Perfum  for a cake-off versus L'Abricotier's L'Abricotier. Unfortunately, its not really up to the vibration of cycling. Both cakes definitely great, but I appreciated the rose taste over the fruit taste, so Perfum took it.

Next day, I went back to  Yu Sasage and got a Saint Honoré Ananas Citron Vert, which is self-explanatory if you speak cake (otherwise, the fruits are pineapple and lime), which got messed up worse than even Perfum, when I fell over, spraining my right forearm. It was still good and should look like this photo from the shop Facebook page.

[Fri] Yu Sasage: Chiboust Mangue Passion, Deux Fromage ｄ’Été, and Savarin Pêche Melba

Did my running early, in a winding path through Akasaka to Tokyo Midtown, where Toshi Yoroizuka continue to not have old favorites (though I'll visit for something new soon, so it matters that they have something, though I'm not sure that I'll go to Midtown for it). Set off thinking I might do some sort of speed or pace training at Meiji Gaien, but it was too hot and humid (i.e., not raining). I think I did 9 km at about 9 km/h, but I was using paths that Google Maps does not allow (cutting through the park-like path and bridge between a couple buildings), so couldn't calculate very exactly.

In the evening, there was a request for cake, and since Yu Sasage was available and convenient, we went there.

The first cake I had half of was the Chiboust Mangue Passion, which is what it sounds like (a mango and passion fruit chiboust). As chiboust's go, it was more gelatinous (versus airy) than I expected, but still I thought it was excellent. The "egg wash", if I'm getting the translation correct for the Japanese-French, for the bottom caramel tart has mango, as well as banana, whereas the chiboust part has the passion fruit, according to the description. I look chiboust and this as different without being bad, so I found it excellent.

The second cake was Deux Fromage ｄ’Été, which is a summer two-layer (baked and rare) cheesecake flavored with pineapple confit and passion fruit and mango gelatin. I thought the cake was a little grainy, somehow, and also, the rare was pretty soft and the baked part was harder than some I've had, so I was really not appreciating the texture and construction of this one. However, the taste was still good, so this counts as good cake.

Unfortunately, I can't say the same of the last one, which was Savarin Pêche Melba, a baba with a peach liquor and white wine based syrup, a raspberry glazing, some peach confit, vanilla cream, I think accepted with baked white chocolate somewhere, though I'm not sure where, and uncredited almond slices. This was just too dry for me and did not have much taste. Not it was was bad as sponge goes, but what's the point of a dry baba?

[Wed] Yu Sasage: Numero Sept

Numero Sept 

Yu Sasage visited Isetan, and even though it wasn't really due for another cake yet, since it had slipped from quite excellent to excellent in my shop ratings, being at Isetan made it pretty convenient, and it was still essentially at the boundary of the two categories, so getting Numero Sept (#7), although a mistake, is not something I'm going to regret. Cakes with banana are ones that I usually avoid because they are often pretty unsophisticated. This cake also can appeal to simple tastes, but I do not think is restricted to them. It's three main layers under a coating of baked chocolate and almond. The layers are cream cheese on top, baked chocolate mousse in the middle, and cake flavored with baked chocolate and banana as the base, where the baked chocolate is white chocolate. It's a somewhat simple cake, but it works and I don't mind the banana. I'm going to call it great until some other cake proves to me that this can be done better.


The run was training on a slope (250 m horizontal), 7 reps in the rain (like earlier runs this week) which were averaged above 10 km/h, which is pretty good.

Yu Sasage: Princess

I seemed to have recovered from the tiredness of lass weekend. Might be from sleeping late. The actual run was nicer, too. As planned (though I deviated from the course somewhat), I followed close to the Keio line south of the main road rather than using the main road or using the old main road further north. It was so much nicer without all the car noise that I should always use that route, though it added an extra 1 km (though that will decrease slightly if I follow the planned route better). I could go faster (consistently 9 km/h) and still have the energy to run from the cake shop to the station and then from Shinjuku Station home rather than walking like yesterday. Total distance was 15 km.

The cake was Princess, which was a random choice, it just being just the first thing left to right that I hadn't had before. It's red peach, pistachio, and a tea biscuit. The crunchy biscuit was the best part, though the macaron was also very good. Otherwise, it was just a soft fruity cake, I'll say good, but not anything special. Yu Sasage was the lowest in the Quite Excellent list, and this gets it bumped down just Excellent. I'm holding off on replacing it until I get caught up on the newer additions.

Cake-off: Yu Sasage's "Perfum" over Hidemi's "Framboisier"

As expected, today's running was a little tough, so it was all around 9 km/h, which is better than it might have been. First, I went to Hidemi to get Framboisier. I dawdled preparing, so I didn't arrive until 11:05, whereas 10:50 might have been better. Still, I waited only about 15 min, but most of that outside in the sun. For this cake, it was close enough that I ran it back, though, with the lights, I didn't make it within the 40 min that they recommended. It was +11 km round-trip.

For the second cake, I went out to Yu Sasage, which was actually cooler, though it was now early afternoon, so probably not actually cooler. I ran about 1/4 north of the main highly, just to vary the routine (there are parks, which is convenient, and a lot of pretty old public housing apartment buildings, which are not so scenic, but fine), since I've been over to Yu Sasage a couple times recently for research and have previous stuck to the main road for simplicity (usually, I was coming back at the end, so not the best time for complications).

Both of these are fruity cakes, which are not my favorite, so hard to judge. The Framboisier, in particular, was hard to determine what I had thought was great about it, but by the last bite, I was certainly appreciating the balance of raspberry, sugar, and cream (also, may the cake needed some warm-up time, though not much in summer) and think that it is definitely excellent. The other cake, Perfum, is a pistachio tart with a fruity (soft) meringue, or at least the gelatin under the meringue was fruity. This also I liked more as I ate it (and the two cakes went well together, so it was a happy pairing). I liked the more substantial base, even if the three components, tart, meringue and gelatin tended to separate (as did the layers of Framboisier) and the actually lighter flavor of the top worked slightly better for me. It's a weekend/holiday only trip, so I guess that will be my run tomorrow, too, though, I'll trying following the train line south of the main road rather than north. Like today, though, I think I'll take the train back with the cake, at list to SHinjuku Station, because I've been running pretty heavy and the heat is not great for me or the cake.

Yu Sasage: Fraisier Pistache

Did a long run, with research and a 7th cake from an excellent shop. The run was okay, at least no problems and most of the navigation went well where expected and no worse than expected where not. Kept a steady speed of 9 km/h over all three legs totaling about 32 km: To Bigarreaux, where I got a great Pain au Raisin (300 yen), very buttery (or maybe it used a lot of egg yoke, as it was very rich);

then to Yu Sasage, and finally home. I was worried for the heat, as it was 25+ deg Celsius but was dressed for it and drank a lot. The cake was definitely good, with the pistachio filling being fairly solid, which was good for the long trip. The fruit dominated, though, and while not bad, were not exciting (you need pretty firm strawberries, but really sweet ones would be very too ripe, perhaps.

La Candeur: Marjolaine

Had a long run today, and there are many mistakes to report, so I'll get to it.

First step was to get to Aigre-Douce to look for previously blogged great cakes. Not surprisingly, now is not the season for fresh raspberries, which was the cake I was looking for, although they did have the salt caramel tart that I liked. My route deviated from the plan on the initial roads and then I ran into trouble where Meiji Avenue goes under Mejiro Avenue, as I did not find the stairs that Google says are there (actually, I did not remember where Google said there were stairs, but the only ones I saw to use were on the wrong side, so I should have stayed over there, which was in the shade). I ended up with an extra 400 m. Problem is, to stay on budget, besides not adding distance, I needed to keep the outbound to 10 km/h and this about 6 km stretch ended up 11 km/h, which  I did not even realize, so double penalty there.

At Aigre-Douce, to power my next stretch, I got their bostock for 280 yen. This was definitely good. It seemed lemony, though maybe I was misinterpreting almond liquor or something.

Next 14 km was to Yu Sasage, and this time I stuck to the plan. I was only slightly slower then the first strech, but this brought me within the 10 km/h range. This time, neither of their great cakes that I've had were available, probably because it is the wrong season. I should have bought another snack there so I wouldn't be so hungry that I ate my cake at the actual target for cake. Got a photo, though.

First time to La Candeur, so got a little confused at the first turn (plus, I couldn't remember the details of the plan, so I took the main road south after rejoining Route 20). Seems like a nice shop, and very new looking. The selection was nice. I went with a traditional cake, Marjolaine, which was perhaps a mistake, but I'm too much a slave to the classics.

As I said above, I almost immediately gave into temptation and ate it at a park. This was the wrong temperature for this cake, which, based on the fact that two of the filling layers are whipped cream, should be eaten about 10 degC (which was the ambient temperature, but it would have taken a while to reach that, and I've already said that I was not patient). Anyway, I've made this cake myself, and this seemed to be exactly by the book and taste about how I would expect. So it was definitely good, although, as chocolate, chocolate whipped cream never works well for me, so again, this was perhaps a bad choice. It did make me think about making this cake again, but I don't really need this shop's (but not because it's worse), so that's not an indicate that it's excellent. Too many Tokyo shops to give them a second chance, unless they visit Isetan, in which case I should.

Back (about 14 km) was supposed to be 9 km/h, to stay in budget, and I was definitely slower, but was still in the 10 km/h range, which was a bigger deal the being fast and long on the first stage, so I'm over my running budget by 3% now, though since I only get to expand it every couple weeks, that's not unreasonable (my expansion pace is 10%/week, but only 10% of what I actually ran for one week starting two weeks previously, so it's easily interrupted). My raw distance the last 7 days was 90.8 km and the 12 km/h equivalent (what I actually use in my budget) was 80.7 km. I won't have a lot of running budget for the next block of weekdays, since the budget won't get upped until next Sunday and this weekend is taking up the majority of the current budget. Still, I can plan out a couple training runs, one second visit, and one new shop for Tuesday through Friday so I'm fine. Might run early Saturday, before my first appointment, but not enough for my budget to matter, since I'm busy that weekend. Tomorrow I'll rest, but get some bread.

With that all planned out, now I need to figure out where I need to go to research great cakes for comparison in two weeks so I can start figuring that week's schedule.

Yu Sasage: Symphanie

Took a long walk, 23+ km round trip, to Yu Sasage at a good speed (little over 6 km/h going, a little under 6 km/h coming back). I'm tired, but the leg seems sound. However, I've hit 101% walking/running load relative to my peak as of 1 week ago and I didn't exercise last Sunday, so I don't have the budget for a full-speed round trip Nihonbashi, which is my goal, so I either need to take the train back (which could be justified if I buy perishables) or take the bicycle out for the first time in a while and figure out how to count that in my budget (in terms of calories, its about 1/4 running for slow riding, supposedly, but calories don't really capture the physical strain, which is what I'm after).

Unfortunately, Yu Sasage let me down. I'd already had both the specialties displayed, and there were a lot of new things, maybe because they were coming off a holiday, but I chose one of the couple other things. This has mascarpone cheese, cream, and an earl grey biscuit. It started off good, and I was considering whether it was excellent. It had a kind of fruity flavor, in addition to the tea. For some reason, though, by the second half, the fruity sweetness was not working for me. Honey in that top layer? Not sure, and not sure honey would be a problem, but ultimately, I can't say this is good. It mostly worked or worked most of the way, so I'll say it was "ok". Maybe it just caught me at a bad time or it needs a particular beverage; I had water, but since it's already tea, I wouldn't think it needed anything else to balance it. It's supposed to already be a balance. Sorry, forgot again to get a shop picture. And cake fell over, so it got a little smushed.

Cycling to Yu Sasage: Le Matine

Tried to run, but wasn't that surprised to find that my left knee was not up to it after yesterday's 43 km run. I'm still surprised I managed 51.5 km for two days last weekend (although that's within my maximum one-day of last year). From here forward, I'll have to consider whether I can do one-day or two-day weekend running, although all the History and Culture course I have coming up require too long a run there and back to allow much for a second day, so I'll try to stick to one-day runs with cycling on the other day (if there is one). There are six more H&C courses left to do, and four are already manageable if I can keep increasing my distance by 10% each time (don't need to the next two except for training, but will need it for the following two). The last two require about 100 km of running, so I won't be surprised if I never manage them (at least without resorting to a bicycle).

Cycled to Yu Sasage again, since I had it down as potentially great. Instead of running through the middle of the Shinjuku Station area (and also along Shinjuku Gyoen, which is crowded with visitors due to cherry blossom viewing season), I left using the road between Shinjku Gyoen and Meiji Shrine, which worked well. Then the issue to explore was whether to cross under Expressway 4 back to the more northern parallel route I've used recently or follow along the expressway. Parts of 4 (really, the road under/around 4, which is raised) are fine, but the parts that are built up around stations can get crowded with people and crowded with buildings that cars pull out from between, so I've concluded that it would definitely be worth a short extra trip north to get off it. There are some southern roads that parallel 4 for a bit, but not as dependably (namely, you can't necessarily cross the main streets when you come to them or you have to make weird turns to stay on course) or long.

At Yu Sasage, I got Le Matine ("The Morning") for 470 yen and took it to a nearby park that was not full of cherry trees, so I could get a bench to sit and eat, as well as take a picture. This is an apple mousse cake. I choose it because it was first in line among things I hadn't had (excluding standard low-priority things, such as mont branc, short cake, baked cheesecake, and cream puffs). Was a little worried at the beginning that this was going to be just good, as the fromage blanc cream that make up the largest part of it is not that interesting by itself, but the green apple taste really went with it, the biscuit base was good, and the macaron, which I ate with the last bite, was a perfect touch. I didn't have any trouble judging that it was definitely excellent. Maybe if I liked apple, or really fruit, more, then I would have thought it was great, but I'm not going to try that hard to be objective. Ultimately, I want to rate cake and cake shops on how much I like the cake. In defense of my phone, the screen on my digital camera (10 years old) was not any better outside. The camera is still easier for transferring the picture to my computer, though. It's disadvantage is it's heavy (for running).

Back to Yu Sasage: since this is three excellent cakes to two great cakes, I'm going to move them from tentatively great to tentatively excellent (although definitely at least excellent), which means it will not longer be a priority to keep going back there. In other Yu Sasage news, they did have a fondant in the store, so maybe it was not just an Isetan thing (it did not say that it was a raspberry fondant, but it still had raspberry on the outside, at least, so it's probably the same). Also, I picked up their card for BéBé de la P. Yu Sasage, which is a branch to the south that, while not closer, would be on a nicer and more familiar route, although their hours are 11:30 to 18:00, which is a little restrictive.

Related in the sense that I would have bought Yu Sasage's if they had a fresh-baked tray out like the last time I was there, I tried making financier-like cakes yesterday using my 7.5 cm, 10-petal, brioche forms. The picture shows what one egg's worth of eggwhite makes (I used two, but ate half, including the most burnt ones: I lowered the temperature but did not reduce cooking time to account for using a confection oven). They're very good, so now I know what to do with egg whites left over from making tart crusts, custard, or whatever. I used almonds ground just to the point that the pieces were starting to stick together as a stage of almond butter. It would be interesting to try with almond powder. The recipe calls for "finely ground almonds" and I've read elsewhere that there are differences in some but not all recipes between using almond flour and the courser almond meal, but baking supply stores here seem to just have almond powder, and I can't tell from pictures how much finer flour is than meal, except that both are finer than what I used, which still had the almond oil in it. Next project is to make brownies substituting some ground almonds for flour, then maybe make both with almond powder instead of my self-ground almost almond butter (need to get back to Cuoca at Nihonbashi, though, which seems to be the best place to by a kilogram of almond powder) before trying madeleine-type cakes, again with the same forms. 

Ran out to potentially great shop Yu Sasage. I should probably mark this route (and routes for other main destinations), since it is a pretty good route and this shops seems like it at least is going to end up as an excellent shop. Most of the run is along Tokyo City Road 431 Tsunohazuiisumi-town Line, which is also an old water transport road. Lots of parks. From the end, at Inogashira Road, you can pick of a park route that crosses the train line and puts you in front of Meiji University. Passing that and the neighboring temple complex, you can get back a on a series of linear parks and parallel roads that runs parallel to the main highway (4) all the way to where 20 splits off. At the split I took 20 (after Ring Road 8, you can take a local road, but I remembered that it's pretty crowded for running, so I took the longer route) to the light just west of Yu Sasage before cutting south and then back a block for Yu Sasage. It's about 12.6 km and I managed a moderate pace. I was slow coming back (although I might have managed moderate but for the congestion around Shinjuku Station) a slightly longer 12.75 km route, due to staying on the park on the east side of Meiji University too long (although knowing that there is a relatively big public toilet building there, is good, as the main strip park on the other side has just one more limited one).

That gives me a 2-day distance of 51.5 km, which might be the most I've done post-injury, so more than I probably should have done after a training break for a cold (which my left knee was quite willing to tell me fairly early on, although I slowed down and kept it under control). The 4-to-7-day distance then is 63.3 km, which doesn't leave me a lot for the next 3 days in my 7-day running budget of 85 km (which I can raise to 95 km after Wednesday). Of course, I could just rest tomorrow, but it's a holiday (for the Spring Equinox), so I'd like to get out. Perhaps I'll take the bicycle to Jiyugaoka, for Paris S'éveille (which I can run to during the week, theoretically, but is a little tough and uses a lot of kilometers) and maybe Cuoca, although in the latter case, I should check Mitsukoshi first, which is in the opposite direction.

But to the cake, that being a main theme. I didn't prepare my camera, but the phone camera worked reasonably okay, even if I can't see the image on the screen well enough when I'm taking the picture. The cake is the Sicilienne, which was introduced in December (on their Facebook page, anyway) and is 500 yen. Outside, is pistachio mousse (with maybe pistachio cream on top, along with pistachios and a cherry), and cherry mousse and gel inside. Something that sounds like "Fond du Roche" adds crunch, but I can't find a Japanese phonetic French to actual French translation. The cake looks like it might be gelatinous, but actually, at least for me, the outside was more like a thick sauce than gelatin, and covered an airy pistachio mousse. The taste and test was excellent. I could say that this was great, but I don't really like cherry so much in my cake, so I'm going to have to hold back with excellent, even if it seems perfect for what it is.

Saturday: Suminami H&C, Yu Sasage

Today's route covered the Suminami History and Culture course, which is not that far from Yotsuya, but is relatively long. Started out with 6.13 km of moderate-paced running to get to the start (should have been a little shorter). The route covered the Yakushi Peaceful Wood Walk from Araiyakushi-mae Station (where I couldn't find a starting marker, which often there isn't) to Koenji Station, which runs past (P.) l'Abricotier, a shop worth checking out, and has a little path along whatever canal goes to Myoshoji Park.. From Koenji Station to Nishi("West")-Eifuku Station goes along the river (I'm not sure how to get Google Maps to show river names) Wadabori Park. There's a little construction, but the start is open and the detours are mostly obvious; however, the new map cuts into the park north of the baseball grounds, whereas the markers keep following the river for two more bridges, before heading south. Also, there is a spur to read the big map in front of the destination station which I missed on the way there but found on the way back. Part three is the Kanda River River Walk, which spends a lot of time along Kanda River, of course, which also has a lot of parks, all the way to Takaido Station. From there is Karasuyama Temple Village Walk, which actually runs along the raised expressway and the main surface street paralleling it, but has lots of parks and has a wide well-marked path along that part. This last walk ends at Chitose-Karasuyama Station, on Keiou Line. Total, I ran 16.69 km (including the unintentional detours, but not the construction detours, which weren't that big) slowly (though not that slowly). Lots of parks, rivers, and old temples. Mostly very well marked. I really like and recommend this course, although you do go through a lot of shopping streets around stations, so don't expect to race through it.

Conveniently, this put me near Yu Sasage, which is a priority "worthy" shop. This day's cake was Comparaison, which is a milk chocolate mousse cake with honey cream in the center and lemon, or at least lemon peel. I've had this basic kind of cake before (as far as chocolate mousse with lemon), but here the lemon was more intense, as juice bursts out when biting pieces of peel, and balanced delicious chocolate, despite being milk chocolate (so I still don't know why some chocolate cakes turn me off) and the base in the middle was a nut in chocolate disk (pecan, I think), a small layer of mousse above that, and a little cake disk above that go under the cream part. I mention the base, because I've had asymmetric lumps as the base of mousse cakes which did not impress me. This was 490 yen, which is fairly reasonable and was an excellent cake, so Yu Sasage remains a priority, even among worthy shops, since it could still theoretically turn out to be great. I did not, however, see any kind of fondant, so I wonder if the one I had before was just for Isetan, even if it wasn't marked that.

The trip back took longer than I intended. After eating my cake under one of the parks under the expressway (where the main surface road isn't right next to it), I followed the expressway as well as I could back to the H&C course and to part three. I had intended to get on Honan Dori, but turned too soon and end up on Inokashira Dori, which heads back toward the expressway (which dips south before heading back north, which is why I didn't walk to follow it. Well, extra distance is not terrible, so I followed Road 431 (I think it was Nakano Road) back in, going past P. Diamond and Concent, neither of which I know anything about or looked particularly special, although Concent was more a cafe and they had baked goods (and multiple customers). So the trip was 15.81 km at a slow pace.

That gives me a total of 6.1 km of moderate running and 32.5 km, so 38.6 km total, a reasonable expansion of last week's, but less than the 40 km that was my target maximum. Still, it was a busy day otherwise, so it was good to get that much in.

Yu Sasage: Gaien Walk

Got a second cake from Yu Sasage during their visit to Isetan before running.

For the run, I did the east half of the Shinjuku History and Culture course, Gaien Walk and Outer Moat, before following the Shibuya course to the Inner Moat and coming back through Akasaka-Mitsuke and up past Yotsuya Station. Mostly, I was really slow about it, although the point was more to get some hills in. There was 0.2 km of very fast at the beginning, and I managed a moderate speed 6.4 km for the Shinjuku H&C (despite the hills and stairs) and a little extra to cross the main road (and because I overshot the turn onto the Shibuya course), but there was 2.7 km of slow and 2.4 very slow after that, for a total about about 11.7 km.

The cake was the Perfum, which they list as a specialty. This is a tea tart with raspberry cream and jelly with rose-scented meringue and was 486 yen. I can't say that I could pick up on most of this. Certainly, there was a tart that was good, but I couldn't tell you the flavor, and the cream/meringue was raspberry. I wanted to like it, so I did and will call it great, which means that I need make a priority of getting over to Yu Sasage itself, since they are done at Isetan. Also I was reminded that shops have Isetan-only cakes, so I should check out the visiting patisserie even when it's some place that isn't otherwise a priority, just to see if there is anything special.

Patisserie Yu Sasage and Inner Moat

Got cake at Isetan from the visiting shop, Patisserie Yu Sasage. For running, I followed Shinjuku Street to the Inner Moat and did one 4.99 km loop. I didn't research what points are at what distances, so I just tried to keep my pace the best I could, but I definitely was slowing down, so I should for next time. Interesting note is that if you stay on the street (rather than going through the gate around the southeast corner, then it is 5.01 km. Also, if you do go through the gate, you need to run parallel to the edge rather than cut across or it's probably going to shave some distance off. Anyway, going and coming back got me 2.7 km each of fast and moderate running, respectively, and the actual course took 28'39''60, which is also fast. So I start the week with 7.7 km fast and 2.7 km moderate.

The cake I chose was Fondant Chocolat aux Framboise, for 460 yen, which was great. This is a chocolate cake that I can get behind. Inside is all chocolate mousse-like filling (at least after sitting in the refrigerator with an ice pack next to it for a couple hours) rather than the more liquid kind of fondant. The raspberry is just what you see on top with the raspberry cream, which is the right amount for me: still raspberry flavor, but it doesn't take over. Now I have to call them "worthy", so I have to go back tomorrow and try again to get something their last day (I wasn't that lake, but the selection was small, and last week when I tried, they were completely sold out of fresh cakes).