Cacahouète: New York Cheesecake

Although I've had their cake before and consider them good, I haven't blogged them, so I got some P. Cacahouète (meaning "peanut") cake from Isetan. The selection was not very good (at least after work), so I ended up with New York Cheesecake for 540 yen. It was definitely good and a change. It had a sourness that you don't really find in Japanese cheesecake (or yogurt), which I appreciated, but it wasn't so great as to make me think I need to be paying them more attention. Next week's shop will be a Saitama shop, so I'm not sure that I'll bother, since I've got my hands full trying to keep up with the best Tokyo cake shops, and all the ones I haven't visited yet.

Running was simple: down to the Meiji Gaien "track", two laps, and back. The "middle" lap (because I don't start at the beginning, so I also have starting and ending half-laps) was 625 meters at 10 km/h this time (about double last week's), as three intervals with 8 km/h running. The other lap's worth was a reasonably steady 9 km/h. There and back was a reasonable 8 km/h. I'm busy tomorrow and would rest anyway. Also busy Saturday, but I might fit in a trip along Gaien Walk just to smooth out things. Not going to get back to Oyamadai for Au Bon Vieux Temps, so I'm holding out for a chance to go to Frédéric Cassel again (I'm caught up with Viron until after I get another cake from Dalloyau). Although I'm busy, I'm hoping to still swing some cake, but I might have to satisfied with my macaron stock.

Les Années Folles [Hinka Rinka counter]: Caramel Chocolat

Did a Ginza run to follow up on (P. Les) Années Folles, since there is a counter in Hinka Rinka in Tokyu Plaza Ginza. I started off a somewhat fast 8 km/h for 2 km, where it's most crowded and there are frequent lights (I stop the chronometer, but I slow down approaching hoping not to, at least warming up). The rest was a slow 9 km/h (that is, not really that much faster), which ended up being about 7 km, since I was able to just barely average above 8.5 km/h coming back. So not my longest run recent run, but my longest stretch of about 9 km/h.



The cake was Caramel Chocolat, which was maybe not a great choice, but not a huge selection at the counter and I don't like cherries in my cake usually, so that that ruled out the other chocolate and the pistachio cakes. The caramel was not terrible (not coffee bitter), but not really the sweet milk caramel that I like. There were pear pieces inside, which were somewhat interesting. The bottom was chocolate mousse/cream;  not sure what the differences is, except you whip chocolate but for my chocolate cream cake, you only whip the cream and then combine it with the prepared chocolate mixture (you need some hot milk first to dissolve the gelatin and then the chocolate in). Under that, was a thin chocolate sponge/biscuit bottom layer, which was good enough but nothing special. I'm going to give it the benefit of the doubt and call it good, but it means that I can go back to just thinking of this shop as good, which was my general impression pre-blog.

My last homemade fancy cake (#7) was "Sphere", though it isn't. As always, I didn't do the decoration part, though I intend to do with chocolate macaron with (homemade) raspberry jam that is supposed to be on top later. This was like chocolate cream cakes (I now know) that I've had before and not thought much of. All I could taste was the chocolate, even though the first two parts are a pistachio macaron base and a cream raspberry layer, which I tasted by themselves and they were excellent and good. If it had been better chocolate, maybe it would have been better cake, but that doesn't really justify the other parts being it beyond structure and color. I actually didn't do a great job on the creme chocolat either, since I had trouble whipping the cream again. I should never try to do less than a full 200 ml, since it never works well for me (this time was half a 100 ml pack). Besides the pistachio base, the chocolate sauce that goes on top is excellent, glacage chocolat, which used the same cheap grocery store chocolate (although also an equal amount compound chocolate for coating, which I got from baking supply store Cuoca).

I might skip doing the whole next cake, "Soleil", which is another fruit (mixed ) in white chocolate, so too much like the orange cake I did and never posted a picture of (what a monster that was, but the Bavarian hazelnut part was good). I do want to try the biscuit dacquoise orange base, although I'm not sure that I'll bother with the orange, since I need half a grated orange peal (if I was making 25 of them) and I don't have the best grater for that.

Viron, Chiboust aux Marrons

I'll lead with the cake: I ran to Viron (as always, the Marunouchi one) and got the Chiboust aux Marrons for 810 yen (really, but it's big), which is a chiboust top and a bottom that is sort of like a tart with chestnut halves in it. I'm slow to come around to chestnuts, but I'm getting there. Just the base as a chestnut tart is excellent, and I would like to see more chibousts and I've never had a better chestnut chiboust, so I'm saying this is great, which is 6th of 10 tried that I've found great there.

The running was too fast. Even noticing that my first kilometer was over 9 km/h, I couldn't get the average below 8.5 km/h going out, although I did coming back (still not going far enough or fast enough for fatigue to be a big factor). I'm seriously chewing through my 7-day running budget, which is why I've only run 31 km compared to my peak walking only a couple months ago of over 70 km (although I also have 20 km cycling this week, which counts only 1/4 of running). Of course, shorter and faster is more efficient and the best cake targets are somewhat close, although I'm going to have to just do the Gaien Walk again (even if I do 9 km/h again, I'll still be within budget) and get cake from Isetan (it's about time I had Jean-Paul Hévin cake again anyway, though I need to get to the Marunouchi location, too).

In home baking news, I started a new cake, which uses a pistachio macaron shell as a base. It's just a simple substitution of pistachio powder for almond power (simple if you can get the powder), but so delicious. Actually, it seems to "macaronage" a lot quicker, so I have to be careful not to over-mix. I had a fancy recipe with egg yolk and syrup which I failed with, at the stage of combining those two, so I went with a simple American pistachio buttercream, which might be too sweet. I'll try to wing a pistachio marzipan buttercream next time (I've still got lots of pistachio powder and enough pistachio paste for another batch), although probably not soon, as I've got a few dozen macarons in the freezer now, not all that successful, though: lots of chocolate ones with cracked shells and ones with chocolate-strawberry ganache, which isn't well balanced. You'll notice that I don't die the shells, or cover them when baking to keep them from getting brown.
 

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.

Maison Douce: Tarte Caramel Jolaine

Went first to Isetan for cake and got Tarte Caramel Jolaine (?) from visiting patisserie Maison Douce for 540 yen. I didn't deliberately choose the one with coconut shreds to sabotage my rating, just I had caramel on my mind. I did notice that they had an unusual number of cakes especially for Isetan, this one being one of them, which makes me think that their regular clientele supports a simpler selection.

Then I went and ran the Gaien (Outer Garden) Walk for the first time in a while; I am not used to those slopes, but I averaged 8.2 km/h over the 4.2 km before running back 0.6 km to Lawson 100. I only took photos and the end, which is the beginning of the Sotobori (Outer Moat) Walk. Here's an album showing the marker and surrounding view. If I ever get the time and strength, I'll do a Tokyo History and Culture Walking Course blog, but no sign of that happening soon.

The cake was fine, that is, good, and the coconut didn't even bother me. The base was strongly attached to the cardboard base and was difficult to cut even with a metal knife, so I'm not that thrilled with the design of this one, but you have to put something under it to support it, I suppose. That little layer of sponge is not going to do it. The main under-layer is a fruit mix with rum (not that strong), but all I can remember is pineapple. From the photo, I can't really tell---strawberry?

In baking news, my last couple macaron attempts were seriously cracked, so this time, I (i) ran the air conditioner on dehumidify from an hour before putting them out, (ii) touched them to try to learn the different textures as they rest/dry, and (iii) tried two different resting times before baking, 40 and 90 minutes. The latter did the trick (notice bellow that I also got "feet", which is related), but I'm not sure which one actually tastes better, because I like some chewiness, which I got more of, perhaps, with the cracked ones, and I'll choose taste over appearance every time. I might just one to bake them longer for more chewiness, although I should turn them half-way anyway (you can also cover them, to avoid browning, I've been told). Note that most recipes say 20 to 40 minutes of resting before baking, but an acquaintance who took classes told me he's done a couple hours and used a fan for making them in summer in Japan, so they are difficult in this climate, at least with the French method.

90-minute rest

40-minute rest

 Next new thing, I need to make chocolate ganache with fruit puree.

Au Bon Vieux Temps, Zephyr

Cycled to Au Bon Vieux Temps for cake again. This time I got Zephyr, which was 702 yen. The top is chocolate cream with alcohol, which both seem to be a specialties of theirs. The bottom is a steamed/baked mascarpone cheese and brown sugar (had to look up "vergeoise" from the Japanese phonetic French) cheesecake, which was almost nutty in texture. This cake is excellent, so I chose well again. That chocolate stick should be on top, though.

Being greedy, I continued on to Limevert, because I hadn't forgotten that they had a bostock (for 380 yen), but it wasn't really the type I like. I like double-baked, somewhat thick, but this was thin and rum-soaked with lots of sliced almonds (a large amount of almonds slid off even before I got it; it's not very stable ). It was still good.

Didn't do a good job of staying on the best path, so it ended up being 34 km of cycling, which is a couple more than I planned. My leg seems okay, but now my arm isn't too happy, so I may need to limit that.

I should mention sometime that I've had the Venezuelan Noir chocolate from Henri le Roux (I've given up on photographing them), and it was excellent, like their other chocolates. Now I want to get to Tokyo midtown to try the their new Kouign Amann flavor, lime.

P. Maison Douce: Trevi (?)

Got my cake from Isetan. This week (starting yesterday) P. Maison Douce is visiting from way out in Hachioji City, which is perhaps farther away than I've ever gone for cake, even when I could run 50+ km. The rain mostly held off today and I ran around Meiji Gaien. I'm down to just walking the first 0.3 km and then I ran somewhat slowly to the track and around the starting marker. Then  and did one full lap (1.325 km) at 8 km/h. The second full lap, I did 200 m each at 7, 9, 8, 7, 9, and 8 km/h, with the 8 km/h sort of high stepping, so it might have actually been the greatest work out. Then I ran to Lawson 100 for shopping, ending up not much under 8 km/h, even with a hill) and walked back. Overall, I had about 1 km walking, 2 km at 7 km/h, 3.5 km at 8 km/h, and of course 0.4 km at 9 km/h, which was a new speed to try and seems okay for my body. My weighted median speed is staying just barely in the 7 km/h category, but it's almost at 8 km/h, where I'm doing most of the running now. I'll keep decreasing the walking, but round trip to Ginza is still farther than I'm ready to do just running. I did max about 6 km this week, so I'll try maybe 8 km next week. Tomorrow, though I'll probably take off so I've got some budget for the weekend. I want to cycle back to Au Bon Vieux Temp and was going to go to Port Bonheur, but I might just got back to Isetan for Maison Douce cake and run locally again. Port Bonheur is accessible on weekdays (I've read), so no hurry. And it's about 8 km round trip.

The cake is maybe Trevi (phonetically, it is To-re-vi), which seems Italian. "Tres Vie" would be two French words, but wouldn't make any sense. It was only 440 yen before tax, I think, so quite reasonable. This time, I did look carefully at the cakes before selecting, but this was marked "Specialty" and "Award winner", so it was an easy choice. It is milk chocolate mousse flavored with orange, with some chocolate sponge inside, so it doesn't collapse, and a base of fairly large nut pieces, I think almond. This was great cake, so I do need to get back there before they become out of reach again.

Viron: Tendresse

Ran to Viron in Marunouchi. As planned, I ran faster (around 7.6 km/h for 6.1 km) and started running earlier, but still walked back (no rain this time, so just had to stop for lights and cake). They had a couple cakes I hadn't seen before and I got Tendresse for 702 yen. This is sort of a chocolate mousse dome, although not that much. More of it was Bavarian cream. I don't recall whether the outer layer of chocolate mousse or the Bavarian cream that has it, but there is passion fruit, which harmonized well. The outer layer of chocolate (?) was a little gummy, but it is still pretty hot (high 30 degC today) and I haven't gotten to dome cakes, because I'm working on nut-based biscuits. The bottom is feuillantine praliné, which is classy compared to a sponge base, so that balances it out and I have no hesitation saying that this is excellent.

Dalloyau: Tarte a la Myrtille

Walked and ran to Ginza, this time by the long preferred way, so the total trip was almost 12 km. Walked down to Meiji Gaien track and then ran, apparently really slowly (6 km/h) at least on average with the hill past Akasakamitsuke, until the rain made me pull out my umbrella and I walked to and along the Moat course to the Sakuradamon Station entrance and then ran again, this time 7 km/h average, to Dalloyau (this time I took a picture from the front entrance),



where I got Tarte a la Myrtille for 594 yen, I think. Sorry, it's facing backward, but I didn't trust myself to get it turned around without wrecking it.

Went to the park by the overpass rather than wait for Hibiya Park. It's better lit, but someone lit up a cigarette near me just after I finished my cake, so the location has it's good and bad points. The blueberry tart was, I'll say generously, excellent. This is a solid butter tart (I imagine) base. The nice thing about blueberries is that they are not overpowering. I haven't had the strawberry one yet, and I'm worried that might be too much strawberry for me. I would have gotten the regular Mont-Blanc maybe, but it was sold out (though they had the pricier seasonal one with Wakayama chestnuts that I posted about before).

Coming back, even though I was not sure of my distances, I knew I was going slow, so I worked in a little more running (1.5 km), again averaging 7 km/h (no steep hills), before walking the rest of the way home. It's good to expand my running distance, but I'd like to at least do it at a faster speed than my walking, so I'll try to step it up tomorrow night.

Origines Cacao: Bacchus

As planned, I did not run this weekend. Instead, I baked a new cake recipe that I had been collecting ingredients for and did my first cycling for a long time. My knee seems to be okay for it.

The ride was out to Jiyugaoka to Origines Cacao to check whether they are "near-great" and ended up being about a 26 km round trip. I timed the first part was doing about 14 km/h, trying to go the equivalent of a walk as far as effort. It gives me a benchmark. Supposedly wind resistance makes speeding up on a bicycle more difficult for running, which I don't know how I'll handle, but I'm treating this as the equivalent of one-fourth the 7 km/h running distance, as far as my budget (I'm rescaling my budget to 7 km/h running from 6 km/h walking, though that information is not so useful to anyone else).

At Origines Cacao, I struggled to find something that looked good that I hadn't had, so I went with the promoted new one, Bacchus, for 594 yen, which is a chocolate cake with cognac and apricot. It's good, being layers of soft sponge with liquor and chocolate frosting, but maybe because chocolate layer cake is too much like what I've had plenty of in the US, it's not really so exciting. Sorry, it was so bright, I couldn't see what I was taking a picture of (and I forgot the shop again, as usual).

This is not the cake I'm looking for, so Origines Cacao goes back in the "excellent" list. That only leaves me five near-greats, whereas I wanted at least doubt the great, of which currently I have four, although if Dalloyau dropped a level, that would work out, so I keep working on the bottom of the near-greats until I get them up to where I want (half the number of cakes of the greats) before I try to update them.

At least the croissant from Au Bon Vieux Temps was excellent. They have delicious looking baked goods, but I don't think I've gotten anything before.

I also got another chocolate from Henri le Roux on Saturday, Madagascar: This was was excellent too.

Learned/got experience with a lot in my last cake attempt, Essor, I think it's called (I don't have the page with the real French name, just the phonetic Japanese). There was nothing that I did well, but I got the general idea about several parts. The result was pretty ugly, so no photos and I ate the evidence.

Essor has two layers of hazelnut biscuit, which was okay, but a little underdone because I used an upside-down tart form on top of a silicon mat because I don't have a 14.4 cm diameter round Flexipan (nor am I able to find out how I could get one, since even the company doesn't list that size, though it would probably would be about 5000 yen, which is more than I want to pay). For the (gelatin) hazelnut Bavarian cream disk, I completely failed to whipped up the cream, and splattered most of it around the kitchen: the new balloon whisk with the new mixer is proving difficult to use. However, it tasted good, and wasn't overly gummy (though would be different with more and proper whipped cream). This time I needed a 12.5 cm Flexipan (also unavailable), so I used a right-side-up one with some plastic wrap, which was a little leaky but worked well enough. The　(gelatin) orange concentrate and liquor layer, whose phonetic French name I can't figure out besides the orange part, really didn't like my substitute for the 12.5 cm Flexipan and broke into pieces when I tried to separate it from the form bottom (also, I had to boil down my first attempt and try again, as the gelatin and concentrate separated during freezing). This was gummy and too strong to sample by itself, but actually was fine in the cake, except for being ugly. Finally, I had to submerge/embed these layers in creme chocolat-blanc d'orange, again with a little gelatin; I tried chilling everything, but still had a splatter problem, so I did it by hand and didn't whip it enough (I don't really know what 6-minute whip looks like). The 15 cm ring form, which I did buy, leaked, but that might be due to the cream being too thin. It formed a solid cake okay and was good, though I'm not really that interested in cake that tastes that orange, so I won't be trying this again. I still have some orange concentrate, but maybe I'll use it and the liquor for macaron filling. Very educational, though. Now I just need to learn to whip cream, since it's half the next cake, Gateau Fraise.

Échiré Maison du Beurre: Misérable

Went to Marunouchi for a third time trying to see the same new shops, and actually found Échiré Maison du Beurre without a line, though of course mostly sold out late on a Friday. The cake they had was Misérable (which seems like a bizarre name for a cake, but it's apparently a standard French cake), for 756 yen, since no mille-feuille, what was recommended. I didn't really mind.

It was definitely good, being (vanilla?) buttercream between pretty standard almond biscuit, though pretty sweet. Very buttery, so I'm not sure that there actually is vanilla, since the point is to show off the butter, that being their specialty, and it did that.

Felt pretty good about finally getting something new worth having from a new shop on my list/map, but I was too fast going them and am now 1% over budget, having run about 4 km at 8 km/h, faster than I intended, with 6 km of walking. Because I ran a lot during the week and not much last weekend, I've got nothing left for tomorrow, so I'll just have to stay in and work on the next cake, as well as brownies, macarons, and canele (for surplus egg yokes, or I can try making brownies without egg whites). Sunday I may also skip running, since I still won't be able to get far, and instead cycle to Jiyugaoka.

Mont St. Clair: C'est la Vie

Today, I repeated Sunday's experience of not getting cake from the same two unsampled shops (it would have nice for P. le R Cinq to tell me that they were closed holidays rather than just telling me that they were open Monday thru Friday when I stopped by last, but maybe they meant only Mondays thru Fridays, not promising to be open any particular Mondays thru Fridays). Also, the rain continues, so no actual running, just 7.6 km of walking on that particular trip, returning by train with cake-making goods. I don't include a shorter, less-intense but more shopping-intensive trip in the afternoon, which included giving Mont St. Clair at Isetan another chance by buying the C'est la Vie, for 581 yen. Supposedly a specialty, it has pistachio cream inside sandwiching chocolate cream with raspberry. Could only taste a weak raspberry. Everything else seemed to get canceled out, which is not my idea of harmony. It was still okay, but a waste of ingredients. Looks like I won't need to worry about visiting them again.

In baking news, the macaron shells seriously cracked again, which didn't used to be a problem: I'm getting worse, maybe over mixing. I can try shortening the waiting time. I played with baking shorter but using higher heat at the beginning, which I didn't do last time, when I'm not sure what I did, but not that.

Mont St. Clair: Mont St. Clair (Isetan exclusive)

Let's start with the cake: I made a mistake and got the Mont St. Clair from Mont St. Clair, which is an advertised Isetan exclusive this week. It is also coffee buttercream with a layer of coffee gelatin, which is as vile as it sounds (to those who do not like coffee, although the gelatin looked nasty up close even before I tasted it) and 582 yen. It's my mistake, so I can't blame them, but I do not trust them for having more than one cake with coffee in it on display, which makes me doubt that they are the shop for me. Still, I should give them another chance while they are at Isetan, since Jiyugaoka is a tough distance for me right now and I haven't posted anything else on them.

The running was okay. It was relatively crowded at Meiji Gaien with people going faster than me in groups, including sight-limited people running with guides, who I often see there, and no where else. It was raining a little, but not unpleasantly. Walked 1.7 km, ran 4 km, with 1.5 of that at 8 km/s and the rest at 7 km/m, alternating first 100 m and then 200 m and once 300 m, although it was hard not to go too slow or too fast, respectively: I need a bigger difference for real interval training, but I'm still just trying just slowly increase minimum speed running.

In fairness, I should also review my own cake. This is number 4 for my exploration of nut biscuit based cakes, Fraise aux Roses. Actually, the pictured one has been frozen once, the strawberries were frozen to begin with (when I made it), and the butter cream was not that fresh by the time I got around to assembling it, although it did not turn out to be had hard except for using a lot of bowls (I need more mixing bowls).

I don't recommend this cake because the jelly topping, which is delicious and sort of simple, dominates, so you can't really taste the pistachio biscuit (and pistachio powder is triple the cost of almond powder, and pistachio paste is double that), even though it is about twice as thick as it should be. I couldn't really taste the rose from the rose buttercream (which was pretty delicious to begin with and still seemed okay yesterday, when I took this picture) and I substituted cherry liqueur for rose liqueur in the imbibage (syrup for spreading on the cake), because I had a deadline and didn't want to search any more. I make these cakes mostly to learn about the process and the components, so I'm not so disappointed that I'll probably never want to make it again. The next one is even more gelatinous, so I need to get some real cake forms or kludge a really short version using my 14 cm tart forms again.

Also, I've figured out the timing to get my mini-canelé made with the silicone mold nice and brown uniformly without burning the bottoms (tops when baking). Now I have to figure out if that's the way I really like these and try buttering the sides more.  Unlike with the metal brioche forms I was using, no trouble getting these out, but not as chewy on the outside from butter and they have a higher surface-area to volume, so I actually be using more butter rather than less, I think. Of course, I could try beeswax, but I'm not ready to go there yet.

Au Bon Vieux Temps: Marjolaine

Did a round trip to Au Bon Vieux Temps in Oyamadai (well, Todoroki, actually, but the nearest station is Oyamadai Station, also in Todoroki but next to Oyamadai, so let's go by that): 25 km. Kept up a good pace, definitely 6+ km/h and not that much slower coming back. Happily, my feet didn't turn red, unlike the big walk last Thursday, so I did something right. Not so sure about my knees yet, crossing my fingers, but I plan to rest tomorrow anyway.

Got the Marjolaine, for, I forget how much, around 500 yen, anyway. 496 yen? They keep their regular individual cakes small, more than do the big international brands, not high priced, unlike their frozen deserts. This was a great cake, and the best Marjolaine that I've had, I think. Not sure whether they made Japonaisemasse as the biscuit, as it is not baked that dark, but it's hazelnut dark and tastes right. They went with powered sugar on top and included a layer nut slivers in the creme praline. The ganache layer is pretty thin, but seems a good choice for keeping the chocolate from taking over from the praline.

Finally, a near-great shop lives up to its designation, so I'll give it a new color on the map and mark it and other ones as such when it's convenient. Not sure when I'll get back to this shop, as it's a good distance, but if the weather ever clears up (typhoons keep bring in rain), I can take the bicycle out for more trips to these farther ones.

Dalloyau: Nakayama Chestnut Mont-Blanc

I must confess, that I had some pain from the previous run, which was only 2 km, but with 20+ km of walking. So I should limit how fast I ramp up my running and even my total. Even taking two days off, I felt at some point a little bit of the same soreness in my knee today, when I walked 8.7 km (I've decided to quit timing walking since I've moved on to worrying about my running), and 4 km of running averaging 7.6 km/h, which may be too much/fast at this point.

For cake, I did the rounds around the Tokyo Station, more than I needed too. First I went to
Echiré Maison du Beurre, which had 20 people in line, and then to Le R. Cinq, despite it being closed on weekends, as clearly noted on my own map. So I just went to Dalloyau (but stopping to check Frédéric Cassel) and got the seasonal Nakayama Chestnut Mont-Blanc, which was 702 yen.

This was a mild, creamy chestnut paste; in the center was a layer of sponge cake (like the base), which I was not expecting. Still, it was excellent, I suppose, even if the result is rather standard tasting as cake, although not of mont blancs.

This bird was posing so much in Hibiya Park, that I had to take a picture.

Bigarreaux: Marius

Took a half-day off and walked and ran to Bigarreaux. As usual, started off too fast and averaged 6.2 km/h in the walking part. 3 km in, I "ran" 2 km at 7 km/h. Now it's very natural for me to run the same speed I walk. No problem yet. Not sure whether I'll raise my distance before replacing my walking with running, but I'm ready to introduce 8 km/h running. Coming back I just walked, averaging 5.8 km/h, so I'm just going to pretend all the walking was at 6 km/h, in terms of my budget, which I haven't used up but will be busy the next couple days (but will definitely get some cake in anyway).



At Bigarreaux, where I ate in; I had Marius for 540 yen. It tasted how I should have expected, so I should learn to analyze and choose more wisely, since it was not my thing. It's three layers of biscuit (probably almond), too layers of cassis (blackcurrant) buttercream, and one layer of apricot gel. It was good and well constructed, but I'm not that into that fruity a cake. Actually, the apricot was too weak for me (I didn't read the card that far when I was there and wasn't sure it wasn't mango): two layers apricot, one layer cassis might have been better for me.

That's 0 for 3 in my attempt to introduce near-great shops into my evaluations. Of course, I'm working my way up the from the bottom by virtue of looking at the ones I have the fewest cakes from, since they are all earlier drop-outs from my original potentially great list. Eventually, I'll have to weaken the criterion, but I'll try a few more first.

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.

Glycine: Grenoble

Despite some rain, went to P. La Glycine in Meguro, near the river. I walked 9 km at 6 km/h and ran 3 km at 7 km/h, so still super slow. Could feel the running in my problem leg area, but seems okay. Still, I think I'll take a day off tomorrow and go out early Saturday and Sunday.

Ate in, outside under an awning. I had the Grenoble for 550 yen. It was good. It's a chocolate walnut tart with an almond crust, caramel, and fresh cream on top. It didn't really go beyond the base ingredients, and the caramel was the bitter almost coffee-like kind, which was okay eating it, but did not help and left a slight unwelcome aftertaste.

In the evening I made Italian-style meringue macaron shells. Seem okay but once again I probably didn't get enough air out, as they are rather hollow and bumpy.

Only remaining Excellent shop on my list I need to visit for a third cake is Chez Cima, which has a counter at Isetan. Before that, I want a sixth from Yu Sasage, which is expected to be on the Near-Great list.

Del'Immo (Akasaka): Royal Milk Tea

Went for a short run to conserve my budget, but have since found out that my first choice for tomorrow, Yu Sasage, is closed. The second choice was Tron Coni, also closed. Fine, I'll go to La Glycine, which had its summer vacation last week.

Anyway, I also went short today because I'm adding running (broadly speaking). I went only 5.8 km, 1.9 km of it "running", all at about 6 km/h, so really pointlessly slow running, other than to build up slowly. I'm way behind from last weekend of not running or walking much, so I'll aim for 3 km running 7 km/h tomorrow (not sure I have that much control), as well as another 9 km walking comfortably fast. Saturday, I'll try to hit the reopening Yu Sasage, with is more than 20 km round trip, and then Sunday I'll make up whatever deficit I have left (taking Friday night off) to get myself up to 110% of a week ago. I ran last Monday, so I can still head to Ginza next Monday, or save it for a long trip Tuesday (it took so long just to plan tomorrow, I'm not going to figure out Tuesday's target tonight).

Cake! The cake was Royal Milk Tea from Del'Immo (the Akasaka branch) for 580 yen, which is called phonetically "Early Grey" in Japanese, so the counter person had to confirm with me, since apparently she hadn't actually read the English on the cards (just like I didn't bother to read the Japanese). This is majority mousse, with chocolate and earl grey, maybe bottom and top, with a fairly solid chocolate base. I passed up the high-chocolate specialty of the "chef", since I just had chocolate cake, and was rewarded with great (but lighter) cake. Very nice and an excellent shop. The macaron was not bad (they also sell macarons there).

Running and walking: Jean-Paul Hévin, Tonka

And, finally, I did some running again (well, I jogged a little down a slope last Wednesday, just because it was so steep that it was too hard to walk). Had some business around Shinjuku Station, so stopped at Jean-Paul Hévin at Isetan for Tonka. No seasonal cake: I need to check the homepage. Or, maybe like Frédéric Cassel, they don't do some specials at the beginning of the week. Tonka was the last regular cake at that shop, although I need to get back to the Marunouchi shop.

Total, I only did about 3.7 km, using the Meiji Jingu Gaien for one and a quarter laps. There was some slow (0.3 km) 5 km/h walking (I'm guessing, since I messed up the timing), 2 km at 6 km/h, 0.4 at 7 km/h, and 0.3 at 8 km/h. In the middle, I jogged 0.7 km at 7 km/h; so I learned I can walk faster than I thought and jog slower than I thought. I'm counting jogging double, since it's a lot more stressful, so I won't be converting to 60 km of jogging a week so soon, but my budget should still allow 5.4 km tomorrow, jogging slowly about 1.7 km of it, and 24 km of walking Thursday at 6 km/h while still  leaving some budget for the weekend. Last weekend was pretty irregular, so I need to smooth the lumps out, which means I might not be so strict about following the budget. Now I'm actually still lower for the last 7 days than the previous 7 days, whereas I'm allowing a 10% increase per week (generously including the current normal non-recreational walking in that budget, which has been getting faster as I recover), so if I suddenly get to 120% of one week ago, it's not a crisis. Maybe I should smooth over a longer period in calculating.

Cake! Cake was the Tonka (chocolate mousse and biscuit harmonized with tonka bean), as I said, which is just under 700 yen. It was great! I really love chocolate, I guess, so Jean-Paul Hévin always rates far above other shops with me, to the extent that I should just call them "Top".