Sadaharu Aoki, Pêche Verveine

Anxious to get beyond recent disappointments, I got one cake a head during last week, which was a hard week, and went to Isetan and got their Pêche Verveine, which has been a new cake for a while. Like other new cakes, this differs from the their classic shape. In fact, though flat, it is rather peach-like, apparently flavored with the herb verneine, which the Japanese know by the name lemon beebush; it's South American. Anyway, I'd have to have this cake again to catch it, which would be okay, as this was excellent. The texture is somewhat peach-like as well, being semisolid and moist (with peach cream as well as confit), though balanced by the sable base. Sadaharu Aoki manages to stay above its challengers.

Ginza run to Frédéric Cassel: Saint Honoré Citron-Bergamote

Was running fast at the beginning, so ran less than I planned to keep with my budget through Saturday. Specifically, I was running about 10 km/h the first 3 km, so I'm going to have to up my speed for my training runs to 11 km/h. After that, I was definitely around 9 km/h, but I went underground early in Ginza (you can't run very fast in Ginza crowds, anyway), and didn't pick up the return run until the far corner of Hibiya Park, and that was just 3.4 km at about 8 km/h to the market.

At Ginza, I got the Saint Honoré Citron-Bergamote, or maybe it was just called Saint Honoré Bergamote (didn't have my pen, and they don't let you take pictures), like on a promotional picture on their Facebook page (the Frédéric Cassel Fontainebleau one, not the one in Japanese). Anyway, it's 756 yen, as usual, and the cream is lemon and the confit and candy coating (it's hard, though the card said "gel" I thought, although maybe there's some in the balls) are bergamot orange. Thanks to the coating, the balls are hard/crispy, at least on top, which is a clever way to keep them from getting soggy, so I had to eat them them whole, which is not a problem. The base is also crispier than a typical tart base, so maybe it's choux pastry too. Excellent recovery from last week's disappointment. Next visit to Ginza, I should go to Dalloyau, which was my backup today (there's a Dalloyau counter facing the Frédéric Cassel counter in Ginza Mitsukoshi, but they don't have cake, so you have to go to their main store).

Next run is Saturday, and I'll try again to go to a new place. This time, I've got two lined up, so one of them should be open on a Saturday (or I'll go to Isetan: I'm interesting in the visiting shop). Might have a problem with rain, though.

Pierre Hermé: Céleste

After yesterday's disappoint, I went to Pierre Hermé at Isetan. Probably I should finish off trying their regular cakes, since there will always be a new "fetish" of the month, but this month's sounded good, so I went with the signature one, the Céleste for 756 yen. This is a sablé base with strawberry and rhubarb confit (basically strawberry slices in sauce). Next up is mascarpone cream flavored with passion fruit, meringue on top, and a whole strawberry. It was definitely excellent cake, although it was not so great that I won't be able to resist sampling the other cakes in this series and visit other shops. No doubt, there will be something good next month as well, if I make it over there again.

But I skipped the running: as planned, despite knee discomfort, I ran. Not sure if that was bad or not: I get discomfort from sitting at my desk, or from my commuting walk, but less than before, I think. At some point, it is not clear what will make things better. I only ran 1 km, in 7'20'' and it does not seem worse than before, but that's been the case for some time. I'll see how things are through tomorrow night.

La Vie Douce (Shinjuku): Caramel Orange

Stayed home and did the indoor work out and cleaned the kitchen, after making it dirtier first. For cake, I went to La Vie Douce, since the last cake was great. This time I got the Caramel Orange, for a reasonable 464 yen. It is another chiboust, it said on the card at the shop, although the website just says caramel cream (not too strong) and orange comfit (not a lot, but the normal amount, and more probably wouldn't be better). It was very good, and I'm satisfied, but not exciting or great. I'll take them off my watch list (it's really more of a stack of cards) and put them back on my visited list, which means that there are several not necessarily great places that I should go to before I go back there again. Still, it is important to know that I should check in there once in a while and try something, or maybe peak in at their website to see which seasonal cake I don't want to miss. If they don't have cakes, they have a few baked things, like a raspberry tart.

No running, Pierre Hermé: Infiniment Citron x2

Tried to go to the cafe at La Maison du Chocolat but gave up after a 40-minute wait. I don't have much experience with cafe's, but I think a 20 minutes cap is reasonable: if they can't get you in before then, get away. There is plenty of good places that I've been to that would break that, and I was okay, but not everyone is that into cake all the time, and you can get take out.

Later, at Shinjuku Isetan, got two special/seasonal cakes (which doesn't really get me to my goal of trying out all the regular cakes at all the great shops, but that's okay): Baba Infiniment Citron and Cheesecake Infiniment Citron. The second is lemon biscuit, lemon baked cheese cake, lemon cheese mousse, lemon marmalade, and sable. The baba version is lemoncello (a liquor), lemon cream, lemon whipped cream, lemon confit, and lemon gelatin. These are both great, which they should be for 700 and 800 yen, I think (although I don't now which was which).