Libertable: Laitir

Finally got back to Libertable, which is an excellent shop that might be quite excellent, but so I need more information. This was only the sixth cake, I think. I went by the neighborhood route and finally finished a one-way neighborhood revisiting of the Kita-Aoyama--Jinguumae--Shibuya loop and the (central) Shibuya loop. It takes about 40 minutes by the shortest route on the neighborhood course to get to the south end of Shibuya station, from which I can cross into parts south. So actually I went to the ShinQ counter of Libertable, but it worked out and they had another cake that haven't had yet (Grace) so it's reasonable to go back there again, but I'll hit the Akasaka main store if that doesn't work sometime (there are a couple shops at ShinQ I'd hit for pastries as backup.

The cake is Laitir, which is baked cheesecake with epoisses cheese and cream cheese with marc cream and marc gelatin and streusel on top (soft of a reverse crust). This is the cheesiest-flavored cheesecake that I've ever had, I think, and is a pretty substantial ball of cheese, if obviously tricky to know how to approach it (radially, cutting between streusel and marc gelatin cubes). It's not my new favorite cheesecake, but it is definitely excellent and certainly recommended to anyone who likes cheesecake. Looks like more visits to Libertable are in my future.

[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.

Pierre Hermé, Mille-Feuille Satine and research run

From Pierre Hermé, got the Mille-Feuille Satine (864 yen) in response to their winning the last cake-off (otherwise, I've over-sampled them a little at this point, so I would have to wait to get something new from them). For research purposes, due to having entered a new month, I did a swing through the Tokyo Station to Ginza area shops, not everyone is everyone changes on a monthly schedule.

Nothing significantly different at Sadaharu Aoki, in Marunounich or Isetan, and the same goes for Jean-Paul Hévin, though they pointed out in the former location that it was the last day for an ice cream drink (they know I'm looking to see what's new), which I'm doubly little interested in (which maybe doesn't make sense, mathematically). Viron changed their season cake, but not one of the greats that I was looking for. Toshi Yoroizuka has four special Parfaits for the next two weeks, again definitely not cake. Frédéric Cassel did not have any greats I was looking for, but I'll be able to get something new from them when I need to. Only a slightly different line-up than the Jiyugaoka shop for Origines Cacao, but none of the former greats (which might all have come from the closed Nihonbashi shop). Dalloyau had zero new things, which is suspicious, but they were busy and I didn't stay to ask; I figure I'll get back there within a week or so, anyway when I visit Frédéric Cassel. Finally, Del'Imo in Akasaka still has the one great cake I'm interested in.

Still have a sore butt, but ran through it as best I could and again, now it feels fine, pretty much like yesterday. One of these days, I'll really be recovered. At least my head feels better now. Still, only 9 km/h for the 14 km. That makes a marathon distance for two days total, so I won't feel guilty with a short run tomorrow. Not sure whether I'll be able to run, and Saturday is a little busy, so it's going to be a relatively short run, though I could do two relatively short runs.

The Mille-Feuille Satine was excellent, as expected. This seems to be their favorite "fetish", judging by them having a whole book about it. Specifically, it's orange and passion fruit. The mille-feuille uses creamed cream cheese (if that makes sense; at least that's my translation of Japanese for "cream cheese cream"), which works well with the slight citrus taste (although their citron fetish is different; I'm waiting for that one to come around again for a couple greats).

Éclat des Jours: Odile

Did my fourth run to Éclat des Jours, so I'm starting to learn the tricks, like run fast enough after being stopped at a light to get through two lights but don't waste energy on the third unless there are three close together, because it's the main road and I cannot run as fast as a car to make timed lights. Also, I may have run more "Don't walks", just because there was no one coming and only a sort way to cross.

Still, I was a little surprised to come in under 1 hour of running for the first time, which means an average speed when running of around 11 km/h. Even so, it was slim pickings on a Friday night, so I don't expect to repeat this run on another Friday (unless I'm in the same situation of being busy on a Saturday). Back, I just barely kept around 9 km/h and probably missed a lot of second lights.

The cake was Odile (alternatives were a coffee-flavored cake and black forest chocolate cake, which has cherries), which is a cream cheese sandwich (I didn't check, but another blogger wrote "speculass", which is a kind of spice cookie, in the same sense as gingerbread) with rhubarb sauce. I passed it up until now, but I've had good look with rhubarb, so I got it and ran it home.

Of course, it is a mild cake, but very nice, and the sauce balances the slight acidity of the cream cheese well. It was excellent, though that may be my bias for this shop speaking.

Speaking of bias and full disclosure, technically, I received another cake that day, but it's not from a place I respect: it's from P. Frips. This is mostly a tart place, and it's cheap and convenient, and even has an outdoor table on the street in front of the park, but I had a tart I didn't think was fresh and quit them before starting this blog. For free "cake", it's perfectly reasonable, and actually, there was a selection, so I chose their one actual cake, Gateau Chocolat. It's soft and characterless (but consistent in texture) and the whipped cream was perhaps not enough to give much taste, but the strawberries were sufficiently fresh, so maybe I should be less suspicious of them. Still, only okay, so I regret eating it other then confirming that I should pass on even free cake from there. What can I say, I'm a cake snob. 

Morozoff: Cream Cheese Cake

Morozoff: Cream Cheese Cake

No running again, and we braved the Isetan basement again. It was late afternoon, so many things were sold out, of course. I recently found out that Morozoff is actually a Japanese company/brand from Kobe (and that their chocolate is not bad), not an import. I got the Cream Cheese Cake. This particular one is supposedly available only at Isetan, although of course they sell other cream cheese cakes elsewhere. This one uses 10% cream cheese made from dairy products from the Konsen district of Hokkaido, which I assume is the exclusive part. It was very good, and certainly different from what I usually get. It was 1026 yen and is pretty big, plenty for two people, but certainly further dividable. I consider this shop/counter good.

No running: Lettre d'Amour [Closed] and Fraoula

At Lettre d'Amour, I got their Shirogane Fromage (Shirogane is neighborhood name), which is their cheese cake, for 600 yen. There were actually several customers, so I had to wait a few minutes, but most of those disappeared upstairs to the cafe by they time I had made my decision. The cake is three kinds of cream cheese blended into a mousse with a little citrus juice and gelatin with a sponge base. I went through a progression of thinking it was good cheese cake through about half, not something I need more than half of in the second half, and maybe not something I need at all afterward, although I'm not sure why. Rare cheese cake is not my favorite anyway. That's only my fourth from there, and there were plenty more cakes. More importantly, I found a good nearby park to eat in.

It was Sunday afternoon, so Ryoco had people lined up outside (early afternoon, that is; late afternoon when they run out, they just close), despite the light rain. From experience, I would say it would take about an hour (for 10 people: most people get several pieces and it takes time to box those up well), so I passed and circled back to Fraoula, who are never that busy (I hope they have some restaurant contracts; there were a couple people in the back busy, so they must have something).

I got this Senteur for 486 yen, which is Earl Grey flavored and has prunes. I was very happy with it. I'd be a good compliment with something sweeter, which I mean in a good way.

This is the Arre, I think (the register is having a little problem printing). It's a huge, flat, crunchy thing, perhaps with sesame but very sweet and chewy, for 324 yen. I prefer the Bostock, but I wanted to try this.

So, I'm thinking maybe I'll give up on cake shops outside Tokyo. I'm past the point of needing to go to new cake shops every time and I'd rather find nice paths for running than visit every shop within range. There's plenty that I've been to before that I haven't blogged about, and I can set other destinations and then visit, on the way or on the way back, whatever cake shop is convenient. Since I have a place 30 km out within Tokyo that I want to visit, I won't need to change my habits soon.

90 min with interval training to Dalloyau: Fromage Cru

A New York Times article popped up on my Facebook newsfeed:

It felt too humid to up my speed at first, but I managed to do a five-interval set (about 5 minutes, so not a big deal), but continued my regular run because I needed to visit Dalloyau to update my previous post. They were out of that cake, but they conveniently save the little cards so that you can see what they are sold out of (27 cards total, but some are probably not cake). The intervals definitely wore me out, but it's a good idea. You're suppose to count 30 s, 20 s, 10 s for slow, fast, max, but it's hard to count against the pace, so it was not very exact. I'd rather have a watch that beeped or vibrated according to a chosen pattern, not for first time.

Today, I got the Fromage Cru, which is only 486 yen, as it's a little thing. It's just rare cheese cake made of cream cheese and mascarpone cheese as a mousse. I hadn't gotten it previously, because I expected it to be boring, which it was, but it is also excellent, so I don't really regret it. I'm still debating with myself whether to go to a certain famous cafe and getting take-out NY-style cheese cake (I might also be debating the weather, since I'm busy early morning, so it will have to be around noon), since that and apple pie are what they are famous for (and I went once after having not good cheese cake from Shun's, so I got the apple pie then). It might be interesting to compare with today's. 

That's twice to Dalloyau this week, so I won't go back next week. Besides things I've had before, this time had their chocolate tart and some cream puffs (round and cubic, which I can't really see the advantage of and they cost double), so I'm not finished with sampling everything there yet.