Ladurée: Fleur Noire

Tuesday, still no running, but my feet were much better, maybe 75%. Not perfect, though, and I'm worried about a partial sprain, so not something I want to rush. I did feel free to walk even further for cake (besides the normal daily commuting, which is a few kilometers total). This time, in response to their cake-off win (and because they rank high as a quite good shop even under the new system, so I need to see whether they should be promoted to excellent), I went to Lumine at Shinjuku Station and got Fleur Noire from Ladurée. This thing is pretty decadent, with both chocolate and almond icing, dark chocolate mousse, and bourbon vanilla (that is, vanilla from Madagascar) cream in the middle. They're working pretty hard at this one, but it is excellent, so they may be able to make the transition. Got a lot of other shops to sort out after the reorganization, so I'm not sure yet.

[Sat] Limevert: Noir Chocolat

Saturday was another long research ride. I tried the technique of asking, which rarely works (Hidemi and Viron it did, but those are pretty high-end with long histories, so I'm not surprised that the staff has some knowledge of the schedule, unlike part-time staff at less famous places). Also, I spent a lot of time lost from not trying to follow a particular path; too many rivers make too few straight roads, so on a cloudy day, it's easy to get turned around. More than once I had to reverse course once I realized where I was, but at least I never completed loop myself. Need to find out about mounting a smartphone with a map app to my bicycle.

At Limevert, I got the Noir Chocolat, which is dark chocolate with some nuts over chocolate mousse with probably Bavarian cream flavored by earl grey. It was well composed and so should perhaps have been excellent, but perhaps because I have a lot of chocolate, I couldn't say that this was interesting enough that I would want to make it even if I could, which is my working definition of excellent cake (not that I've done any baking at all lately, which is a problem, because I have two eggs at the limit of their usability, perhaps: 3 months past "expiration"). Although not pretty, I'm including a half eaten version so that the inside is visible. I'll without hold that from Twitter version and would certainly not post that to Instagram (which I've yet to post to, since I don't have a smartphone, but see the above related remark to guess my future shopping plans).

As almost the last shop (I stopped at the Ginza Mitsukoshi on the way back), I also got a pasty from Éclat des Jours for the first time, a Kouign Amann. This was usual, in that what would usually be a single solid crystal of caramelize sugar was instead left almost completed granular, melted only just enough to make it stick together. I'm not convinced that its a better idea, but its was interesting to try. Also, this seemed like the saltiest puff pastry I've ever had, though not to a point of being a problem.

(Weekend) La Boutique de Joel Robuchon, Marunouchi

Busy, but cake at La Boutique de Joel Robuchon, Marunouchi Saturday. Casual cafe, one step up from Starbucks: order from menu at register, paper cups, but cake brought to table, and fancy cake.

Blanc Blanc (Chocolat  Blanc) @ 583 yen: white chocolate w. little raspberry (?).

Moelleux Ｃhocolat Amer @ 540 yen: dark chocolate layer cake with chocolate chunks.

Both good.

Sunday, 1 km @ 7'-8'/km pace, 4 km @ 6'10''-7'/km pace. No problems.

L'Abricotier: Trilogie au Chocolat

Have been busy, but got a chance to go out on a weekday, so I visited L'Abricotier for a fourth post. Still didn't get my third target cake, but got this Trilogie au Chocolat for 480 yen. This is a chocolate mousse dome with dark, milk, and white chocolate layers (besides the chocolate coating on the outside). I'm really struggling with rating this one, since it doesn't really escape the limitations of the chocolate mousse dome, although the taste was good and the construction was excellent (of example, the base cake was not overly soft sponge, unlike a non-Tokyo shop I visited for lack of much else open in that neighborhood yesterday). Also, based on their reputation so far, I'm going to put this one down as excellent, as it is an excellent example of what it is. We'll see what they have for me next week, although I'll probably go again on a Wednesday (a national holiday), so they may have exactly the same cakes available, which is okay.

In running news, I haven't been, and yet things do not seem to be getting better, perhaps because I did a lot of walking and some biking. My experimentation with serious running last Friday really did not agree with my knees, which made walking last weekend unpleasant, but I'm not sure that it's even the same part of the my knee as before. It feels more like my college knee problems come back. Anyway, I won't be running again soon and I won't be running like that again unless I try it for a very short distance and see how that goes and then slowly build things up, over months if not years. Definitely more pain than I'm willing to put up with and not something I can run with, even though it most seemed okay at the time.

Shorter run to Neues: Sachertorte

Sixth day of 35+ degree high temperature in Tokyo, extending the record from yesterday. This time I stayed closer to home, and actually there were more people than usual around the Akasaka Palace loop and the Meiji Jingu Gaien loop. Stopped again at Neues, this time for Sachertorte, which is kind of a sign that I'm running out of things to try. It was good though, at 500 yen: dense chocolate cake with a little apricot in the middle and a thick dark chocolate icing. Next time I go I should probably take a list of what I've had so I don't confused by the heat and running, but next week I would probably go Libertable for a change in the Akasaka neighborhood.