Mandarin Oriental Gourmet Shop, Mango Short Cake and Tart Lemon

Sunday, I was busy, but I got a chance to do cake for two at Mandarin Oriental Tokyo Gourmet Shop, which was on the list of shops to get third cakes from. Actually, I got two cakes of course. There was not a big selection left at a little bit before 5 pm on a Sunday, so I recommend going earlier (there was also some sort of glass desert and a coffee desert), but we could get the last Mango Short Cake and the Tart Lemon, both at hotel café prices.
We would have rather eaten inside, due to the heat, but having stopped walking and purchased iced tea, it was actually fine at an outside table. Both cakes were good, although difficult to eat (big pieces of mango don't cut easily and the tart was designed for looks), but not any more than that. It's a fine shop, but this will probably be my last visit. Only five shops to visit, and I might get to two over the next week, if plans go as expected.

I didn't actually run on Monday but instead did a fuller upper body workout than I've done for a long time. The next few days will probably also keep me from doing runs on the neighborhood course, but even if I do indoors again on Friday, Saturday evening I should be able to hit the neighborhood loops from last Saturday again. I need considerable running to burn off this weekend (extended to Monday), so maybe I'll fit in some extra running on a smaller or more convenient loop, like around Akasaka Palace to Jinguumae--Kita-Aoyama.

Fiorentina Pastry Boutique, Mille-feuille

Got my cake by bicycle first. Even though Fiorentina Pastry Boutique lost the last cake-off, it won the one before, so this catches me up on them (fourth cake). I decided to go with the safe choice of Mille-feuille. For running, I tried the modified Akasaka--Azabudai--Roppongi--Toranomon loop failed when it came time to make the last turn before the new site I just confirmed last night, KB-Keiji, which I'll get to below. I was thinking I needed to turn at the next light, but was just looking for crosswalks, so I missed the first intersection with a stoplight and overshot by enough that I knew I gone too far. I went back and confirmed the correct place, which might help if I try again tomorrow, and then headed for home. On the way back, I found another Natural Lawson within the same loop, but I can't see a more efficient way to add it to the over course than as another around-the-block cul-de-sac loop, unfortunately. No change to the main loop. I say "another" because last night I confirmed a different such loop, also because of a Natural Lawson, but at least that loop has another site on it, so splitting that one off shortened the main loop slightly at least, but that would have been near the end of the run, whereas I only got about 40% of the loop. The cake was fine. They did not do anything fancy, but it seemed perfect for what it was and I like mille-feuille, so I can say it was excellent. The run felt good, but I don't imagine my feet will be happy about it tomorrow. It was doing 1:6 walking:running and ended up doing over 73 minutes of running. 

Monday, I went out by bicycle to confirm some sites and do some shopping become coming home and doing some indoor working out. The new shop was KB-Keiji, which is a German cake/bread shop (so a konditorei&backerei, thus the KB). I got what I'll have to write as Nusswolen, though I can't find any comparable name or desert from anywhere except this shop. It's hazelnuts, shortened to just nuts (nuss), but I don't no what woren/wolen is. It was ok, but pretty dry. The shop and shopkeeper seem quite old but there is a pretty varied selection. Looks hard to keep going, though I went pretty late, so maybe they move a lot of bread during the day, which there wasn't much of when I went.

En Vedette: Range

Finally got to En Vedette, which I wanted to do both because they might be underrated at quite good and because they won a cake-off. This was my first time to go there on a weekday. Still having trouble with the route between Yamanote Line and the river to the east---the roads jig and jag---but because I was going by bicycle, I could make the 19:30 closing time after work.

I got Range (no comment on whether I would choose a cake based on my ability to remember the name), which is layers of dark chocolate, hazelnut, and apricot, I think (and I found some confirmations in Japanese in other people's posts). It was definitely good in flavor and texture, so I'm satisfied for now with my evaluation of them as a quite good shop.

It was shorter ride today, and I hadn't run since at least Friday, so I did a quick run (14+ min) to revisit more of my neighborhood courses. I've already done the ones covering Samonchou, Sugchou, Minami-Motomachi, Wakaba, Sugachou Shinanomachi, Kasumigaokamachi, and Daikyouchou, so I wanted to go up and cover Naitoumachi. It was slightly cooler today, only slightly above 30 degC when I finished running around 8 p.m.