Le Précieuse, Caramel Salé

I originally planned to bicycle to a nearby place and get cake and then go for a long run, but the first shop apparently closed early for the Obon season and the search was on. I was trying shops I'm trying to get a third cake from. There are six left that theoretically available on a weekday, but apparently not this week. The first was Pascal Le Gac. Then I tried the hotel cafe at Tokyo Midtown, but found out that they are renovating for the next 5 weeks, which is good to know. From there I tried south Ginza, where they were closed for the week, then north Ginza, where they were sold out, and then Nihonbashi, where they close early, this time at least posting a sign so I knew that was what had happened. I ended up coming back to the closed place, Le Précieuse at Yotsuya Station. By then there were only 15 minutes left to eat in, but it was enough. I got Caramel Salé (salt caramel) which includes nuts (I'll guess roasted peanuts). I thought it was definitely excellent, which surprised me, because I keep underestimating this place. Anyway, it's good enough to keep them in the quite fine category, leaving only six to check. I wouldn't be trying again this week anyway, so at least 4 should be available on a weekday next week and maybe in a couple weeks I'll get to the last remote one. I should also say that on the way I found another patisserie in Akasaka, but it requires using subway tunnels to get there without using a traffic signal.

Éclat des Jours: Azelia

Yesterday was training without cake (cached for a second future cake-off). I ran up and down a slope fast for about 14 min and then around the same neighborhood trying to familiar myself with it (I did to a point and then got lost) and seeing whether there are better slopes nearby (probably not, except the one between two stations that might be too busy that I already knew about), for a total of about 40 minutes. The non-cake was a sablé from Jean-Paul Hévin: Sablé Viennois Nougatine, which is a cookie with an almond-brittle center and undercoating of chocolate. Definitely excellent, so I'll try their other similar sablé.

Over the outer moat toward Hibiya.

Today, I got back to a recent priority, Éclat des Jours. I had a fairly good run, almost exactly 10.0 km/h for the 10+ km going out, but with lots of stops for lights. I u need to stop for fewer lights (by ignoring the unnecessary ones). This time I got Azelia, which was a little risky. This is peanut mousse covered in caramel on a chocolate and whole peanut tarte. I'm not generally in favor of peanuts as a cake ingredient and caramel doesn't always work out, but I was willing to give it a try. I told them it would take 100 min (I meant to say 80), and they put three ice packs in it (so I think their service is great, too). Still, the caramel was looking a little melty around the edges, so the extra ice was probably not wasted, but it was fine. Going back was just above 8.5 km/h, which is fine carrying cake. Tried to take a couple pictures with the cheap phone.

Night view from main bridge on route.

The cake was excellent, I think, certainly I had no problems with the peanuts or the caramel, which were both to my liking. I was expecting a richer chocolate, ganache maybe, rather than something more biscuit-like, but you generally need something to soak up extra moisture from mousse, seems like, so this was probably a structural requirement. Even though this third cake didn't reach the great level, this remains a top priority as a still little explored quite excellent shop.

Pierre Hermé: Tarte Infiniment Chocolat au Lait

Had to work late and was still tired from yesterday's long run, so I gave up on doing a strenuous "training" run. Given the wind today, that was just as well, and the issue of being in danger of exceeding my running budget again this weekend, despite my body indicating that maybe I don't need to be in such a hurry to expand my distance was supported taking it a little easy. Instead, I apparently took it very easy, because my about 8 km was only at 9 km/h (though will some steepish slopes and one pedestrian bridge). I did errands: verified the nearest Nikunohanamasa did not have roasted unsalted peanuts (they've become an unreliable source, so I'm not too surprised), that I can get Bernard from Toshi Yoroizuka for my next great cake comparison, though I should cake to reserve a piece, since they tend to get cleaned out from 3 pm (same clerk as last time, so I confirm the unavailability of two other great cakes while I was there this time), and hit Lawson's 100 for groceries.

So the plan is no cake tomorrow and run to next near
est Nikunohanamasa looking for peanuts. I'll bank that cake for when I'm ready for the next cake off, some time next week (the other cake is a regular from Isetan, so I'm hoping I won't have to worry about getting that one).

Today's cake was from Pierre Hermé, which I decided I needed a new cake from as a "reward" from winning my first cake-off (so I'll also need an extra visit to Dalloyau for the second one): Tarte Infiniment Chocolat au Lait (648 yen). This is just a tart, of course, one having a hard tart shell with caramel in the bottom (so you have to watch out for it being squeezed out when you cut into it), a main body of solid milk chocolate with some peanut pieces, little crunchy chocolate balls, and some dark chocolate sauce to stick the top lid of chocolate on and/or keep any loose balls from escaping. For a tart, it is a little complicated but still fairly straightforward. To me, it's a great example of chocolate tart, so I hope I get a chance to compare it to other great chocolate or caramel tarts.

12 km follow-the-signals run with cake from La Maison du Chocolat: L'Entremet Pralines

I decided to try going southwest from Aoyama Road toward Omotesando for a change. As expected it was more crowded but fairly manageable. Had a close brush with the rare female slave zombie, but avoided injury.

This took me past Chocolat Chic (which I've added to the map), which sounds like it should be good but they aren't that into chocolate and their cake isn't very good, in my experience. I actually stopped at La Maison du Chocolat for the first time. Really expensive: 810 yen for L'Entremet Pralines. This is seven layers. Despite the structure and look, the texture ends up similar to a typical American chocolate layer cake as far as high sugar frosting and moist cake. The praline was peanuts and hazelnuts and I have to say that peanuts just does not work for me in cake, although in general the cake seemed well made. Cleverly, they a lump of raspberry flavored ganache (I think it was ganache) while I was waiting, which was quite excellent, so obviously I should have gotten the raspberry cake. Since the sweetness of my cake suggests that it would be better with tea, I'll consider going back there when I'm not alone and visiting the upstairs salon.

The rest of the run made a figure eight, not really intentionally, just that's the way the lights were at the intersections and I went with them. I mapped it on the regular weekday map, for a change. 

Tomorrow is going to have to be homemade cake, to conserve resources. Fortunately, I have a lot of cheese tarts in the freezer. Of course, this means I'm tempted to buy sauces for toppings, which can be more expensive than cake, at least one for one. I'll try something simple and cheap first, though, like adding a layer of dark chocolate on top using a melted chocolate bar.