This was really the second cake (and third for the week, so three left for the weekdays), today, but the first was repeat, so I'll save it for if I come up with a cake-off with it. I ran in the early afternoon for research and wasn't surprised when the weekend-only mille-feuille was sold-out in the evening, but I was surprised to see Addiction, so apparently it's not ended it's run yet, just I'll have to ask for it if I want it early in the day, as they don't have display space, at least on the weekend. I've run into this before, but hadn't thought to investigate it that thoroughly. I should have asked whether the Framboisier is really done, but I'll wait until I'm sure that I want to do a cake-off with it if it's not. Anyway, I got the Saint Honoré Noix et Poire, which is the cake corresponding to this month's "inspiration". This is the 5th saint-honoré and was excellent, like 3 out of 4 of the others (the most traditional caramel one was the only one that didn't especially impress me). This is walnut and pear, as the name says, which is not a combination I've run into before, but both are mild but seem seasonal. Unfortunately, I forgot to take a picture of it, so I've lifted this from their site. Hope they don't mind, though I only had one.

The other new cake they have is a pumpkin (?) Halloween milk crepe cake, which sounds terrible all around, so I'm going to try to avoid it but might feel compelled. It might be the milk crepe cake that convinces me that milk crepe cakes aren't terrible, but that seems like a lot to ask. 

Origines Cacao: Saint-Honoré Caramel Poire

Wednesday, I went for my 23rd new cake (I think, updating) from Origines Cacao and finally got the Saint-Honoré Caramel Poire (I hope that's correct). I ran there, but saint-honoré look a little fragile and the shop seemed a little concerned about my being careful (though that might have been my imagination), so I walked back, and also my right foot gives me trouble, so I figured it wouldn't hurt to rest it (though the problem is not obviously correlated with running). I expect to be pretty active tomorrow, probably bicycle first in the afternoon, then do weights, and then run in the evening.

The cake was definitely the kind I like, so although I can't be sure that it was better than the previous two days', it was excellent for me. The shop still is still challenging FC two ranks above, so I think I can justify going back next week.

Cake-off: Michalak' Mont-blanc versus Jean-Paul Hévin's Saint-Honoré

Had the morning off on Friday, so I got cakes for a cake-off. Timing was not so great, as I was somewhat rushed and full already, but there's always something. I wanted a cake-off for Jean-Paul Hévin's Saint-Honoré, which is available only the second half of September. As the other cake for a second-round cake-off between winners, I choose the recent Michalak' Mont-Blanc. Both of these are available at Isetan and both a pretty decadent. I'm probably biased by too much chocolate and caramel lately, but I choose Michalak' Mont-Blanc as the winner, but I could go the other way on another day. Fortunately, not rocket science, so future rounds level things out (though only one cake can the the last to remain undefeated). I should confess that I very carefully removed the saint-honoré from its box and then dropped it on its side (facing away).

I did do some running at night. I finally got Moto-Azabu--Azabu-Juuban loop counterclockwise correct, completing it. Characteristically, I immediately decided that I was not satisfied with the route and revised it so I would go by a temple on the same side of the road (rather than having it across a two-lane road), so that loop remained the top priority.

Wako Annex, Saint-Honoré Orange & Charmant Fraise

Was busy this weekend, but was out at Ginza Mitsukoshi Saturday later afternoon and was able to skip ahead (alphabetically) and visit the Wako Annex for cake for two, which is one of three holiday/weekend-only two-cake quite fine shops. I really like some saint-honoré, so I went with the Saint-Honoré Orange. The other chosen cake was Charmant Fraise, which is white chocolate and strawberry.

The first is a good quality saint-honoré with some orange compote, maybe, in the center. It seemed like a good idea and well executed, so I'm willing to say that it was excellent. The Charmant Fraise was also good, though less appreciated by me. I was hoping for more flavor from the white chocolate maybe, but its nice if mild strawberry cake with a moussy texture.

Origines Cacao, Saint Honoré Pistache Framboise

Finally got over to Ginza 6 to visit Origines Cacao and get a new cake from them. This falls under new cakes from superb shops, because right now Origines Cacao is a candidate, but based on less than half the cakes I've sampled from the current list, so it's going to be a long process to make the leap.

To day and walked and ran (in 4 min intervals, 6 total of the running) and got the Saint Honoré Pistache Framboise, since I like saint-honoré in general and the other one I had from them was excellent. Even with 24 minutes of running, it's a long round trip, taking 1 h 45 min, so maybe tomorrow I'll go to a shop by bicycle, even though that's also my plan for Thursday.

I'll also rate this as excellent. The pistachio and raspberry harmonized well and the choux pastry provided texture to contrast the cream. Definitely much better than the last saint-honoré  I had from a different shop.

Sadaharu Aoki, Saint Honoré aux Fraises

On the 8th day of GW, I went to Shibuya Hikarie ShinQs and finally got the 7th anniversary (of the location) Saint Honoré aux Fraises from Sadaharu Aoki. I'm not sure what the rules are for saint-honoré cakes, but this one is heavy on strawberries an light on pastry, as well as cream and custard. It was good by not a combination of indigence that excites me. I went by bicycle, after a lot of problems with my feet from too much time on them early in GW walking around Tokyo (I rested in Kobe). Even the next day (when I'm writing) after another 20 km ride, they aren't noticeably worse than a couple months ago. I think I'll still avoid being on them more than an hour, at least until the next weekend end, and then set 2 hours as the limit.

Origines Cacao, Saint-Honoré Passion Coco

Did a run to Ginza 6 and got my eleventh (type of) Origines Cacao cake. This is maybe the first time that I've bought from them at Ginza 6, though I bought several mostly great cakes from the closed Nihonbashi store (not sure why I've never seen those great cakes since; have to wonder if someone quit at the same time).

Anyway, very unstable weather today but there was only a little rain while I was out. It was fairly hot (close to 30 degC) and quite humid, so I didn't push it that hard, though I did run most of the way back (I stopped a Marusho for groceries and walked after that).

Like with éclairs, I seem to appreciate fruit flavors with saint-honorés more than with other types of cake. This was passion fruit and coconut, of course, but also mango. Definitely excellent.

Le Grenier à Pain: Saint Honoré Pistache

Another day of proper running and another first cake, this time an actual first cake. Le Grenier à Pain is at Isetan, and though they are a bakery, they have cake, apparently. They have a shop out in Kojimachi, so they are practically local, just a little bit on the wrong side of the north boundary. I got Saint Honoré Pistache, which is just what it sounds like. 

For the running, I worked on revisiting the neighborhood course from yesterday, only approaching Lawson 100 from the reverse direction. I wanted at least 30 minutes of running, but ran almost 48 minutes, which is the longest I've done in months, though it was pretty slow in the 30+ degC evening weather.

The cake was good, but the pastry part (versus the custard and cream, which was normal) was fairly hard (not a bad idea, to avoid sogginess) and frosted like Christmas cookies, which was just weird. It's not a taste I've run into with cake before, and its not one that I need, so I'm not sure whether I'll take advantage of them again for a second cake during their week at Isetan. I assume that they are there for a wekk, but the Isetan webpage with that info has been blank or missing all day.

It is possible that I'll go Friday and get a pastry, if they are not sold out (on a Friday, I may end up walking around the entire Shinjuku 3-chome area and finding everything I might want is sold out), though my first choice is the new chocolate tart coming to JPH, for which the odds of my getting on its first day after work on Friday are close to zero.

Le Pommier, Saint-honoré

Sunday was no cake, but I did take the full walk to Jiyuugaoka, where I got from Paris S'éveille both their Croissant d'Almonde and their, Pain au Chocolat. It was somewhat greedy, but I'm trying to get my sample count up there and they keep not offering me no new cakes. I took the train back, not trying to tempt fate, but my feet seemed (and still seem) fine. I ate the Croissant d'Almonde first, and thought it was excellent; the important point was the almond liquor taste. I can say that the Pain au Chocolat was also excellent, though not distinctive. Fortunately, neither of these was heavy relative to their type, so it was not too much after a couple-hour walk. They've still got a few things in the pastry family, as well as lots of other things in the shop, so I'll be back there again this month. Also, I ran about 1 km later, which also worked out fine.

Monday, I got a third cake from Le Pommier, who were still at Isetan (and again the top guy was there taking my order, so he recognized me as having been there last week). I decided to go traditional and got the Saint-honoré.  Before having my cake, I did a couple errants and ran about 2 km total, which seemed to be fine. Compared to other versions, this had a lot of whipped cream and less custards and small chou balls. Also, the crust was flakier than usual. It worked well and was excellent, so my upgrading them from good to quite good was justified. I noticed in revising my spreadsheet lately that the latter category is actually larger than the former and almost double the intended size. This is because I have I lot of two-cake shops (one good cake and one excellent cake) that could go either way, but this group isn't high enough priority for me to need to take care of that yet. But I would like to find a few to fill out the excellent group.

Paris S'éveille: Saint Honoré Caramel

Well, I successfully did 31 km of my neighborhood course at the 7 min/km pace. Even knowing that I did not need to go as fast as last time at the beginning did not seem to affect the first couple kilometers, which were under 6'10'' each, just because there is no slope and no stairs along there. I did let myself go over 7 min more often later without worrying about it, but near the end I cross 7'30'' and it was relatively flat I thought (though by that point, my judgement maybe was not that good and actually I can't think where that would be true), so I made the effort to speed up and didn't have so much trouble, though I was plenty tired. Mostly I could remember the kilometer markers and I didn't really start spacing one ones until fairly late. I'll need to get started on the next batch. Probably I'll try for around 48 km.

The run ended near the café Path, around Yoyogi Koen Stn., where there were people waiting. I assume that you can just get take-out, but it wasn't obvious, so I went down Musée du Chocolat Théobroma on by way to Jiyuugaoka, walking. At Théobroma I got a Pain au Chocolate. It was definitely good, squarely qualifying as a pastry rather than just fancy bread, but maybe I've had enough of this level of Pain au Chocolate by this point that I'm more hesitant to designate new ones a excellent. They also have cake there, which is the only place I know to get cake from them.

I made it to Paris S'éveille, despite sore feet. I'm not sure whether there is any solution to that, but they seem okay now. There, I got the Saint Honoré Caramel, which I had just noticed as something that I have not had from them before (I had a different flavored saint-honoré from them previously). This is a little delicate for such a long trip, so I took a picture of the other side. I liked this enough to call it great. Coming from a favorite store and being of a type that I haven't designated great are probably big factors, but I'd like to have this again and would recommend it to others.

Frédéric Cassel: Saint Honoré Pêche de Vigne

Pretty hot again today and I forgot my water, so in running to Ginza, I went underground at the main scramble and walked to the Mitsukoshi, but
still was close to 9 km/h for that 5+ km. Walking back, I came out in Hibiya Park so that I could get a drink in the park, so it was 4+ km back at 8 km/h (uphill).

The cake was the seasonal Saint Honoré-Pêche de Vigne, which refers to some sort of peach/nectarine. It's fairly mild, but certainly suitable for summer. It was the usual excellent cake from them. This month specials in cake cover both July and August, so I'll probably run out of new cakes before I get them caught up, but that's fine. There were still a couple more today and maybe there will be something different next month.

Frédéric Cassel: Saint Honoré Fraise Vanille

Ran to Mitsukoshi to visit Frédéric Cassel and got the Saint Honoré Fraise Vanille (756 yen). I can report that it was 6.2 km there (not a very direct route) going down 69 m and up 40 m (Google Maps now shows an elevation chart: neat). Too many long runs this week, so the speed was only 9 km/h. Going back Google says approximately flat, because I took a direct route that rose less gradually, so apparently 30 m over 5 km isn't enough to interest it in making a graph, so this is the output it usually gives me. I'll have to experiment with routes to see what the rules are. Speed was only slightly slower.

The cake, a saint honoré with vanille custard and strawberry cream, as well as strawberry slices, was definitely excellent as expected. This is despite having no chocolate, caramel, or nuts,

so my tastes are not completely narrow. I notice that I did designate it great, but I may need more experience with this type of cake to make that determination. I may have it, because I've given up on Henri le Roux ever having cake again, so they are off my cake index system and Frédéric Cassel joins Dalloyau in the Quite Superb category, where actually it has already passed it (not sure when that happened). Actually, I have about the same number of cakes from both, but I have more non-cakes from Dalloyau and fewer unsampled cakes (currently, two available, which somehow I have not managed to get to, though the month is half over). Now I'll figure out who to bump up to Superb from Quite Excellent, and I have an extra one there, but the top contenders are still under visited, so first I have to rectify that, which is going to take some time.

Note, one reason the return trip was shorter is, since I was carrying cake, I decided to use the tunnel system as far as Hibiya Park, since it's much less crowded than the street level.

Full disclosure, yesterday was a 17 km round trip run with no fresh cake, but rather just research and a pastry-type cake, a Canelé from Clair de Lune (it was a more specific type of canelé, a region of France I think, but I'm not confident so I'll check or ask when I go back next).

Two trains passing at night on Chuo Line

Between the canal and main road.

Another 9 km/h run, about half along the train line/canal.








Also, I baked an apple tart again. Unfortunately, it leaked, but I verified that there was no problem cooking it the full hour, that I could make the glaze better than the previous time (too runny then), but that the apples shrink so much, that the overhanging crust creates a hollow. Since there's a pause in the apple season, according to my local supplier, I plan to move on and try a cheese-cake tart with the same dough and also try another dough.

Frédéric Cassel: Saint Honoré Caramel

Been out of commission for several days, but finally I felt better than last time I ran, so I took a chance. It was just over 8 km at 9 km/h (although I was having trouble keeping the speed that low on the outbound). At Frédéric Cassel, I got the Saint Honoré Caramel (756 yen). I liked last month's saint-honoré and I thought one other caramel cake this month was great, but I didn't care for this taste at all and the texture impressed me less than with the last saint-honoré. Still, it's a common enough caramel taste, despite I not being fond of it and I didn't really mind eating it, so it was still good.


Not sure whether I should try the third caramel or wait from the next batch, but I'll probably get to it. Now I'll see if I can manage to run the next three days to at least get a little caught up, not that it matters, since I'll take the weekend off again, so next week the running budget is going to constrain me.

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.

Paris S'éveille: Saint Honoré Praliné Yuzu

Decided that walking would be better for my knee for walking, so I walked to Paris S'éveille, which is perhaps longer than last weekend, although I only walked one way and came by a train, since it is hot and I had chocolate for making cake. I definitely was walking farther at a strong pace. Tomorrow I'll perhaps throw in a little running and do more total distance.

At Paris S'éveille, I got cake for takeout, so I could take a picture (and also for ice for my leg, although I didn't need it so much), but then went and ate it nearby on a bench in the Kuhonbutsu River Green Way, which passes in front of it (although in the stretch on the other side of the tracks). I had forgotten where I had put my card with my previous cakes written on it, but I knew I had never had the Saint Honoré Praliné Yuzu, for 620 yen (I also knew that I had never had anything that came in a glass, which I find hard to recognize as cake, but I wasn't sure about which of the tarts I had had). I've never had a saint-honoré before, probably because I didn't regard choux as cake. For my expectation, and giving the shop the benefit of the doubt, this was excellent and I feel more comfortable about ordering saint-honoré elsewhere. The taste was pretty much as advertised, with the yuzu and praliné combining fine.