Sadaharu Aoki: Tarte Caramel Salé

Went to Isetan and got Tarte Caramel Salé (タルトカラメルサレ; 720 yen) (although there may be an "au" missing in there), more for yesterday's run than today's which was pretty pathetic. I needed a clearer goal. Rather than more 13 km/h intervals, I decided to try hill work, but with my running budget, going out to the Akasaka Palace course didn't leave much for the actual hills, so I tried running along Gaien West Avenue from in front of the Sokagakkai Shinjuku Cultural Center intersection (or where the Shinjuku History and Culture Course meets Gaien West Avenue), down to the Daikyoucho intersection, which is good as far as grade, but is only about 280 meters and is a little narrow if anyone else is walking on it. It's not so busy, but I was making a nuisance of myself, so I only did about four downward runs at 13 to 14 km/h (plus upward runs at 9 to 10 km/h, which not really enough to even get sweaty, as cold as it was. I won't try there again for that.

The "cake" seemed great. This was a soft, semi-flowing, if that makes sense, caramel under the top. Wasn't particularly salty that I noticed, which is just as well. It has limited availability, though, and isn't on their website. 

Sunday cake shop tour: 2nd shop, Lettre D'Amour [Closed]

I made my second trip to Lettre D'Amour, and they are looking like a great shop, except no other customers soon after opening at 11 am. They are part of a consortium, or something, so they may be okay as far as finding other work if it doesn't work out there. Anyway, I got the Tarte Exotique, which was great. It is pineapple and almond cream baked in the tart shell with a layer of milk chocolate mousse sandwiched between salt caramel ganache. On top is a compote of pineapple, mango, banana, and passion fruit such that you can "enjoy the feeling of the fruit flesh". I can't say I'm fond of all these ingredients (I don't really go for pineapple or banana in my cake and I'm not sure why mango and passion fruit are so popular), but it completely works. This was 550 yen. I better get back there before they close shop. It's on my list of places to visit the cafe.