Paris S'éveille, Café Tonka

Despite the distance and difficulty, Tuesday I decided to run to Paris S'éveille at Jiyuugaoka (maybe some day they'll open a central Tokyo outlet, but so far they haven't felt the need), since they were next in priority on the list of places that might have something new. I arrived a little before 7:30 pm, which makes this perhaps my fastest run ever, though I wasn't going for a record. Resting from Monday probably really helped. It had been a while since I went there looking for new cake, since I've been occupied with other shops that I've promoted. They had six cakes available, but nothing new. However, rather than go with my backup Shuu (a café advertising cake that's on my neighborhood route for Shibuya but also has a shop in Jiyuugaoka and anyway is open quite late), I took the one cake I've long been deliberately avoiding: Café Tonka. I was optimistic that the coffee would not make me sick. They also let me eat in, though they had to ask someone in the back that was okay. No one else was eating in, though someone else seemed about to before I left. This is a thin, dense chocolate cake, a thick tonka chocolate cream/ganache (I think; I didn't actually check the card), and coffee flavored whipped cream on top, I figured in a worst cake, I could just scrape off the coffee whipped cream and tried a little corner without it first. As it happened, the whipped cream was no problem. Actually, though definitely coffee flavored, it was lighter than other things I've had recently and went fine with everything else. I don't have any difficult in saying that this was a definitely excellent cake.

On the way back, I stopped at Nikunohanamasa for chocolate, which I didn't buy, and mustard powder, which I bought more that I can imagine what I'll do with, but that was the size and it was cheap. I also bought a pack of nuts, so I had two items. I kept running, carrying them in a bag. Total, it was a 23.5 km run, which is pretty long for a mid-week run. With stops, I was out 3 hours.

L'Abricotier: Maranta

As one of three shops on my Very Excellent list (bottom 8 of the top 15 Tokyo shops) with only 6 cakes tried, I did a run to P. l'Abricotier by the shortest route (according to Google), which I hadn't used in most previous runs there for some reason. It was good, but I missed the first turn coming back and I can't make my memory of where I think I went and got lost on back streets match up with what is physically possible, unless there is a wormhole in Shinjuku somewhere that takes you from the south side of Okubo Avenue to the north side without crossing the street. Since my estimated route based on where I thought I knew I was before turning onto side streets still has me running at 10 km/h, I gave up trying to figure out the impossible. I assume that I ran over 16 km total on the high side of 10 km/h both ways.

Unfortunately, the cake, called Maranta after the type of chocolate, for 460 yen, was just good, so I have to drop this shop from my Very Excellent list, since I think at least Toshi Yoroizuka is better, though there are a couple of less frequented shops that I want to get 4th cakes from before I decide which to replace L'abricotier by. The cake was a dense chocolate cake, with maybe butter-based ganache in layers between layers of dark cake. Not sure which was flavored tonka beans. Maybe only by the power of suggestion from the color of the cake, it was slightly gingery. Still an excellent shop where I've gotten good service and I've had three great cakes from there that I noticed at least two of today, so I'm be back there again relatively soon.

Friday I rested  and tried a couple Jean-Paul Hévin chocolates: Carre JPH Noir and Carre JPH Lait, where are just basic chocolate squares, for only 136 yen each. It's hard to tell from just one bit of tell, but they were definitely good. For me, the Noir was excellent. The Lait was very smooth, but in the end I'm not that into the milk taste most of the time.

Del'Immo: Remy Martin

Ran to Midtown to check whether Toshi Yoroizuka has Annya this early, but though the service person agreed that it was a great cake, they get the rhubarb from Hokkaido, so maybe it will come back in the summer. Next try will be one from Dalloyau, which I plan to visit tomorrow.

Next I went to Del'Immo in Akasaka, since I haven't been there in a while. Got the Remy Martin (レミーマルチン; 580 yen) , which is named for a kind of brandy. It also has tonka beans in it. Not sure what disagreed with me, but though I didn't mind eating it at the time, despite obviously not being my thing, since it was interesting, and I was initially willing to consider it "excellent", the aftertaste bothered me, so I'm afraid "good" is the best I can do. Still an "excellent" shop, but I replaced it by Origines Cacao for the new Top 15 "quite excellent" group, which I have visited enough for now.

The run was about 9 km and I wasn't pushing too hard, just 11 km/h for the first part, 9 km/h through Akasaka, and 10 km/h coming back with cake. Felt pretty good.

I'll also note that Andersen at Isetan had "Fondant Chocolat" for 320 yen yesterday (I was there because Le Petit Mec had no baggets), which seems in no way to be "fondant", but just a pretty thoroughly baked sweet, but it was excellent (sort of a like a lower fat higher sugar brownie).

Igrekplus [Marunouchi]: Meilleur

Walked 6 km to get some Rose syrup (though perhaps could have gotten somewhere else), and then to Ygrekplus where I got Meilleur(e/s/es) for 600 yen. As the name (as I'm guessing) suggests, this looked like the best I could do there. It has tonka beans, which seem to be popular now, and I could taste them and they added to the texture, but did not make it more than a standard frosted chocolate layer cake, although the top was fudge-like rather than a buttercream frosting. I did not have any particular recommendation for the shop, so this was just a matter of making sure I wad not overlooking anything in Marunouchi, which is relatively convenient for jogging. The cake was good, I suppose, but I would rather eat other things, so I don't expect to ever be back.

The 6 km there was about 6 km/h, and the 6 km back was about 5 km/h, walking. Parking for the Marunouchi Building seems problematic and anywhere, it was threatening rain, so I didn't take the bicycle. That experiment will have to wait for another time. Could be Thursday, but only the weather forecast changes

I forgot to blog that I tried Henri le Roux's Sarrasine chocolate, which has, I think, ganache made with soba-infused cream. Like other chocolates I've had from there, it was excellent.

Running and walking: Jean-Paul Hévin, Tonka

And, finally, I did some running again (well, I jogged a little down a slope last Wednesday, just because it was so steep that it was too hard to walk). Had some business around Shinjuku Station, so stopped at Jean-Paul Hévin at Isetan for Tonka. No seasonal cake: I need to check the homepage. Or, maybe like Frédéric Cassel, they don't do some specials at the beginning of the week. Tonka was the last regular cake at that shop, although I need to get back to the Marunouchi shop.

Total, I only did about 3.7 km, using the Meiji Jingu Gaien for one and a quarter laps. There was some slow (0.3 km) 5 km/h walking (I'm guessing, since I messed up the timing), 2 km at 6 km/h, 0.4 at 7 km/h, and 0.3 at 8 km/h. In the middle, I jogged 0.7 km at 7 km/h; so I learned I can walk faster than I thought and jog slower than I thought. I'm counting jogging double, since it's a lot more stressful, so I won't be converting to 60 km of jogging a week so soon, but my budget should still allow 5.4 km tomorrow, jogging slowly about 1.7 km of it, and 24 km of walking Thursday at 6 km/h while still  leaving some budget for the weekend. Last weekend was pretty irregular, so I need to smooth the lumps out, which means I might not be so strict about following the budget. Now I'm actually still lower for the last 7 days than the previous 7 days, whereas I'm allowing a 10% increase per week (generously including the current normal non-recreational walking in that budget, which has been getting faster as I recover), so if I suddenly get to 120% of one week ago, it's not a crisis. Maybe I should smooth over a longer period in calculating.

Cake! Cake was the Tonka (chocolate mousse and biscuit harmonized with tonka bean), as I said, which is just under 700 yen. It was great! I really love chocolate, I guess, so Jean-Paul Hévin always rates far above other shops with me, to the extent that I should just call them "Top".

Dalloyau: Architexture

Walked fast (6 km/h) to Ginza (5.5 km) Dalloyau (photo of the back street entrance)

for Architexture (594 yen), 

which is a mousse dome with the usual vanilla cream center, I think, but the chocolate is flavored with tonka bean, which I wasn't sure of, but was fine as a different flavor (it's a normal thing with chocolate, but not my favorite, though my experience is shallow). It was perhaps excellent, meaning I would enjoy having it again, but don't have a particular aim to.

Walking back was a little slower (for one thing, because it's the uphill direction), at 5.5 km/h. It's about time I raised my speed, but I'm out of practice. I should warm up and then do intervals instead. Not sure whether I'll get out Wednesday night or where I'd go, but I have some time Thursday morning, so if I got then, I'll try going to Le R Cinq, which opens at 8 am, but might only have baked things then. Thinking of shooting for 9 am.

(Saturday) No running; Dalloyao: Savarin aux fruits & Opale; Jean-Paul Hevin: Yuzu

Saturday, I went to the actual second-floor cafe at the Ginza Dalloyau, and not alone, so we got two cakes (although the drink and desert set is pricey). We got the Savarin aux fruits, which is kind of a standard thing anywhere: rum soaked sponge with some fruit. This one would have been 486 yen by itself. It was very good, as far as I could tell. I've only had this kind a cake a few times. Very syrupy (Which is spelled with a "y", why? English is such a pain.), which is not a bad thing.

The Opale is a new chocolate cake that is a mixture of earl grey (the Hong Kong website says lemon tea) cream, dark chocolate mouse, and chocolate sponge (supposedly, although I can't remember from yesterday and the Japanese-French note I wrote down is not helpful). The impression you get is just a really rich chocolate cake like with very moist sponge and frosting, but without actually sensing sponge or frosting separately; it is just a great chocolate cake (I couldn't tell that there was tea in it, but lemon makes sense as far as the color of one of the layers). This would be 594 yen by itself for a single piece, although you can also buy a larger cake. Still a great cake shop.

In the evening, we could have more cake, so we did (although apparently, cheese would have been preferred by one of us). Actually, there was one not cake, Varrine Chocolat Jasmin. It's not bad (besides being 711 yen), but I didn't really taste much of anything, so I can't see the appeal. The cake is called Yuzu, after the citrus fruit.
Of course, it's chocolate cake, like all their cakes (it's a chocolate shop): dark chocolate mousse, yuzu cream, and a tonka bean (which they're into there) dacquoise "croustaillant" (crispiness?) for 714 yen. Great cake. You'll note a couple macrons in the picture. I usually stay away from these, because fancy cake is already really out of my salary range, but I order them when requested. These were caramel and vanilla, and were also great. I like Jean-Paul Hevin's the best of the one's I've tried.