Lindt, Truffle au Chocolat Framboise

Tried to actually exercise again today, beyond just walking. Expected that it might induce coughing, but no such problem. Went by bicycle down to Lindt first, as a quite fine shop that I need a third cake from. I got the Truffle au Chocolat Framboise, which was the only viable option for a new cake (more cakes are listed on their site, but I suspect there aren't that many at the Kitaaoyama shop).

Then I went over to the Fiorentina Pastry Boutique at Roppongi Hills and confirmed that they still have Estate, which I want for a cake-off tomorrow, so I should be set. Back home, I only did push-ups as indoor workout and I was pretty weak, but it's a (re)start. Maybe I'll do abs, back, and arms tomorrow.

The raspberry truffle cakes was definitely fine. Lindt might just be a big commercial chocolate maker, but they have a good brand and protect it. Not exciting but solid and dependable. They shouldn't have trouble hanging on to a position among the fine shops (targeted to be the bottom half of the top 127 Tokyo shops). Eleven more quite fine shops to confirm, including both of tomorrow's cake-off targets, who are top contenders to move up to the next level.

Jean-Paul Hévin: Truffe de Truffe

For lack of other cake options, to further pay off my cake debt from doing a cake-off on Sunday and reward the winner, and just because I'm behind on sampling things from my favorite cake shop, I went to Jean-Paul Hévin at Isetan for something new and ended up choosing their Truffe de Truffe (~350 yen?). This turned out to be maybe great, though it is difficult to tell with something that is gone so quickly. It's light (as in airy) chocolate ganache in a thin chocolate shell covered in cocoa powder. It's very dark but not bitter. If they had other types Truffe, which I don't think they do, I would definitely try them next (until the next new fresh cake comes in).

The run for Friday was 13.2 km at about 10 km/h. I followed the Tokyo History and Culture course from the beginning of the Gaien Walk to the corner of Hibiya Park, where multiple courses meet, and then just headed home. Along some parts, I was actually following the course on the opposite of the street after being block by a demonstration near the Diet Building. I had considered doing a training run I had heard about designed to increase fat burning: 1 km warm-up, 1 km about as fast as possible, 3 min slow, 1 km as fast as possible, and then immediately run, I'm not sure how long, maybe 7 to 10 km, at a jog. But I'm not sure that fat burning is my problem (though my body fat doesn't go down) and something more fun seemed more reasonable. A training run is best for after a rest day, when I have maximum energy, so maybe Sunday night, since I'm taking off Saturday, for one reason because I've used all but a little bit of my two-week budget, at 181 km relative to 12 km/h (108% of two-week max up to one week before). Still not fully sure what I'll do next week, but I'm planning to rest Friday and Sunday will be a makeup for Saturday, perhaps, so with Dalloyau and one long run to an unblogged shop, perhaps I'll probably do another cake-off with easy-to-get-to shops (although that's been tricky in the past, midweek).

Demel:

No running, although I did an indoor workout, which seemed okay, so I may try running tomorrow. The pollen count is really high, so it is hard to tell whether the cold has passed, but my nose doesn't seem infected, even though it is still afflicted.

Went to Isetan, which is still crowded from being White Day week (Monday). At least Demel finally has more cakes, so I got a Truffletorte from there for 756 yen. This is not my favorite type of chocolate cake, being layers of thick ganache, but I respect this particular one, and not just for being huge. It's good enough that I'm going to say that it is excellent. I have to be precise, because I'm finally going through all my posts and classifying cake shops as Great, Excellent, Good, etc., leaving whether I'm particularly interested in them a separate issue. Their rank depends on the cakes I've had, and I'm of course interested in the Great and Excellent ones, but I'm most interested in the ones on the borderline or for which I don't have enough information to judge. Still, I intend to get at least two cakes from each of the Excellent ones (or potentially excellent ones) before needing to get back to the Greats (from which I've sadly had to cut Aigre-Douce, which just wasn't measuring up, although it's definitely Excellent). I'll report when I've finished, but it's all being updated on the map.

Short run to Neues: Truffletorte

I did the normal run down to Aoyamadori, along to Akasakamitsuke, and down to Libertable, where they did not have Zenith (which I'm going to hold out for, so I did not get either Grace or whatever the other one they had that I haven't tried). Instead, I headed back to Neues. It was much shorter than yesterday, but since it was supposedly 100% chance of rain (although it did not rain at all), and I wanted to concentrate on my form, which did, along with the shortened distance, avoid yesterday's foot problems. My plan is to run every night through Friday, with the big run Sunday morning, weather permitting.

At Neues, I did take out rather than sit, as it was quite lively there, for a change. The Truffletorte for 500 yen (or 520 yen, according to what the card said) is constructed much like their other cakes---multiple firm layers---with a truffle-type topping. It was dependably good, but I didn't like it as much as their other cakes, not being that into truffles, so I probably won't get it again. Sorry, forgot about the picture until it was too late, although you can probably pick it out from the link above even if you can't read Japanese. It was still better boring cakes from great shops, although I'll give one of them another try.