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.

Mandarin Oriental Tokyo: Kimono

Today's run was to Mandarin Oriental Tokyo Gourmet Shop, where I got Kimono for 864 yen. They have quite a bit of seating outside and in a kind of enclosed patio. Sorry, no shop picture: I was distracted from finding that I was missing a glove (they had it behind the counter). Like the previous cake, this was chocolate and orange, but otherwise very different. This is heavy cake. It was definitely good, but not really special beyond that, which is too bad because it's not a bad route. The picture is edible, but the shop label is not.



Unfortunately, there were not any stairs or steep enough slopes to keep my speed down, so I tipped over into the 10 km/h range, which is dangerous, but I seem okay so far (though I'm worried about getting a cold). The tip is about 6 km each way, though the first 1 km was definitely close to 9 km/h, as was the return trip, so I've only got 5 km unplanned 10 km/h running. I'll have to shorten one run next week to stay in budget, but I'm dropping another run back there anywhere, so I kind find something shorter to do. Fortunately, Isetan will have a visiting shop that I want to try by then, so I can find something close to home to do.

Asterisque: Rubio

Was back at Isetan today, for Asterisque, who is visiting from not that far away. I got their Rubio　(ルビオ, 590 yen), which is hazelnut mousse under chocolate glazing, accented with rum and raisin. Not that it is alcoholic tasting at all, but has a slight fruity flavor that I could not identify (sure, I read that it was rum raisin when I bought it, but after running, I couldn't remember one description from another, so I was half convinced there was a little orange in there instead, although I couldn't believe in the passion fruit that I remembered being paired with orange). The hazelnut as a mousse is not very strong, but definitely good, and it's not trying to be a kid's cake, although the decoration is a little over the top for me. Still, I'll say it's excellent and try to follow up on Asterisque soon. From what I remember, it's an elegant shop and it has a fairly good reputation online among Tokyo cake shops.



The run was 1 2/3 laps around Akasaka Palace and then to Lawson's 100 for groceries, for 6.4 km at 9 km/h (which is actually a floor rather than a ceiling value today, despite the hills), plus a kilometer or so at 8 km/h to get there to begin with. They were saying rain for tomorrow, and certainly cold, but I'll probably do a run down to Tokyo Midtown, just as something different, and then come home and bake, since I already got cake at Midtown Saturday without running.

Jean-Paul Hévin, Caracas

Cake came first, from Jean-Paul Hévin at Isetan: the "saisonnier" cake Caracas, which is a mild chocolate mousse in layers between vanilla and chocolate flavored biscuit, all coated in chocolate (ganache?). It was definitely excellent, but I have to stop short of calling it "great", especially next to their Mont-Blanc. Sadly, they aren't doing a different special "Mont" every month this year, but of course the regular Mont-Blanc is great anyway and is hard to resist when it is around. Still two more seasonal cakes to try at Isetan and one at the Marunouchi chocolate bar, although that one has coffee, so I'll save that one for last. Now if I could only get to Kyoto, where they have several interesting things, although Isetan also has an interesting mousse selection that I might try as eat in.

I should also mention that I went toTokyo Midtown Henri le Roux the day before, and the exclusive eat-in-only cake I thought I saw a sign for just 12 days before was already gone, so instead I had a repeat of the great chocolate cake, a good cup of Chocolat Chaud, and part of a chocolate crepe that was good, but I don't really need either crepe or the ice cream that comes with it. Never saw any information about that cake on line, so I guess I have to just stop by now and then and see what's going on over there if I ever want something like that. Something to do when I want to take a day off cake but am willing to be tempted.

Running was simply down to Meiji Jingu Gaien and two laps alternating between about 200 meters and 300 meters at 8 and 10 km/h, respectively, for a total of 1.525 km at the higher speed. It was a little difficult due to police at one entrance (that is often used) and a lot of people with cameras at the south end (which has been crowded all week), which I put down to leftovers from the Design Week event, but did not explain why there were photographers on step ladders at the 100 m mark. I assumed some celebrity was still inside and people were trying to get pictures of them, but I found out from the news later that the couple of firetrucks with the police were due to a tragedy involving an exhibit that burned, taking the life of a 5 year-old child. Sorry for the grim report, but tragedy comes from anywhere and affects us in unexpected ways, which we should be prepared for as best we can.

Frédéric Cassel: P'tite Merveille Caramel,

Took a long run along the Tokyo History and Culture courses, starting with the Gaien Walk of the Shinjuku course and continuing on along the Outer Moat Walk to Akasaka, from which I followed the Akasaka Sanno Walk to where it meets the Marunouchi Past and Present Walk, which I jumped off to transfer to the Sukiyabashi Walk to Ginza. Total, that's about 9 km at nearly 9 km/h.

At Frédéric Cassel at Ginza Mitsukoshi, I got the P'tite Merveille Caramel (according to a French Facebook post) for 648 yen. The bottom is merigue, on top of which is caramel mascarpone cheese cream, then mango and passion fruit. topped by "biscuit-like" caramel type chocolate. It's very good, and not like most cakes, so I'm going to say it's great. Maybe I'll get tired of it if they do another version next month (didn't get to last month's yuzu version), for for now that will be my choice.





The end of the run was just 3.4 to grocer, and was a slower 8 km/h, as I was tired at the beginning.

Not sure when I'll get my next run in, as I'm busy this weekend. Probably something Sunday night, but I hope to get cake before then.

A la Bonne Heure: Chocolat Chocolat

Took a chance, in the sense of worrying about my knee, and ran again today. Did a lap around Akasaka Palace again, only this time I stopped at Shirotae, where there was a line out the door (there's not a lot of space in there, even for a Tokyo Patisserie), so they are doing okay without my patronage. Instead, I went to A la Bonne Heure (where there were three other customers) and got their Chocolat Chocolat (486 yen) cake.

What can I say: it tasted just like it looks like it should, light and fluffy, highly diluted chocolate (by cream and air). I'd rather just have the chocolate and cream: at least then I could make some ganache, although it was probably milk chocolate to begin with, so maybe just each the chocolate and whipped the cream as topping for brownies, which I need to make tomorrow. Actually, I'd rather just have dinner and skip the cake, but, still, it was not worse than you would expect, so I'll call it marginally "good". It's a standard cake, so it was useful as a reference and I've had worse too many times.

The running was fine except it started raining lightly and I forgot to stick my umbrella back in my backpack after taking to work at lunch time (though I wouldn't have used it unless I had waited for cake at Shirotae). Also, haven't put my jacket back in since washing it, and I might have used that for the hood. I did have extra shirt, but didn't use it, so it wasn't that cold, around 12 degC. Total distance it was 7.2 km at around 8 km/h again and it involved four stair-climbs over pedestrian bridges and the same slopes as yesterday.

Homemade: 6 km around Akasaka Palace

Received food gift

Food-gifting escalated this week. It had started last spring with a simple scone/canelé encounter but a mini-macaron got out of my control and the return of a meringue-like almond cookie (but not sweet) and some sort of spice bread (banana?) forced me to retaliate with 4 mini-canelé. I'm hoping for a truce now, although there are rumors of another front opening around Christmas with a stollen attack. (I'm happy to try a new dessert.)

On the running front, had a scare yesterday with my knee. Not a good day, but woke up okay. Didn't decide until the last minute whether to run and still wasn't sure at the beginning and end whether that was a good idea (but the middle seemed okay). Just over 6 km, including the Akasaka Palace loop, all just under 8 km/h average (although with overpass stairs and more slopes than usual).

I've still got around 10 mini-canelé, but I should try to improve my carob brownies to make them less brick-like, such as reducing the carob a little, increasing the butter, and cooking a little less. Also, less mixing.