18 km to Naoki

Today was 18 km, which I cleared, and then I walked back, so I needed a nap eventually. The route went first to Meguro River at Nakameguro Station. I followed Jakuzure River Green Way (蛇崩川緑道) to Highway 3 along Tamagawa Road, then down to connect to the Nomigawa Persimmon Tree Slope Tributary Border Road (呑川柿の木坂支流縁道) around to Sakurashinmachi (桜新町) Station, and then doubling back to get to Patisserie Naoki Laboratoire, which is on the northeast edge of the Jiyugaoka (自由が丘) cluster of cake shops, across from a Takagi, which I like very much.

As you can see, it all looked good, so I got four. Left to right, these are Chocolat Florence (ショコラ・フィレンツェ) for 464 yen, Tarte Noix (タルト・ノア), a walnut tart, for 389 yen, Framboise le Gel (?) for 454 yen, and Chocolat Noir (ショコラ・ノアール) for 464 yen. The first is pistachio mousse and chocolate mousse, a favorite combination of mine, which was good. The raspberry was good too, but a little strange: there was a kind of irregularly shaped nut cluster in the middle, which I was not expecting, but which worked as an anchor to let the cake hold its outer symmetrical shape, which is okay, I suppose, but it was hard not to think that it was a mistake. The "dark" chocolate was actually three layers of mouse under the glaze, maybe chocolate, white chocolate, and milk chocolate. This last was very good or at least very much my kind of thing, although not my favorite even of the type. The nut tart was also good. Overall, a good shop that I would visit again if it were convenient, but I don't need to. I didn't have any kind of recommendation, just I noticed it there from going to Takagi, so they may have some specialty that I don't know about.

Coming back, I wanted to try an Indian grocery (really just one little room) and didn't resisted checking out & Market. I had the best gateaux chocolat when they were at Isetan, but it is not something that they usually make. The carrot cake lost some frosting to the box (which I recovered) on the way, but was fine.