22 km day off loop run.

The rain mostly stopped and I got in a long run with only a vague plan. I went by Avancons, but decided that my expectations were not that high, so why bother and continued on to Aigre-Douce. There I got the Caramel Chocolate Brownie. After I ordered it, I noticed that it had coffee (and why? Does the pistachio cake have tobacco mixed in, you know, for the flavor?), but didn't back out. After all, maybe the coffee makes it better. Well, it did not kill it, but it did not really make it good, so I'll just leave it as a cake for someone else (caramel and chocolate sounds good, but only if the caramel is fairly sweet, and no coffee, please). I don't remember how much it was, but probably around 500 yen plus tax. They have another chocolate, which I'll try another time. They were really busy for a Monday afternoon, though. Lots of people making big orders, so my cake was already melting by the time they got around to closing the box.

Next, I went to Fraoula, because I could, although I did not do much better. I got their chocolate, the Tomoe, for 453 yen. On the one hand, it was nice to have chocolate without the coffee. It has rum as well, apparently, although I could not taste it. I'm not sure what to call this type of cake. It's not baked, but it's more granular than a mousse but isn't fudge dense. It's kind of a standard texture, so there's probably a good name for it. Ultimately, it did not work for me, although whatever the rum was doing worked, as there was not a problem with too strong a chocolate taste, just its sort of a lot of one flavor that is not enough. It's pretty and I like the macrons, but I don't need it. It would be good to split with someone and have with tea or wine (although there is no space for a cafe there).

I looked around for a third cake, although I had not intended to visit anywhere else. I swung by Takagi and passed from not knowing what to get, went to Toshi Yoroizuka, but they did not have the cake that I had in mind, and so I ended up going to Henri le Roux, which like Toshi Y. is in Tokyo Midtown, but is actually a caramelier, if that is the right word for a master maker of caramels, the only one that I know. They have some little cakes too, which are also available at their Isetan counter, but the draw for the Midtown store is the Kouign Amann. I got the chocolate and C.B.S. (salt butter caramel). These are definitely great, especially the C.B.S. It's sort of croissant-like as far as being flaky and buttery, but of course there is caramel inside, so it's also chewy, not dry. Next time I'll maybe get the C.B.S. again and try the pineapple. These are 324 yen per, so like little cakes.

Ginza jog to Frédéric Cassel at Mitsukoshi: Passion (updated)

Still feeling a little off, although the rainy weather might be related. Was able to jog to Ginza and back, though. It's probably not the first time I've bought from Frédéric Cassel, since I've been at Ginza Mitsukoshi and wanted cake in the past and there aren't so many option (but they do have a Jean-Paul Hévin, so no problem always going there). It's been years, though. Their visit to Shinjuku Isetan drew my attention, so I'm finally getting around to visiting them.

I got the Passion, which is passion fruit baked cheese cake layer, and a rare cheese cake layer, and a little raspberry coulis in between. The weirdest part about it is that there are two crusts at the bottom. The top one seems to be a passion fruit flavored biscuit. It was 756 yen, which is steep, but great, and no geese died to make it, as far as I know, so good job Fred. I'll need to get back there, although the only thing else that they had near closing time was the lemon tart, which would be okay, but not usually my first choice.

Short run to Libertable and back: Zenith

Had some skin problems yesterday and some different weird stuff going on today, but decided that my body rhythm is screwed up from not enough sleep and weird hours over the weekend, another reason I may have to quite the long runs in the summer (which is drawing to a close). I'm hoping running in the evening will help reset my clock.

Anyway, I still tried and maybe am okay doing just a short easy run to Libertable, where they had Zenith for 848 yen. This is one of two of their specialties (the other is Luxe, black truffles and chocolate). It's a Calvados (a special French apple brandy) chiboust and caramelized apple, on top of an apple-flavored foie gras fran in a butter tart crust. I'm really sorry that I looked up what was in it, but it was delicious, I have to admit. I'd like to stick to vegetarian cake (no one has admitted to using lard yet, but I know that there is special lard that is important for French baking: it's the belly fat that you want), though, so maybe not again. The last cake I haven't had from there, the Grace, should be safe, with "red fruit" (raspberries?) and basil creme brulee; I don't mind killing herbs so much.

45 km to Aplanos: Baked Chocolate Supreme, Caramel Choclat, Gateau Opera Hazelnut

Finished another long run. Based on the finish, I could do longer, but some of the middle to end parts were unpleasant. Running along rivers is nice when there is water and toilets every 1 km, but when you're running on a dirt road through a park between two bodies of water for several kilometers toward the end, not so much (although there is a certain advantage to have no avenue of escape except continuing). Of course, my skin is not so great now, and I'd particularly like to figure out how to avoid abrasions next to my knees that seem to come from my running tights, maybe from when I pause and then start running again; that problem seems to be getting worse. Both of these are probably sweat related, as I seem to be at least somewhat allergic. Anyway, I think I need to practice organizing routes for my 25 to 30 km runs to be better before I try to extend my longer runs, if the latter are at all necessary. My next goal was to run long enough to get to Takao and then climb it, but it's hard to imagine doing that now.

Aplanos was okay. I got too greedy, which is a common problem after a long run. I tried to confirm that there was no coffee in the opera cake, they told me English was okay, but then called the part American dude from the back ("dude" because he had a general young man's accent that I can't really localize, although he said his mom was from Boston) when I actually tried to use English. I got the Baked Chocolate Supreme （焼きチョコ極）for 420+tax. It was good, although for some reason, I did not get a picture of it. Again, I should verify each picture as I take them. It's the bottom right one in the "lineup" from the link, if you are interested.

Next was the Caramel Chocolat for 410+tax. This was disappointingly bland.

Finally, the Gateau Opera Hazelnut for 440+tax just did not work for me, although it was probably just as good as the first. I shouldn't have bought three pieces, and I'm maybe getting tired of nuts, and am not that fond of milk chocolate. Now, I'm resolved to buy some tea to go with my cake. I'll try to eat less cake to compensate (financially).

Leisurely cycling to Jiyuugaoka: m.koide

Not only did give up going to the cafe for cheesecake, but I gave up my primary target when I realized I've never posted about m.koide, which today was the perfect time to visit, since they don't open until noon, and I've found them closed on Sunday.

Rather than choose one of the two cakes that made me designate them a great shop (actually, I've only been there once before), I went for the Gateau Framboise, for 600 yen, which is just what the name implies: raspberry cake. There are three layers of cake, three of something between raspberry cream and raspberry frosting, and a couple thin layers that are just raspberry, all visible in the disappointing picture (stupid autofocus camera). It is well constructed, the raspberries are delicious, and I had no problem with any bite of it, but overall just raspberry did not work for me. I think I like raspberry, but I guess I need to mix it with something, even just custard. I'll tentatively keep them as a great shop, though. Certainly they are aiming high and have skill. Not a very focused picture, though.

Since I was in Jiyuugaoka, I went to the nearby Au Bon Vieux Temps, where I did get the good thing that I've had before, the Sunobu for 561 yen. This is mainly pistachio buttercream mousse. The description just said red fruit and some katakana French that I didn't recognized and don't recall. Elsewhere, I've read raspberry, which might be correct. It's mainly a coating with just a little mousse (?) inside. It melts pretty fast, which is a problem because there are just no parks in that area. I need to try going south, where the map says there is a university. Maybe they have some benches that are better and/or closer than the next alternatives. My other observation is that this was ice-cream rich, like their other cakes, but also "painfully" (if you know what I mean, where you sense that you are eating poison, not unlike alcohol) very sugary.

My search for a park and general vagueness meant that I came home a different way and I ended up going by Lettre d'Amour [Closed], so I gave in and bought a Carrefour (?, カレフール) for 560 yen. It had to ride home, so it slid and lost some decoration. The top half is hazelnut and caramel mousse and the bottom tart-like base has a mix of roasted hazelnuts, almonds, and pistachios with semi-dry figs. This was great, better than either of the other cakes, so I'm designated Lettre d'Amour as a great shop now. Still, no other customers there, so I'm not wanting to get too attached to them, since I'm not sure how they stay open.

90 min with interval training to Dalloyau: Fromage Cru

A New York Times article popped up on my Facebook newsfeed:

It felt too humid to up my speed at first, but I managed to do a five-interval set (about 5 minutes, so not a big deal), but continued my regular run because I needed to visit Dalloyau to update my previous post. They were out of that cake, but they conveniently save the little cards so that you can see what they are sold out of (27 cards total, but some are probably not cake). The intervals definitely wore me out, but it's a good idea. You're suppose to count 30 s, 20 s, 10 s for slow, fast, max, but it's hard to count against the pace, so it was not very exact. I'd rather have a watch that beeped or vibrated according to a chosen pattern, not for first time.

Today, I got the Fromage Cru, which is only 486 yen, as it's a little thing. It's just rare cheese cake made of cream cheese and mascarpone cheese as a mousse. I hadn't gotten it previously, because I expected it to be boring, which it was, but it is also excellent, so I don't really regret it. I'm still debating with myself whether to go to a certain famous cafe and getting take-out NY-style cheese cake (I might also be debating the weather, since I'm busy early morning, so it will have to be around noon), since that and apple pie are what they are famous for (and I went once after having not good cheese cake from Shun's, so I got the apple pie then). It might be interesting to compare with today's. 

That's twice to Dalloyau this week, so I won't go back next week. Besides things I've had before, this time had their chocolate tart and some cream puffs (round and cubic, which I can't really see the advantage of and they cost double), so I'm not finished with sampling everything there yet. 

90 min run to Dalloyau: Terre D'agrumes (more updated)

Today was light rain, so I was a little slow, but it seemed to take the usual time to go to Dalloyau. I'm not sure what the Terre d'Agrumes for 540 yen is other than being mousse and fruity (I'm not sure what agrume is in English, but it includes citrus fruits), but it was great, which is what is important. Still, fairly mild, but the flavors added up to something. I'll have to go back to taking notes by pen and paper, since my attempt at photographing the little card through the glass failed, as is often the case. Maybe it would have worked with a real camera instead of a phone. Why the picture of the actual cake with camera didn't come out is a mystery.
Mystery solved: when I open the directory, it shows the wrong image. As you can see, it slid on the trip.

<2nd update> The cake is a short bread base (basically, a cookie), lemon and yuzu cream, orange flavored cake, and strawberry compote. Google translate says "agrumes" means "citrus".

Run and homemade cheese tart/pie/cake

I was going to do a short run, but it ended up taking 90 minutes to go to Takagi, Tokyo Midtown (where I popped in a couple places), where got caramel sauce at the grocery, and then over to Libertable, who again did not have Zenith, which I was not wanting today anyway. Coming back, I at Yotsuya Station, I bought strawberry sauce (at the grocery), which I'll try tomorrow with some homemade almond tart. I'll have to do a new batch of tarts this weekend.

15 km to Origines Cacao: Alicante

It turns out that it takes about 45 minutes to get to the Nihonbashi Takashimaya, which is 15 minutes less than I left myself, but I could still get in and look around enough to see that they did not have what I wanted at the Au bon Vieux Temps counter (I wanted sauces, but they seem to just have cookies). Next I went to Origines Cacao, where I expect them to be sold out, but they weren't. Fortunately, although I didn't remember, I didn't get the thing that I had already gotten there (although that had been great), but instead got the Alicante (I think the Roman spelling is correct) for 550 yen, which is pistachio mousse around chocolate cream (again, I think; I'll need to go back and confirm; it seemed rather nutty). Really great cake. I've got to go there more, even if it is small and inconvenient. I managed to reach the 105 min mark before sitting down to eat it (I was out for 2 hours, although there were the usual stoplights and stops for shopping). Today, of course, Libertable had Zennith, but I already had my great cake, so no problem.

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.

About 11 km and Isetan cafe: Le Salon Jacques Borie

We went to the cafe Le Salon Jacques Borie at the Shinjuku Isetan and got cake. There, you choose the number of cakes and the drink that you want and they bring a cake cart around for you to choose. The selection of things that I would want is not large, but then this is only the second time I've been there, so that's not a big problem. The cakes are very good, as is their herb tea. I had a piece of a large Paris-Brest and a slice of apricot tart and also a couple bites of a very soft almond something, that was almost like a bread in sauce. Two cakes are 2400 yen, and one cake and tea or coffee is 2200 yen. That is before tax and 10% service charge. A desert wine was 1500 yen, I think.

It's been a few days since I've been able to run, and I can tell, and not just from the scale. I did a basic loop including the moat. The running felt fine at the time and the temperature was down and I could run hard, but my left foot is not in great shape now, so that's what I need to be careful about if I can't run for a few days.

It was decided that we needed new phones, so I'm trying out the camera on the new one. I took a couple night pictures along Shinjukudoori. These are statues along the route. The fishing boy gets different outfits, but the girl is stuck with a dress that is too short to be swinging around.

Shopping and Toshi Yoroizuka: Baba and Momontelimar

This time we arrived at Toshi Yoroizuka at 4 pm and immediately gave up getting into the bar. Instead we got the Baba for 530 and Momontelimar for 550.

The Baba was a baba, and packed a reasonable alcoholic punch. It might be great. I'm not the one who usually orders this, but I had half. That's a fig on top, I think.








According to the write up, the Momontelimar is a traditional France desert which, in keeping with the "momo" (Japanese for peach) part apparently, the shop has made with peach in the form of mousse, compote, and sauce. It has it's own Youtube video, but I really can't see the need. It wasn't bad but not exciting. Yesterday's lemon worked out better, frankly. I need a little more zing.

No running, Pierre Hermé: Infiniment Citron x2

Tried to go to the cafe at La Maison du Chocolat but gave up after a 40-minute wait. I don't have much experience with cafe's, but I think a 20 minutes cap is reasonable: if they can't get you in before then, get away. There is plenty of good places that I've been to that would break that, and I was okay, but not everyone is that into cake all the time, and you can get take out.

Later, at Shinjuku Isetan, got two special/seasonal cakes (which doesn't really get me to my goal of trying out all the regular cakes at all the great shops, but that's okay): Baba Infiniment Citron and Cheesecake Infiniment Citron. The second is lemon biscuit, lemon baked cheese cake, lemon cheese mousse, lemon marmalade, and sable. The baba version is lemoncello (a liquor), lemon cream, lemon whipped cream, lemon confit, and lemon gelatin. These are both great, which they should be for 700 and 800 yen, I think (although I don't now which was which).

Frustrating run and Libertable: Vert

So I figured out why the drone was up yesterday. It was probably a trial run for today, when people filled streets and intersections trying to get a free view of fireworks over Meiji Jingu Gaien. It was messy until I got to Aoyama Road west of the Gaien area. Also it was hot, I had to go back once from something forgotten (but I did find the bug spray), and I did not run that far.

Today, they did not have the Zenith, so I got the Vert from Libertable for 604. It's very similar to yesterday's, actually, in that it is very fancy, very pretty, obviously good quality, not cheap, and yet very weak on flavor without being bad. It a creme mousseline (Hollandaise sauce) of Itanian pistachios, some fennel (visible on top), and lemon gelatin. Still two more cakes to try from there. So far, the Crystal is best, and that's not actually cake.

Homemade pizza was great, though. Think I'll make it again tomorrow, and then I really need to clean the kitchen. No running or cake expected.

Dalloyau run: Zen Extreme

Just a normal run to Ginza and back, although the temperature was just low enough that I could do some hard running sometimes, but the humidity was probably 100%, so still pretty harsh. Not sure where the bug spray is, so I didn't try to eat in a park. The cake seemed to be fine for the trip. At the beginning, I was looking up at the sky, because that's how you check for developing cataracts, and there was a double green light, so I watched it and switched eyes to check whether it was really double green, and then it switched on a pair of red lights and zoomed laterally, so I knew it was a drone and not an airplane (plus, I could hear it). I think someone was flying it over a cemetery, which is probably relatively safe at night.

Anyway, it didn't follow me, I think, and I got to the Dalloyau and got the Zen Extreme for 594 yen, which actually sounds a lot more extreme than it is, as all the flavors are pretty mild to the point that it would be hard for me to identify them (except there is a raspberry on top and you can see the green tea). So more of an interesting cake than a great cake, but I've had it before and thought it was worth having again. It's powered green tea base with guava mousse, raspberry gelatin with a fruity mousse and a taste of caramelized almond. Pretty cake, I think.

Cycling: Fraoula, Paris S'éveille, and Bigarreaux

Since I ran long yesterday, just leisurely cycling (and it would be more leisurely if I had a bicycle better geared for slopes).

I started with Bigarreaux, since they open at 9 am, and got the Mille Feuille (for 500 yen). It's a standard cake, so I'm not sure how to tell whether it is great, but I like it and had no complaints. They use 100% Viron Co. flour and fermented butter for the crust. The display-case picture looks better than the other one I took outside, so I'll use it. I'm running out of things to get from there.

Next was Paris S'eveille (where there is a sign telling you no photographs of the display case), where I am definitely not running out things, certainly not things to blog about. This Theatre is two kinds of mousse inside: milk chocolate and bitter chocolate. This was great, although I'm not that into milk chocolate. The balance seemed okay, but heavy on the milk. It would probably be better in colder weather. This is not a cheap place: it was something like 620, or maybe 670 with tax. They have people lining up, so they can charge high, although their location is no doubt more expensive than the other two today and most places outside of those in central Tokyo.
Finally, I stopped by Fraoula. This is called Paradis and has a completely unhelpful description on their card. Obviously there is chocolate on top and some browned orange with that. I'll guess Bavarian creme and chocolate mousse of some type for the main layers. I also got the Bostock and confirmed that it was better than Aux Bacchanales'. The moistness is better distributed, I think, rather than having gooey parts and drier parts.

Late run-day cake from Sadaharu AOKI: Soleil

Because I did not get very good cake in the morning, I tried getting something from a great shop in the evening at Isetan. This is the Soleil, which is seasonal. It's Mango and supposedly mint, although I wouldn't have know it from the taste. This was high-quality of course (at 680 yen, which will go up 7% this month due to the continued weak yen and increases in ingredient costs), but not great for me. That's not shocking, since I only especially like about half their cakes. Now, there is also a seasonal coconut mousse one, which I'll definitely skip.

42+ km to Etienne in Kanagawa: Casmarc and Asterisk

So the the extreme heat (35+ deg) record for Tokyo now stands at 8 days and ended on a peak of 37.7 deg, I think. Today was more reasonable and it was not hot or that bad when I finished compared to previous weekdays. As shown, it was a long straight shot south to the Tama River. It's not that great south of Minato-ku, but it's okay. I crossed the river to Kanagawa, despite there being a nice looking running path on the Tokyo side, but I'm not sure how long there is a good path there. I'd like to try it sometime. This put me 6 km from the mouth, and I ran to at about 23 km, I think. Early on there is a horse crossing, which is something I don't see every day.

Leaving the river, my course deviated a lot from the planned course, at least until a little past the second train station due to navigational problems. And the road was not that great for pedestrians, although that maybe was true in Saitama last week. I guess in either case, I don't really need to repeat the same course. As usual, my skin was the weak link as far as my body (I sweat a lot, and I skin doesn't like the sweat). I didn't do any jogging on the way back, but I was okay and still walked faster than most people and could go out on foot walking later in the day, but I may be approaching my limit. I'd like to do 50 km, including up the trail of Takao Mt., but that might not be reasonable. I expect to be busy next weekend, so no long run. So I'll have to decide what to do for in two weeks. I'm thinking I'll go to Aplanos in Saitama Urawa (same neighborhood as last time), so maybe I'll prepare both a direct route and a 45 km route.

But onto cake. The goal was Etienne, which has been to Shinjuku Isetan and I've had at least one thing I liked from there. For the cakes this time, I've made up the English spelling based on the meaning of the Japanese-English names rather than use asutarisuku (or astarisku, since the "su" were small) and kashimaru

I ate the Casmarc (cassis fruit and Marc, the alcohol) first (480 yen). I don't usually show eating-in-progress shots, but this one shows some of the hidden layers. The Marc is in the Bavarian cream and the red is the cassis. The base is a nice flaky crust, which I respect, but overall this is just okay. I'm not particularly into either ingredient, so people who are would appreciate it more. As you see, they have outside tables, although it is hard to keep the trash from blowing away.

The Asterisk (also 480 yen) was so-so. It's lemon and hazelnuts, which sounded interesting and is not bad but I wasn't satisfied.

There was only one other cake I was interested in, pistachio, and a lot that I wasn't (more than one tea-based cake and about several peach ones, for the season, one of which might have been a better choice). Overall, I don't mind that this shop is so far away.

Running prep: taiyaki

"One of these days" became today, and I got a taiyaki from the shop that opened up on Shinjukudori west of Shinjuku Sanchoome Station. This one is filled with sweet potato, because I don't like sweet beans. It was okay and I wish them well, but I don't need more.

Similar but longer run than yesterday: Tranche noisette

I was going to try to plot the route from today, but got lost and Google Maps is slow, so I gave up. Anyway, it was like yesterday, only a little further out from Akasakamitsuke. Today was the 7th extreme heat day in a row, extending the record, that will probably reach 8 tomorrow, doubling the old record.

I got my cake first at Isetan from Chef Fujiu. It was the Tranche Noisette for just under 400 yen, which is nuts and chocolate. The cake is dense and coarse but still a little spongy rather than biscuit-like and the filling is very dense, like butter cream. The description just says nuts and chocolate and that it has some texture, or something like that. Very good. Lost their card already, but they are in Tokyo, but way out west. They open at 8 am, though, which sounds great. That should be my next long run: I can leave at 2 am. But I already have a plan, so I'll stick to it. Maybe in two weeks.

Shorter run to Neues: Sachertorte

Sixth day of 35+ degree high temperature in Tokyo, extending the record from yesterday. This time I stayed closer to home, and actually there were more people than usual around the Akasaka Palace loop and the Meiji Jingu Gaien loop. Stopped again at Neues, this time for Sachertorte, which is kind of a sign that I'm running out of things to try. It was good though, at 500 yen: dense chocolate cake with a little apricot in the middle and a thick dark chocolate icing. Next time I go I should probably take a list of what I've had so I don't confused by the heat and running, but next week I would probably go Libertable for a change in the Akasaka neighborhood.

Ginza run to Dalloyau: Douceur de Peche

Today was a normal run to Ginza. Still not so many people along the moat run portion, so maybe people are on vacation in August. This time I got the Douceur de Peche, which is complex. There is shortbread as a base, fromage blanc mousse and peach slice gel around it. There is also a lemon flavored biscuit underneath everything, and vanilla icing on the outside. The outer layer was a little more gel than I like, but for the season, I did not have trouble with it. Great cake from a great shop, so I keep going back. But why the raspberry on top? Seems designed to throw you off.

(Monday) run and tart

Monday evening there were a couple actual cool breezes, although mostly it was still hot as record heat continues in Japan. I ran down to Aoyama, around the moat loop (I guess Monday is not a big run day, because the numbers were less than 10% of what I was used to) but veered off north to go through Kudanshita Station area before coming back around.

I've got homemade tarts are home, so I bought an apricot tart from Paul (bakery cafe) at the Yotsuya Atre. It was good, a baked custard tart (or pie, I'm not sure what the difference is), but I also appreciated the almond butter tart made in a simple crust (versus the butter one of the actual recipe) that I made, so I'll keep that recipe for the filling. I'm still curious about what you co do substituting oil for butter, since olive oil is cheaper and easier to get your hands on.

Homemade peach tart

Wanted to try a tart that was a butter tart (in this case, each parts butter and almond pieces) as the base. The plan was to pile the peaches on just one, but Japanese peaches are difficult (they stay stuck to the pit, and you have to just cut off pieces), so it was hard to get nice stackable pieces and I chickened out and spread them around (the filling was fairly fluid when added, so I was worried about overflow). One of the not full of peaches ones uses an oil crust and one uses butter (as in the full one). Not shown, when they cooled, I added apricot jam. The end result was okay but did not seem worth the trouble. I'm hoping that I like the oil crust okay (from my mom's recipe), because butter is a lot of work (not just to handle, but to obtain: butter shortage) and frankly it's nothing special. I can see now why some other tart shells add so much sugar, just to make it more interesting, but I'd rather find some other way to flavor it, if that's necessary. In this recipe, you back the crust first and then back and filling and the peach topping in it. This made the top part of the filling a little mushy from the peaches, which I should have expected but did not.

Sunday cycling with a flat

Today I went out to Au Bon Vieux Temps and got a Quartette for 486 yen, I think. I chose this particular great place because they open at 9 am and the extreme heat is continuing, but I left a little late and had navigational problems, so I didn't arrive as early and I could have, but at least before 10 am, I think. I've had this cake before and have been looking to have it again. The three layers of mousse (white, milk, and bitter chocolate) are extremely creamy. Maybe because of the heat, the outer chocolate was too sweet or something for me. Maybe if it had not been chocolate. I may have to alter my selections for the season. Still, great cake otherwise. Again, with this heat, it's a race to eat it, so the picture is messy.

Next, at Sucreries Nerd down the road a few kilometers was the Opera Praline. Usually, a cake called Opera has coffee in it, so I automatically stay away from them, but there was nothing about coffee on the description card so I asked and it was coffee-free. Instead, it is a harmony of ganache and praline buttercream, with milk chocolate icing on top. It was good, but I was distracted by a flat tire; not fun in the heat. Anyway, the cake was good and they had a few interesting things, but no priority to get back there. Glad Ota-ku has something good, though.

Il Fait Jour (at Isetan): Fig tart

When I was out shopping for bread for dinner and ingredients for baking (the trick is to find reasonable butter, since the Japan butter shortage continues), I got a Fig tart from Il Fair Jour, who are the visiting shop at Shinjuku Isetan. I had forgotten that I had not visited them, because they are in Kanagawa (not counting one inside the gates at a train station; update: not true, as they are outside the gates). The tart was very good. Actually they were within a few kilometers of where I went last week (P. Partage) and where I plan to go next week (P. Etienne), so the challenge will be to come up with a good route, when the time comes.