(Paris) S'éveille: Everest and Fig Orange

No running again today (maybe I should have run Friday night, but there was no budget for cake and I ran Thursday night, so I just worked out inside), but I went today by bike and rode farther than I needed to. Still, I feel like I should workout some more inside again, although I did work on cleaning the balcony, a job I've been putting off for months, so that sort of counts as far as exertion.

Went to Paris S'éveille, since they seem to be most underrepresented (I still need to get back to Takagi and decide whether they really belong among the greats). The first cake was Everest, for 580 yen, which is a cheese mousse cake with raspberries. Or it might be called a Charlotte with cheese mousse filling. Either way, this is very good for the type (or otherwise), but a tough sell for appealing to my tastes and doesn't rise to great. It's not really what I should be getting when I visit this shop, since they have so many other delicious things.

The other cake was the Fig Orange, for 620 yen, which is as advertised, except, as is obvious from the picture, it is a chocolate cake with layers of ganache. This is really great cake. The fig excellently complements the dark chocolate and its texture complements that of the rich cake and ganache. Then, the accent given by the orange clearly raises the level. Be warned, though: this is really rich and heavy (which is a good thing), so I recommend splitting it with someone or having a book and/or beverage to stretch out the time and flavor. Not that I got tired of it, but it seemed like a lot of cake just eating it by itself outside where I did not want to linger.

I also verified the existence of Addict au Sucre as a patisserie one station north, although I don't have any information suggesting that I particularly need to go there. Just one for the list of not yet visited places added to the map.

1 min/1 min intervals to Origines Cacao

Ran doing 1 min/1 min intervals (1 minute of not fast enough strain muscles to 1 minute of as fast as I can maintain safely for a minute). Now that I've gotten used to intervals, this seems better than 30/20/10 intervals, although I don't get the same maximum speed, of course. My legs were almost shaky waiting at the last light before the cake shop.

To Origines Cacao, I managed about 5'34''/km (counting only the running part) doing intervals, but 6'05''/km running back to the 100 yen shop normally, but with cake, which is pretty good for me. Of course, even doing top speed there was a guy in front of me maintaining distance at what looked like an easy run for him, so I'm never going to be really fast. Route currently showing on the map, as well as the cafe Knenet, which Joshi Plus visited so I might get over there some time.

The cake was a new one (not even on the Tabelog rating site yet): Tarte Chocolat for 518 yen. As usual, not many options: other choices were a cake I thought that I've already posted about, but apparently not (I was confused after running, as always); chocolate pudding (under some French name) in a glass bottle; and something pudding enough that it needed a dish with sides but not pudding enough that it needed a bottle. Actually, at this point, I would have tried any of the other three too, since the non-cakes were under 400 yen and probably good.

The chocolate tart was great. It was simple, just chocolate (although maybe ganache) soft enough to easily cut but too firm to call mousse, under a chocolate glaze and on top of a biscuit. Note watery but not so rich or so sweet that I got tired of the taste before I ran out of cake, although I would be happy to share half with someone (if I could get half of something else). The little decoration was quite candy-like and a little crispy rather than truffle-like; maybe caramel, but mostly sweet. It would definitely be worth getting by itself.

Wako and Clair de Lune

Okay, (Patisserie) Clair de Lune and the patisserie at Wako Annex are now marked on the map as patisseries of interest after recent visits. It also shows (until I update it again, since there is a limit on layers) today's route somewhat (Google is not good about tracking some things and I don't know how to get it to map exactly where I want rather than using best-route find a letting me just tweak a few points, although I got lucky once and it really let me draw the route).

I started with a chocolate tart of Wako Annex, but I was out of the habit and hungry, so I forgot to photograph it; here's a Japanese page with a not very hi-res version. It's called Comme (?) Tarte Chocolat and was 648 yen, which is not cheap, but considering this is Wako, it's not as much as it could be. It was extremely good, maybe great. Certainly one of the better chocolate tarts, possible the best, that I've had. The linked article claims that there are are some nuts mixed in, although the chocolate is smooth. Hard to get back there, but I'll try.

The run was good. My times were 52 minutes going and 48 minutes coming back to 100 yen shop carrying cake. This seems to correspond to 5'20'' per kilometer and 6'12' per kilometer, but I caught Google overdoing and shortening the route, respectively, so the truth is that they were probably closer together, although running with cake with some wind after a long run out certainly was slower coming back (plus, I'm not sure what roads I actually took toward the beginning, but I think that they were at least parallel to what's mapped).

The cake was Chiboust again, for 540 yen, with the traditional (?) apple. Usually, these things are round cakes with a flat base, but this one had a crust that curled up on the two sides (seemingly, this was sliced from a longer cake). This crust is several layers of flaky pastry crust and there are large apple pieces, so it was more apple-pie-like than Chiboust usually is (which is a kind of semi-frozen mousse). It makes me think that this is a more home-made style, but it is really good, I'll say great, so I should get back there, despite the distance route problems and try some of the other things. It's a really small operation, so I probably didn't respect it when I went there before, which is why I didn't write any note on the card. Pretty cramped store right on the street and the kitchen seemed tiny, too.

Meiji Ginguu Gaien laps and Pastry Shop (Hyatt Regency Tokyo): Diamant Noir

As planned, I went to Isetan to get cake from the Pastry Shop (Hyatt Regency). I think it is Diamant Noir, for 627 yen. The top is a chocolate mousse that is very not rich, which is to say, I don't like it, though watery would be too strong a complaint. The base is better, being hard and a little crunchy, but does not really make up for the top, though that was not terrible, just basic chocolate mousse. I guess I'm not missing anything from not having been to the Pastry Shop for a while.

The running was hard. From the beginning, I was still sore from my sprint-like intervals Tuesday, though that covers just some muscles. Still, it had it tough to push myself and pushing is necessary for this routine, though I have still not established a benchmark (by failing). This time was 7'15''/lap for 9 laps as the goal. I didn't make the time for every lap, which is not good, but I did make the average, so I'll probably up the goal to 7'00''/lap for 10 laps. It's going to be tough to reach both aspects. Running at night, it's hard to tell whether I'm going to make my goal, since it's hard to check my watch much and I've never calculated partial times from anywhere (it's not obvious where exactly halfway would be, for example). I'll confess that I stopped the timer twice to retie my shoes, in the first and second laps. Also, I spaced on hitting the lap button at the right point the first time around, so the real amounts require shifting a few seconds from the 1st to the 2nd lap. (rounding up) Total 1 03'02'', and laps 7'11'', 6'59'', 7'12'', 7'16'', 6'56'', 6'50'', 6'54'', 6'58'', 6'51''. So it's a little faster than last time, but the average is just above 7'/lap, so I'll need to either push hard next time or be in better shape. Probably won't be doing it next week, but maybe in two weeks.

La Vie Douce (Shinjuku): Caramel Orange

Stayed home and did the indoor work out and cleaned the kitchen, after making it dirtier first. For cake, I went to La Vie Douce, since the last cake was great. This time I got the Caramel Orange, for a reasonable 464 yen. It is another chiboust, it said on the card at the shop, although the website just says caramel cream (not too strong) and orange comfit (not a lot, but the normal amount, and more probably wouldn't be better). It was very good, and I'm satisfied, but not exciting or great. I'll take them off my watch list (it's really more of a stack of cards) and put them back on my visited list, which means that there are several not necessarily great places that I should go to before I go back there again. Still, it is important to know that I should check in there once in a while and try something, or maybe peak in at their website to see which seasonal cake I don't want to miss. If they don't have cakes, they have a few baked things, like a raspberry tart.

1/1 intervals to Frédéric Cassel at Ginza Mitsukoshi: Tan Gram

Today, I went to give Frédéric Cassel a second try, since the first cake was great. Took my favorite path to Mitsukoshi Ginza doing 1 min/1 min intervals of relatively slow run and sprinting (or as near as I can get and keep my running form). Was able to do about 15 sprints before I was inside Ginza and couldn't run (for lack of space: evening is a lot different from Sunday morning, which is why there are cake shops open until after midnight there, apparently). Was running relatively well, but I'm not that tired, so I don't know it was as far as training. Intervals are supposed to promote stamina, though. I'm conflicted about whether to run tomorrow or do my inside routine again. Also conflicted because the price of the cake suggests that maybe I should take a cake break tomorrow, although I strongly want to go to Isetan because the visiting patisserie sounds pretty special: an M.O.F. (Un des Meilleurs Ouvriers de France) chocolatier working with the Hyatt Regency Pastry Shop guy. But the first day might be hard to get cake after work anyway, so maybe I should wait. Don't want to leave it to the last day, though.

Anyway, I went to Frédéric Cassel again and this time got the Tan Gram (or "Tangram": can't find an official Latin character spelling) for 777 yen, which is chocolate and more chocolate: chocolate glaze over a top layer of chocolate mousse, then chocolate cream, and then a more solid part with chocolate nibs mixed in (as well as on the outside), I think, on a short bread base. Definitely great. Don't want to rush to designate them a great shop, because I've done that before, but one more great cake would convince me. Plus, it's raising the bar for other shops that I've designated great but have not been delivering so much, although in the end, it is only the great cakes that matter, whoever is selling them. Got to know where to look, though, first. Don't have time or money to try everything from everywhere, sadly.

Oak Wood at Isetan (Shinjuku)

Since I ran 35 km yesterday, I did my indoor workout (and made some mushroom/pumpkin/onion/carrot dumplings, which were delicious) and met my modest but increasing goal in terms of sets of various lifts and push-ups.

The visiting shop at Isetan now is Oak Wood from deep in Saitama pref. Their website does not look promising, as far as the cake varieties, but I had decided that they might have good cake from seeing Isetan. I got what they claimed is their specialty (which agrees with the website), their Chocolate and Chestnut Éclair for 450 yen. No explanation is needed beyond the name and the picture. I've never really seen the appeal of éclair over bread, cake, donuts, etc., and I'm not a fan of chestnuts, which is the seasonal thing now, so this was reach for me. But if I'm going to judge a place, I'll let it choose the item. I'm still not ready to think of this as cake, but as my éclair experience goes, it was pretty good, so I'm I can believe that they know what good cake tastes like and try other things. In particular, the combination worked and I had no problem with chestnut fatigue. Now I just need to find a route that I would want to run to get there.

36 km to La Noboutique: Chocolat Noir and Sicily

Took Yamanotedoori south and then came back up by route 17, which starts out as No. 1 Tokyo-Yokohama road but changes names or switches paths a couple times: route. The west side was as I've seen before near Nakameguro: temporary asphalt sidewalk, highway-type steel barriers, and traffic barricades  rather than brick sidewalk and the regular fences/barriers. Still, it was okay. Route 17 as okay too, although crowded right at Shinagawa Station, even at 8 a.m on Sunday, and Ginza was a pain because the lights are so frequent that I had to spend half my time stopped (although a cheated some times). At the far north end was best, the last few kilometers before the city hall of Itabashi District, where it meets up with Yamanotedoori, but other parts up to there were fine. I'm thinking that my previous journeys outside of Tokyo should have followed a road like this: a main radial road from central Tokyo. I've complained about the main roads crossing into Kanagawa pref., but those were actually connecting suburbs between prefectures. Maybe I should take a radial road from the center first and then turn west inside the neighboring prefecture to find routes that don't feel like truck routes.

The actual run was good too. I've been trying to do 6 min/km, and I did that for 35 km (Google route finder says 36.0 km, but using Google distance measuring tool, I got exactly 35.0 km). It worked about like my laps: it became harder as I went but I kept that in mind and worked myself harder, and it managed to balance out without my having to think about it too hard. I only check about once every 5 or 10 km, so I can't really make micro-corrections to my speed. Since I'm happy with the speed for long distances, I could up the distance to 40 km or more next, but actually I've already planned out a route that is more about navigation and visiting two shops along the way (so actual cake running might be involved, but maybe only to the nearest park) and even that is going to have to wait a couple weeks.

Today's cake was far from great, at least from the target shop, La Noboutique. These were Chocolat Noir for 390 yen and Sicily for 420 yen (or at least those are my guesses from the Japanese phonetic spellings). The chocolat seems to be just chocolate flavored whipped cream as the filling (the website says ganache, which apparently covers a wide territory of chocolate-dairy mixtures, based on my experience) and there is a tiny bit of nuts in the topping. Just too weak for me. I expect this from Henri Charpentier or Ginza Cozy Corner. It was not watery bad, but it was just okay and something I want to avoid. Sicily is pistachio and either strawberry or raspberry mousse, but was about the same: just okay. The combination left a bad taste in my mouth, figuratively and literally. But they did give me 5 yen "service" in the form of rounding the total down to the nearest 10 yen, so I should mention that.

Unlike yesterday, I did not restrain myself and went out again to Fraoula (by bicycle) and got their new Mille Feuille for 432 yen, along with a Croissant d'Almande for 237 yen. The Mille Feuille was fine. The interesting point was that only the top was a solid piece (in a few layers), whereas the rest was flakes, so that you could cut through it easily, which is one solution to make it easier to eat. The croissant (which does not count as a fourth cake) was very good, maybe better than any of the cakes, which does not surprise me from there.

Cycling to Au Bon Vieux Temp

Went cycling, which in theory should be faster but I also tend to not follow known routes or check the map often, so I end up going way out of my way, like today.

The destination was Au Bon Vieux Temp out by Ooyamadai Station on Toukyuu　Ooimachi Line, in Setagaya. They are on my great shop list, although I'm having my doubts. I've made excuses in the past for cakes that might be great, except for not holding up under the extreme heat. This time I got three cakes with not very good prospects (I don't know what to pick, so I just picked them in the order of the display, except that I skipped the seasonal mixed fruit tart, because it looked small and pathetic and I've never been impressed by mixed fruit tarts; in particular, citrus fruits don't go well with most other fruits). None of these had much inherit chance of being great and they were not, but other great shops have shown that they can surprise me, which these didn't really.

First is the Fromage Cru, rare cheese cake for 380 yen + tax. Like all the cakes in this set, it's very small (just a few centimeters wide). Definitely good flavor, so I'd say better than average for rare cheese cakes, although it was just a little more gelatinous than I like. I usually can't be bothered to read and remember the details, but online it says that they use white wine rather than lemon juice, so now I totally want to do that with my baked cheese cake, except I also want to do chocolate, which would sort of confuse the experiment.

Next was Biscuit aux Fruits for 400 yen + tax. For sponge cake with fruit, this was very good, especially considering that there is banana in the middle, which I don't generally care for or consider appropriate but worked fairly well here. But sponge cake even with mostly custard rather than simply whipped cream has pretty limited appeal for me, so I can't say that this is great, just very good.

Finally, the signature dessert of the shop was 420 yen + tax. This is a Brûlée of custard and pear. Very good, and very alcoholic (pear brandy).

Pierre Hermé and laps

Got cake from Pierre Hermé at Isetan today. Before eating it (or dinner), I went to Meiji Jingu Gaien and did laps. My goal was 7'30''/lap for 8 laps. My experience was 1st lap is a final warm up, 2nd lap the sweating starts, 3rd lap the muscles start to feel it, 4th lap I was hungry, 5th lap I felt like a furnace, can't remember what I thought at the 6th other than this was the lap that would determine whether I was going to have trouble, 7th picking up my feet was becoming more of a problem, and 8th (or maybe earlier) the heavy puffing started and it became an effort to keep up the pace. The times were good: 56'15''96 total, laps in order 7'03'', 7'11'', 7'10'' (so I managed to not slack off like last time), 7'00'', 7'04'', 6'59'', 6'56'', and 6'54'', with the average just under 7'02''. So I should try 7'15''/lap for 9 laps next time, although that's going to be hard (and long).

The cake for today is the Tarte Infiniment Vanille, which is a standard there, but not on the Japanese web site (a search gets a lot of French hits). It's 756 yen, so I'll probably not buy cake tomorrow, although I'd like some French bread to go with my homemade curry. This tart is vanilla all the way through, I think. The base, inside the shell, is a more dry vanilla, whereas the top is a rich mousse (I might go back tomorrow and double check the card at Isetan), now that I've eaten it. A french description is that it is white chocolate ganache and vanilla (what I figured), and vanilla mascarpone cream, which I don't know how to recognize. Anyway, this has a rich full vanilla flavor, and feels like a lot of cake, despite its small size, because of the richness. Definitely a great cake, but that's what I expected and what I went for.

Origines Cacao fail, Dalloyau

Tried to go to Origines Cacao, regretting not getting one of their cakes last time I checked there. Just wanted to do a simple run today, but found myself going relatively fast. It's 6.9 km, taking the usual route, and my time was about 37' (forgot to stop my chronometer at one red light, so I'm guessing from the 38'05'' that I recorded), which is good for the conditions. However, Origines Cacao closed early (6 pm) for reasons that I did not hang around reading the sign long enough to find out (just long enough to read a couple sentences of formal apologies), but it seemed to be just a today thing. I won't try going there again this week, though, I think. I should check the web site. Could be the butter shortage again (I know I failed to find unsalted butter for baking at three places, at least the regular stuff, versus the exotic expensive brands).

So I went to Dalloyau (getting a little lost because I'm used to coming from the other direction) and got the Tarte Fruits Rouge for 540 yen. It's a pistachio tart base with a little lemon cream to hold a strawberry and a ring of raspberries. It is excellent, and I'm happy to have had it and would enjoying having another one, although it is not exciting so I can't add it to the list of greats. I wonder what more lemon cream would have been like. These mostly fruit one never really thrill me.

34 km to Il Fait Jour (Tachikawa Station)

Route was approximately this, although poor navigation and deliberate but fatigue-addled (gack: spent more time trying to figure out the spelling of this word) judgement may not all have been accounted for. Most of the route was pretty good for running. Liked this part of Kanda River and following the road north of Chuuou line was also nice: good width of sidewalk, nice enough neighborhood, and not too much traffic. Last bit was not great, but then it was also not the original plan (although it is what Google would have told me to do). This is in the very not detailed part of my central Tokyo map, so I need to add notes about turns better so I know what intersection names are if I'm going to follow a less obvious route. Did fairly well most of the time, though.

Started out too fast, but if I don't go fast at the beginning, then I never will. Ended up with 3 28' for the run and then another 12' of running from Shinjuku Station (which was slow). Considered going on to Yotsuya Station and coming back or switching to the local at Shinjuku Station, but kept it simple.

Not a big counter of the cake shop, so there might be better things elsewhere (although not that much more listed on web site, but they don't have the fig tart, which they did have and I know is good), but could find at least two good things (the berry tart would have been the next choice) at the Il Fait Jour counter in Ecute at Tachikawa Station. Got the signature tart for 567 yen, which is navel orange tart base with an Earl Grey mousse which includes orange peal. Excellent.

The second was Melissa (the Francois Pralus chocolate) for 511 yen. This is a chocolate dacquoise (I always have too look up what that means, which I think is just a cake having layers of meringue and/or cream in this context, although this definitely was specifically mousse). I'm not a fan of milk chocolate in general, but it is often a good choice versus the dark stuff, as in this case. Excellent cake/tart.

1 h jogging and Jean-Paul Hévin

Didn't have a lot of time, so thought I was going to take a quick jog to a new place, but couldn't confirm the location beforehand and didn't find it or want to spend more time looking, so I stopped at Jean-Paul Hévin on the way back. Unfortunately, that didn't work out great either.

Today I got tｗo seasonal cakes, the Mont-Noir and the Marquise for 674 and 618 yen, respectively. The Mont-Noir is a Mont-Blanc with cassis gelatin mixed with the chestnut cream and whipped cream, giving it a purple look. It's sprinkled with chocolate and chestnut power. The base crust is the same great one as the Mont-Blanc, almond meringue, very airy. This is good, but not as good as the Mont-Blanc, I'm told by someone who better appreciates this variety. The Marquise has a hazelnut flavored crust, which is as far as I had read at the store (there is a line outside and I want to try everything anyway). However, if I'd read further, I would have found out that it has coffee (that would have been a deal-killer) and cognac, and chocolate one assumes. Didn't notice that it was coffee when I ate it but did notice that it was not great, although not actually bad, just not something I need.

Cake: (Boutique) Troisgros: Sacher Abricot and Savarin au Rhum

Busy today, so no running. Was over at Odakyu, so I tried Troisgros, since they have a fairly large area in B2 of Odakyu that I noticed recently, with a cake counter (with no staff for awhile), a bread counter, and other sections that I did not notice in detail. This is actually the Boutique, and the same name is used for a café on the 8th floor and a restaurant. I haven't been that impressed by the quality of cake at the actual cafés or counters at Odakyu, but this looked above average, so I tried it.

I got the Sacher Abricot for 572 yen and the Savarin au Rhum for 540. Both were okay, but neither was great. The Sacher Abricot is feuillantine praline and chocolate biscuit (both good) with chocolate ganache and apricot (good, although too little to compete well with the chocolate, a common problem with chocolate mousse cakes). I suppose the mousse was the ganache, and made up the bulk and seemed watery to me (I don't know what that really indicates, but I don't like it), so it had merits and demerits. One Savarin au Rhum is much like another to me, but this seemed fairly average. There was another chocolate that I might have gotten if I was choosing both cakes today, but I'm not in a hurry to go back, despite it's location. It still remains true that Isetan is about the whole good place for cake among the department stores, although I know of a couple individually good cakes at Takashimaya.

One-way run to Dalloyau: Croquant Fraise

Jogged to Ginza, getting two sets of 5 30/20/10 intervals in before I got to the moat course and it became impossible. Went to Origines Cacao first and the pickings were slim, just rare cheese cake and strawberry cheese cake, neither of which were likely to be great (both probably both fine), so I went to Dalloyau and got the Croquant Fraise (crunchy strawberry). This has a macaron base, a custard/caramel middle (not sure) with chocolate around it, a little strawberry gel in the middle, one whole strawberry and one whole blueberry, and a large piece of caramelized sliced almonds. Definitely great, for 540 yen. The chocolate is just enough to complement the custard, the macron is delicious, and the other pieces vary the flavor.

Passed several other shops that I've never been too on my way, but today was a great cake day, so I passed them by. Specifically, I went by Ginza Marquise and Piece Montée, about which I knew nothing, but the first seems to have a hazelnut cake that I'd like to try, Gaku, and the second has a couple, although the ones they list that are not currently for sale sound very good. Maybe they are seasonal. Neither are cheap, but then they are in Ginza.

 I was tired from the intense intervals and I had things I need to do at home, so I took the train back.

11.4 km to Bien-Etre Patisserie and back: Saint Marc

Tried running over to Bien-Etre. They close at 8:30, so that's reasonable. Ran along the road south of JR Chuo train line, swung north to get around Meiji Gingu just outside the Yamanote loop, came down the west side of Yoyogi Park and went west where Yamanotedoori meets Inogashiradoori. Kind of dark and the path could be little more even, but it's quite wide most of the way and not very crowded. I ran closer to Shinjuku Gyoen (the big government park) on the way back, but ended up with about the same distance both ways. Wasn't really up to going fast, given the new uncertain route and conditions, but did 11.4 km in 1 11'22'', which is okay.

Got the Saint Marc for 520 at Bien-Etre. It was very good, but not great (don't think I've ever had a great one) and the remaining selection was somewhat limited and did not interested me, so I won't be going back soon. Nice, bright, and clean little cafe space, though, so I'd definitely stop in there more if it were convenient, but of course, if it were convenient, so would be Fraoula, which is great, and Asterisque, which seems much more high end, is just another block, and is good and popular (I could get there too, if I wanted to add places to jog to during the week, since they're open until 8 pm).

La Vie Douce: Yuzu Chiboust

Got to do some cleaning and never get anything done when I run, so I didn't. Did an indoor workout, though (just sets of simple lifts and push ups).

Ahead of time, I got Yuzu Chiboust for 475 yen from La Vie Douce, which was one of the local patisseries that I said I should visit. My general opinion of them is that they are so-so, and the last time that I had one of the couple cakes that I thought was exceptional (La Vie Bacchus), I was not into it. It's it's a pretty serious looking place, with several people in the kitchen working, and it's only the Tokyo branch (the main shop is in Yokohama). This was great cake. The top is chocolate Chiboust, which is great, and the bottom is a fairly firm yuzu mousse around a little apricot jelly and enough biscuit underneath to hold it together. This was actually recommended on their webpage, so they no it's special, compared to their usual stuff, but I should still go back to look for more special things. Unfortunately, they close at 7 pm (and Mondays), so they are not as convenient as my usual haunts.

Sadaharu Aoki: Valencia and laps

Yesterday I worked out inside and didn't get cake because I planned to get something expensive today, which I did: the Valencia from Sadaharu Aoki (Isetan, Shinjuku) for 840 yen.

Today, running was laps around Meiji Jingu Gaien again, with the goal being 7 laps within 7'45'' per lap. Due to shoelace problems, there was an extra half-lap not timed, in addition to the normal warm-up running to get to the course. Numbers were 50'45'' total, with laps 7'28'', 7'07'' (actually, the first lap time was long and and the second was short due to button-pushing problems in the dark while running), 7'33'', 7'27'', 7'19'', 7'11'', and 6'41''. Next I'll try 8 laps within 7'30'' each, which means I'll have to pick up the pace on that third lap, although my average was under 7'15'' this time at least, so probably I'll be okay still. 

The cake was great. This is a "strange marriage of orange mousse and feuillantine praline". Well, it's not so strange, but it is delicious, though not a strong taste, which is a good thing. Sweet but not too sweet. The feuillantine is nice and crunchy and the base biscuit is also very good. The cake is probably large for this style of fancy French cakes compared to some cheaper shops. I don't imagine that they are willing to compromise on the size or ingredients, despite price rises that are hitting everyone. 

27 km to Limevert

Well, I complained that my route was not as long as I wanted and spaced when it came time to turn to follow the main river and took the north branch instead, so it became long enough. I thought it looked familiar. Guess I'll have to try again. Following #8 Ring Road south was not that great, so I think next time I'll consider a more navigationally complex route, despite having proved where that gets me. And I only was okay because the branch still arrived at #8 Ring Road, just there was no station there, so I knew something was off. Time was about 2 h 45 min, which is a little surprising because I thought I was barely doing 7 min/km at the 10 km mark, where I had only gotten a little lost and had to make a one major detour. I'm pretty sure Google isn't over-measuring, because it is not taking account of all the detours (which I remembered from before: they aren't finishing that construction through the park along that river very quickly) and it isn't great at following river paths anyway for the find route function (since at the end I want to tell it a route, not the other way around). Now I'm going to have to find somewhere I want to go that uses the original river. On the plus side, I should really follow it all the way to Kichijoji Station rather than bail at #8 Ring Road. Pretty well demonstrated that I could exhaust myself on a long run without doing 45 km.

On the cake side, the good news is that Limevert is actually a patisserie with a cafe rather than the reverse. They just opened this year, so not much record on the web on them and their website does not show the cakes I chose and I didn't take notes or photos there, so I'm going to have to guess somewhat on the names (and change them to the Latin alphabet). I'll call the chocolate cake Raryu (which is what I remember) and the other Chiboust Caramel, although the name of the latter had another word.

The Raryu is a basic but good chocolate cake, steam-baked, if I understand correctly, with ganache between cake layers. Very dense chocolate and good, although I don't really need that much plain chocolate cake, so half would have been fine. The Chiboust Caramel is caramel Chiboust above a custard (I think; I was exhausted and had a nap now) tart and leaky (in the box and on the plate, as you can maybe see). Also very good. I definitely recommend visiting them if you're in the area and how they'll be successful.

1 min interval running to Rue Favart and Toshi Yoroizuka

Did 1 min/1 min intervals down to across from Ebisu Garden Palace to Rue Favart, which is a little (I think; I didn't actually go upstairs) cafe with a cake counter in front the kitchen. I had popped my head in there before, since I've been by there several times. I went because occasionally Joshi Plus Sweets finds an actually good patisserie (I know, because now when they do, they mostly ones that I already know and was wondering why they hadn't been there yet). Got a little lost (didn't review my map before going), but it's hard to miss Ebisu Garden Palace going south from Hiro and I got there in about 19 intervals okay.

However, Rue Favart is just a cafe with cake, not a cake shop with a cafe, and not particularly special, judging from their selection and what else is visible on the first floor. They seem to be trying for a higher class a cafe cakes and tarts, but not patisserie quality, I would say. Not cheap either. I got the Gourman Dise (as written on the card, but "Gourmandises" is listed on the sign outside, maybe to mean desserts), which seems like a terrible name, for 550. It's a caramel tart with a little banana (not too much). The under-tart was nutty and I appreciated it, and the top was not terrible for what it was, but it was the more coffee-like caramel rather than the sweet kind. Since this was the only thing that stood out (they have lemon tarts, a fruity mille-feuille, maybe gateau chocolat), probably won't need to go back.

I should mention, maybe that I went by (Ruelle de) Dierrier in Azabu, just because I had added it to the map recently, as I go through all my old shop cards. It was similarly just a cafe with cake and I had the mille feuille there, which was okay. Closed now, with the location to be rebranded as a new restaurant or cafe, according to paper on the door. Doesn't seem like a great location.

Nearby to Rue Favart, is a great shop, Toshi Yoroizuka [closed branch], so I went there and got the Antique. Sorry, I dropped it (in the bag and box) in the hall outside my door, so see the link for one in better shape. This was 560 yen. As you can see, it is fig (fruit above mousse) with a chocolate tart on the bottom. In the middle is custard cream. I like fig, although the fig mousse is boring by itself, but the tart, specifically, the chocolate crust, is great, so this is another great cake from Toshi Yoroizuka. Still many more choices there. Easier to go to the Tokyo Midtown store, though, than the Ebisu one.


Other than dropping it, managed to run back, although the intervals had left me pretty tired. I figured running today would be okay even though my long run is tomorrow (when I don't have morning appointments) since to go to my chosen target (another Joshi Plus entry, so I'm prepared to swing by Isetan later for great cake) along the river route I've chosen, it was hard to add just a couple more kilometers and still have a simple route (I think my back is okay enough to take the map, but I don't want to have to stop to check it so often).

Noix de Beurre: Chocolat Léger

Decided that yesterday was a new shop, so I should do a "great shop" today and save the next new shop for tomorrow. Also, wanted to do upper body workout at home and not mix it with running (which was how things starting going wrong last week). Went to Isetan and got the Chocolat Léger (yes, I'm tired of ignoring the accents) for about 600 yen from Noix de Beurre because, although I list them as "great", I've only blogged them once. 

As the name of the cake says, this is a light chocolate, which is inherently not that great (chocolate should be dark, or mixed with something stronger than cream). It's been a while since I had this, so I couldn't remember why it was just okay. Actually, I think I'm ready to downgrade this shop to not great, although I'd still have to try the Mille Feuille again to see how it stacks up, so to speak. In detail, this is thin layers of cake separating two thicker layers of cream and one layer of chocolate cream. Outside, is ganache with whipped cream on top. It's good as light chocolate cake, but not exciting enough to come back to.

30/20/10 intervals and Del'Immo

Heavy rain and wind today, but there was a break at 7 pm, so I went out. My back is a little better again today and I ran with the backpack, but emptied it except for an umbrella on the not bad side and a phone, a couple cards, a 5000 yen bill, and a key in the front pockets. I did 2 sets of 5 30/20/10 intervals and started a third but only got thru the 4th (and that was through pretty heaving pedestrian traffic). I didn't take the shortest route, but still not long enough to Del'Immo for my first time.

Del'Immo is in Akasaka and has cake for adults. I choose the Duo Pistache for 600, starting at the high end, but I can't remember why I choose this over their other pistachio, which has figs whereas this one has cherries, so I was little surprised when I went to eat it. The full description is that it is thick pistachio cream and a pistachio and light white chocolate mousse (this cake rates only 35% chocolat) accented by morello cherry and bergamot orange. It was excellent, however, so I'll be going back.

Mostly walked home because (i) hard to sprint with cake, (ii) my back is not perfect yet, (iii) it rained some of the time (I did get bored and ran for a couple minutes, but then stopped when it started to rain again), and (iv) I was exhausted and very hungry, because intervals involving running at top speed, even for 10 seconds, are hard. Thinking I'll do 1 min/1 min intervals again to Midtown for Toshi Yoroizuka with Takagi (if I don't give up on them as great) or Neues (if I give up on getting great cake) as backups, although I'm tempted to try to get down to Ebisu to someone I haven't bought from yet (and I could go to Toshi Yoroizuka down there, if that didn't work out).