Origines Cacao (Isetan visit)

No running today, but I was walking a lot, even at my normal fast speed, and didn't get more than a little sore. I'll keep stretching, but I might be ready to do some light running. First I'll see whether walking a few kilometers during the day in my work shoes put me back. Of course, I've eaten so much cake this weekend, and I've got so much pecan pie tarts and tartlets, as well as pecan tassies (never can remember that word), that I don't need to be visiting cake shops. On the other hand, my cake shop visits have been limited to so few locations, so I want to get out there.

For cake, I went to Origines Cacao, who was visiting Isetan. In order that I sampled them, I got a Noisette Citron Vert, Alicante again, and Nakayama, each for 500, 509, and 580 plus 8% tax (127), although I don't know which was which and I probably won't get back to find out, although the Alicante was 550 previously, so it was probably not the cheapest one.

The Noisette Citron Vert, which is hazelnuts among chocolate with just enough lime to notice (must be pieces, because I got a sudden stronger taste in one bite). I thought this was great.

Then I sampled the Alicante (I didn't bother to take a new picture), which was okay, but it didn't strike me as clearly great like it did the previous time. This is a reminder that no evaluation is perfect and there are a lot of other factors, such as else I've eaten and drunk. Still, it was good.

The Nakayama is in the mont-blanc family, and it was fine but not my thing. Even the little bit of chocolate has a big effect, so I liked it more than Viron's mont-blanc.

Saturday: Take-home cake from Viron

Okay, probably the last post about Viron for a while, since this definitely catches me up relative to other great shops. This time we did get the Mont-Blanc, for 1112 yen, and a Fraise for 810 yen.

The Mont-Blanc is pretty gigantic, and it is certainly good and tastes like a mont-blanc, but nothing greatly special about it.

The Fraise had very nice strawberries and strawberry-flavored topping, as well as very nice vanilla cream. I'm not the best person to rate this type of cake, but I'm not sure that I've had a better one and I'll say it was great. Obviously expensive, though. It would be interesting to compare it to similar cheaper cakes, if there are such things that are worth comparing.

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Friday: Viron for lunch

Took a personal holiday and went to the Viron at Marunouchi for lunch, which included cake, although its restaurant desert and take-home cakes are different. I should say that I recommend this place for lunch, although it's not cheap, even if you don't add soup, cake, and a drink.

For the cake, we had the Tarte Tatan and Baba au Rhum, I think the names were, for 1196 and 1080 yen, respectively, where 108 yen on the tatan is for the whipped cream (ice cream instead would be +216).

The tatan was great: this is apple baked to the point that individual slices are hard to differentiate, although it is not pudding soft. It was served hot, sweet, with a caramel flavor, and the crust is also delicious.

The baba (below, with a slice already taken out) is a baba, a sponge cake, although clearly excellent. Instead of the baba coming soaking in dish of rum, they bring along a big bottle of spiced rum to dribble on it. Not that there isn't already rum soaked into it, just not just to the point that you can see it until cut into it.

Tuesday: Un Grand Pas

As predicted, I got cake from Un Grand Pas again, since the first was very good and interesting and this may be my last chance for a while. This time was Périgord, perhaps, guessing from the Japanese, for 450 yen. This is caramelized hazelnuts and walnuts. The top and bottom are pretty hard, like a nougat, but brittle enough to cut easily. Also, it is pretty sweet, which I don't mind, but would get tired of in every cake. Very good. Now I just have to wait for them to visit Isetan again in a year or two. 

Sunday: Viron again

From last time, I decided that Viron is actually great. (And reviewing, Ryoco is not great, but still worthy of special attention.). On the grounds I want to give equal attention to the great shops, I'm trying to catch up with Viron, although, because they are more a bread than a cake place, I'm likely to run out of things faster than some places.

Today was their Mille-feuille, for 700 yen, which was great. This is a regular mille-feuille, but it has icing, which many here don't. The other parts are also excellent, but the icing puts it into the great category. And it traveled pretty well by bicycle basket (it was well packed). Also got some great rye bread (Seigle).

Continuing my baking, today was pecan pasties, which is a different recipe from yesterday's pecan pie tarts. The pasties are easier and my first impression is that they are more delicious, but the next test is comparing them defrosted, since most of them aren't going to getting eaten fresh-baked. Note, that the recipe actually says to chop the pecans, but I could not see the advantage: I don't mix them with rest of the filling, I distribute them evenly into the shells and then add the rest of the fill on top. Of course, a lot of dripping is involved.

Saturday: Viron

No running, of course, but definitely a week-on-week improvement in my right leg. Friday, by walking only somewhat more slowly than usual, I could arrive at work without pain, and other walking pain that day was more numbness than tear-inducing pain, so I'm optimistic that I'll be able to run again. I'm hoping that I'll be able to walk normally for reasonable distances by next weekend. Still working out inside, both upper-body exercises (although I'm doing push-ups from the knees) and a lot of squats.

Saturday, I went out to Mitsukoshi for another form for tarts (not actually a tart form: Cuoca lists it as for brioche). I wanted exactly one more, and that's exactly what they had of that size, probably because I bought seven last weekend. And I bought another half kilogram of pecan halves.

At Mitsukoshi, I got also a Dalloyau croissant, which was great (but no picture, sorry), beautifully layered and flaky and only 216 yen. So they and Fraoula have the best croissants that I've found, and I need to try Lettre d'Amour's again.

The store cake for today was from Viron again, Chiboust Poire Vinrouge for 648 yen. Inside the chiboust are large slices of wine-red pear (I assume from red wine, but I haven't read the card all the way through yet). It's both simple and complex. I don't think this is a regular item, so get it while you can.

At home, I made pecan tarts using my small forms. I used a pecan pie filling from Better Homes & Gardens and the crust is from one of my mixer cookbooks, although it came out very crumbly this time, due to being very cold in the room, so I didn't really mix until smooth, but just until I had fine crumbs that I could form into balls with the heat of my hands. I wonder if my cheap 100-yen shop eggs are also a factor, since maybe other eggs have bigger yokes. Anyway, I'm not sure that a more solid crust would be better (and I don't know how to make flaky crusts).

Also, I made pizza. It's the best use of cherry tomatoes I know and shiitake are great, although I'll try pre-grilling them a couple minutes less next time, and I'll take the trouble to make garlic and red pepper tofu cubes instead of using almonds.

Un Grand Pas: Fig

No running, of course. My leg actually felt like it was definitely improved today, but then started hurting bad at the end of the workday, although not more than the worst last week. I'm still worried that it's a stress fracture and isn't getting any better because I walk on it (because I need to go places and do things).

One thing maybe I don't need to do is go to Isetan, although it does not add that much walking to the day. I did though. Weirdly, where I thought Chez Cima was on Tuesday, the sign was covered and there seemed to be something else going on (Valentine's day is coming up, so some temporary rearrangement is expected for that madness), but I didn't look closely, as my goal was Ma Patisserie, which is (Patisserie et les Biscuits) Un Grand Pas, from Saitama City, this week. 

I got "Fig" for 420 yen, which has no figs, so my guess at an English spelling might be wrong. This is pistachio marzipan around rum-soaked raisins and currants, I think, on an almond cookie base, so it's like a fruitcake tart, almost. The cream layer in between is coffee, which I kind of noticed and could have done without, but it didn't ruin it for me, so it's probably best that I didn't know, since I'm not sure that anything else they had would suit me. Eventually, maybe I'll get used to coffee, but I don't accidentally eat it that often. Anyway, it was still excellent. I'm a little worried that the pain and medicine is making me loose my discrimination, but it is Isetan, after all, so I shouldn't be surprised that it's not bad. I might go back again while they are still at Isetan, since I don't know if I'll ever go that far north again, even if my leg recovers, and I've got enough to do in Tokyo.

Chez Cima (Isetan): Caramel Poire

Can't tell whether my leg is better or the drugｓ work (which seems unlikely), but at least I am walking at a normal speed, even though it still hurts. Walking more on the left side and working out indoors has me worried about other physical problems, but so it goes.

At least I felt I could walk the extra distance to Isetan and back on my commute. I visited Chez Cima, which has a difficult selection for me and was not a priority, but under the circumstances, I'll take it. Ruled out the obvious chocolate, as it has coffee. The other chocolate looked overly light, and had cherries. In addition to a strawberry tart (which would probably be fine, but would not tell me much about their cake-making skill), mont-blanc, and standard (strawberry) short cake, they had another short-cake like cake with apricot and cherries again, so I went for the Caramel Poire, caramel and pear, even though I'm not thrilled by pear and often have trouble with caramel.

The Caramel Poire for 486 was excellent. The caramel was strong and not sweet, but ultimately I dealt with it and it was good, as was the pear. Clearly, they know what they are doing. I'd like to visit the main store next, which is not so far away (under normal circumstances) and maybe has a wider selection (their website does not really give any hints, though). Anyway, since the cake was excellent, I feel obligated to designate them as "worthy" on the map.

Le Précieuse (No running)

This time I bought closer to home, at La Précieuse, although the bag and card say Le Milieu, which seems to be the home base, in Kanazawa.

Got the Sicilian. Not sure what was in it. Sorry, out of the habit. It's pistachios, I know, baked to be hard (maybe a meringue), and then a cream/custard layer with fruit, strawberry, maybe, although just small pieces. It was 470, which was reasonable (though it is small), and it also traveled well by bike, which is important now, since I can't run. More importantly, it was excellent, so I should get back there, which is pretty easy to do, although while I'm not running I'll probably limit my cake. But a couple cakes during the week would be nice. Also, I have a baking disaster that I need to either eat up or throw away, that I don't want to write further about other than to say, I'm going to try again next weekend.

Viron: Bonaparte (no running)

So, no running for a week and no cake shops for almost that long: cake without running, at least alone, feels like cheating, although life without cake is not great, so I'll console myself with some cake more often.

My self-diagnosis is shin splints. Saw a Japanese doctor today, who asked some question that seemed to be to rule out a stress fracture (it did not seem sudden and I did not hear a sound, although the pain is more localized than I like, but with no swelling) and circulation-related problems. Guess I'll just have to rest it and see what happens (he prescribed 2 weeks of drugs). In the meantime, I've been doing my indoor workout every day and added squats, which I can feel afterward, and are giving me cramps in bed, if I'm not careful.

For cake, I visited Viron again, the Marunouchi one, after visiting Cuoca, which I decided needed to be on the map, at least the Mitsukoshi one. The latter was because I had bought a 7.5 cm tart form there last week and tried it for pecan pie tarts, and it was great, so I bought 7 more, since 8 is about right for a batch, in terms of the crust: my recipe makes 250 g, and 30 g worked fine for one.

The cake is Bonaparte for 756 yen. It is a dense chocolate cake, so it was okay in the bike basket for 6 km. It's prune in chocolate ganache with, I think, brandy (I didn't read that far on the card in the shop, but I tasted alcohol and someone posted that it has "Napoleon" in it, which is a grade of cognac. The cake was great (for a chocolate lover who hasn't had store-bought cake for almost a week), so I'll need to get back there again soon.

Sunday: no running: Bel Amer

My right foot was sorer waking up (than when I went to sleep, not than the end of my run yesterday), so I immediately gave up on running. Instead, I started out for a patisserie 15 km away and talked myself out of it in a 1 km, not because I was in pain, but because it did not seem like the best plan, and instead went over to Mitsukoshi and bought almond powder and a 7 cm tart form for walnut snowball cookies and tarts, respectively. Swung by Fraoula and got a bostock and a croissant, for both of which they have my favorites (actually, I've only had bostock/bostok from three places now, there, Viron, and Aux Bacchanales, but I'm always looking).

Since I did 46 km yesterday and was not sure when I would get to run again, despite not running, I visited Isetan and got a cake I've been wanting to get for a while, the Chocolat Tatan at (Chocolat) Bel Amer for 496 yen. It was very good, although it did not convince me that I need to seek out a lot of chocolate and apple cakes. Still, they are a worthy addition to the map, and the last of the basement Isetan counters that I had prioritized introducing here.

There are still other counters that I'll probably add someday (even Henri Charpentier, although I'll probably save that one until last or I'm asked to buy from there). Also, I assume that one can get takeout from Rose Bakery on the third floor of the main building, although I don't recall ever having done that, only eaten in, and the Isetan website only shows it on their floor map.

The walnut cookies were good (I got them to rise more than a similar Swedish Heirloom recipe did, although I may go back to pecans, since the walnuts are a bit of a strong aftertaste). Today (a holiday), I did not even try to walk as far as Isetan (although my foot was less sore) and made pecan pie tarts again, this time doing 2/3 of recipe, which was too much. The 14 cm ones probably didn't bake enough, I fear, but the new 7 cm one worked great. Need to get more of those forms. Seven more would be nice.

Shinagawa-Ikegami H&C course; Ryoco

Did another history and culture course today, although I should ｐut "course" in quote marks, because if it forks, it's not a course, it's just a grouping. I'll probably never do these as "courses" again, but for the first time it was okay.

Starting point of the course is Shinagawa Station (where I can find no marker). I took the usual path south through Meiji Gingu Gaien and then the Aoyama Cemetery, but rather than continuing down past Hiro Station, I turned east and took the diagonal road through the 6-way at Sendaizakaue (?) and connected up with the Shiba-Takanawa H&C route.

The first part of the Shinagawa-Ikegami course is the Shinagawa Guest House Walk. Not only at the station but following the main road, there is no signs indicating it as an H&C route. You have to know to stay on the east side and leave the main road, but cut right to find the big sign showing where to go, although it's sort of blatantly pedestrian friendly, so it looks like where you would want a course to be. This is a 2 km road that is basically two lanes wide but they've made it oneway with a single lane down the middle and used paving stones and a lot of new retro decoration to make it a nice shopping street. Very convenient going, but was a little crowded coming back around noon. Also, the map plates of the first markers are all broken, but since it's a straight shot, that is not really a problem.

At the end, the route forks. Part 2 is the Magomefunshi Walk. I'm not sure whether the route on the ground is as twisty as the official 2010 one that I mapped: I don't remember that many turns just west of Ring Road 7 around Magome East Junior High School, but then I don't remember the school either, so maybe I did detour around it. The route is fine though, so I'll probably go back and confirm someday, if I'm still walking that far. Something is wrong with my leg movement, and I was getting pain from the second hour.

There is some sort of competing route overlapping this and Part 3 associated with specifically famous writers that has a similar name, so you have to watch that you don't get distracted. Since it's just local, I'm not that interested in it.

Part 3, which ends this prong of the fork, is the Honmon Temple walk. The on-the-ground route that I followed takes you down just short of the railroad and main street before bringing you back past Ikegami-Honmon Temple at one point, whereas the 2010 posted route takes a detour. Since the road gets way too much traffic with not enough space for walking, I want to try the new route next time.

Even though I was having some pain problems, I stuck to the original plan and reverse my steps exactly rather than take a shortcut to the other prong of the fork. Part 4, which is the Oi　Nagisa Wood Walk, is the opposite of the other walks: it's short, flat, goes by modern stuff, like the Tokyo Flea Market, a huge park, and a truck transport hub area (just, you cross a bridge from the park and you're immediately at a train station that ends things), and has just two turns, both right angle, right terns. The park, which is most of it, seems nice runs along a river, but I stayed on the wide, empty sidewalk rather than enter the park and use paths in there.

Then I retraced my path all the way back to Shinagawa station. Total time for me to do the entire course twice, which I estimate to be 29.2 km, was 3:20'59'' and it took me another 49'04'' to get to Shinagawa Station and 1:03'53'' to return from there via Ryoco and Lettre d'Amour (carrying cake most of the way). I should mention that it come to 45.4 km, so given my right ankle, I'm not sure whether I'll be able to run tomorrow (but I've investigated another H&C course, which would be 15 km out, I would take more direct route back to the start of the course, but then swing down to Mitsukoshi and Viron, if I could; might have to take the cycle out instead.

Food was a mikan before I left, a croissant at the end of Part 3 from Sunmerry's for 151 yen, which was good, and another one from Lettre d'Amour for 220 yen which seemed great when I was eating it, but the aftertaste was a problem. The second croissant was lightly sugar glazed, making it sweet, but then I had too much of a sweet aftertaste that then turned to salt. Next time I'll get one and take it home and eat it with a beverage rather than after 4:30' of running and find out whether it was great.

The cake was from Ryoco: Chocolat Vanille for 560 yen. It was excellent, although I became distracted by the fact that I couldn't cut all the way through it without the bottom layer being smushed by the middle relatively hard chocolate layer. Since most of these complicated layers have the same problem and you just need to turn them on their side to stabilize them, I shouldn't complaint. This one claimed and seemed to follow through with having enough vanilla to compete with the chocolate. Still, I've had better separate chocolate and vanilla cakes, so I'm not sure that I need this combination, although I wouldn't avoid having it again.

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Henri le Roux and nonstop running 1/1 intervals

Got the fourth and last Henri le Roux cake type from Henri le Roux, Isetan. Need to get back to Henri le Roux Midtown for the Kouign Amann that I haven't had, since the two I had there were great.

For running, I went back to the unfinished loop of yesterday's run and continued the non-stop run. This time, inspired by a friend, I did 1 min/1 min intervals for an hour (as you can imagine, my ability to run all out was short lived, but I did continue to put out effort) and then did a normal run home.

The cake was Paris-Brest C.B.S. (caramel beurre sel) for 540 yen. Which is basically a round salted caramel éclair. It was excellent but I can't say great, either because I'm less impressed the second time around after having an éclair last time or maybe because I liked the chocolate better than the caramel. It still has a nougatine topping, more actually, and the cream filling has their specialty C.B.S.

Nonstop local run and Henri le Roux (Isetan): Éclair Chocolat

Got a third Henri le Roux cake from Isetan, so for my running, I did a nonstop run, using what I had learned previously and starting by going west. Still ended up coming out of the wrong subway exit when using it to cross to a different block, so I could go farther, but it was okay. At 1 hour, I intended to finish my loop and go back, but hit road construction that closed the sidewalk, so I had to detour to the next street back, which is really what I should have been using since the light was out only because of construction for the Olympics. Ended with 1:12' run. Was sore at the beginning, especially when I hit the first slightly up-slope part, so yesterday's Akasaka Palace course work definitely had an effect.

The "cake" (and they call it cake there) was Éclair Chocolat for 432 yen, which has thick chocolate, a solid chocolate bar inside, the biscuit of course, and some caramel and nuts on top (nougatine, "brown nougat"). Best éclair I've ever had (which is not high praise by itself), and I'm going to call it "great", although it is simple rather than revolutionary. This is a third great cake in a row (and three of only four available), so I'm going to call the shop "great".

Probably go back tomorrow for the last cake. Not sure what I'll get from there after that, but won't have to decide until maybe next Tuesday, since I have other weekend cake plans. 

Henri le Roux and Akasaka Palace laps.

Bought cake first and then went home and did laps.

The laps were around Akasaka Palace, which is a 3.3 km course and has the most slope for the distance of anywhere I run regularly. I initially thought that I should do 3 or 4 laps for a long run, but of course, that takes time and I had work today and will work tomorrow. I went fast and recorded a good time for 2 laps, so I considered quitting there, but it's hard to stop once you get going, so I split the difference and did 3 laps for the first time and left 4 laps for a different day. Four laps around Akasaka Palace is the same distance as 10 laps around Meiji Gingu Gaien, but the Akasaka course is hilly and farther away, and so is tougher.

Times were 17'06''81, 17'21''75, and 18'14''90. The last up-slope was tough to stay running at the beginning, and obviously my time increased a lot for the last lap. I'll probably have to start slower if I want to improve my 3-lap average, or at least to bring down my maximum lap-time for a 3-lap run. As it was, I didn't break my record for 1 lap, but went from under 20' to under 17'30'' for 2 laps (each and average), and got 3 laps under 18'30'' each and 18' average, which is pretty good.

My motivation for wanting a long run to begin with was holiday weight gain. My scale says that my body fat percentage is not up, but I don't trust its reliability for that (it consistently goes down several percent between morning and night, which seems unlikely, but I don't know how much it natural varies during the day).

Since the first cake was great, I went back to Henri le Roux at Isetan for a second type: Mousse aux Chocolat Madagascar for 540 yen. I'm not sure whether the chocolate is from the company Chocolat Madagascar or is just made from Madagascar chocolate. It's mousse, but between layers of dense, finely layered biscuit. It was very good and I'm going to say it was great, although it's a little subtle, which is nice sometimes.

If I find a third great cake there, I'll designate them great, but they don't have that many more kinds of cake (everything else was sold out today, but I got the one I was after), so it will be tough. Of course, the Tokyo Midtown shop has great Kouign Amann, so it could give them a "great" for that, but it's not cake and is at a separate location, so I'll leave them as "worthy" with a special note to visit the Tokyo Midtown shop for the Kouign Amann.

Isetan twice and long run.

Actually, running and cake were completely separate events, and I'm not completely sure about the order, but I think it was cake, run, cake.

The running was down to confirm the location of Q-pot Cafe, which Joshi+ blogged. It's a cute building and I could see cutely dressed serving girls inside, so I'm not so optimistic, especially given that it is a cafe, not a patisserie, but at least they specifically indicate takeout on the website, so I'll try it (if they really have cake by the time I can get there, which I did not check). I also tried a different route to (P.) la Glycine, which still was not optimal, though better, and confirmed that they are closed until the weekend. I was running really hard much of the time, but still only managed 13.6 km in 1:18'12'', which is disappointing, but there as a lot on-the-go navigation involved and a few people, but Aoyama Dori/Street was pretty dead because of the New Year holiday.

On the cake front, there was a pending request from last time for a visit to the Kihachi counter at Isetan, so we went there. I choose the Gateau Chocolat and the other cake was Fruits Short for 540 yen each. The chocolate cake was not fancy, but it was actually very good. 

Didn't get more than a little taste of the bottom sponge layer from the other cake, but the report on the Fruits Short (which is "shortcake" with seasonal fruit) was that it was just okay, except that it had some banana hidden in it, which we agreed was not a good idea. One hopes that a different season would bring a better class of fruits (note: I eat a lot of bananas, but in yogurt, not in cake), but since there was no hint from the top that one could expect banana inside, I'm not inclined to trust them without asking (and I generally don't want shortcake anyway, so I probably never will). 

Given that about half their other cakes were roll cakes, which are usually too soft for my tastes, I'm designating Kihachi as "good" rather than "worthy" on the map. 

Apparently, the Fruits Short was so unsatisfying that a great cake was required, which is a concept that I can well understand. The solution was Mont-Blanc, if possible from Jean-Paul Hévin, and Kihachi would have been acceptable, which I managed before they were sold out (they were close and a lot of people waiting in line outside when I left). Sensing correctly that I was not going to get even one bite of it (and since I've blogged it before), I got a Chocolat Framboise, which was 647 yen. I'm struggling regarding whether to say it was great cake, but ultimately I'm still finding that I'm burned out maybe on raspberry flavor, but I would not want to discourage anyone who isn't burned out from enjoying this excellent well-constructed cake.

Nonstop local run 1:01'48'' (Jan 2)

Just a local run in the southeast of where I can reach nonstop (without crossing through traffic lights or jaywalking a two-lane or more road: right-of-way crossing, one-lane roads, and pedestrian bridges and tunnels, including subway station tunnels, are okay). Could stay out awhile, obviously, but it was still basically a folded over loop, where I entered a new neighborhood and ultimately had to come back the same way. Not sure that it will keep me entertained, but I was still not in the mood to do timed laps again.

Yanaka H&C course

No cake today (well, a couple days ago, now), just running on New Year's Day afternoon. I did the Yanaka History and Culture course in about 59' and a total run of about 3 hours. The Yanaka course is okay, but the third part is rather boring, just going up the main street toward Komagome Station. Part 2, which is the part that goes from Yanaka (apparently; haven't looked up yet what/where it actually is) and Nishinippori (West Nippori) Station, is actually a spur from the middle of Part 1. On Jan. 1, there were a lot of people of all ages out going to visit a temple for Hatsumoude, which is a visit to a religious site for prayer and buying new charms and taking back the old ones.

Now I'm feeling that the courses I've been following are somewhat arbitrary groupings of the shorter walks. Given the number, this is probably reasonable, but I'm consider making my own groupings to create courses, although ultimately, I'd like to make regular courses for visiting cake shops, such as "50 km Great Cake Shops Course". My courses would be loops.