Frédéric Cassel: Mille Feuille Finger Fraisier

Did another Ginza run to Mitsukoshi, trying to catch up Frédéric Cassel with other supposedly great cake shops in Tokyo.

Did 3.4 km fast to Akasaka Mitsuke, then a moderate .945 km to get to the Inner Moat. Along the moat course and following the moat off the course toward Ginza was perhaps very fast 1.45 km, then another .45 km moderate to a first really big scramble intersection, at which point I decided to be less obnoxious than normal and just walk through the crowds. Coming back, I started a little further west and ran 5 km a little slow. Out of bananas, but decided that protecting the cake was more important than stopping at the Lawson 100 and that I don't really need fruit anyway, so I'll shop on Saturday.

So 5 km slow, 1.4 km moderate, 3.4 km fast and 1.45 km very fast, totaling 11.25 km. Tomorrow I have a big run planned for the evening, with a back-up read in case the first place is closed, that's if Sunday and Saturday still look about the same in terms of weather, in which case, I'll try my weekend long run Sunday rather than Saturday and do some other things Saturday.

The cake is a Mille Feuille Finger Fraisier, if you don't mind mixing English and French (which is what the Japanese name seems to do, phonetically), for 756 yen, really too much. It's flaky layers on the bottom for cake you can pick up. It has white chocolate rather than thick custard. Its good, excellent I guess. It's high quality, but not exciting, and certainly not cheap, though that's consistent. I'm down to just the cream puff there, so I guess I'll try that next week (although not if they have some new cakes for April).

Shiseido Parlour [Isetan]

Because I went two days without buying cake, even though today was an indoor workout day, I bought cake, Rouge from Shiseido Parlour at Isetan for 648 yen. Although obviously raspberry, inside is mostly chocolate mousse, with a chocolate base, but with a little more raspberry. The balance was very good, so I'll say this was excellent, although not exciting or great. And it's certainly pretty.

Repeat of yesterday

It turns out that P. l'Abricotier closes at 7 pm, so it was never some place I should go on a weekday. That's a shame, because now I'm used to the run and I could make most of the lights in the middle. So no cake. Instead, I stopped at Le Petit Mec and got half a rustic baguette, which I ate with strawberry jam, along with a brownie from yesterday.

The run was 8.3 km out at a moderate pace, 6.7 km back at a slow pace, then some walking where it was really crowded, including to Le Petit Mec, and another 1.2 km slow, so 16.2 km total. I'll rest from running tomorrow and get some cake from Isetan.

Homemade brownies after 15.3 km

Tried to go to P. l'Abricotier, but it turned out that I was wrong about what day they're closed. Also, my left knee was not too happy, so I had to slow down about half way out, 4 km, or maybe sooner, but it mellowed out and seems okay now. Still, I'm considered shortening my next big run, although I'll also not make the mistake of trying to run the next day (I ran about 1 km and then walked home, changed, and went cycling). Also bad, trying to get to the east side of the Yamanote Line by Yasukuni Street (south end of Kabuki-cho), although probably still better than going up Shinjuku Street all the way to the station. Coming back, I crossed at the north end of Kabuki-cho, which was less crowded. I ended at Kukki-Y, where I bought eggs and unsalted butter for brownies (I had enough butter already, but it's good to buy ahead, although I could find cheaper a couple other farther places).

It was a slow (although with some fast bits, but, as I said, Yasukuni Street was crowded) 8+ km out and a very slow 7.25 km back. Right as I left the market, it started to rain, but I was prepared with an umbrella on my pack. Ten minutes later, the thunder and lightning started, but I made it safely inside.

The brownies were an experiment substituting half the flour with ground fresh almonds, but the oil, perhaps, made them a little wet, so they were less cooked in the middle. That is not necessarily a bad thing for brownies, but I couldn't see any plus side, so I'll probably want to repeat the experiment with almond powder instead. Also, I finished off the financier-type mini-cakes, so I may need to get some egg white powder as well, plus cocoa mass maybe, instead of using cocoa powder, although there are a lot more choices of powder.

Cycling to Yu Sasage: Le Matine

Tried to run, but wasn't that surprised to find that my left knee was not up to it after yesterday's 43 km run. I'm still surprised I managed 51.5 km for two days last weekend (although that's within my maximum one-day of last year). From here forward, I'll have to consider whether I can do one-day or two-day weekend running, although all the History and Culture course I have coming up require too long a run there and back to allow much for a second day, so I'll try to stick to one-day runs with cycling on the other day (if there is one). There are six more H&C courses left to do, and four are already manageable if I can keep increasing my distance by 10% each time (don't need to the next two except for training, but will need it for the following two). The last two require about 100 km of running, so I won't be surprised if I never manage them (at least without resorting to a bicycle).

Cycled to Yu Sasage again, since I had it down as potentially great. Instead of running through the middle of the Shinjuku Station area (and also along Shinjuku Gyoen, which is crowded with visitors due to cherry blossom viewing season), I left using the road between Shinjku Gyoen and Meiji Shrine, which worked well. Then the issue to explore was whether to cross under Expressway 4 back to the more northern parallel route I've used recently or follow along the expressway. Parts of 4 (really, the road under/around 4, which is raised) are fine, but the parts that are built up around stations can get crowded with people and crowded with buildings that cars pull out from between, so I've concluded that it would definitely be worth a short extra trip north to get off it. There are some southern roads that parallel 4 for a bit, but not as dependably (namely, you can't necessarily cross the main streets when you come to them or you have to make weird turns to stay on course) or long.

At Yu Sasage, I got Le Matine ("The Morning") for 470 yen and took it to a nearby park that was not full of cherry trees, so I could get a bench to sit and eat, as well as take a picture. This is an apple mousse cake. I choose it because it was first in line among things I hadn't had (excluding standard low-priority things, such as mont branc, short cake, baked cheesecake, and cream puffs). Was a little worried at the beginning that this was going to be just good, as the fromage blanc cream that make up the largest part of it is not that interesting by itself, but the green apple taste really went with it, the biscuit base was good, and the macaron, which I ate with the last bite, was a perfect touch. I didn't have any trouble judging that it was definitely excellent. Maybe if I liked apple, or really fruit, more, then I would have thought it was great, but I'm not going to try that hard to be objective. Ultimately, I want to rate cake and cake shops on how much I like the cake. In defense of my phone, the screen on my digital camera (10 years old) was not any better outside. The camera is still easier for transferring the picture to my computer, though. It's disadvantage is it's heavy (for running).

Back to Yu Sasage: since this is three excellent cakes to two great cakes, I'm going to move them from tentatively great to tentatively excellent (although definitely at least excellent), which means it will not longer be a priority to keep going back there. In other Yu Sasage news, they did have a fondant in the store, so maybe it was not just an Isetan thing (it did not say that it was a raspberry fondant, but it still had raspberry on the outside, at least, so it's probably the same). Also, I picked up their card for BéBé de la P. Yu Sasage, which is a branch to the south that, while not closer, would be on a nicer and more familiar route, although their hours are 11:30 to 18:00, which is a little restrictive.

Related in the sense that I would have bought Yu Sasage's if they had a fresh-baked tray out like the last time I was there, I tried making financier-like cakes yesterday using my 7.5 cm, 10-petal, brioche forms. The picture shows what one egg's worth of eggwhite makes (I used two, but ate half, including the most burnt ones: I lowered the temperature but did not reduce cooking time to account for using a confection oven). They're very good, so now I know what to do with egg whites left over from making tart crusts, custard, or whatever. I used almonds ground just to the point that the pieces were starting to stick together as a stage of almond butter. It would be interesting to try with almond powder. The recipe calls for "finely ground almonds" and I've read elsewhere that there are differences in some but not all recipes between using almond flour and the courser almond meal, but baking supply stores here seem to just have almond powder, and I can't tell from pictures how much finer flour is than meal, except that both are finer than what I used, which still had the almond oil in it. Next project is to make brownies substituting some ground almonds for flour, then maybe make both with almond powder instead of my self-ground almost almond butter (need to get back to Cuoca at Nihonbashi, though, which seems to be the best place to by a kilogram of almond powder) before trying madeleine-type cakes, again with the same forms. 

Asukayama History and Culture course

Today's goal was to do the Asukayama History and Culture course, which is the Tabata Calligrapher & Artisan Village Walk, from Tabata Station to the NW corner of Asukayama Park next to Oji Station, and the Nikko-onari Road Walk, which starts at Asukayama Park and goes up through Akabane Station to the park area between Sumida River and Arakawa River.

I didn't take a very direct route to the starting point, less direct than I intended, and it was a slow (actually, I'm surprised it was that fast) 12 km. The H&C course is just over 9 km and mostly follows a single street. My map is not completely accurate as far as the side of the route was on, but it switched without warning, and you might be better off just picking the side that you like, depending on where the sun is, although certain crossings require you to get over to the appropriate side. Not a very exciting course, so I don't expect to get back there again.

I went back mostly following the same route, although I took a more direct (and crowded) route toward the end of doubling back, and Ueno Park to Akihabara was very crowded.

Just to extend the run far enough, I went to Tokyo Yogashi ("western confectionary") Club, for the last time, probably. I got their signature Mont Blanc, which I've never had before, for 400 yen. It has a kind of closed tulip shape, and the chestnut (I assume) outer petals are only a couple millimeters thick before you're down to the vanilla cream, so it's sort of a Mont Blanc for people who don't like Mont Blanc so much. The base is a fairly thick sponge disc. It seemed good at first, and I liked the vanilla flavor, but it wore out its welcome and the base somehow did not agree with me. Certainly the whole thing had a kind of homemade feeling that put me off. I have to average my feelings and call it "okay". Recalling, the other things I've had from there were not much better, so I'm just going to change its icon on my map to a square, which means, I can ignore it.

Stopped at Cuoca to price a couple cooking supplies, but did not buy anything and ended the run at the 100 yen Lawson shop.

Total run was 43 km, all very slow (or slower) except for the first 12 km of slow running. With 12.8 km Thursday, 10.8 km Tuesday, and 25.4 km last Sunday, I've got 91.2 km, which is fine. I can repeat last Sunday's run to Yu Sasage (I hope) and Tuesday's run to Frédéric Cassel, and still have a few kilometers for Wednesday to stay within the 95 km running budget. Next Saturday shouldn't be such a big increase (just a few kilometers), so I'll have more distance for weekday running after that, even if I keep making about 25 km runs on Sundays.

Pierre Hermé: Tarte Infiniment Caramel

As the cake to go with yesterday's run, I bought a Tarte Infiniment Caramel from Pierre Hermé (Isetan) for 756 yen. The shape is like other Tarte Inifiniment, so it is high quality. The caramel was fairly weak, although not bad tasting. Definitely interesting. Not sure whether I wouldn't call it good from another shop, but I'm going to call it excellent, consistent with a great shop although not their best.

I didn't run today, but I realized after I posted yesterday, that I kind of miscalculated my run, at least as far as the plan. Actually, as a post-injury run, next was supposed to be just two laps around the Akasaka Palace course but I did three. I suppose I could have done 8 laps at Gaien instead, which would also be sort of out of order, although at least in order for that course, to get a similar distance, but I'll just have to accept that I skipped a step and get over it.

Akasaka Palace course and homemade cream cheese frosting brownies

Decided to rest yesterday, to stay within my running budget both today and Saturday (because I ran fairly long Sunday). I need the kilometers today, because I had a grand plan to run 16 km to a cake shop, but something actually important came up, so I didn't get out running until after 8 pm. I've not very flexible: once I decide what cake I want, I don't want to change to anything else, although I could have gone to Piece Montee, I realized as I started, but given that I was expecting heavier wind (although not the little rain I saw), I probably would have still stuck with my actual substitute plan even if I had thought of Piece Montee earlier. I wanted to do 3 fast laps around the Akasaka Palace course, which I did: 1.46 km slow getting there, three 3.3 km laps, the first two just barely fast and the last desperate one actually decently fast, and then 1.46 km very slow and bouncy home, which worked well to loosen up my back, I think. I've feeling very relaxed now.

But no cake. I made brownies again yesterday, this time reducing the cooking time 10%, so the middle was visibly less baked than the outside, and I frosted them with cream cheese frosting, which was wonderful the first couple, but the novelty has worn off by now, so it's just as well that there is only one left for tomorrow (I'll have half at lunch, maybe, and half when I get home before working out). Since I didn't get cake today, I'll get cake from Isetan tomorrow if I can, despite not running tomorrow (so as not to mess up a Saturday morning long run).

Frédéric Cassel: Azalea

Started out with 1.85 km fast, and then 3.6 km very fast, followed by 626 m racing speed, after which, Ginza got in the way (if I measure from Yamanote line). From there to Ginza Mitsukoshi and back to the Lawson 100 in Yotsuya along Shinjuku Street was a slow 4.76 with cake.  So about 10.8 km of running today, giving me a 6-day total of 74.1 km, which leaves almost the same amount to run tomorrow and still say within the 85 km budget, so enough enough to get to any priority sites (even if I wanted to go to Frédéric Cassel again tomorrow, I don't need to stop at the Lawson 100 again: I'm stocked up on tofu and yogurt). Probably, I'll try to do a short run and see if I can get out of work in time to make a 8 km to a 8 pm closing shop feasible.

At Frédéric Cassel, I got the Azalea for 810 yen. This is yuzu flavored milk chocolate mousse, coated in chocolate, with yuzu and banana compote. On top, is biscuit, rather than the bottom, which I haven't seen before. They had this last time I visited, but it just didn't sound like a good idea. Actually, though, it was great. At least, I like chocolate (though I've often been disappointed in it), and the fruit was a great balance. As always, since I'm testing this out as a great shop, I want to think that this is great cake and it did not give me any reason not to think so, so I'll go with that. Certainly, I don't have any ideas for better chocolate, yuzu, and banana cake and I would recommend this to anyone who doesn't hate chocolate or fruit (neither the yuzu nor the banana were distinctive flavors, though the fruit was definitely effective, so disliking either of those would perhaps not mean this cake was bad for that person). That's 4 great cakes of 5, so I'm going to have to say that this is the eighth definitely great shop of Tokyo by my standard.

 

Cycling to Paris S'éveille

Thought I needed some exercise, so I took a trip down to the hardest to reach definitely great cake shop (knock on wood), but forgot to bring their card with the list of things I've posted on. I almost gave up and went to one of the four recommended but unvisited places out that way (although, only one of those was on my portable map, and one was misplaced on my Google map).

I was fairly sure that I had never had Tarte Pomme Yuzu, so I got that for 540 yen. Used my phone camera again, which really is not bright enough for outside (something to think about next time I get a new phone, since it's not bright enough outside all the time). As the name implies, this is a tart with apple and yuzu. It was well constructed and the flavors balanced well, or they would if I liked yuzu more. This was a harder call than yesterday's pistachio and cherry, but I'll still say that this was excellent. I'm not sorry for having had it and would be curious to have it again, but hopefully shared with someone, along with something less citrus sour.

The need for the exercise goes back to having made brownies, using my brioche forms (which I just bought 3 more of). When fresh, I would call these excellent, although the problem is that they don't stay fresh. And they don't say uneaten: I scarfed three of these down last night. I'm already making half a batch, so I'm just gong to have to freeze them and figure out how to defrost them so that they are still excellent. Anyway, I also need to experiment with baking time amount per form (this was half a batch, 100 g sugar and 1 egg worth, in 6 forms). Also, instead of coating in powdered sugar (which is great), I'll try frosting them with cream cheese frosting (or just cream cheese would probably be good).

In the afternoon, I went for a walk through the Shinjuku Station area department stores looking for something like what was in this wrapper, namely, dark chocolate with nibs. No luck. Actually, I don't know where to search for good chocolate in Tokyo. Tried to stop at &Market coming back from Jiyugaoka today, and found that they had ended their relationship with Bonnat (although their store front sign is still has them as a kind of subtitle to &Market). This particular by Mobar was 500 yen, which seemed really expensive in Indonesia to the buyer. If I google Monggo, besides their website, I find posts of people saying why is this so expensive in Indonesia, though not about this particular variety. To me, this was great, enough that I was searching (although not enough to stand in line to get inside Jean-Paul Hévin in Iseitan).

Finally, Kouign Amann from Fauchon. Usually, I would go to Shinjuku Takashimiya (which is actually in Shibuya-ku), but I picked this up in Keio. It was okay. In evaluating cake shops, it's hard to know whether to call this cake or bread, but I guess I should keep it as bread and evaluate shops based on their fresh cakes.

Ran out to potentially great shop Yu Sasage. I should probably mark this route (and routes for other main destinations), since it is a pretty good route and this shops seems like it at least is going to end up as an excellent shop. Most of the run is along Tokyo City Road 431 Tsunohazuiisumi-town Line, which is also an old water transport road. Lots of parks. From the end, at Inogashira Road, you can pick of a park route that crosses the train line and puts you in front of Meiji University. Passing that and the neighboring temple complex, you can get back a on a series of linear parks and parallel roads that runs parallel to the main highway (4) all the way to where 20 splits off. At the split I took 20 (after Ring Road 8, you can take a local road, but I remembered that it's pretty crowded for running, so I took the longer route) to the light just west of Yu Sasage before cutting south and then back a block for Yu Sasage. It's about 12.6 km and I managed a moderate pace. I was slow coming back (although I might have managed moderate but for the congestion around Shinjuku Station) a slightly longer 12.75 km route, due to staying on the park on the east side of Meiji University too long (although knowing that there is a relatively big public toilet building there, is good, as the main strip park on the other side has just one more limited one).

That gives me a 2-day distance of 51.5 km, which might be the most I've done post-injury, so more than I probably should have done after a training break for a cold (which my left knee was quite willing to tell me fairly early on, although I slowed down and kept it under control). The 4-to-7-day distance then is 63.3 km, which doesn't leave me a lot for the next 3 days in my 7-day running budget of 85 km (which I can raise to 95 km after Wednesday). Of course, I could just rest tomorrow, but it's a holiday (for the Spring Equinox), so I'd like to get out. Perhaps I'll take the bicycle to Jiyugaoka, for Paris S'éveille (which I can run to during the week, theoretically, but is a little tough and uses a lot of kilometers) and maybe Cuoca, although in the latter case, I should check Mitsukoshi first, which is in the opposite direction.

But to the cake, that being a main theme. I didn't prepare my camera, but the phone camera worked reasonably okay, even if I can't see the image on the screen well enough when I'm taking the picture. The cake is the Sicilienne, which was introduced in December (on their Facebook page, anyway) and is 500 yen. Outside, is pistachio mousse (with maybe pistachio cream on top, along with pistachios and a cherry), and cherry mousse and gel inside. Something that sounds like "Fond du Roche" adds crunch, but I can't find a Japanese phonetic French to actual French translation. The cake looks like it might be gelatinous, but actually, at least for me, the outside was more like a thick sauce than gelatin, and covered an airy pistachio mousse. The taste and test was excellent. I could say that this was great, but I don't really like cherry so much in my cake, so I'm going to have to hold back with excellent, even if it seems perfect for what it is.

Definitely Excellent Tokyo cake shops and Kyunakasendo History and Culture course

Haven't been able to train because of a cold, so I didn't try increase my distance. Also, very slow. I had gone out early in the morning, as there was a pause in the raining and the weather report then was rain at 1 mm/h from noon to 6 pm (whereas <1 mm at 9). The heaviest rain was coming back, although naturally from 1 pm it's been dry.

I manged 7.62 of slow running to get to the start of the Kyunakasendo History and Culture course.

The first part is the Land of "Yukari" Yoshino Cherry Walk from Komagome Station through a winding  path around cemeteries to Koshinuka Station and then as the Itabashi Guest House Walk continues up the same road to Itabashihoncho Station. There was one confusing marker that I had to go back and check early on (it was rotated, so I misinterpreted its recommended route) and the main straight shot switches sides of the road a few times with no warning (there isn't really any mechanism in their system from crossing the road and continuing in the same direction, other than to put a marker on the other side of the road and hope people notice). Due to some doubling back, it as a very slow 6.67 km.

During the H&C course running, after the 1 hour mark of the today run, I stopped at a 7-11 for a Caramel & Crunch Donut, which is 317 kcal, 2.8 g protein, and 120 yen. This is a good donut. And a donut is cheap, convenient cake. So when I buy fresh cake, I want something better than a donut, something excellent, to feel that it was worth the money and effort.

I just got slower from there for the next 5.05 to French Pound House. I choose this because it is close to the route (which I followed back, at least the long straight bit) and I had had written that it was good but never posted about it. I chose L'automne, which is kabocha (pumpkin/squash) with almond clusters on top and layers of vanilla, caramel, and chocolate cream, for 395 yen + 8% tax. I ate in, so there was also Early Grey teat for 450 yen + tax. The cake was good, although the cake part was a little different, sort of pancake like, in being a little rubbery, in the sense of resisting my fork, but no taste or texture problems. The taste was fine (the kabocha taste seems to go fine with the others, although its contribution is subtle). As I said, the cake was only good, so I could as well have had another donut.

If the previous was super slow, the last 6.75 km home was ex-super slow, but I don't need to track below very slow, so I'll just say that I ran 7.6 slow and 18.5 very slow.

Continuing the discussion of yesterday, of having identified 7 definitely great cake shops (sells enough great cake while avoiding good or worse cake) and 2 that are tentatively ranked great but need further review, I have 35(?) excellent cake shops. Doing the math, that's four time as many, so I should top up all my greats to 8 cakes before I worry about bring my excellent ones to 2 cakes, though I have to make use of the opportunities I have, and my first priority for the weekend is doing new history and culture courses.

The few definitely (relatively) excellent cake shops are as follows:

(1) Aigre-Douce. Near Mejiro Station. This is so French, I see French people visit there. Definitely some excellent and great cakes. It's a pretty big place and does a lot of business.

(2) Au Bon Vieux Temps (Kawata Pere Fils). Way out there in Oyamadai, two stations west from Jiyugaoka.

(3) Bigarreaux. On Sazae-san street south from Sakurashimmachi. Not huge, and only two tables for eating in, but nice.

(4) Fraoula. Actually, for cake, this fails as excellent, because of too many good and an only okay cake, but some excellent/great baked goods (croissant and bostock, particularly).

(5) Lettre d'Amour. In Shirogane. Has café. Never seem to be very busy, though.

(6) Origines Cacao. In Jiyugaoka. Very close to being great.

(7) Ryoco. In Takanawa, not so far from Lettre d'Amour. No café and very busy (expect a line or early sell-out).

These all started out as Great or "Worthy", which is why I've had enough visits to nail down their excellence. The other 28, which I won't list, will require time to sort through. I hope to get there, but don't want to divert too much attention from the great shops.

Great cake shops/patisserie of Tokyo

No running today, which I may regret. Yesterday Saturday's weather sounded better than what they are saying now for Saturday, so I might have saved my legs for nothing.

Anyway, I ate too much bread from Le Petit Mec, what they call a cannelle, I think, which is a kind of cinnamon bun. It's good, but I'd like to find something better. Also, olive and cheese baguette, I think, which is especially great with cream cheese.

So I had time to finish going through my blog posts, adding up the ratings, and figuring out where everyone stands (although it's going to take a second pass to correct inconsistencies).

Definitely great shops:

(1) Dalloyau. Very French, dominates Ginza, but also appears at some department stores with cake and has shops/salons also in Jiyugaoka and next to Meguro Station.

(2) Henri le Roux (Isetan). This Isetan counter only gets in because they only have 4 cakes, but 3 of them are great and the other is excellent. Midtown store has great Kouign Amann, but not fresh cake.

(3) Jean-Paul Hévin. All chocolate. Dominates Isetan basement (in the sense of being great and having eat-in space) and also found in Ginza, Midtown, and Omotesando.

(4) Paris S'éveille. Able to stand next to Dalloyau in Jiyugaoka. Also great Kouign Amann.

(5) Pierre Hermé. Also has a special place in Isetan, although you need to go to Aoyama for a café.

(6) Sadaharu Aoki. Doesn't need a French name or great variation in shape of cakes to share Isetan and Midtown, which has café space, although Marunouchi has more space for eating in, I think.

(7) Viron. Marunouchi has a full restaurant, but Shibuya has some eat-in space and they both have excellent bread as well (actually, they are more bakeries anyway).

Potentially great shops:

(8) Frédéric Cassel at Ginza Mitsukoshi based on just four cakes (not that they have many more than four at any one time).

(9) Yu Sasage out in northwest Setagaya based on just three recent cakes.

Others that I listed as great in the beginning failed to live up to the designation, although some of these are among the definitely excellent. It's resolving all the potentially excellent ones that are going to take a lot of time, so I have to count up how many there are and decide how to split up my cake-buying. That will be a different post.

Ginza run：Coeur Blanc from Frédéric Cassel

I did run, and, as part of my review of all posts and the implied rank of shops, decided that I stopped buying at Frédéric Cassel (in Ginza Mitsukoshi) too soon as a potentially great shop.

Started out with a moderately paced 1.85 km and then did 4.67 km fast (almost very fast), followed by 5.27 km slow coming back with the cake. Definitely felt out of shape when I started (and I'm cutting down on fat and carbohydrates until my weight gets back down a little) but I guess it was okay.

The cake is Coeur Blanc (an educated guess, versus "Cool Bran") for the not terribly reasonable 777 yen. This is white chocolate mousse around pistachio mousse accented with raspberry jam. The line between excellent and great is difficult to draw, but I find that this was perfectly balanced for what it was and this is a potentially great shop, so I'll have to say great, which means I have to continue to explore this counter as potentially great (they still had two unsampled small cakes, which is pretty good for such a small counter near closing time).

Demel:

No running, although I did an indoor workout, which seemed okay, so I may try running tomorrow. The pollen count is really high, so it is hard to tell whether the cold has passed, but my nose doesn't seem infected, even though it is still afflicted.

Went to Isetan, which is still crowded from being White Day week (Monday). At least Demel finally has more cakes, so I got a Truffletorte from there for 756 yen. This is not my favorite type of chocolate cake, being layers of thick ganache, but I respect this particular one, and not just for being huge. It's good enough that I'm going to say that it is excellent. I have to be precise, because I'm finally going through all my posts and classifying cake shops as Great, Excellent, Good, etc., leaving whether I'm particularly interested in them a separate issue. Their rank depends on the cakes I've had, and I'm of course interested in the Great and Excellent ones, but I'm most interested in the ones on the borderline or for which I don't have enough information to judge. Still, I intend to get at least two cakes from each of the Excellent ones (or potentially excellent ones) before needing to get back to the Greats (from which I've sadly had to cut Aigre-Douce, which just wasn't measuring up, although it's definitely Excellent). I'll report when I've finished, but it's all being updated on the map.

Sunday: Chocolat Chic

No posts for a week because I caught a cold. I blame stress, but not from running (actually, caught it after a rest day). Thought yesterday (Monday) that today would be the day for running, but my nose is not quite there. Maybe tomorrow. Anyway, I'm updating from the weekend, now that I'm a little free.

Sunday, we got a couple pieces of cake at Isetan from Chocolat Chic, who were visiting. Only recently have I been going back to the "Good" shops that I haven't actually blogged about (or visited in more than year) to see what they are really like, at least the ones that make it easy by visiting Isetan. This was one where my complaint was, from visiting in summer, that they didn't actually have any chocolate cakes and the cakes I had gotten I thought were not special. Today's cakes were Sicily and Les Saveurs de Chocolat, for 562 each.

The Sicily is pistachio and raspberry, as a Sicily usually is. In this case, it is pistachio cream. This cake also has hazelnuts. I don't know which nut is the layer of chopped nuts that gives it some crunch, but it is excellent cake. Raspberry jam is an accept. The biscuit part is very dry, which is my preference over spongy.

Les Saveurs de Chocolat means "flavors of chocolate", and it's layers of white, milk, and bitter chocolate. Where Au Bon Vieux Temps' three-layer chocolate mousse is ice cream intense, this is subtle. And it is also excellent and gets my respect.

Also getting my respect is a website that is up to date on the fresh cakes. I'm going to have to make this place "worthy", and I'm close to being ready to make that more quantitative, although even my postings so far have not been that precise about the cakes, which is not surprising because even for a personal evaluation, drawing the line between excellent and great is difficult, much less between good and okay or sometimes okay and bad. I guess "great" is what I'm really please with, excellent I'd like to have again, good I wouldn't go out of my way for, okay I would work to avoid, and bad is obvious.

Sunday: Vincennes

Only had 13 km left in this month's running budget, which was enough to get me to Vincennes, a place I've known about for a long time and which Joshi+ finally visited, so it seemed time for me to give them a chance, despite reservations. 6.5 km of fast, which surprises me, because there was an extra slope from Meguro River to the shop. Coming back with cake, bypassing that by following the train line, was a slow 6.55 km, although there were more people and stairs involved, so maybe the hill route was the better choice.

Now I've got to figure out my weekly levels: 2.4 km very slow, 44.8 km slow, 15.2 moderate, 22.2 fast, and 0.2 very fast, which adds up to 84.8 km. Since last week's very slow was 36 km, this is a huge improvement, no matter how anything else works out. Almost no very fast+ (last week, 4 km), but fast+ of 22.4 km is still up by more than 9 km, and I had 9 km more of moderate, so about +18 km of moderate+ running. Except for at the top, huge shift upward in speed, so quite good.

The cake was Noisettine for 356 yen (not a typo). I like hazelnut cake, so this was excellent for me, so Vincennes unexpectedly becomes a high priority "worthy" shop, although I don't expect that to last (but if I consider the prices, maybe it should). Huge amount of competition around there (on my map, they are on the south edge surrounding Meguro River going past Nakameguro up to tail of Shibuya Station, east to Ebisu).

Also today, because we were in Shinbashi and I had read about this shop in Sweet Sonobe, I tried the bar at Le Chocolate de H. They have a (little) chocolate tart that is eat-in, so we got a couple drink sets for 1300 yen (the tart is 800 or 900 yen by itself, I think). It is excellent, though not really that cost effective. You have to wait 20 minutes for them to bake it, since it is hot and filled with chocolate (so great smell). Still, if you're in Ginza, have already visited Dalloyau a couple times (which is two short blocks away), and enough seats are available (only 5 total), it's probably worth having. We'd like to try their macarons some time, as would they, since they gave me both a chocolate guide and a macaron guide when I asked for their card.

Saturday: Suminami H&C, Yu Sasage

Today's route covered the Suminami History and Culture course, which is not that far from Yotsuya, but is relatively long. Started out with 6.13 km of moderate-paced running to get to the start (should have been a little shorter). The route covered the Yakushi Peaceful Wood Walk from Araiyakushi-mae Station (where I couldn't find a starting marker, which often there isn't) to Koenji Station, which runs past (P.) l'Abricotier, a shop worth checking out, and has a little path along whatever canal goes to Myoshoji Park.. From Koenji Station to Nishi("West")-Eifuku Station goes along the river (I'm not sure how to get Google Maps to show river names) Wadabori Park. There's a little construction, but the start is open and the detours are mostly obvious; however, the new map cuts into the park north of the baseball grounds, whereas the markers keep following the river for two more bridges, before heading south. Also, there is a spur to read the big map in front of the destination station which I missed on the way there but found on the way back. Part three is the Kanda River River Walk, which spends a lot of time along Kanda River, of course, which also has a lot of parks, all the way to Takaido Station. From there is Karasuyama Temple Village Walk, which actually runs along the raised expressway and the main surface street paralleling it, but has lots of parks and has a wide well-marked path along that part. This last walk ends at Chitose-Karasuyama Station, on Keiou Line. Total, I ran 16.69 km (including the unintentional detours, but not the construction detours, which weren't that big) slowly (though not that slowly). Lots of parks, rivers, and old temples. Mostly very well marked. I really like and recommend this course, although you do go through a lot of shopping streets around stations, so don't expect to race through it.

Conveniently, this put me near Yu Sasage, which is a priority "worthy" shop. This day's cake was Comparaison, which is a milk chocolate mousse cake with honey cream in the center and lemon, or at least lemon peel. I've had this basic kind of cake before (as far as chocolate mousse with lemon), but here the lemon was more intense, as juice bursts out when biting pieces of peel, and balanced delicious chocolate, despite being milk chocolate (so I still don't know why some chocolate cakes turn me off) and the base in the middle was a nut in chocolate disk (pecan, I think), a small layer of mousse above that, and a little cake disk above that go under the cream part. I mention the base, because I've had asymmetric lumps as the base of mousse cakes which did not impress me. This was 490 yen, which is fairly reasonable and was an excellent cake, so Yu Sasage remains a priority, even among worthy shops, since it could still theoretically turn out to be great. I did not, however, see any kind of fondant, so I wonder if the one I had before was just for Isetan, even if it wasn't marked that.

The trip back took longer than I intended. After eating my cake under one of the parks under the expressway (where the main surface road isn't right next to it), I followed the expressway as well as I could back to the H&C course and to part three. I had intended to get on Honan Dori, but turned too soon and end up on Inokashira Dori, which heads back toward the expressway (which dips south before heading back north, which is why I didn't walk to follow it. Well, extra distance is not terrible, so I followed Road 431 (I think it was Nakano Road) back in, going past P. Diamond and Concent, neither of which I know anything about or looked particularly special, although Concent was more a cafe and they had baked goods (and multiple customers). So the trip was 15.81 km at a slow pace.

That gives me a total of 6.1 km of moderate running and 32.5 km, so 38.6 km total, a reasonable expansion of last week's, but less than the 40 km that was my target maximum. Still, it was a busy day otherwise, so it was good to get that much in.

Sébastien Bouillet and Gaien running course

For running, I just went back to the Meiji Gingu Gaien running course, which was pretty active, even after the Tokyo Marathon. Since I did the Inner Moat course fast, I should try the Akasaka Palace two laps fast, but before that I should do the Gaien course 6 laps fast, is the logic.

As last time, I did the 1.5 km to the south startpoint, in 9'35''05, which is slow. Then, I did 6 laps, trying to stay under 34 s/100 m (there are labeled 100 m marker tiles on the course), which is safely fast for me. Really, I just need to get under 7'41''10/lap. I starting by checking every 100 m, and it took me a few to get the right pace, and then increase the interval to 200 m with the second lap, 300 m for the third lap, etc. At first, it took me a couple hundred meters to get the pace fast enough, and then I had to avoid going too fast for the first two laps. By the fifth lab, my running was becoming a little uneven (and the course is not as even as I would like, but that's true of every course). I was definitely tired at the 6th lap, although at the end I felt I was on top of the pace. Times were 7'24''25, 7'22''87, 7'21''20, 7'27''71, 7'18''02, and 7'19''94, which all qualify as fast. I went back 1.6 km in 10'12''92, which is slow again.

So I made 6 laps, 7.95 km, fast at the Gaien running course, with another 3.1 km of slow. I'm not expecting to run Thursday and will be busy Friday, probably, so my weekday running this week may be 2.4 km very slow, 5.8 km slow, 9.1 km moderate, 15.7 km fast, 0.2 km very fast, which is 33.2 km total, which is not ahead of last week's, but already I'm way ahead of all of last week on moderate+, and fast+, which was what I was after. Whether I'm busy or not this weekend for running is still up in the air.

The cake seems to be "Tendence" (or it could be "10dance", which is a boys' love manga title, apparently) for 540 yen. Like yesterday's cake, it is tea flavored with raspberry. In this case, it is a gelatinous puck, with the tea flavor on the inside and the pretty raspberry color on the outside. Actually, the gelatinous aspect was okay, but there was little taste to recommend it, so the cake overall is only okay. I'll shift this brand to "good" from "worthy", effectively replaced by Yu Sasage.

Yu Sasage: Gaien Walk

Got a second cake from Yu Sasage during their visit to Isetan before running.

For the run, I did the east half of the Shinjuku History and Culture course, Gaien Walk and Outer Moat, before following the Shibuya course to the Inner Moat and coming back through Akasaka-Mitsuke and up past Yotsuya Station. Mostly, I was really slow about it, although the point was more to get some hills in. There was 0.2 km of very fast at the beginning, and I managed a moderate speed 6.4 km for the Shinjuku H&C (despite the hills and stairs) and a little extra to cross the main road (and because I overshot the turn onto the Shibuya course), but there was 2.7 km of slow and 2.4 very slow after that, for a total about about 11.7 km.

The cake was the Perfum, which they list as a specialty. This is a tea tart with raspberry cream and jelly with rose-scented meringue and was 486 yen. I can't say that I could pick up on most of this. Certainly, there was a tart that was good, but I couldn't tell you the flavor, and the cream/meringue was raspberry. I wanted to like it, so I did and will call it great, which means that I need make a priority of getting over to Yu Sasage itself, since they are done at Isetan. Also I was reminded that shops have Isetan-only cakes, so I should check out the visiting patisserie even when it's some place that isn't otherwise a priority, just to see if there is anything special.