Mandarin Oriental Tokyo ("Gourmet Shop"): Orange Chocolate

Decided I should rest my knee, so not running, but still wanted to try the "Gourmet Shop" by Mandarin Oriental Tokyo cake from Isetan. I got the Orange Chocolat (756 yen). The orange is not very strong and it's a very light milky chocolate, whereas I prefer something heavier and stronger, but I can't deny that this is high quality, and the hazelnut, including the cake base, is appreciated, so I'll label it excellent, because it's definitely above average and I should try something else from them.

Dalloyau: Jack O' Lantern

Went to Dalloyau in Ginza again, but, never learning, did not choose well. I got the Jack O' Lantern (540 yen). It is supposed to be kabocha cream, but at most I tasted butter, but good butter. However, I'm not out looking for cake that is just good. So even in the case of great shops, my first choice shouldn't be the novelty cake.

In terms of rank, this doesn't change how I feel about Dalloyau, but I'm moving them from the bottom "Great shop" to the top "Near-great shop". This means I can step up completing my sampling of cakes of great shops. Reviewing, my top nine patisserie-level shops for cake, in order, are (Great) Jean-Paul Hévin, Henri le Roux, Frédéric Cassel, (Near-great) Dalloyau, Paris S'éveille, Pierre Hermé, Sadaharu Aoki, Viron, and Aux Bon Vieux Temps. I also have 24 shops I rate as at least tentatively "excellent" and I don't know how many at least tentatively "good" shops, but many more than that (most of which I probably nave not posted on yet, but are on the map).

In running news, my knee seems not bad, but just in case I didn't run very fast today, staying just within the range of 8 km/h for the total 11.8 km I ran. The extra length this time came from following the Gaien Walk for the first part, though this is still only 0.9 km longer than Oct. 16 (to Viron), which was faster, but I lost some distance from deciding to be less obnoxious by not running within Ginza. My weekly budget expanded today, based on hitting 39.2 km of 9 km/h running last Sunday. I added a little to that the next day, so as of tomorrow, my budget will be 47 km, whereas I'm only at 41 km now. Think I'll do some laps tomorrow rather than rest and see whether I can still do at least 300 m stretches at 10 km/h without problems. That will give me a chance to see if the Isetan visitor now is worth visiting/adding to the map (usually, I add no matter what, but I don't need every hotel with a patisserie counter, since I've yet to find any worth bothering with, as far as their in-house stuff.

L'Essentielle: Citron Praliné

Jogged up to L'Essentielle for the first time.

I passed Porte Bonheur, which was closed again, so I'm doubting the Kasuga/Myougadani branch is ever open these days. Fortunately, L'Essentielle was. I got the Citron Praliné for 500 yen and ate in at the outside table (which was a little windy today). It's a nice little place with several tables inside, as well. There were a couple other people eating in inside, which is not a lot around 1 pm on a Saturday, but is still a good sign. The cakes are properly fancy cake, that is, for adults. This was was lemon cream and praliné. Actually, the praliné was fairly crystalline, so it was like there was an layer of crushed ice, being basically dry rather than a paste or crunchy from lots pieces versus powder, but it did not really affect the over all texture of the cake, since it's not a thick layer. The cake was definitely good, so I wouldn't mind going there again, but not particularly special to make going there a priority.

The run was okay. Last post's suggestion that I needed to move to 11 km/h for my training runs was premature. My overly fast running Thursday night left one knee sore the next day, which came back a little bit at the end of today's run. So I tried to keep it slower, on the high side of 8 km/h going out and the low side of 9 km/h coming back. Total, it was about 10 km. I had planned to go farther tomorrow, but I'll see how my knee is.

I did make carob brownies yesterday, and had another today with lunch. Also definitely good.

Ginza run to Frédéric Cassel: Saint Honoré Citron-Bergamote

Was running fast at the beginning, so ran less than I planned to keep with my budget through Saturday. Specifically, I was running about 10 km/h the first 3 km, so I'm going to have to up my speed for my training runs to 11 km/h. After that, I was definitely around 9 km/h, but I went underground early in Ginza (you can't run very fast in Ginza crowds, anyway), and didn't pick up the return run until the far corner of Hibiya Park, and that was just 3.4 km at about 8 km/h to the market.

At Ginza, I got the Saint Honoré Citron-Bergamote, or maybe it was just called Saint Honoré Bergamote (didn't have my pen, and they don't let you take pictures), like on a promotional picture on their Facebook page (the Frédéric Cassel Fontainebleau one, not the one in Japanese). Anyway, it's 756 yen, as usual, and the cream is lemon and the confit and candy coating (it's hard, though the card said "gel" I thought, although maybe there's some in the balls) are bergamot orange. Thanks to the coating, the balls are hard/crispy, at least on top, which is a clever way to keep them from getting soggy, so I had to eat them them whole, which is not a problem. The base is also crispier than a typical tart base, so maybe it's choux pastry too. Excellent recovery from last week's disappointment. Next visit to Ginza, I should go to Dalloyau, which was my backup today (there's a Dalloyau counter facing the Frédéric Cassel counter in Ginza Mitsukoshi, but they don't have cake, so you have to go to their main store).

Next run is Saturday, and I'll try again to go to a new place. This time, I've got two lined up, so one of them should be open on a Saturday (or I'll go to Isetan: I'm interesting in the visiting shop). Might have a problem with rain, though.

Meiji Gingu Gaien course: canelé

Just a training/body-testing run today, about 4 km total, 1.2 km of which was 10 km/h interspersed with some 8 km/h, with the final 1.5 km at 9 km/h to Marusho supermarket to get milk for canelé to use the yoke left over from yesterday's experimental cake component, which was just egg white and almond powder (basically, just an almond, unsweetened shortbread, so it was just a base). I suspect that there was an error in the book that left out more sugar that went in with the almond powder.

I include a picture of the canelé I made because these are actually new: I got a regular mold (maybe 60 ml?), so even you bake it until the outside is brown, it's still custard-like in the middle (and you can taste the rum), unlike the mini-canelés. This should tide me over as far as homemade until Friday, when I plan to make carob brownies (tomorrow, I want to run to Ginza for patisserie cake).

I should also mention that I had another chocolate from Henri le Roux that was excellent, this time the Goma (sesame), which is seasonal. Haven't had a bad one yet, though I have avoided the coffee ones and stuck to the dark coated chocolate ones. I'll do milk chocolate before coffee.

Henri le Roux (Tokyo Midtown): Kouign Amann Yuzu Matcha

Took a short run to Tokyo Midtown for the first time in a long while to visit the Henri Le Roux there, where they have kouign amann. Round trip, it's only about 6 km total, and was on the low side of 9 km/h (I don't count the vertical distance from using the pedestrian overpass twice, which is about 40 steps high). As the seasonal flavor, they just changed over to the Yuzu Matcha (powdered green tea). These are small but only 324 yen. This one was only okay. I might have gone with "good", but I was not fond of the green tea aftertaste. The yuzu was particularly detectable over the caramel taste. On the other hand, I count this as a pastry, so it does not penalize them as a great cake shop.

More importantly, I've been wrong about them: they do have cake at the Midtown store (although getting it before it sells out is a separate issue), which of course they do: they have an eat-in space. This evening, they only had one cake left around 19:30, but I should have noticed before that they have cake (the hard part is not noticing, it's retaining any memory after running). The more important information for me is they have a supposedly exclusive cake there that is only available as eat in (and is 900+ yen), so I'll definitely go back. I was planning to go to Midtown for dining over the next holiday weekend already, but I'm going to want to change the target now to them.

Tomorrow is baking, although it might just be canele to free up some eggs whites, though really I want brownies: too many competing recipes.

Viron: Éclair Chocolat

Because I needed to visit a post office on a Sunday, I switched to going to Viron today, which is one building down from the Tokyo central post office, just across from Tokyo Station. My running was almost exactly 9 km/h the whole 10 km of the trip, though the first kilometer probably started slower, peaked above, and then settled back down. This also marks an expansion, finally, of my one-week  9 km-equivalent distance (not including the 21 km of padding to credit my routine walking) from 35.2 km on the 12th to 39.2 km today. Tomorrow, I'll take that to 40.8 km, if things go as planned, and stay about there for the next week, which I've already tentatively planned out through Saturday, though I'm not sure about Sunday, when I could expand to a 15 km run, though my only idea for a destination is Dalloyau and that's not enough to do an extra loop around the imperial moat course, although I could do a lap around the Akasaka Palace course, which I haven't done for quite a while. Also, there is a holiday on the first Thursday of November where I'm not busy in the morning but will be after that through the weekend, so I should probably do something special then, too, maybe get out to a new place that takes 15 km.

Unfortunately, I didn't see the new cakes that I thought I saw last time (so I'll need to try going a different time of day or day of the week, though it could just be that the other new cakes I saw were at the ends of their seasonal runs), so I settled for the Éclair Chocolat. It was definitely good, but I struggled between giving it the benefit of the doubt and calling it "excellent" and calling it just "good", and also possibly designating it not cake. Ultimately, I decided to go with good and cake, which still leaves Viron as a "near-great" shop, just closer to falling off that list. My complaint is that, though the chocolate custard (or cream; it wasn't obvious to me which) was definitely good, the crust was not as crispy as I expected. That's probably by design, since Japanese like their "choux" cream puffs (which Viron also had) soft, so it I'm not sure that the dough they use can even be called choux dough (though choux cream puffs in Japan still look like cabbage regardless of whether they are the soft kind or the crisp kind). This was also reflected in that this éclair was injection-filled through multiple holes in the bottom rather than being piped between to separate pieces. Of course, I'm not an expert on paté a choux and they're a pretty high-class place, so I expect that this éclair is without the normal range (i.e., not a doughnut with pretensions). On the plus side, it's only 432 yen with tax, so int terms of cost and calories, it makes up for the overindulgence of Saturday.

Au Bon Vieux Temps: La France & Mogador

Cycled to Au Bon Vieux Temps in Oyamadai again and got two cakes, which was a mistake. I did multiple cakes by myself early on, justifying it with the exercise, but it's too much. I tried to think carefully in choosing, since I don't expect everything from even near-great places to be to my liking, but I've had their regulars already and I'm not that thrilled by their fancy little fruit tarts. As it turns out, I choose two very similar things, but I think I've had another similar thing to both of these before, but apparently not recently enough to post on it, because I can't find any other mention of chocolate mousse (which they use in a lot of things) and raspberry. These were 648 yen each, so also more than I originally planned to spend. Didn't see their little potato-shaped one for 300 yen this time.

The cakes were La France, which is a mousse cube bounded by a thin layer of solid chocolate under a layer of raspberry jelly, with some more raspberry chocolate filling in the middle. There is also a little solid chocolate cup on top filled with raspberry sauce, which I was surprised was not spilled by a couple kilometers by bicycle to get to a park. This was excellent. The solid chocolate is a good choice to avoid having just a gummy raspberry layer, although, of course, it breaks into pieces when you eat it.

The other cake was a block of chocolate mousse with thin layers of raspberry on top of a layer of what, phonetically, was written li/ri oh le/re, which I did not recognize as the French "riz au lait", which of course means rice pudding (in this case, baked, or at least allowed to set up solid). The raspberry and mousse were essentially the same as the other cake, and were good. The rice pudding was supposed to be flavored with jasmine, though even trying to eat alone, I couldn't detect anything. It was okay at the time, although not really useful except as a base, but the after-texture, if there is such the thing, I did not like (rubbery pieces of rice pudding rice grain pieces in nooks of my mouth). Still it was not bad, but I'll try to avoid such rice pudding based cakes in the future. Still, with one excellent cake to partially balance things out, I'll keep treating them as a near-great shop and eventually get back there for a 12th cake, though I'll need several cakes from various other great and near-great places before I'll ready to do that.

Frédéric Cassel, Tarte Halloween

Well, I was reasonably successful tonight, although not everything went perfectly. For the run, I was going too fast, with the first kilometer closer to 10 km/h, although I got the rest of the way out down to closer to 9 km/h. Was a little tired from yesterday, so fatigue is starting to become a factor at these speeds. On the way back, it's more uphill (though the elevation difference is still only tens of meters over 5 kilometers), and the strong wind was against me, so I just barely got it closer to 8 km/h. Tomorrow I'll rest, not only because of wanting to stay within my running budget (which is now about 40 km/week at 9 km/h), but because I'll go out several hours early on Saturday.

The cake was the Tarte Halloween from Frédéric Cassel at Ginza Mitsukoshi for their usual 756 yen. This is a chocolate ganache tart with passion fruit. I had trouble identifying the fruit when eating it and convinced myself that it was yuzu, since that's a theme this week, but I can't remember what passion fruit tastes like. Not something I've worked with or had growing up (or yuzu, either). Whatever it was, it was strong and acidic and they seemed to balancing that by a lot of sugar, so that the chocolate didn't have much of a chance. It was good, but I wasn't really into the super sweet citrus taste. This is the first cake of theirs that I didn't think was at least excellent, but they are still number two with me, after Jean-Paul Hevin, for new cakes. But, also, the orange layer on the outside was gummier than I like. This cake matches a trend I've seen more in bakery goods, that things made to meet a design goal usually aren't anything special on the taste side (usually, because they're for children). Unfortunately, I'm down to the holiday specials at Dalloyau, I think, although they have "choux" creme cubes, but though I may ultimately try one, I don't need to consider it a cake if it turns out to be basically a bread creme puff. Anyway, if Sweet Sonobe is willing to try the Dalloyau pumpkin cake, I am, although I think I'll try the ghost-shaped apple (?) one first.

(P.) Porte Bonheur: closed

Yesterday, I worked late, so ran today, to Porte Bonheur in Bunkyou ward. It is supposed to be open 10:00 to 20:00 Tuesday to Sunday according to Tabelog, which is the only detailed information I have (homepage and Facebook page are not helpful), but they were actually closed and there was no sign on the door suggesting that this was unusual. Didn't have any backup, although Atelier Kohta along Karugazaka was still open, but I was okay with just eating another of my macaron stash when I got home. Maybe I'll try Porte Bonheur again some time when I'm on my way somewhere else. L'Essentielle is nearby, but it would have to be a weekend (they close at 1900), or Heritier over in Hakusan would work, though I'd normally choose an easier route. Anyway, I'll go to Mitsukoshi Ginza or Dalloyau (or there are other backups open until 21:00) tomorrow, I hope, so I'll recover. And maybe I'll get an extra cake from Au Bon Vieux Temps Saturday, since they are inconveniently far for my current running level and some of their cakes are pretty small.

Running was okay. Just on the 9 km/h side going and slightly less, so on the 8 km/h side, coming back: 8+ km total distance.

Gaien Walk

Decided to do the Gaien Walk, for the hills, rather than the track, although it crosses through the middle of the track on it's southern most segment. This involved about 5 km total, most of it on the Gaien Walk itself, averaging closest to 9 km/h, even with some steep slopes here and there. The reward at home was finishing off the mini canele supply.

Meiji Memorial Picture Gallery in Meijijingu Gaien.

Opposite view from in front of Meiji Memorial Picture Gallery.

Jean-Paul Hévin: Mont-Pomme Caramel

I'll start with cake, which was at the chocolate bar of Jean-Paul Hévin. We got the regular Mont Blanc and the, Mont-Pomme Caramel, which is very similar, which is to say chestnut paste on whipped cream on an almond meringue base, except that there is a single large slide of baked apple in the middle and enough caramel sauce to taste but not take over. The apple piece was useful structurally, but made trying to eat half difficult (I took all the apple). Still, great cake. I should remind you that this is my favorite shop, the other great shops being (i) Dalloyau, which has shops all over Tokyo with cake, and I assume some of the European shops, although I don't know whether shops in Hong Kong, for example, have cake; (ii) Frédéric Cassel, which is also France-based, but not Paris; and (iii) Henri le Roux, which may not actually have cake anywhere else but Isetan Shinjuku (and only the same four there), although Tokyo Midtown has Kouign Amann, which technically means butter cake, I think, but I would put in the pastry category, not cake, but theirs are great pastries, so actually I want to get back there soon (I think I would go this last weekend, but didn't make it).

Since I had already had my cake, I just did training running: down to the Meiji Gaien course at 8 km/h track for two 1.325 km laps, with 925 m at 10 km/h as three intervals interspersed with 8 km/h running and then 9 km/h after that. My current thought is to do roughly the same thing tomorrow, but with 1.2 km of faster running, and leave my longer runs to when cake shops are open or are more likely to have their special cakes. Instead of buying cake Monday, I'll chip away at my freezer stock, as I've let things stack up too much in my enthusiasm for trying new recipes.

Cacahouète: New York Cheesecake

Although I've had their cake before and consider them good, I haven't blogged them, so I got some P. Cacahouète (meaning "peanut") cake from Isetan. The selection was not very good (at least after work), so I ended up with New York Cheesecake for 540 yen. It was definitely good and a change. It had a sourness that you don't really find in Japanese cheesecake (or yogurt), which I appreciated, but it wasn't so great as to make me think I need to be paying them more attention. Next week's shop will be a Saitama shop, so I'm not sure that I'll bother, since I've got my hands full trying to keep up with the best Tokyo cake shops, and all the ones I haven't visited yet.

Running was simple: down to the Meiji Gaien "track", two laps, and back. The "middle" lap (because I don't start at the beginning, so I also have starting and ending half-laps) was 625 meters at 10 km/h this time (about double last week's), as three intervals with 8 km/h running. The other lap's worth was a reasonably steady 9 km/h. There and back was a reasonable 8 km/h. I'm busy tomorrow and would rest anyway. Also busy Saturday, but I might fit in a trip along Gaien Walk just to smooth out things. Not going to get back to Oyamadai for Au Bon Vieux Temps, so I'm holding out for a chance to go to Frédéric Cassel again (I'm caught up with Viron until after I get another cake from Dalloyau). Although I'm busy, I'm hoping to still swing some cake, but I might have to satisfied with my macaron stock.

Les Années Folles [Hinka Rinka counter]: Caramel Chocolat

Did a Ginza run to follow up on (P. Les) Années Folles, since there is a counter in Hinka Rinka in Tokyu Plaza Ginza. I started off a somewhat fast 8 km/h for 2 km, where it's most crowded and there are frequent lights (I stop the chronometer, but I slow down approaching hoping not to, at least warming up). The rest was a slow 9 km/h (that is, not really that much faster), which ended up being about 7 km, since I was able to just barely average above 8.5 km/h coming back. So not my longest run recent run, but my longest stretch of about 9 km/h.



The cake was Caramel Chocolat, which was maybe not a great choice, but not a huge selection at the counter and I don't like cherries in my cake usually, so that that ruled out the other chocolate and the pistachio cakes. The caramel was not terrible (not coffee bitter), but not really the sweet milk caramel that I like. There were pear pieces inside, which were somewhat interesting. The bottom was chocolate mousse/cream;  not sure what the differences is, except you whip chocolate but for my chocolate cream cake, you only whip the cream and then combine it with the prepared chocolate mixture (you need some hot milk first to dissolve the gelatin and then the chocolate in). Under that, was a thin chocolate sponge/biscuit bottom layer, which was good enough but nothing special. I'm going to give it the benefit of the doubt and call it good, but it means that I can go back to just thinking of this shop as good, which was my general impression pre-blog.

My last homemade fancy cake (#7) was "Sphere", though it isn't. As always, I didn't do the decoration part, though I intend to do with chocolate macaron with (homemade) raspberry jam that is supposed to be on top later. This was like chocolate cream cakes (I now know) that I've had before and not thought much of. All I could taste was the chocolate, even though the first two parts are a pistachio macaron base and a cream raspberry layer, which I tasted by themselves and they were excellent and good. If it had been better chocolate, maybe it would have been better cake, but that doesn't really justify the other parts being it beyond structure and color. I actually didn't do a great job on the creme chocolat either, since I had trouble whipping the cream again. I should never try to do less than a full 200 ml, since it never works well for me (this time was half a 100 ml pack). Besides the pistachio base, the chocolate sauce that goes on top is excellent, glacage chocolat, which used the same cheap grocery store chocolate (although also an equal amount compound chocolate for coating, which I got from baking supply store Cuoca).

I might skip doing the whole next cake, "Soleil", which is another fruit (mixed ) in white chocolate, so too much like the orange cake I did and never posted a picture of (what a monster that was, but the Bavarian hazelnut part was good). I do want to try the biscuit dacquoise orange base, although I'm not sure that I'll bother with the orange, since I need half a grated orange peal (if I was making 25 of them) and I don't have the best grater for that.

Jean-Paul Hévin: Turin

After failing to find framboise eaux de vie, I got Jean-Paul Hévin's Turin from Isetan for 512 yen. This is a almond base with cassis (blackcurrant), on top of which is chestnut cream with a chocolate coating. It was simple but very well balanced in taste and well constructed, so I regard it as excellent. Still several cakes to try from there before the cakes disappear (particularly the Mont-pomme Caramel, which is only around weekends this month). This is two blurry pictures in a row; I better figure out what's going on with my auto-focus.

The run was the Gaien Walk (4.2 km by my Google Maps calculation, but 4.0 km officially) again and I failed to keep it closer to 8 rather than 9 km/h, though I was at 8 km/h on the runs to and from the ends. Tomorrow I'll rest, but when I run on Wednesday, 9 km/h will be the new normal (which means I weight it 9:8 against 8 km/h rather than 11:8). I'll see if I can maintain that speed consistently enough to starting building up some distance again, although my knees are telling me that there is no hurry.

Viron, Chiboust aux Marrons

I'll lead with the cake: I ran to Viron (as always, the Marunouchi one) and got the Chiboust aux Marrons for 810 yen (really, but it's big), which is a chiboust top and a bottom that is sort of like a tart with chestnut halves in it. I'm slow to come around to chestnuts, but I'm getting there. Just the base as a chestnut tart is excellent, and I would like to see more chibousts and I've never had a better chestnut chiboust, so I'm saying this is great, which is 6th of 10 tried that I've found great there.

The running was too fast. Even noticing that my first kilometer was over 9 km/h, I couldn't get the average below 8.5 km/h going out, although I did coming back (still not going far enough or fast enough for fatigue to be a big factor). I'm seriously chewing through my 7-day running budget, which is why I've only run 31 km compared to my peak walking only a couple months ago of over 70 km (although I also have 20 km cycling this week, which counts only 1/4 of running). Of course, shorter and faster is more efficient and the best cake targets are somewhat close, although I'm going to have to just do the Gaien Walk again (even if I do 9 km/h again, I'll still be within budget) and get cake from Isetan (it's about time I had Jean-Paul Hévin cake again anyway, though I need to get to the Marunouchi location, too).

In home baking news, I started a new cake, which uses a pistachio macaron shell as a base. It's just a simple substitution of pistachio powder for almond power (simple if you can get the powder), but so delicious. Actually, it seems to "macaronage" a lot quicker, so I have to be careful not to over-mix. I had a fancy recipe with egg yolk and syrup which I failed with, at the stage of combining those two, so I went with a simple American pistachio buttercream, which might be too sweet. I'll try to wing a pistachio marzipan buttercream next time (I've still got lots of pistachio powder and enough pistachio paste for another batch), although probably not soon, as I've got a few dozen macarons in the freezer now, not all that successful, though: lots of chocolate ones with cracked shells and ones with chocolate-strawberry ganache, which isn't well balanced. You'll notice that I don't die the shells, or cover them when baking to keep them from getting brown.
 

Dalloyau, Mont Blanc

Somewhat as planned (at least the route was right on), I went to Kappabashi and bought some cake making things, Silikomart silicon forms for canele and 4 cm cylinders (I really just needed fairly shallow disks, but I'm hoping these will work close enough). The shop is already cheap, and they were on sale. Forgot to look for macaron cases (the same company makes them, although they probably don't import them, since they aren't on Amazon, where I got my mini canele Silikomart one). Only about 20 km cycling today, but got soaked (should have waited an hour). More rain tomorrow after noon, so maybe I'll wait for the afternoon to run to the Marunouchi/Ginza area, with Viron my main aim.

Next was to Mitsukoshi, where I picked up some coating chocolate and a couple 6 cm d, 3 cm h cake rings. While I was there, I got the Dalloyau Mont Blanc (and forgot to get my card stamped, I just realized). The chestnut is more the familiar flavor than the special seasonal one I posted on before, although still very mild. It's very buttery, so maybe a chestnut butter cream is what they work with. Still, excellent, although someone who wants a stronger chestnut flavor might not think so.

Les Années Folles: Noisette Orange

P. les Années Folles is at Isetan fro a way from yesterday, so, even though my experience is that they aren't so great, since I haven't posted on them and they are convenient now, I went. I got the Noisette Orange, which is a chocolate mousse/cream cake with hazelnuts and orange. Neither the hazelnuts nor the orange is so powerful, for good and bad, but they did a good job and this was a combination of ingredients that I appreciate, so I should visit them again soon. Probably won't get to that at Isetan again, but they are actually theoretically accessible on a weekday run, though farther than I've run recently (as is true of most places).

The run was just down to the Meiji Gaien course, where I did three laps. Like the last run, I was slow at the beginning for not real reason, around 7 km/h, but I stuck to at least 8 km/h on the track (where there are 100 m markers). I did the first 525 m at 8 km/h, then alternated between 8 and 9 km/h in 200 m stretches (3 times) then finished the lap at 10 km/h, which is sort of actually running instead of jogging, for the last 125 m. Next lap was the same, and then I did the last half lap and home at 8+ km/h.

Will take tomorrow off, though Saturday will probably be cycling again rather than running, since I want to do some cake-making related shopping for forms and whatever the chocolate tempering sheet is for making strips of chocolate, similar to the above, as well as other food shopping.

Frédéric Cassel, Mille-feuille Finger Yuzu

Went to Ginza and had the opposite problem as yesterday: I was slow. Not that this is a huge problem, but I was closer to 7 km/h than 8 km/m the first kilometer, and then again the second. I assume when I was running along the moat course that I was faster, though I lumped it together with the first part going, because coming back with cake, going slightly uphill for 2.2 km was the stretch that I was fastest. Anyway, 7.4 km at the slower speed and 2.2 km for the faster speed today. I'm actually only at 97% of my peak up to a week ago (I allow up to 110%), although that's partially because I just changed the weighting, so there is less difference between 8 km/h and slower speeds than previously. Nevertheless, I plan to take a rest tomorrow and then do some more Meiji Gaien course training running, maybe trying and couple hundred meters at 10 km/h to see whether I can still do that without breaking something.

I went to Frédéric Cassel for the Halloween tart, which was foolish, because specials often aren't available Mondays and Tuesdays, but they had three unfamiliar cakes (or two cakes and some weird thing), so no problem and I can go again next week. I got the Mille-feuille Finger Yuzu this time, which doesn't have side pastry like their other Mille-feuille Finger cakes and I'm really doubting that there were 1000 leaves of pastry in the bottom. Still, it was excellent, very lemony and chocolate rich, since the layers seemed to be solid white chocolate with some yuzu something drawn on it, whipped cream, white chocolate, buttercream, and mille-feuille pastry. These night shoots aren't very flattering to the cake.

On the homemade front, I finished fancy cake recipe number 6, the gateau fraise, although I cheated and didn't refrigerate before eating (it was late and I wasn't that patient) to get the whipped cream to set. This was to demonstrate a biscuit with marzipan 2:3 with flour. It was good. I'll probably make it again in strawberry season, though it didn't bubble up much. Maybe I was supposed to whip it up more after adding the flour, or maybe I can add extra egg yoke to make up for the missing emulsifier, which I can't find at cake supply shops, thought I've asked, bring my recipe with me. Or I'll add a little baking soda/powder. Note that I do not have a "mum" nozzle for my pastry bag, so everything is spooned on.

Also, I made canele, which means I wanted egg whites for macaron shells, which I want for strawberry chocolate ganache I've already made. It's all very complicated. And I haven't found out what I need for fancy cake recipe 7 yet, whatever that is.

Chez Cima: Creme Anjou

Raining, and I don't have a big running budget, so got cake at Isetan. Well, actually I got Creme Anjou (Crème d'Anjou be the correct French), but it's their specialty, I thought, so it seemed fair. I went down to the Meiji Gaien course and did just two laps. On the track, I did 0.9 km at 9 km/h and 1.75 at 8 km/h, but I wasn't good at keep my speed down on the way there and back, but at least it was under 8.5 km/h, I think. Anyway, 8 km/h is my new median/benchmark speed, but my distance is down from two months ago. I'll have to go back to the shortest way to Ginza next time. I'm hoping to do it all running, but I should definitely keep in under 8 km/h and walk part way back again.

The cake (and there really was a tiny bit of sponge cake in the center, though I'm not sure what flavor the red indicated. It was good, and different, but not special. I keep changing how I compute shop rating, but I'm deciding now that one good and two excellent cakes, when I'm choosing the best looking ones, does not an excellent shop make, so both Chez Cima and Demel are going down to "good" status, although maybe someday I'll partition good shops into good and near-excellent shops, and they'l start out in the latter, but I still have 4 greats, 5 near-greats, and 24 excellent ones, so no hurry on that. Cake did not photograph well, with white on white. Might be a settings problem.

Maison Douce: Tarte Caramel Jolaine

Went first to Isetan for cake and got Tarte Caramel Jolaine (?) from visiting patisserie Maison Douce for 540 yen. I didn't deliberately choose the one with coconut shreds to sabotage my rating, just I had caramel on my mind. I did notice that they had an unusual number of cakes especially for Isetan, this one being one of them, which makes me think that their regular clientele supports a simpler selection.

Then I went and ran the Gaien (Outer Garden) Walk for the first time in a while; I am not used to those slopes, but I averaged 8.2 km/h over the 4.2 km before running back 0.6 km to Lawson 100. I only took photos and the end, which is the beginning of the Sotobori (Outer Moat) Walk. Here's an album showing the marker and surrounding view. If I ever get the time and strength, I'll do a Tokyo History and Culture Walking Course blog, but no sign of that happening soon.

The cake was fine, that is, good, and the coconut didn't even bother me. The base was strongly attached to the cardboard base and was difficult to cut even with a metal knife, so I'm not that thrilled with the design of this one, but you have to put something under it to support it, I suppose. That little layer of sponge is not going to do it. The main under-layer is a fruit mix with rum (not that strong), but all I can remember is pineapple. From the photo, I can't really tell---strawberry?

In baking news, my last couple macaron attempts were seriously cracked, so this time, I (i) ran the air conditioner on dehumidify from an hour before putting them out, (ii) touched them to try to learn the different textures as they rest/dry, and (iii) tried two different resting times before baking, 40 and 90 minutes. The latter did the trick (notice bellow that I also got "feet", which is related), but I'm not sure which one actually tastes better, because I like some chewiness, which I got more of, perhaps, with the cracked ones, and I'll choose taste over appearance every time. I might just one to bake them longer for more chewiness, although I should turn them half-way anyway (you can also cover them, to avoid browning, I've been told). Note that most recipes say 20 to 40 minutes of resting before baking, but an acquaintance who took classes told me he's done a couple hours and used a fan for making them in summer in Japan, so they are difficult in this climate, at least with the French method.

90-minute rest

40-minute rest

 Next new thing, I need to make chocolate ganache with fruit puree.

Au Bon Vieux Temps, Zephyr

Cycled to Au Bon Vieux Temps for cake again. This time I got Zephyr, which was 702 yen. The top is chocolate cream with alcohol, which both seem to be a specialties of theirs. The bottom is a steamed/baked mascarpone cheese and brown sugar (had to look up "vergeoise" from the Japanese phonetic French) cheesecake, which was almost nutty in texture. This cake is excellent, so I chose well again. That chocolate stick should be on top, though.

Being greedy, I continued on to Limevert, because I hadn't forgotten that they had a bostock (for 380 yen), but it wasn't really the type I like. I like double-baked, somewhat thick, but this was thin and rum-soaked with lots of sliced almonds (a large amount of almonds slid off even before I got it; it's not very stable ). It was still good.

Didn't do a good job of staying on the best path, so it ended up being 34 km of cycling, which is a couple more than I planned. My leg seems okay, but now my arm isn't too happy, so I may need to limit that.

I should mention sometime that I've had the Venezuelan Noir chocolate from Henri le Roux (I've given up on photographing them), and it was excellent, like their other chocolates. Now I want to get to Tokyo midtown to try the their new Kouign Amann flavor, lime.