Esquisse Cinq: Armagnac

Took the long way (down through Meiji Jingu Gaien to Aoyama Avenue) to Ginza. Stopped at Hibiya and then walked the rest of the way to Mitsukoshi Ginza, where Frédéric Cassel had already ended their November Inspiration cakes. Checking later online, and they will have a couple specials starting Dec. 1, so maybe I'll go back tomorrow. For today, I used my planned backup, Esquisse Cinq (エスキス サンク), which I had not bought from before, although Sweet Sonobe, has, so I added them to my list of places to visit a while back. They're in Tokyu Ginza Plaza, where they have a tea salon. I got the Armagnac (アルマニャック, 750 yen).

This was definitely good, elegant, and sophisticated. The base is nuts, though I'm not sure what kind. Seemed to be a mix, but something in the walnut or cashew and something about the shape of a pistachio, which might have been what that was, though I couldn't really work out the familiar taste. The dome is a delicate shell, inside which is caramel sauce along with almost pudding. It had a certain Japanese pudding feeling, but was thankfully sweeter, so I didn't have a problem with it. Was not disappointed and the quality was high, but it wasn't something I'm interested in having again, so no huge hurry to go back. I should mention that the counter person mentioned that there is cognac in it, but like a reviewer online noted, you can't actually tell. Sorry, the lighting is not very flattering in the photo, though I suppose they never are for these night park ones.  

In running news, my elaborate schedule for the next two weeks is ruined, because I ran the 9+ km at 10 km/h (strictly, I was about 9.9 going out and just over 9.5 coming back), so my budget is completely out of wack and there is no point in doing a training run where my "sprint" is 10 km/h now. Still, that's my only 10 km/h running in the last week, so I'm not suddenly going to kill the +40% penalty for going over 9 km/h, but I might reduce it to 20% starting now, since I've been doing at least a little 10 km/h for quite a while. All this is trivia to anyone but me, of course, but I'm enjoying and able to run faster now, it seems, so that's good news. Still a ways to go on my left hand, though.

Henri le Roux: Bouchée au Praliné Croquant

Messed up Monday and ran without cake. I've been shuffling my schedule too much and forget which one I checked the hours on and Asterisque is not open Monday, but I still got in 11 km at 9 km/h, which was too fast. I was 1 km over Sunday cycling and needed to run back slower, but I didn't know the kilometer marks, just I slowed down, but not enough, I just went from less than 1/2 km/h above 9 km/h to less than 1/2 below, and I'm not doing fractions, so I was over budget. On the other hand, I expanded my running budget by less than 1% over two weeks, so if it jumps an extra 1% over the maximum (which is supposed to 10%, but I pad that with weekly walking), then no big deal. I couldn't run today anyway.

Instead, I went to Henri le Roux (at Isetan) and really splurged (it sort of counts for Saturday, Monday, and Tuesday), and got the Bouchée au Praliné Croquant (ブーシェ・オ・プラリネ・クロッカン, 972 yen) which is a big crunchy (but soft) chocolate praliné stick, which is why it costs three times a normal little chocolate, although the quality is similar. I tried to ask what ブーシェ (buushe) means and they looked it up in their notes, but didn't know (actually, it means a mouthful). Well, it's just a department store counter. What I really wanted was to try their praliné mini tarts, which are only available at Isetan, but they only come in the gift sets that started at 3000 yen, so not something I'm going to get into lightly. Anyway, great sweet, in the sense that I definitely want to remember to get it again, but not, of course, cake, so sort of a side project.

Full disclosure, I'm also working through my raspberry chocolate not-quite macarons, which I'm surprised have gone moist inside from absorbing moisture from the ganache, which is supposed lwhat you're supposed to want, but that ganache had sat in the freezer for too long and was dried out, so I hadn't expect a change even after two days (which is the recommended about of time of waiting before eating after filling, not that I'm intentionally that patient).

Au Bon Vieux Temps: Chocolat Framboise

As planned, I ran round trip to Tokyo Midtown, about 7 km at 9 km/h round trip, on Friday night and did not get anything, just ate homemade canelé (which were not very successful: I need to follow the recipe and not overfill the forms, as it causes various problems).

Saturday I got my flu shot, as planned and mostly took it easy (did some necessary food shopping).

Today, I went by bicycle (about 26 km round trip) down to Au Bon Vieux Temps (オー　ボン　ヴュー　タン) in Todoroki, Setagaya-ku, and got the Chocolat Framboise (ショコラフランボワーズ; 561 yen）. Note, not so much raspberry in this, just enough to get a taste and seeds in your teeth. However, this is in the same style as their Zyphir and Tentation Chocolat, which I've liked, so I don't mind so much. The top is chocolate decoration and a raspberry, chocolate cream, on top of a chocolate disk with raspberry pieces in it. As far as I could tell, there is no raspberry in the bottom cake part. I was thinking that the bottom was going to be brownie like, but actually it's fairly crunchy. There are nut pieces in there, but some dark crunchy bits as well, maybe nubs, but didn't really have that look. Certainly, it was delicious and let me wanting more. I've had cakes that's I've really liked that would would prefer to split with someone, but this is one where I wouldn't have minded having two of the same. I'
m not complaining about the size, though.

Viron: Tarte Apricot

Snow and rain stopped in the afternoon, although it's still 10 degC colder than any other run this season, but I could go to Viron and back, over 10 km, averaging above 9 km/h. My knees were hurting afterward abit, but they warmed up in the shower and seem okay now.

"Cake" for today was the Tarte Apricot from Viron for 486 yen. It's more of a pasty, although it was with the cakes and I've already decided that tarts count as cake in general, so it seemed fair to take it over either of the coffee-flavored cakes (an Opera and an éclair). The tart was definitely good, with a nice apricot flavor and sugary buttery goodness, but was not really memorable, so I'm demoting Viron back to just "excellent" rather than "near-great" as a shop. Still, I've had several great cakes from there, so when I get around to reviewing the great cakes I've recorded, I'll get back there again and if they have something new that looks promising, I'll try it too.

Long run to Frédéric Cassel for Mille-Feuille Caramel Pomme

Took the Shinjuku History and Culture course from the beginning of the Gaien Walk to as far as Akasaka Mitsuke along the Outer Moat Walk. I noticed that the on-site guide marker map indicates the Outer Moat Walk should climb up to the footpath parallel to the road after St. Ignatius Catholic Church, so I did. Also, running on the north side in front of Hotel New Otani causes a lot of delay from the stop lights, so I finally switched to the south side. Both changes made to the map. From there, I ran to cross Inner Moat Road and then did the imperial moat course one full lap and then to Hibiya. There was a running event of some kind going on, so people were standing with signs at the kilometer mark points (I joined just before the 4 kilometer point and the woman of the couple in front of me was surprised that the person holding the sign and cheering people to not give up was her mother), though it was only obvious that a few people were obviously participating (beyond the few hundred at the start/end point). Rather than go all the way to Ginza running, I decided to just stop at Hibiya and take the subway tunnels to Ginza Mitsukoshi (which is about 700 m).

The cake was the Mille-Feuille Caramel Pomme (ミルフィユキャラメルポム, 864 yen), which is a fairly normal mille-feuille with a layer of apple in the middle and some caramel taste. It was definitely good, but I can't call it excellent: I'm not interested in having it again, and also I didn't appreciate that the apple was surrounded by layers of sponge cake. In mile-feuille? There might be structural reasons why it could not have been surrounded by mille-feuille (puff) pastry, for example, or caramelized almond slices, which I would like, since keeping the layers from sliding was obviously an issue, but it just seemed wrong to me, even though it was too thin really to affect the texture much more than the apple already did.

Took the short route back to Lawson 100. Total, I ran 16.4 km, all three parts averaging 9 km/h. I'm feeling good. Maybe this week, I'll finally use up my budget enough to expand it for the first time in three weeks. It's going to get colder tomorrow, but I'd like to get over to Viron, with a backup in Tokyu Plaza (Ginza), which will be another 11 km, so I'll only have 6 km left for Friday night, so I'll probably go to Tokyo Midtown, not find anything new, and come back and eat homemade canele or macarons, which I'll be doing Saturday anyway, since I plan to get this year's flu shot.

Le Jardin Bleu: Misérable

Got a second cake of Le Jardin BLue at Isetan and then did a training run in only like rain. This took three laps at Meiji Jingu Gaien, running 8 km/h there, alternating 300 m (7 times) at 10 km/h and 200 m at 8 km/h, but then I went too fast going home and have to count that as 10 km/h, but I'm still okay for this week's plan, since I already substituted out two laps around Akasaka Palace course for one lap and a short side trip for cake for one run this week.

The cake was Misérable (ミゼラブル; 432 yen) and I was expecting a rather plain cake. The description says it's dacquoise with buttercream filling as a traditional Austrian cake, but if you Google this name, it comes up Belgian, which makes more sense, since the name is French. I just had this cake type of cake from Échiré Maison du Beurre not long ago, and that one was not as good, as it was just very sweet buttercream. This one, the buttercream is praliné, with actual nut pieces and uses syrup, which has a more caramel flavor than just sugar, although the effect would perhaps be the same if they brushed some syrup on the dacquoise, which many recipes do (I've learned from experience baking). So it was excellent cake, and I could go back get another there tomorrow, to have three, which is my target now for excellent shops, but I have to rest from cake and running sometimes (actually, I'm hoping to make macarons tomorrow), so I'll just have to wait until either they come to Isetan again, or I get up to being able to run 60 km in a day (or admit that that's never going to happen and go by bicycle).

Jean-Paul Hévin: Macaron Chocolat a l'Ancienne, Feuilletine Praliné

Was at Tokyo Midtown and picked up pieces of the two cakes I haven't blogged yet (but I've had multiple times before): Macaron Chocolat a l'Ancienne (マカロン ショコラ　ア ランシエンヌ, 699 yen) and Feuilletine Praliné (フィユティーヌ プラリネ, 624 yen). These are "Saisonnier", but regulars. The first is just what it sounds like, a cake-sized macaron of dark chocolate with extra dark chocolate around it as decoration. As a macaron, it is on the dry side, both the filling, which is pretty solid, and the shell part, but as cake it is decadently chocolaty. I'm going to say this is great, but I can't be objective about it and actually I've had times when I was tired of it from getting it too often. I really need to compare it to something else.

But the second doesn't really help, because I like it about the same. It's similar in being meringue, though is very airy (it's hard to cut and keep the dome intact when you're trying to split it with someone) compared to the crisp shell of the macaron ancienne and it's milk chocolate, along with the obvious nuts, but one has the same impression of eating something more decadent than a usual cake, though still more substantial than a mousse cake. I'll also say this is great and look forward to comparing with other great cakes. These put me at 26 cakes posted for JPH, so it's going to take a while for me to catch up with other shops, probably next year, but I'm getting close. I don't recall there being that many more regular seasonal cakes. Perhaps there will be a couple new weekend-only specials for the holidays. Still, there's the one coffee-flavored cake over at Marunouchi, which I will give a try for the sake of completeness.

I ran later, over to the imperial moat and around once. Not many people at 8 pm on a Sunday night. Passed one couple going the other way twice, which is a first, I think, and means they presumably left the course on the north end and ran on the other side of the road for that part, since it's narrow and marked as one way, the one part that is. Also on the north end, it was a little unsettling having someone running behind me, matching my pace, for about the last quarter of the 5 km loop, but the north end is pretty lonely (though there are police stationed a couple places along there), so I don't blame her for preferring to have someone else in sight. I'm rotating through my injuries and have come around to having some foot pain (and I walked a lot today, thus Tokyo Midtown), so I was focusing on rolling heel to toe rather than just straight-legging it pendulum-like. My first kilometer might actually have been closest to only 7 km/h, but the average to the course was 8 km/h, and the course and coming back made it into 9 km/h territory. I've having to adjust my planned course down to remain within my budget. I'm going to try a 16 km run on Wednesday, which is a holiday, but still want to get back to Asterisque this week. Tomorrow I'll hit Isetan for a second Le Jardin Bleu cake and do some training running, which is relatively short distance, if there isn't heavy rain.

Asterisque: Gabrielle

Today's run was to Asterisque again. This time I got Gabrielle (ガブリエル), although I might be misremembering "Gabriel": I should really write these down when I'm in the shop. This is a dome of cassis (blackcurrant) flavored meringue, with some cassis mousse and cassis compote in the center/bottom. I think I've had this before (pre-blog), but I suspect that I didn't appreciate it as much. Now, I don't need everything to be nuts and chocolate, plus I brought it home, so I could eat it in a relaxed environment. Even though fruity cakes aren't my favorite, this was not too strong or weak, and it's unusually light: you could easily eat it with a spoon, except for the hard base.



Running was slightly more than last time, so still 10 km, with half 9 km/h and coming back cake-running 8 km/h. I'd run again tomorrow, but I really am not getting much else done and I need to do some cleanly by tomorrow night. Probably get something worth blogging Saturday/Sunday, but no running: I'm planning to get a flu shot instead.

Le Jardin Bleu: Malagasy

Today, I ran to Tokyo Midtown first, just to extend my run (since I haven't run lately) and to make sure Henri le Roux doesn't have anything there I need to know about, which they didn't. The lights are up, although I don't get what's pretty about them (the ones on the smaller trees along the path to here look better than these).



Then I went back to the Meiji Gingu Gaien course and did two+ laps, alternating between 8 and 10 km/h, and then home. Total, it was about 10 km of running, with more than two-thirds at 8 km/h (everything before the laps plus the slow intervals), 1.8 km at 10 km/h (in 300 m intervals), and then the run from the end of the intervals to home at 9 km/h.

Cake was from Le Jardin Blue (ル・ジャルダン・ブルー), who are visiting Isetan from way out west in Tokyo. Only one type of fresh cake left at 7 pm (although there was some sort of pastry/tart thing) left, the Malagasy (マルガッシュ) for only 432 yen. This is a dense chocolate cake with dense ganache. Sites I saw while trying to figure out what the Japanese name might mean (it refers to people of Madagascar) claimed it was a French version of a Sacher Torte, but I'm not convinced. Anyway, it's pretty simple in its way, but it was actually exactly what I wanted (I'm kind of sick of my carob brownies, but that's okay, because I've finally used up the carob powder on the last batch). Since it's the first cake I've had from this shop and it passes the I'd-like-to-learn-to-make-this test, I'll say it's excellent, though it's not so different from similar cakes I've had from various places that I've given various ratings, probably. I should try Le Jardin Blue cake again while they are Isetan.

Frédéric Cassel: Saint Honoré Caramel

Been out of commission for several days, but finally I felt better than last time I ran, so I took a chance. It was just over 8 km at 9 km/h (although I was having trouble keeping the speed that low on the outbound). At Frédéric Cassel, I got the Saint Honoré Caramel (756 yen). I liked last month's saint-honoré and I thought one other caramel cake this month was great, but I didn't care for this taste at all and the texture impressed me less than with the last saint-honoré. Still, it's a common enough caramel taste, despite I not being fond of it and I didn't really mind eating it, so it was still good.


Not sure whether I should try the third caramel or wait from the next batch, but I'll probably get to it. Now I'll see if I can manage to run the next three days to at least get a little caught up, not that it matters, since I'll take the weekend off again, so next week the running budget is going to constrain me.

Mandarin Oriental Tokyo: Kimono

Today's run was to Mandarin Oriental Tokyo Gourmet Shop, where I got Kimono for 864 yen. They have quite a bit of seating outside and in a kind of enclosed patio. Sorry, no shop picture: I was distracted from finding that I was missing a glove (they had it behind the counter). Like the previous cake, this was chocolate and orange, but otherwise very different. This is heavy cake. It was definitely good, but not really special beyond that, which is too bad because it's not a bad route. The picture is edible, but the shop label is not.



Unfortunately, there were not any stairs or steep enough slopes to keep my speed down, so I tipped over into the 10 km/h range, which is dangerous, but I seem okay so far (though I'm worried about getting a cold). The tip is about 6 km each way, though the first 1 km was definitely close to 9 km/h, as was the return trip, so I've only got 5 km unplanned 10 km/h running. I'll have to shorten one run next week to stay in budget, but I'm dropping another run back there anywhere, so I kind find something shorter to do. Fortunately, Isetan will have a visiting shop that I want to try by then, so I can find something close to home to do.

Asterisque: Rubio

Was back at Isetan today, for Asterisque, who is visiting from not that far away. I got their Rubio　(ルビオ, 590 yen), which is hazelnut mousse under chocolate glazing, accented with rum and raisin. Not that it is alcoholic tasting at all, but has a slight fruity flavor that I could not identify (sure, I read that it was rum raisin when I bought it, but after running, I couldn't remember one description from another, so I was half convinced there was a little orange in there instead, although I couldn't believe in the passion fruit that I remembered being paired with orange). The hazelnut as a mousse is not very strong, but definitely good, and it's not trying to be a kid's cake, although the decoration is a little over the top for me. Still, I'll say it's excellent and try to follow up on Asterisque soon. From what I remember, it's an elegant shop and it has a fairly good reputation online among Tokyo cake shops.



The run was 1 2/3 laps around Akasaka Palace and then to Lawson's 100 for groceries, for 6.4 km at 9 km/h (which is actually a floor rather than a ceiling value today, despite the hills), plus a kilometer or so at 8 km/h to get there to begin with. They were saying rain for tomorrow, and certainly cold, but I'll probably do a run down to Tokyo Midtown, just as something different, and then come home and bake, since I already got cake at Midtown Saturday without running.

Jean-Paul Hévin, Caracas

Cake came first, from Jean-Paul Hévin at Isetan: the "saisonnier" cake Caracas, which is a mild chocolate mousse in layers between vanilla and chocolate flavored biscuit, all coated in chocolate (ganache?). It was definitely excellent, but I have to stop short of calling it "great", especially next to their Mont-Blanc. Sadly, they aren't doing a different special "Mont" every month this year, but of course the regular Mont-Blanc is great anyway and is hard to resist when it is around. Still two more seasonal cakes to try at Isetan and one at the Marunouchi chocolate bar, although that one has coffee, so I'll save that one for last. Now if I could only get to Kyoto, where they have several interesting things, although Isetan also has an interesting mousse selection that I might try as eat in.

I should also mention that I went toTokyo Midtown Henri le Roux the day before, and the exclusive eat-in-only cake I thought I saw a sign for just 12 days before was already gone, so instead I had a repeat of the great chocolate cake, a good cup of Chocolat Chaud, and part of a chocolate crepe that was good, but I don't really need either crepe or the ice cream that comes with it. Never saw any information about that cake on line, so I guess I have to just stop by now and then and see what's going on over there if I ever want something like that. Something to do when I want to take a day off cake but am willing to be tempted.

Running was simply down to Meiji Jingu Gaien and two laps alternating between about 200 meters and 300 meters at 8 and 10 km/h, respectively, for a total of 1.525 km at the higher speed. It was a little difficult due to police at one entrance (that is often used) and a lot of people with cameras at the south end (which has been crowded all week), which I put down to leftovers from the Design Week event, but did not explain why there were photographers on step ladders at the 100 m mark. I assumed some celebrity was still inside and people were trying to get pictures of them, but I found out from the news later that the couple of firetrucks with the police were due to a tragedy involving an exhibit that burned, taking the life of a 5 year-old child. Sorry for the grim report, but tragedy comes from anywhere and affects us in unexpected ways, which we should be prepared for as best we can.

Frédéric Cassel: P'tite Merveille Caramel,

Took a long run along the Tokyo History and Culture courses, starting with the Gaien Walk of the Shinjuku course and continuing on along the Outer Moat Walk to Akasaka, from which I followed the Akasaka Sanno Walk to where it meets the Marunouchi Past and Present Walk, which I jumped off to transfer to the Sukiyabashi Walk to Ginza. Total, that's about 9 km at nearly 9 km/h.

At Frédéric Cassel at Ginza Mitsukoshi, I got the P'tite Merveille Caramel (according to a French Facebook post) for 648 yen. The bottom is merigue, on top of which is caramel mascarpone cheese cream, then mango and passion fruit. topped by "biscuit-like" caramel type chocolate. It's very good, and not like most cakes, so I'm going to say it's great. Maybe I'll get tired of it if they do another version next month (didn't get to last month's yuzu version), for for now that will be my choice.





The end of the run was just 3.4 to grocer, and was a slower 8 km/h, as I was tired at the beginning.

Not sure when I'll get my next run in, as I'm busy this weekend. Probably something Sunday night, but I hope to get cake before then.

A la Bonne Heure: Chocolat Chocolat

Took a chance, in the sense of worrying about my knee, and ran again today. Did a lap around Akasaka Palace again, only this time I stopped at Shirotae, where there was a line out the door (there's not a lot of space in there, even for a Tokyo Patisserie), so they are doing okay without my patronage. Instead, I went to A la Bonne Heure (where there were three other customers) and got their Chocolat Chocolat (486 yen) cake.

What can I say: it tasted just like it looks like it should, light and fluffy, highly diluted chocolate (by cream and air). I'd rather just have the chocolate and cream: at least then I could make some ganache, although it was probably milk chocolate to begin with, so maybe just each the chocolate and whipped the cream as topping for brownies, which I need to make tomorrow. Actually, I'd rather just have dinner and skip the cake, but, still, it was not worse than you would expect, so I'll call it marginally "good". It's a standard cake, so it was useful as a reference and I've had worse too many times.

The running was fine except it started raining lightly and I forgot to stick my umbrella back in my backpack after taking to work at lunch time (though I wouldn't have used it unless I had waited for cake at Shirotae). Also, haven't put my jacket back in since washing it, and I might have used that for the hood. I did have extra shirt, but didn't use it, so it wasn't that cold, around 12 degC. Total distance it was 7.2 km at around 8 km/h again and it involved four stair-climbs over pedestrian bridges and the same slopes as yesterday.

Homemade: 6 km around Akasaka Palace

Received food gift

Food-gifting escalated this week. It had started last spring with a simple scone/canelé encounter but a mini-macaron got out of my control and the return of a meringue-like almond cookie (but not sweet) and some sort of spice bread (banana?) forced me to retaliate with 4 mini-canelé. I'm hoping for a truce now, although there are rumors of another front opening around Christmas with a stollen attack. (I'm happy to try a new dessert.)

On the running front, had a scare yesterday with my knee. Not a good day, but woke up okay. Didn't decide until the last minute whether to run and still wasn't sure at the beginning and end whether that was a good idea (but the middle seemed okay). Just over 6 km, including the Akasaka Palace loop, all just under 8 km/h average (although with overpass stairs and more slopes than usual).

I've still got around 10 mini-canelé, but I should try to improve my carob brownies to make them less brick-like, such as reducing the carob a little, increasing the butter, and cooking a little less. Also, less mixing.