Jean-Paul Hévin: Safi

Safi, Chocolat Chaud Maron, and Gallette de Rois "Star" (?)

No running on Friday, but I missed cake some running days, so no guilt. Wen the the chocolate bar at Isetan and got a couple drinks and a couple cakes. The new cake (to blog about) was the Safi (サフィ; 618 yen +8%), which is a rich chocolate biscuit with layers of chocolate mousse flavored with orange, from Jean-Paul Hévin. Not sure what variety of orange it is, but not sweet, or at least that is the effect, which is not a complaint.  Also not complaining about the cocoa powder on top, but that stuff makes me cough I'm not careful, so I'm giving a warning here. That might be the only reason I'm not rating it great, but I am still looking forward to having again. In the meantime, there are special only-the-first-two weekends-of the-new-year cakes that I have to decide whether to try to get. 

I had a good part of the Galette de Rois "Star" (ガレット デ ロワ スター) and was not really feeling the greatness this time. It was still good. It came as part of a set with Chocolat Chaud Parisien for 1300 yen + 8%, which is less than the hot chocolate by itself. 

I got the Chocolat Chaud Maron, which has a definitely distinct taste (apparently chestnut) compared to the other types and was actually the cheapest, at 1080 yen total.

Today, I went out again, but just to Starbucks, where I got a Sachertorte, which is decent, which is better than another thing I've gotten at any of the other main chain cafés. Of course, I added whipped cream. This was the Starbucks near Omotesando (because Pierre Herme, which did not post it's end-of-year store hours, even on their door, was closed).

Today also had running, which as just 6 laps around Meiji Gingu Gaien, with the intention of keeping it above 11 km/h, although I caught myself slow half way through the 5th lap, so I sled up and ended up closer to 12 km/h for the last lap. Then I took a pretty hill-intensive route (even compared to Asasaka Palace course) following the Gaien Walk and managed to keep it well above 11.0 km/h for 2.4 km on the way for shopping. So running was about 1 km at 9 km/h, 9 km at 11 km/h and one lap (1.325 km) at 12 km/h. Tomorrow I may rest, but Jean-Paul Hévin has a special New Year's cake I want to get and one shop is open, so I may need to jog there if I don't get a walking partner to there.

Sadaharu Aoki: Éclair Chocolat

As planned, I went on Thursday to Isetan and got the Éclair Chocolat (エクレール　ショコラ; 540 yen) from the Isetan counter of Sadaharu Aoki. It was definitely good, but didn't make me want to learn to make éclairs.

The the run was the similar to other recent ones, being laps around the Meiji Gingu Gaien course. This time was 5 laps at 11 km/h. Going and returning, which are about 1 km each, were 9 and 12 km/h, respectively, so it was clear that I could keep raising the pace, which has been reinforced since then.

Running without cake

Had bad luck even before I got out running. I was in a hurry (for no reason, as it turned out), and bashed my arm on a door and then got a jacket zipper stuck and broke it (it was old and cheap, though), before getting to Anniversary and seeing that they were closed at 6 pm (which is on their homepage, which I looked at but apparently it did not make an impression). From there, I decided to do a run to Tokyo Midtown to check what Henri le Roux was up to, which turned out to be being permanently closed, as of Dec. 26. While I was there, I checked out Dean & Deluca, which is a kind of deli and café, and noticed for the first that the few cakes they have there come from other local shops (whose names I recognized except one). That could be useful information at some point, since Dean & Deluca has longer hours. Now the question in my mind is whether all Dean & Deluca shops have the same selection of cakes. This time I chose to go without cake. I might get something from Isetan tomorrow, regardless of whether I run, since I'm a couple days behind (although I've also done a lot of short training runs).

From Tokyo Midtown, I came back to Meiji Gingu Gaien and did a lap and a half of intervals, 12 km/h (1.225 km in 4 intervals) and 10 km/h, which was my speed for most of the run, which in total was about 9.5 km. I'm still 20% below my weekly running budget, since I've been doing more speed work than long runs. With the holidays coming, I'm not sure how much running I'll get to, but perhaps some.

Heritier: Mars

Yesterday's run was to try to do 11 km/h around Akasaka Palace, which is hard because, as the name "Red Hill" suggests, there are slopes (enough to put up sign for cyclist to watch their speed), so probably I'm going 12+ km/h down slope sometimes and -10 km/h up slope sometimes. I managed my target 1 2/3 laps (5.5 km), before I pealed off to do some shopping.

Today, I went to (Patisserie Francaise) Heritier, which is in Hakusan, in Bunkyo-ku. I got even more lost than last time I went, so I have to just guess about the distance there, but probably ended up around 6.5 km, in which case it was 10 km/h. After I got cake, I ran about the same speed for around 3 km, but then after I picked up 2100 of peanuts at Nikunohanamasa, I was slowed down to around 8 km/h, which is still pretty good, as I was carry things in both hands at this point.

The cake was Mars (マアルス; 540 yen).  The cake is kind of bowl of chocolate coating (though not noticeably chocolate in taste) studded with nuts full of a dried fruit mass that you shoot run into. It's definitely good and definitely interesting, but ultimately not particularly flavorful besides being sweet and a little rummy, so maybe a good shop but not a priority for a quick return.

Pierre Hermé: Flocon Plénitude

Yesterday's run was boringly like the previous day's: laps around Meiji Gingu Gaien at 11 km/h, just I did a fourth lap (5.3 km total), plus kept the speed up going home, but was a little slower coming. 

The cake (bought today) was from Pierre Hermé at Isetan, the Flocon Plénitude (フロコン プレニチュード ["plenitude of flakes"]; 864 yen). This is pretty complicated, supposedly: a chocolate macaron, chocolate ganache with chocolate in it, chocolate with fleur de sel (a kind of salt) in it, and chocolate mousse. It is a rich chocolate cake and everything harmonized well, except the dryness of the macaron (?) wasn't really working for me, as texture. Maybe if I had known what it was (I found the description online later), I would have appreciated it at the time. I was worried that I am overly biased toward chocolate, but I realize that I'm also critical of chocolate cake that doesn't live up to what I think is the best I've had, so I suppose those factors balance out. This was definitely a good cake, but not something I need again and so hard to recommend at the price. I would like something more exceptional than design from the half dozen shops that I am designating "superb". Of course, I already knew that holiday cakes made for shape rarely are great, so maybe I should have chosen differently, but the description is sufficient interesting, now that I've had a chance to read it, it still seems like the logical choice, so no regrets, except that the photo came out blurry.

Jean-Paul Hévin: Rêve

Jean-Paul Hévin: Rêve

Ran last night and got my cake today. The run was just 11 km/h laps at Meiji Gingu Gaien, that time 3 laps (1.325 km per), but also for the return home (but not there, which was about 9 km/h), so next is 4 laps. The Chocolate Bar at Isetan Men's Salon in Marunouchi was empty on Christmas around noon (although other people came in), which pleased be rather than shocked me, despite the crowds for cakes at Shinjuku Isetan. They had three special Christmas cakes, and we got one each, but that's spreading things thin, so I can just say that I got the Rêve (レーヴ; 859 yen + 8%), and small bites of the Kankan and the Fashion suggest that I had the best. Certainly, it was the same high quality that I expect there (all their cakes are very similar, unlike at the main branches, which have more variety in the construction), being chocolate and orange (versus cherry and just Venezuelan chocolate mousse).  The Chocolat Chaud Colombien (ショコラショコロンビィ; 540 yen + 8%) was also excellent.

Sadaharu Aoki: Sensuel

As expected, I couldn't resist cake and running. The running was just down to Meiji Gingu Gaien and two laps. The laps and coming back (about 3.5 km) were 11 km/h and going was 10 km/h, so I'm ready to do 3 laps next time I want a run after getting cake from Isetan (which I have plans to do, though not sure when).

The cake, from Sadaharu Aoki (サダハルアオキ) at Isetan, was Sensuel (センシュエル; 891 yen), which is raspberry and chocolate. I think the praliné layer at the bottom is hazelnut, based on the taste. The cake was the usual high quality and it seemed pretty good at first, though not one of their best, but the hazelnut aftertaste convinced me that the different flavors were really not harmonizing well, so this was just good for me and not something
I need to have again.

Shirotae: Ganache

Revamped my training run of 300 m intervals as 12+ km/h, since yesterday showed 11 km/h was too slow. I only did two intervals to start with (and the first one was too fast), then went and checked out Tokyo Midtown (which is getting more crowded), and then to Shirotae for cake. I got the Ganache （ガナシュ; 350 yen), as they did not have the rare cheesecake that I wanted and there was not much of a selection left. Being not far from home, I waited to eat it. Total running ended up about 4.6 km at 9 km/h, 2.6 km at 10 km/h, plus the two fast intervals (next week I plan to do four).

The cake was only okay. There is a little actual dark ganache (presumably) on top and very light ganache, maybe, on the outside to give it shape, but there is sponge cake inside, plus a cherry and a couple raisins. So there was a reason why I never bothered to post about them before.


I'm not sure whether I should get cake tomorrow, because I've got friends coming in and maybe we'll go out for cake (my preference), but I'm not going to force the issue. However, I want to run and I want some excellent cake, so I'll probably go to Isetan and visit Sadaharu Aoki. If I get more cake later, then I'll just do some running without cake next week.

Café Mikuni's: Gateau Chocolat

Managed to get to Café Mikuni's (カフェミクニズ) before they closed. All the recommended (おすすめ) cakes were gone, but they had Gateau Chocolat （ガトー・ショコラ; 650 yen), which the card said was a specialty, so I went with that. It is a very dense, firm mousse with icing. It uses the good stuff, Valrhona chocolate, and tastes like it. Just chocolate mousse is pretty plain in general but this passes the "excellent" test of being something that I would like to have again or would consider worth learning to make. That's only the second cake from there, so among the shops I'm currently calling "excellent", it is a top priory, but I think it's not such a priority that I need to go again tomorrow. Instead, I'll wait until they reopen after the holidays starting this Friday, which will be in February.

Besides to and back Mikuni's, running was just down to the Meiji Ginju Gaien course and one lap at 11 km/h. Actually, going home was closer to that than 10 km/h, so I'm swelling my high-speed part. On the other hand, the Mikini's part was half and half 8 and 9 km/h (due to having to run through a low point in Wakaba by the shortest route; it might be faster to take Shinjuku Avenue or otherwise avoid the low spot). No trouble from last Sunday's long run. However, with the holidays, I'm pretty busy with non-running things, so I'm not sure how much running I'll get in until the new year. I'll look forward to planning longer runs and keep building. I need basically marathon distance to get to and do the Shibamata History and Culture Course, so that's the immediate goal, besides visiting more-distant cake shops, but I'm not hurting for much closer ones that I haven't visited yet.

Au Bon Vieux Temps: L'Auvergne

Did a long not so slow run to Au Bon Vieux Temps (オー　ボン　ヴュー　タン) and back. There, I got the L'Auvergne (ローベルニュ; 648 yen). Mostly, it is strawberry mousse, with a more solid maybe cheese mousse (too mild to tell, but was white) as a center layer, and surrounded by a green shell with a gelatin layer that I'm not sure what it is (there was something written on the card, but it was Japanese phonetic French, probably, and it was very crowded in the shop, so I don't remember and didn't write it down. Thought "vert" something "ine", which doesn't match lime, or the french word for lemon balm, which was the guess of the only online mention I found. The taste was not strong, whatever it was, though it certainly added a kind of fresh taste (but not obviously mint) without obviously being mind (and it's not green tea). Anyway, it did not travel well with my running (no big shock, given the many small ones), which is not their fault (I turned wrong and ate at a farther away park than I had intended). It was good and certainly fancy (before I maimed it), but I can't say it was better than good (I have no interest in eating it again). Using my cut off, I've grouped this one with five other shops and the second-tier "superb" shops (which has not been transferred  to my map much yet), but it's really an outlier and eventually I'll set up a third-tier of the best of my currently "excellent" shops and it will probably go with them.

The run was on the faster-than-it-should-be side on the way out, averaging about 10 km/h. Coming back, was all around 9 km/h and slightly longer, because of search for a park and then swinging by Cuoca to see if they sold pistachio essence or oil, which they don't (their very pretty hulled pistachios are 400 yen for 20 g. I've paid half that rate for pistachio powder, so they might be relatively worth it, but I think I can get along without them. I might buy pistachio oil, which is cheaper and would go a long way, and try adding it to butter cream for macaron filling. First, I have lots of other ingredients to use up.

Update: I forgot to say I ran 26 km, compared to 16 km once last month at a slower speed. The test will be whether I'm okay on Tuesday.

Café Mikuni's: Mont-blanc

Finally got over to Café Mikuni's (カフェ・ミクニズ） for the first time. They open at 11:30, but around 11:50, they were full or almost full (seats 18) and the Chiboust Poire was sold-out, so I went with another recommended (according to a label on the card) cake, Mont-blanc (モンブラン, 500 yen), which shows how far I've warmed up to mont-blanc. It was definitely good, and I'll give them the benefit of the doubt and say it was excellent. It was fairly convention, in that it had a small meringue core, with cream around that and then a nicely smooth (Tokyo-produced Japanese) chestnut paste outisde. It may just be that I like mont-blanc in general now and this one was acceptable, but I'd like to go back sooner than later. Actually, it has to very soon, because they'll close (aside from 3 days of distributing ordered Christmas cakes), from Dec. 23 to Jan 31. Not sure if they'll have anything just before closing, when I can get there easily, but I'll try (with a couple back-ups in mind). I've got a couple days yet.

For running, I took my cake back home and then immediately went out for some grocery errands. Total run was 9 km, with two-thirds of that at 9 km/h and the rest at 10 km/h. My plan is to try an LSR (long slow run) tomorrow, not so much to build up my endurance but just because my goal isn't close. It's fortunate that most of the best cake shops are within easy reach, but eventually, I'll going to need to get further out to revisit others and hit ones I've heard of but haven't visited yet.

Le R Cinq (ルエールサンク): Mascar Fraise (マスカルフレーズ）

Wednesday night, I visited Le R Cinq (ルエールサンク) and got the Mascar Fraise (マスカルフレーズ, 540 yen）. It was good (mascarpone) cheese and good strawberry filling, which went well together, so it was good cake. Maybe it's a good shop, but they only had two things recognizable as cake　（the other was green tea, I think), three or four tart-like pieces, that were fancy enough, but at least half a dozen things in glasses ("verrines" I suppose), so not really my kind of place, or I need to learn to appreciate verrines. I'd be interested in going early, to see what their baked goods are, since they open at 8:00, but it's not my side of town. Of course, I could get up early and go by train, but I'm not that interested.

There was also running, today, but it was a training run, which did not take long, and I did not buy cake, so I'm now caught up on reporting cake. As usual, the training run as on the Meiji Gingu Gaien course, and was just 4 km total, 1.225 of that at 11 km/h in four segment, interspersed by 9 km/h running and otherwise mostly it was at 10 km/h. Because of the short run, no cake buying, and no overtime work, I had time to catch up on dishes and then make canelés. Still working out how to get them right, in terms of how much butter to use in the silicone molds for the regular-size ones. This time I used 25% less and held some back to brush on afterward, to see how that works, and they came out of the mold about as well as last time (one stuck), and I baked them less and they still seem baked enough (though less baked), I'm trying to see if I can get the outsides less dry. Of course, if I want them glossy, I'll have to think seriously about using beeswax.

Pierre Hermé: Mont-Blanc à ma Façon (モンブラン・ア・マ・ファソン)

Cake Monday was by Pierre Hermé, via Isetan. I chose the Mont-Blanc à ma Façon (モンブラン・ア・マ・ファソン, 756 yen), so I'm not leaving mont-blanc as my last choice any more. This was excellent, with very nice chestnut cream/paste over cream, with small (dry) meringue anchor in the middle on top a butter (?) tart. Also, I left out the special part, which is the rose confit. It was interesting, but the flower sweet aftertaste was a bit odd, so I'm not ready to accept this is something I'm looking for.

The run was first to Ginza to check the Jean-Paul Hévin, which had the same cakes as Isetan, Tokyo Midtown, and Omotesando Hills (or at least the Safi, which is the one I haven't had and which isn't officially listed online or the chocolate bar menu at Isetan. Then I went to Le Rcinq, which I'll report on tomorrow. But gave me about 12 km total, split about equally between 9 km/h and 10 km/m (though actually the first half was too close to 11 km/h).

Jean-Paul Hévin (ジャンポール エヴァン): Orly (オルリー) Place de l'Étoile (プラスドゥレトワール)

Orly

Sunday afternoon, I went to the Jean-Paul Hévin in Marunouchi, because they have cakes the other shops don't. Of the two, the favorite one was the Orly （オルリー, 592 yen + 8%), which is chocolate cake (of course) and mouse with passion fruit ganache. Great cake.

The other, which is promoted on their home page as a special, is Place de l'Étoile (プラスドゥレトワール, 592 yen + 8%), which has a sablé bottom, and layers of coffee-flavored dacquoise and chocolate mousse. I'm still not a fan of coffee (especially the aftertaste), but the balance was not bad and it was still excellent cake, even for me.

Place de l'Étoile

Still one more cake there that I haven't had (Voyage; maybe three are constant and one, now the Place de l'Étoile, get's rotated). In fairness, this should perhaps be considered a separate cake shop from the other JPH shops, since there seems to be no overlap in cakes, but the style and quality are similar.

Today's run was along the same theme, as I visited the shops in Omotesando and Tokyo Midtown to see whether they have special exclusive cakes. I'm not sure whether it's special, but they both had Safi, which I've not posted on. Not sure whether I can get it at Isetan (tried to check, but the line was long, though I can probably just ask the person manning the door without going in, or it might be on the chocolate bar menu), and I need to visit Ginza Mitsukoshi again and see what they have there. Total, I ran 9.2 km at about 9 km/h. I haven't really had a plan to this point, but I'd like a long (maybe 25 km, although that's a big jump, so maybe walk the last 5 km) this weekend. If I do it Saturday, that only leaves me a shortish training run and a Ginza run this week, although I don't really need to do more. However, maybe I should try hold off until Sunday for the long one, since I can do a shorter run Saturday (maybe to a new shop) and then the long run Sunday and then rest Monday. Tomorrow looks like rain, though, so it wouldn't bad to rest then in any case.

Gerbeaud: Dobostorta (ドボシュトルタ) and Esterházy Torta (エゥテルハージトルタ)

Saturday, we went to Gerbeaud along Aoyama Avenue near Omotesando, on account of the Pierre Herme being under renovation. Still, I intentionly had prepared it as a back up. There was got the Dobostorta  (ドボシュトルタ, 630 yen) and a Esterházy Torta (エゥテルハージトルタ, 630 yen), which are both tortes and similar, but former is chocolate butter cream and the latter is not (perhaps, vanilla or cognac). I liked the latter more, for being sweeter maybe. It's nice to have this kind of denser cake once in a while rather than French cakes. Note that the for the former, this is the cake shown by Wikipedia, although I don't know that it is from this particular branch.

For a the running, on Sunday afternoon I went around and visited Cafe Mikuni's (first time to go up to the door, but didn't go inside) and Hertier (probably have been by here, but wouldn't have noticed it as anywhere special; also didn't go inside, but I could see inside; not very many kinds on cake) as future places to visit. It was 13 km total (I got a little off track and then decided to take an easier follow route coming back, or I could have done it in 12 km), at just within the upper bounds for 9 km/h. Still feeling like I'm running at my limit, as far as my left knee goes at least, so I'm not sure whether I'm going to have to give up running faster and just stick to 9 km/h as an upper limit. I'm certainly not intent on expanding my running budget while I've figuring this out.

Frédéric Cassel: Pure Euphoria

Wednesday, I did a training run which included running to Midtown and just a couple laps around the Meiji Jingu Gaien loop (which had a lot of people out, or was that Thursday). I was little worried about my knees through Tuesday, because I'm near my limit (not from an injury, just my general limit), but stretching was kept me just good enough so far. The training run was to try 11 km/h, which I was trying to do two 300 m stretches of, but it leaked over into 12 km/h on the second one. Other parts gave me 5.5 km of 10 km/h running, with a tiny bit at 9 km/h (it was supposed to be 8 km/h, for the intervals, but didn't managed to switch to that slow). It was a cake rest day (a lie: actually I made and ate pistachio dacquoise, which didn't come out perfect, but was very good).

Today, I ran to Ginza for Frédéric Cassel and got something that might have been named Pure Euphoria; all I can remember is that it began "Puru" (in Japanese) and ended "foria" or maybe "fonia" (it's complete slipping from my mind). I'll have to get back there this month with a pen if I want to find out (no photographs in the store). It's 756 yen, which is pretty standard, and is a vanilla white chocolate heart with strawberry cream inside (I think), despite the somewhat tart raspberry on top. Of course, to be a heart, it has to have enough gelatin (or be lighter than it was), which I tried to get beyond, but the rest was not really anything special, though maybe good, I suppose. The running was 9.5 km and I messed up my timing on the way back, so I don't know what my speed is on that shorter part (I took the long way there and stopped for groceries coming back), but the longer part was 10 km/h, so I'm just recording it all as that.

Frédéric Cassel needed a great cake to stay in the top spot with As a result, I have to bust them down a rank, which leaves on Jean-Paul Hevin and Henri le Roux on top. Frédéric Cassel will have to settle for being in the second tier with Au Bon Vieux Temps, Dalloyau, Paris S'eveille, Pierre Hermé, and Sadahaur Aoki. As a result, I probably won't be back there so soon.

Passion de Rose: Mille-Feuille Gianduja

Got my cake first. I had completely forgot that I had already posted about one cake from Passion de Rose (パッション ドゥ ローズ), also via Isetan, but that's okay, since this was a special Isetan-only cake, so I'm happy to have taken advantage of it.

The run was down to Aoyama Dori/Avenue to the Inner Moat, which I took from Mitakesaka ("three mansion hill", I think) to Boeniriguchi (with is cemetery entrance, though the pronunciation might not be right) and then back to Yotsuya. It was 10.6 km total and averaged almost 10 km/h, so now I don't have enough running budget left to be tempted to run again tomorrow. I'll go out again Wednesday and try training with a couple laps at exactly 10 km/h and a couple short 11 km/h stretches on a (reasonably) level track, though I'll probably stick to homemade cake.

The cake today was the Mille-Feuille Gianduja (ミルフィーユ ジャンドゥージャ; 679 yen), which presumably you can still get Tuesday (last day) at Isetan. The name pretty much explains it. The top filling is denser, but the fillings are are both gianduja (chocolate and hazelnuts). According to the Isetan site, one layer is gianduja buttercream and the other is crema gianduja maison (judging from the Japanese), though whose "maison", I don't know: lost in translation. I'm interested in gianduja, but not universally sold on it. The taste of very good, and I especially liked that the fillings were firm enough that you could cut through the mille-feuille layers without crushing the cake too much. I'll call this cake excellent.

Passion de Rose: Mille-Feuille Gianduja

Asterisque: Oar

Oar (from Asterisque)

Did a fairly uneventful daytime run to Asterisque and back. It basically was around 9.5 km/h, though going out was just shy of that and coming back was greater, despite carrying cake. I was trying to deliberately run 10 km/h, but the route has some steep slopes. I should say its an over 10 km round trip.

The cake was Oar (オール; 580), which is apricot with a hazelnut biscuit. The somewhat course dark biscuit did not really go well with the apricot gelatin, as far as the texture, and the flavors were not harmonizing either. I'll give it the benefit of the doubt and call it good, as it was not that disappointing, but Asterisque gets demoted down to just good, which is not such a bad thing. Next I expect a first post on Isetan's current visiting shop, which is probably not better, based on previous experience, but is worth giving another try, just like Asterisque was.

Kenzo: Chocolat de Chocolat

The interesting part of the run happened before it. Ran long and fast Wednesday with no problems (well, no new problems), and then longer and faster on Thursday and had a disturbing pain in on the outside of my knee afterward and continually on Friday, though not where the previous problem was. I thought maybe I was going to have to rest until it disappeared, but Friday night, I reviewed a recent running program on knee pain. For my location, they just called it "Runner's knee" and showed one stretch, which I had added to the other one that I was doing regularly. That was the only advice they had, so I reviewed tried to follow the instructions exactly, which including doing each stretch for 20+ seconds, which I hadn't been doing. I stretched three times, and the pain was immediately gone like magic. I did get a slight echo of the pain later, so I've dong that stretch several more times then and today, but I was able to run almost 13 km today, keeping to 8 km/h, though that partially reflects the Saturday afternoon crowds in Shinjuku, even swinging out of my way northeast before heading west.

The goal of the trip was to visit Kenzo (洋菓子工房KENZO), which is over in Kamiochiai (within Shinjuku-ku). I didn't have high expectations for this, but someone at work recommended it and it's not that far, so I thought I should go at least once. They have the basic cakes of a Japanese cake shop, all very cheap. I got the Chocolat de Chocolat (チョコラ・ドゥ・チョコラ; 432 yen), reasoning that since they had three chocolate cakes, this was somewhat of a specialty. The cake started maybe good, then maybe just okay, and finally bad. The topping chocolate was not great, but okay as sort of candy chocolate. Having the whole thing in a plastic case so it could be crescent shape was inconvenient and should have clued me in, and the main body was such a weak chocolate that ultimately it was more like a cake that had been contaminated with chocolate than one that was intentionally chocolate. Finally, I just wanted to rinse the taste out my mouth, so probably won't be going back.

 

There are probably a lot of shops like this one (or visit any convenience store or grocery), which is why I'm not as excited about visiting random Tokyo Patisserie as I once was. Still, I've got plenty of ones recommend from sources that have given me plenty of multiple good tips in the past, so I'll keep trying. Next, though, I'm going to need to visit someplace I know has at least some excellent cakes.

Frédéric Cassel: Petite Gateau Juliette

Ran again to Ginza; really, one knee is telling me, I ran too much, though not specifically at the place where I was having trouble most recently. I ran 11 km at 10 km/h, which is too much and too fast. In fact, it's over budget until I adjust to make 10 km/h the new normal (though that still means my 9 km/h budget only counts 90% of the 10 km/h budget, so I sort of wipe out my previous gain in distance for the speed). I expect I'll slow down Saturday, but I still won't have a lot of distance left for Sunday if I follow my plan for a longer run to a new shop (I could use a shorter route, but not on roads I want to use).

Cake today was from Frédéric Cassel (フレデリック カッセル), the Petite Gateau Juliette (プティ・ガトー ジュリエット; 756 yen), which is mascarpone cream with strawberry and pistachios on top of cream cheese mouse, over a layer of pistachio crème brûlée (wouldn't have guessed that, but don't really know much about crème brûlée), on top of a thin strawberry layer, on (soft) biscuit. It was definitely excellent. Wouldn't mind making it myself, although the strawberry layer did not hold the upper layers in place, so it's good that I didn't try to run with this cake. This is "Petite" because there is a Christmas cake size of this. There were three other cakes that I haven't had before, but if the next is not great, I'll reorganize my rankings of shops putting this one with the current "near-great" shops, although I should probably call them something else if "great" just means having all or mostly chocolate cake. Unfortunately, it's not obvious how to rank adjectives. Maybe  "decent", "good", "very good", "exceptional", "superb", and "best" for what are now covered by "good", "excellent", "near-great", and "great".