14 Juillet Tokyo: Pensee

Since Sweet Sonobe posted on 14 Juillet Tokyo, I figured I might as well try it. Also, I want to go to lunch around there Saturday morning, so I wanted scope out options in the Shin Marunouchi Building and Marunouchi Building, though mostly I just looked at the latter, since I found my cake shop before many restaurants.

The run there was a fast 12 km/h, whereas the return trip was a reasonable (for carrying cake) 10 km/h, for a today of about 11 km. I didn't run yesterday, so I was in the mood. I'm busy this weekend, so I'll probably have a lot of budget for long runs at the beginning of the week, but not now. When I've got 21 km to use on a weekday, I'd like to get down to Paris S'éveille again, this time for cake. I can just barely get there, if I'm not too busy with work, which lately I often am.

The cake was Pensee (パンセ; 470 yen), which is almond cocoa biscuit sandwiching a little raspberry jam. Sorry, must not have hit the "flower" setting on my camera, so it looks a little fuzzy. It was definitely good cake, but it took me a while to convince myself that it was excellent. It certainly isn't as complex or rich as my usual favorite cakes, but it isn't light and it's well balanced between the chocolate and raspberry. I can certainly see times when this is exactly what I would want or trying to make it myself (if I were any good at making cakes, which I'm not), and that makes it excellent cake. Also, it's a first cake from them, so they get the benefit of the doubt. It was certainly much better than I was expecting, though I haven't heard anything bad about them (or really any cake shop, except from myself).

Octobre: Gateau Marron

Today was a long reconnaissance run for finding availability of two great cakes for comparison. I started by going down to Origines Cacao, though I had to be careful to avoid the Shinjuku Half Marathon, which was this morning. Fortunately, they take a bridge over Gaiennishidori (Outer Garden West Avenue), and I could escape them, although there is also a pedestrian bridge over the same road that they are on further west that would work, but I was already more west then I wanted for getting to Jiyugaoka via Aoyama Avenue while avoiding the Shibuya Station area. It was about 11 km, which I did in just under 1 h. The rest (about 17 km) today was 10 km/h average.

As it turned out, Origines Cacao not only did not have my target great cake (Martinique), they did not have any of the other three great cakes from there that I'll eventually want to do a comparison with. I'll have to check in with them in a month. Fortunately, there are a lot of things around there of interest to take me to that area. If I had been thinking more ahead, I would have also checked in at Dalloyau (I know they don't have Opale, from asking at the main shop in Ginza, but I didn't ask about any other ones, and by going early, everything would presumable be out, so I don't have to ask). I did think of check Paris S'éveille, but mainly because I wanted to get a pastry there. They had 4 of 6 great cakes out, with the other two definitely being summery. As a snack/fuel, I got Pain Chocolat (under 300 yen), which was great. It's actually really big, because there's a lot of air, and croissant buttery. It's very messy though, of course, because of the layers breaking off, and the chocolate was all along one side and I made the mistake of starting on the other side.

Even though my base cake for comparison turned out not to be available, I still tried to stick to my original plan to run to Bigarreaux, since they have a couple great cakes that I'll eventually want to compare to something, but I forgot one of the turns and overshot the shop in the direction toward my next goal, so I decided to just keep going to Octobre rather than double back. This was my first cake from them, so I picked up their card and noticed that they've crossed out 20:00 as the closing time and written in 19:00, so mistaking their closing time the other night was not so unreasonable. Since it was the recommended cake, I got the Gateau Marron (ガトーマロン; 496 yen), which, as advertised, is a very dense chestnut cake, "almost chestnut paste", the card said, although the inside is definitely dense cake (like pound cake) and the outside of the dome, which is fairly thick (maybe 1 cm in places, so it might have been about half the cake) is fairly solid somewhat hard, toward being crystalline or a hard frosting. It was not overly sweet and it was not a strong chestnut flavor, which was good for me, and I thought it was excellent enough that I should try a second cake to see whether this is really a potentially excellent shop. Not sure when I'll get a chance to get out there again, though, as I'm busy this weekend.

The next great cake to try to compare in the list is Aigre-Douce Fraicheur Framboise, which does not seem likely to be available this time of year, but I mapped out a course to there and then to Yu Sasage, which has a great raspberry chocolate cake as well and is near another shop I want to visit for a first cake, so maybe in two weeks I'll hit Octobre on Saturday and do a reconnaissance run on Sunday.

A. Lecomte: Patricien

Run and cake pretty much went exactly as planned: about 11 km/h out and 10 km/h back with cake, for about 9 km total to A. Lecomte in Minamiazabu, which is next to Hiroo station on the east side, where all the embassies are. The shop was not heavily staffed and someone had ordered a bunch of things as gifts, so it took them a while to get to me (otherwise, there were no other customers but a couple that came in for the tea salon in the basement). I choose the Patricien (パトリシアン; 540 yen), which is one of their standards, besides being photogenic. It's got praliné and hazelnut flavored creams under that chocolate coating, but is fairly light. I like heavy, but this was definitely good hopefully is a good representative of this shop. I've had a few of their other cakes at other times and didn't find anything that was special. Now, I'm trying trying to a visit to all the probably good shops on my map to get in at least one blog entry.

Pierre Hermé: Mille-feuille Plénitude

Decided it was time to go back to the basics with the superb shops that reliably give me great or at least excellent cake. I got the Mille-feuille Plénitude (ミルフィユ プレニチュード; 864) from Pierre Hermé. This is pretty extreme, being a mille-feuille with a fairly thick top layer of caramelized pastry leaves and some lower down, chocolate with fleur de sel (fancy sea salt), two layers (as the main filling) of chocolate mascarpone cheese cream, and caramel-based layer (the word they gives seem to be only used by them, カラメルモワルゥ (karamerumowaruu), but is a kind of caramel gelatin and is fine. It was very good and I appreciated it, but in the end I'm not sure that it was special. Certainly, it's complex and full of good things and the components work together well, so I'm going to give it the benefit of the doubt and say excellent. It's pretty expensive, but then there is a lot of it, so it's not unreasonable, even if it is more than I need.

The run was over to the imperial moat course for one lap (5 km). This was not so much a training run in terms of training my body but training for pacing myself on that track, where there are markers every 100 m, but I'm not sure about how accurate they are and I can't read the distance off them like at Meiji Jingu Gaien, so I had to research about where some of the 0.5 km and 1.0 km intervals are relative to where I start. I also tried counting markers as I went, but ended up with one extra one (assuming there are 50). My goal was just +11.0 km/h on the course, which I did, and my run there seemed to be similar, but going back was slower and I was only around 10 km/h. I'm near my current running budget limit, and will remain so through the weekend, it looks like. Currently that means about 69 km/week at 12 km/h (my actual raw distance is now 72.2 km and should break 75 km tomorrow, as I replace last Saturday's fairly fast intervals by a leisurely run down to Hiroo area). Sunday's plan is slightly less than last week, 28 km, which will let me do reconnaissance on two shops for future cake comparisons (maybe in two weeks) and then bring me back paste Octobre to try a new shop (for me) that's not available on a weekday.

Fiorentina Pastry Boutique: Marquise

Decided that consecutive training days is no fun, so I'm not going to do that. Fortunately, I wanted to get back to Fiorentina Pastry Boutique, which is close, so I did a leisurely run, just 10 km/h for only about 7 km round trip. The cake was Marquise　（マラキューズ; 594 yen), which is chocolate sponge with chocolate ganache. It was definitely good, but not groundbreaking, which is sort of the best you can expect from a Hotel patisserie, which is reasonable. They pretty need to be noncontroversial and cover the basics. However, they should know not to try to stabilize a cake for transport by taping a support to the loose napkin under it. Still, it survived reasonably well, considering.

Chianti: Mont-Blanc

Today was a training run, so I went to Isetan when I could (we were understaffed at work today, so it was a long day) and fortunately there was something left. I think this is called a Mont-Blanc, but I wasn't really reading the Japanese name that closely and it could have the Italian version name, since Chianti is an Italian restaurant. This cake seemed a pretty typical Japanese version anyway. A very smooth, slightly buttery (but no way near Dalloyau's level of almost pure butter taste) chestnut paste, which was most of it, around a little unbaked meringue, so no whipped cream, I think, and no baked base. Among Mont-Blancs, this seemed excellent, plus it's a first cake, so I want to give them the benefit of the doubt. They shouldn't really be that hard to visit that I need to get them at Isetan, since they are in Azabudai and Yoyogiuehara, as well as some department stores, but I'm not sure exactly which places have fresh cake for takeout, so I'll probably hit Isetan again before they are gone.

The training run was 5 laps at >=12.0 km/h each at Meiji Jingu Gaien. For some reason, was I pessimistic going out. I guess because I was r
eally sore after 4 laps, also it was cold (I start wondering whether I'm going to freeze but then it doesn't become a problem, versus overdressing and being fine at the beginning and then getting too hot). The first lap (after the warm up getting there, and my routine running "switches", versus stretches, though I have some of those) was in some way the hardest. I have to check my time every 100 m and keep increasing the pressure on myself. Of course, the 5th lap is also hard, since that's where all the new training is, but by that point my body knows what it needs to do, even if it's become harder to do it than previous laps. All laps were successful, and the last one edged into 13 km/h territory, so I can probably scale that back and do 6 laps, though I'd like to do some running on my other two main courses first, as well as faster intervals.

Jean-Paul Hévin (Marunouchi): Guérande,

I'm behind, so this is on Tuesday. I had a busy schedule of running planned, though it required modification and the cake side was mixed, like last time.

First, I had to stop by a local shrine and get rid of a worn out charm (or so I was told). Then it was off to the Isetan Men's Salone, which has a Jean-Paul Hévin chocolate "café". I was looking for new cakes, but the reason I was expecting there might be something was that Valentine's Day is coming up and they had multiple special cakes for Christmas, but they said they we're not doing anything special for cake for this holiday. However, they had Guérande (グランド; 583 yen), which I hadn't had, so I sat down and had it. What I was told was that there was salt and also crepe, giving it crunch, both true, I think. At the same time, I was readying the card and only got to chiboust, which I think is just that little line in the middle, since I couldn't see that any of the rest of it was especially egg heavy. It was definitely excellent, I thought as I ate it, but was it really great if I compared it to other chocolate cakes that were great? I thought probably not. However, the problem was I then didn't drink enough water and didn't brush my teeth or even wash my mouth out. So even though it did not seem salty when I ate it, baked crepe tends to stick in the back teeth and I ended up tasting the salt for the rest of the run, which I do not like, though it was not so strong as to make me feel sick (which salt can do to me, if it's like big crystals on a pretzel or chocolate. So be careful careful of the after effects if you have this cake, but most people don't just eat a piece of cake with a little water and then run.

Next task was to go to Dalloyau to see whether they had Opale (or Opalé?), so I could compare it to another cake over the weekend. In fact, no, and it does not have a regular schedule, so I had to scrap my weekend plan and come up with something else to compare a rather unusual cake from Origines Cacao (which may not have that cake, either), thus being behind now. Anyway, the goal was information, so job done. I had been planning to go another two blocks for my cake that day, but since JPH had had something new, that was out, so instead I headed home. However, since I was off plan, I just sort of winged it and went back zig-zagging on a lot of different roads that I usually never use (and now know not too, since they are mainly too crowded with people for the sidewalk width).

In total, I ran about 11 km (I walked in Ginza and coming out as far as Hibiya Park), all at 12 km/h, though on the low side (around 11.7 km/h).
.



Jean-Paul Hévin, Marunouchi, Chuo-ku, Guérande, Tokyo cake, running, salt, chiboust, feuillantine, chocolate,

Cake-off: Tentation Chocolat vs. Carrément Chocolat

Not a bad cake running day, but still mixed results. First, a little slow. This was deliberate, but I felt afterward that it would have been hard to do otherwise. First I went to Cuoca, where they did not have scrapers for making macarons (I could have checked their website first, but it's somewhat on the way, so why spoil the surprise.) That was about 11 km @ 11.0+ km/h, which was my goal, rather than kill myself doing 12 km/h, which is not something I need on long runs, at least yet. Also, though not painfully sore today, yesterday's speed training was not something I would recommend before the main long run of the week (I was busy this weekend, at least Friday and Saturday, so I ran when the opportunity was there).  From, I went to Au Bon Vieux Temps for the Tentation Chocolat, which is my earliest great cake. I had a back-up plan in case this turned out to be out of season or just something they didn't make anymore, but the staff helped me find it when I asked (I often can't see what's in front of me). Ran into a long train crossing signal (too long not to indicate a problem, so after several minutes, I left the waiting crowds of people and vehicles and ran parallel to the line, since I wanted the shortest route in terms of time, rather than distance) and it resolved itself within another several minutes (I knew I'd eventually at least get to where there was a bridge or tunnel anyway, but the train did finally go past). This was my first trial run of seeing whether I could run a cake like this so far (12+ km), and I wouldn't try it in summer (I might have to use the trains for cake transport then, but then I also don't want to be running super long distances in the worst heat anyway; been there, done that). Thus, I have an excuse to be down around 10 km/h.

Cake survived, though the vibration moved to across it's cardboard base (taped down) to the edge of the box, but it's a pretty solid cake, so no problem, which is good, because then I accidentally flipped it over on its side trying to get it out and had to put it back together. I don't know why they didn't add partitions to keep it in place, which is the normal thing and what they did from the last cake I got there. I might have to specify that it's going to have a rough return home (versus me just eating it in the park).

Next, I ran over to Isetan to get the Carrément Chocolate from Pierre Hermé at Isetan, which was the next great chocolate cake that I blogged. This was also at 10 km/h, though that dropped down to 9 km/h coming back, which I can at least partially blame on more crowded conditions (though right around Isetan, the road is closed to traffic for Sunday during the day.

This was my first try at comparison. I choose two similar cakes, although the Tentation is a mousse cake (a very solid mousse), whereas the Carrément Chocolat is not, though still very moist. Both were great chocolate cakes, which I'm happy about (I imagine that I'm going to find some cakes that I rated as great once that I'm not going to be less impressed with the second time), but I'm disappointed that they were not more different. In the end (and really at the last bites), I decided to go with Carrément Chocolat, as I like the crunch from the bottom layer (though I don't need the gold leaf on top, at all).

Doutor: Ganache

The title is somewhat facetious, as Doutur (Coffee Shop) is a typical Japanese chain coffee shop, and their Ganache (220 yen?) is a tiny square barely pretending to be cake, though, of course, that is basically what it is. I'll say it's okay, which is better than I feared, and might be better than their usual cake. The only reason I mention it is for completeness (so even if I starting doing all cafés, Detour is covered now), and because I did not have anything else today. Tomorrow, if I can get them, I'll try to get two pieces of real cake that I thought last time were great and evaluate them in comparison with each other.

The running was interval training again, and it was hard, harder than it needed to be. It's difficult to be precise timing oneself by wristwatch chronometer on short distances, so I'm still not very consistent. I was trying for eight 300 or 325 m 13.0+ km/h intervals. The first just missed it, so I overcompensated for the next ones. I did get my eight 13.+ km/h intervals, but in the process I got six 14.0+ km/h intervals and one 15.0+ km/h i
ntervals, so I'm okay on 13.0+ and 14.0+ km/h training for now, but I'd like to do a total of at least 600 meters in intervals at 15.0+ km/h, and I may need to do longer intervals at 13.0 km/h to ever get consistent. First I'll try ten of the current-length ones, but I should do 5 full laps at 12.0+ km/h first, when the budget allows. I want to do a couple actual running to cake shops first, at reasonable speeds.

Sadaharu Aoki: Tarte Caramel Salé

Went to Isetan and got Tarte Caramel Salé (タルトカラメルサレ; 720 yen) (although there may be an "au" missing in there), more for yesterday's run than today's which was pretty pathetic. I needed a clearer goal. Rather than more 13 km/h intervals, I decided to try hill work, but with my running budget, going out to the Akasaka Palace course didn't leave much for the actual hills, so I tried running along Gaien West Avenue from in front of the Sokagakkai Shinjuku Cultural Center intersection (or where the Shinjuku History and Culture Course meets Gaien West Avenue), down to the Daikyoucho intersection, which is good as far as grade, but is only about 280 meters and is a little narrow if anyone else is walking on it. It's not so busy, but I was making a nuisance of myself, so I only did about four downward runs at 13 to 14 km/h (plus upward runs at 9 to 10 km/h, which not really enough to even get sweaty, as cold as it was. I won't try there again for that.

The "cake" seemed great. This was a soft, semi-flowing, if that makes sense, caramel under the top. Wasn't particularly salty that I noticed, which is just as well. It has limited availability, though, and isn't on their website. 

Jean-Paul Hévin: Longchamp Chocolat Lait

Got the last cake I know of currently available from Jean-Paul Hévin, the Longchamp Chocolat Lait (ロンシャン　ショコラ　レ; 680 yen), which took two tries. Note that I previously posted on the Longchamp Chocolat Noir. It's possible that the Marunouchi chocolate bar will have some special cake for the upcoming Valentine's Day, since they surprised me with ones for Christmas, but otherwise I might have to wait for spring for something new, which means I need to finally getting around to reviewing all cakes I've rated as great and start comparing them to each other, which I haven't looked into yet (as far as, where I would start).

For running, my goal was to do 6 x 300 meters intervals @ 13.0+ km/h, down at Meiji Jingu Gaien, which was a little crowded when I got on, but I didn't see the largest group again once I passed them. Unfortunately, my fourth interval fell below 13.0 (but was still around 13 km/h), so I have to watch out for intervals over the last couple hundred meters of the course, which is where there is a slight upward slope. To make up for it, I did an extra interval (I would have kept going around third lap anyway). Actually, I had three intervals that were 14.0+ km/h, the last being closer to 15 km/h, plus another interval between 13.5 and 14.0 km/h. In the end, I got my 1.8+ km @ 13.0+ km/h, and 0.9+ km @ 14.0+ km/h, so I can use that as a start point when I want to deliberately do intervals at 14.0+ km/h, which I had been planning to do. First, I'll try to do 8 x 300 m @ 13.0+ km/h for my next training run.

Cake was great, which is no surprise. In some way, it is an extravagant cake, being a light chocolate mousse meringue (I assume, since the description says meringue and chocolate mousse, although maybe chocolate mousse is still chocolate mousse after you bake it, though I assume it would just melt) around maybe just plain meringue, with a milk chocolate coating with almond bits. On the other hand, it's a pretty simple taste, so maybe just my bias is talking. Nothing is stopping other shops from making similar cakes, though.

Actually, I tried to get this cake the day before and failed, so I got Pain aux Raisins from Maison Kayser, which was actually just okay (too dry for me, but maybe I shouldn't buy fancy bread in the evening).

The day after JPH, I tried to go to Octobre, thinking they are open until 8, which they are not. I could have then tried Plaisir, which is very close and theoretically should have been open (I know now), but was too stubborn and/or really did not care that much (after 8.1 km @ 10 km/h, I was pretty mellow, though now I'm disappointed that I hadn't managed 11 km/h). I'll get around to Plaisir eventually, but I've been there before, even though I haven't blogged them, and there are closer places I could do first, as far as revisiting places. Returning, I missed my turn and ended up connecting back up with Yamanote Avenue on a completely unfamiliar road that was none-the-less going in the right direction and well framed by routes I use regularly. Similarly, heading toward Yoyogi Station, I tried a slightly different way and ended up going past a school south of Shinjuku Gyoen that I didn't recognize buried back in a neighbor that I go frequently, just on different streets. Ended up 9.1 km @ 11 km/h coming back, even though going seemed more down hill (although a lot more worry about navigating a new route).

So no cake Wednesday, but I had great cake on Tuesday, I'm not underweight, over-lean, or over-slim right now, and I've got definitely not great homemade desserts in the freezer to use up, so no worries. Thursday, though, I'm getting cake from Isetan before Valentines Day chocolate sales makes things too crazy over there. Speaking of which, I would have stopped at a bean-to-bar place on Yamanote Avenue if they had been open and if it had not been packed with people receiving a lecture, presumably on how to make chocolates. (I've never been in there, but I've noticed them before and seen some stuff online about a few such places in Tokyo.)

L'atelier Motozo: Monte Bianco

Ran first to Motozo, though I got a little confused and ending up running around a couple blocks and checking the map near P. Glycine because I forgot that I had to cross Yamanote Avenue first and mistook it for the expressway after Motozo. Still, the run came out 7 km, which was what I expected, and it was (a low) 12 km/h, so faster than necessary but respectable. (My goal was 11 km/h for the trip, wanting more consistency of pace than last week.)

There, I got the Monte Bianco (モンテビアンコ; 583 yen) to compare with last time's Monte Bianco Giapponese. I choose eat in, since all the seats were free and it's cold this weekend. I was fine with that coffee was not available yet, which maybe explains what the bar arrangement is for. As it happens, I didn't care as much for this one. I recognized the taste of chestnuts, of course, so maybe I just don't like whatever the most common variety of chestnuts available here is, and that's why some mont-blanc I like and some I don't. It was still good, but that's not enough to get me back quickly.

After that, things were complicated. First, I looked of Octobre and overshot and had to come back, but it was where it was supposed to be and open. Then I looked for Plaisir, which was not where it was marked on my map (but close). I found it and they were closed again, with a sign on the door explaining that they were taking a week off (which is not marked on their website, calendar, unless it is buried somewhere in the long, rambling, poorly formatted posting), so this is still not a place that I would head to without planning a backup.

From there, I traced my way through Shimo-kitazawa, which was pretty active but not as crowded as I feared, so it's not unreasonable to run through there on a Sunday, in search of P. Main Mano. I was a little confused about which two of the three shops had closed and confirmed that this was one of the closed ones. There is still a café somewhere (it's on my google map, but I hadn't marked in on my portable road map), and they may have cake, but they don't have "patisserie" in their name, so since I'm not out to visit every café in Tokyo anyway (or Patisserie, really, just I sort of arbitrarily decided that I should find out whether this place was any good for cake after getting a cream puff there once), I think I won't worry about this place further. I'm hoping to get to Octobre later this week, as a long midweek run.

The long way back was about 10 km and averaged 11 km/h, as planned. I started on the high speed side and dipped in the middle but increased as I stopped needing to be concerned with navigation and could just focus on keeping up my speed.

Maison D'ahni: Iéna

Got down to Maison D'ahni for the first time (at least going inside). Had a little trouble, since streets around there tend to split and merge a lot, though the reason for all the cops is all the embassies (also lots of foreigners), particularly families that time of day (around noon). My point is I am somewhat guessing where I mistook my timing due to crossing the wrong way and an intersection and needing to wait for an extra light change. Still, I'm pretty sure I was averaging 11 km/h there (and definitely 10 km/h back). On the way back, a (American) guy who had just said "hey" or something to a family cycling out of a building that Google Maps doesn't identify or give street views for ran after me a bit and asked whether I was exercising and doing delivery at time same time, so I explained that it was my own cake. He said that was "awesome", which was nice and maybe I should have directed him to my blog, but I realized afterward that he could be weird guy just chatting with anyone who came buy, since it wasn't clear whether the family that he had said something to him actually knew him (they and I were both busy). Not that he seemed weird otherwise, maybe just curious about what weird stuff goes on in Japan.


The cake I chose was Iéna (イエナ; 561 yen), which was layered chocolate (-almond?) biscuit with chocolate and plain whipped cream layers as filling and the whole thing covered with a chocolate coating with nuts. The same chocolate whipped cream appears on top, along with some caramelized hazelnuts. It was definitely good, but the whipped cream layers were much thinker than the biscuit layers, which is not my idea of cake (too light). The chocolate coating just gave it more of a snack cake feel, though it probably helped keep it together on the run. Still, good cake that looks nice, just not enough to get me back there soon.

Fiorentina Pastry Boutique: Bianco Monte Japanese

Another shortish run revisiting some place I've been but never blogged. In this case, I went down to Fiorentina Pastry Boutique in the Hyatt in Roppongi Hills, which is about 3.5 km. Partially, I was trying not to go to fast and partially I was just still tired from yesterday, so my speeds were 10 km/h going down and 9 km/h coming back. Same as yesterday, I waited until later to have my cake with tea.

The cake was the Bianco Monte Japanese (626), which is another mont-blanc with domestic chestnuts. The chestnut paste was very smooth and the meringue base was very nutty. The base was coarser and yet airier than Jean-Paul Hévin's, which is my reference. Definitely excellent, so I should visit again soon. Note, that the cake didn't travel perfectly, so it's probably less symmetric than originally.

Pierre Hermé: Plaisir Intense

After working late, I went to Isetan and got the Plaisir Intense (756 yen) from Pierre Hermé. 

Running was 12 km/h laps at Meiji Jingu Gaien. I was worried at the start that I wouldn't be able to make my goal of four (5.3 km), but it worked out. The last lap was a little long (by 100 m) and a little fast (edging into 13 km/h territory) because I ran into a large pack of slightly slower people around where the end marker was (actually, an only slightly slow pair met up with a slower pack and matched them rather than going around, so the whole path was blocked and I had to step into the street to maintain my pace) and I missed it trying to get past them. On the other hand, I was not able to keep up the speed going home, so that 1 km or so was only 11 km/h this time (plus there was 100 m shorter at 10 km/h getting there to begin with). It was another not long run but it was intense enough that I feel sufficiently sore to be satisfied, although it is in the buttocks and hips first, then thighs and not so much calves, which feels weird (and unstable, sitting). 

This time I followed my own advice and just ate my yogurt when I got home and waited until after a bath, dinner, and tea ("La France") was ready to have my cake. I'm not sure why I haven't had this one before, but maybe it is seasonal. If I believe what I read online, which seems accurate, the base is almond cheese biscuit, there is chocolate flaked praliné, chocolate ganache, chocolate chantilly, and some large pieces of chocolate, all dark chocolate. It is definitely intense and definitely excellent, as well as not being overly sweet, although that's natural for dark chocolate.

Anniversary: Short Cake

Nothing exciting to report other than meeting the challenge of running to a place that closes at 19:00, which I'm not likely to get another chance to try soon on a work night. Specifically, I ran down to Anniversary in Minamiaoyama, which is about 3 km away, at 11 km/h going and 10 km/h coming back with cake. I got their (regular) Short Cake (ショートケーキ, 486 yen), which experience with several cakes from there suggests is the best option. Unfortunately, I'm not that into (strawberry) shortcake. I think it requires more calm and less hunger than I usually have when I'm eating cake after running. Perhaps I should try setting it aside, taking my shower, having dinner, and making tea first. I should try that next time I'm in the same situation. Anyway, this was good short cake and nice looking, so I recommend it for anyone who would like this kind of soft cake surrounded in whipped cream and flavored with strawberry.

Debailleul: Macaron Breton

I was curious about cake appearing at Debailleul, which is a high-end chocolate counter at Isetan (where I had never bought). Actually, though, the cakes are from Collection Échiré, so not so distinct from Échiré Maison du Beurre, which is in the same company group. Anyway, even knowing the facts now, it was worth trying and was good, high-quality cake, but not more than that. Specifically, I had the Macaron Breton (マカロン　ブルトン; 734 yen), which is a sort of buttery chocolate (ganache) tart on a sablé base
with a macaron-type top.

The running was Meiji Jingu Gaien intervals, which ended up with 300 m at 14 km/h, 925 m at 13 km/h and about 3 km at 10 km/h. The fast intervals were all at least 13.0 km/h, as planned, though I don't have fine control at the speed, which is how I end up with one interval sliding into 14 km/h territory.

Au Bon Vieux Temps: Chocolat Fondant

Had a long run today down to Au Bon Vieux Temps again, last time being Dec. 18. As predicted, I was faster, just at the bottom of 12 km/h going out (12+ km). I walked to the park this time, so that cut out 650 m of running, but then ran 11 km/h to the Jiyugaoka Station Couca and then home at 10 km/h, again maybe both just barely within +/-0.5 km/h. So I haven't increased my distance, but I definitely increased my speed, by too much. I need to work on my consistency, which is where long training runs would be helpful, if I had time. I would have overrun my running budget but this makes the weighted amount of 12+ km/h running more than half, so I normalized 12 km/h. Still, I don't have much left for tomorrow and the day after that, so I might have to wait until Wednesday for more running and cake. In the meantime, I decided that I wanted to go by bicycle to the Mitsukoshi Cuoca rather than try to jog with 2 km of sugar and chocolate (which might not be great for the chocolate, against my back).

On the way, I stopped for energy at the Minamiaoyama Anderson and got Pain au Chocolat (パンオショコラ, 280 yen) again. It was softer inside than Maison Kayser's, which I don't think I prefer, but it was fresh baked and definitely good (as well as a little cheaper).

At Au Bon Vieux Temps, I reviewed the cakes and found that the one I thought I was going to get included coffee, so I went for Chocolat Fondant (チョコラフォンダン), though why it's called that, I'm not sure, since it was basically a block of raw chocolate. It is soft, so I suppose you could make it melt easily; maybe I should have taken it home and microwaved it a little. I know you can buy pieces of chocolate like this, but I'm not sure what that's usually called besides just chocolate. Anyway, this in no way resembles Fondant au Chocolate (which was obvious when I got it). It was still definitely good, but I'm not that interested in this type of chocolate. This bumps off this shop out my 2nd-tier "Superb" category, which comes as no surprise. At some point when I find another excellent shop, I'll split the excellent ones into top and bottom groups so it can stand out again as at least being at least among the top 20 Tokyo patisseries.


On the way back, I stopped in the Dean & Deluca Bakery under the tracks next to Himonya Park (which finally reopened recently). I got the seasonal Croissant Chocolat (クロワッサンショコラ, 224 yen), which is not that much different from Pain au Chocolat. It was cheaper, but only because everything was discounted for some reason (not because it was late in the day), which maybe they always are at that place. It was too much food, though, and only 30 min running after the cake, so I felt more full than I liked. Maybe I should have waited for Perch (coffee stand just above Nakamekuro on old Yamanote Road), but I was okay and that was probably not why I was much slower than going out.

Jean-Paul Hévin: Voyage

Decided to go to Jean-Paul Hévin in Marunouchi. I could go there on a day after work, but I didn't want to wait until next week and needed a not too long run for today. The plan (which I didn't actually consult beyond where I was going) was to stay around 10 km/h, but actually I was on the high side of 12 km/h going out the long way down through Meiji Jingu Gaien (6.2 km). That suggests that my next planned training run of 4 laps (5.3 km) is unnecessary, although there is about a 0.5% net downgrade into Marunouchi (although there is also a significant upward slope after passing through Akasaka) so I may not try to accelerate things. Coming back was naturally uphill, though I took the short route and stopped for groceries, so only 4.1 km at 11 km/h. I'm still okay budget-wise for tomorrow's run, even assuming 1 km/h faster than my last trip down past Oyamadai, but I'll need to shorten Monday's run, so maybe another training run with intervals or I'll go somewhere close, depending on how tomorrow works out (rain could shut me down).

The case, which I ate in, was Voyage (ヴォワヤージ, 639 yen), with is the usual relative simple (for multiple layers of mousse and biscuit), only with some raspberry sauce, though not enough that I could identify it by taste. It was definitely good, and I think it's fair to stretch that to excellent, but not a standout for them.

I'll include here that I visited Maison Kayser again last night, this time getting the Pain au Chocolat (パンオショコラ; 302 yen). Previously, I haven't been that impressed with this traditional form, maybe because it is not a chocolate/sugar bomb like I used to look for, but I've learned to appreciate layered pastry and the amount of chocolate seems right to me now.

Maison Kayser: Chausson aux Pommes

Decided ahead of time that it was a good day to skip the cake, though I just took a step down to viennoiserie, which is to say, fancy bread. In this case, I got a Chausson aux Pommes (ショソン　オ　ポム; 302 yen) from Maison Kayser at Isetan. Maison Kayser only opened there fairly recently and has several fancy things not found at other Isetan counters, so they fill a niche. This one is rather plain, being a very flaky apple pie, but it was good. Maison Kayser used to be my favorite place when I was living in Narima District and came into the Ikebukuro Station area.

The run was lap training at Meiji Gingu Gaien. I did three laps (about 4 km) at +12.0 km/h, which was hard, but I managed to stay just high enough coming home to call that 12 km/h, so I may be able to do 4 laps next time. Not sure when that will be be. Have a three day weekend (with a Monday holliday) coming up and I need to get to Au Bon Vieux Temps one day and still keep in the budget, but would like to get somewhere the other two days, too. Monday, though, I probably won't have much budget left and will do some sort of training run, but even 4 laps might put be over.

L'atelier Motozo: Monte Bianco Giapponese

Today was a company holiday, so I went to a new shop outside my normal weekday range (since Au Bon Vieux Temps is closed according to their usually weekly schedule), L'atlerier Motozo, which Sweet Sonobe mentioned. I didn't actually look back at his post, but he claimed the specialty as the Monte Bianco (or at least the specialty of the chef, who moved from shop that closed), which is a rational version (the cream is on top of the chestnut paste, not the reverse) of a mont-blanc. Actually, I got a modification of that, the Monte Bianco Giapponese (モンテビアンコジャッポネーゼ, 810 yen), which uses Japanese chestnuts, perhaps because I'm a cake snob. The cake was excellent, though not that different from other mont-blanc, which is a fairly simple cake, mostly. The meringue base, which has some chocolate in it, I think, is a flat disk, in keeping with all their few cakes being mainly tarts. There was an eat-in counter (as well as a bar, though I'm not sure whether and when that's used), but it was a reasonably nice day and it's next to Meguro River, so I ate at a bench outside.

L'atelier Motozo

The runs to and from there were 7 km each, in north of Meiji Gingu and out through Omotesando. Both were on the low side of 11 km/h. I came back through Omotesando because I want to stop at the renovated Pierre Hermé (photo failure). They've added a casual counter on the first floor and sell fancy pastries and apparently coffee (didn't see a menu, just the big machine). I tried the Bostock (ボストック, 432 yen), which was good but I'm still searching for double baked versions.

Starbucks: NY Cheesecake

Didn't plan to get cake, but still had some points left and had a request for a break. The cheesecake is decent (420 yen + 8%), again, especially compared to other major chains, although I can't remember that well the last time I tried to eat other such shops' cakes, so that's just a general impression.

For running, I just tried out a new fanny pack (I think) for running by going down to Meiji Gingu Gainen and doing one around the track. There where two 300 m intervals at 13 km/h and 225 m at 9 km in between, but there rest of the about 3 km run was at 10 km/h.

Jean-Paul Hévin: MOF2016

For New Year's Day, we went to the Omotesando Hills Jean-Paul Hévin, since they are open (many other places are quiet, but Harajuku to Omotesando was still full of crowds of people). Got both the cakes that are Jan. 1 to 10 only, the MOF2016 (714 yen + 8%) and the Mont(-Blanc) Fuji (637 yen + 8%). The new one, was the MOF2016, which got a little mangled trying to get it out of the box. There's still plastic around it that has to be peeled off, but as it took a little chocolate with it, it's just as well I took the photo first. It's got a top half of whipped cream and a bottom half that includes small pieces of maron (chestnut) confit and it's a nutty cake, generally, but what nut powders they used, I'm not sure. It's good, but not really special. The Mont Fuji, which I've blogged before, is confirmed to be special. Maybe by next year I'll get around to comparing it to other cakes that I've rated as great (surely, I'm getting close to running out of new/seasonal cakes, although I'm not sure what will appear Jan. 11 and I still need to get back to the Marunouchi Jean-Paul Hévin, which has a completely different selection of cakes).

The run was the Akasaka Palace course, with the goal of only a slight increase to 2 full laps (3.3 km/) at 11 km/h, since that's what fits in the budget. For this kind of training run, I'm trying to definitely get at least 11 km/h rather than just approximately, but I was above 11.5 km/h on the first lap, so it counts as 12 km/h for my budget. The next lap was a little slower, so walking home evened things out. This and the previous run indicate I need to up all my training speeds 1 km/h, although I'm not sure that I can actually get 12.0+ km/h for Akasaka Palace, but perhaps if I don't have to do a second lap I can make it. I should do the Imperial Moat course first, though: it's longer per lap, but definitely flatter (midway between Meiji Gingu Gaien and Akasaka Palace).