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).