Éclat des Jours: Odile

Did my fourth run to Éclat des Jours, so I'm starting to learn the tricks, like run fast enough after being stopped at a light to get through two lights but don't waste energy on the third unless there are three close together, because it's the main road and I cannot run as fast as a car to make timed lights. Also, I may have run more "Don't walks", just because there was no one coming and only a sort way to cross.

Still, I was a little surprised to come in under 1 hour of running for the first time, which means an average speed when running of around 11 km/h. Even so, it was slim pickings on a Friday night, so I don't expect to repeat this run on another Friday (unless I'm in the same situation of being busy on a Saturday). Back, I just barely kept around 9 km/h and probably missed a lot of second lights.

The cake was Odile (alternatives were a coffee-flavored cake and black forest chocolate cake, which has cherries), which is a cream cheese sandwich (I didn't check, but another blogger wrote "speculass", which is a kind of spice cookie, in the same sense as gingerbread) with rhubarb sauce. I passed it up until now, but I've had good look with rhubarb, so I got it and ran it home.

Of course, it is a mild cake, but very nice, and the sauce balances the slight acidity of the cream cheese well. It was excellent, though that may be my bias for this shop speaking.

Speaking of bias and full disclosure, technically, I received another cake that day, but it's not from a place I respect: it's from P. Frips. This is mostly a tart place, and it's cheap and convenient, and even has an outdoor table on the street in front of the park, but I had a tart I didn't think was fresh and quit them before starting this blog. For free "cake", it's perfectly reasonable, and actually, there was a selection, so I chose their one actual cake, Gateau Chocolat. It's soft and characterless (but consistent in texture) and the whipped cream was perhaps not enough to give much taste, but the strawberries were sufficiently fresh, so maybe I should be less suspicious of them. Still, only okay, so I regret eating it other then confirming that I should pass on even free cake from there. What can I say, I'm a cake snob. 

Tout le Monde: Gallia

Today I went down to P. tout le Monde for a first look/cake. It's a nice little shop near Musashi-Koyama on the Meguro Line, in Shinagawa. This was a day time run, which is necessary because they close at 19:00 and aren't that close to me (it's about a 9 to 10 km run, depending on how direct a route I try to do; in this case, less so on the way there). The run was fine, though I'm still slow compared to winter, being around 9 km/h around trip for 19 km.

I chose the chocolate cake, Gallia. This is sort of an everything-but-the-kitchen-sink kind of cake, as the base is maybe a chocolate feuillantine, above which is Japanais (hazelnut biscuit), chocolate whipped cream, cream, mousse, and ganache layers, and a couple kinds of chocolate covered nuts, as well as just some loose pieces. It was all good, and works good together. The chocolate itself was maybe nothing special but it was also not bad. Definitely a good cake. I cake on the terrace. No drinks service (which I didn't really want, but free water would have been nice), but I got a complementary financier, which is a pretty good score, though I'm not sure how good it is, because I'm saving it to share.

Cake-off: Pierre Hermé's Deux Mille Feuille over Sadaharu Aoki's Chocolat Pralin

For my run, I went a long way to Sadaharu Aoki's Marunouchi shop to satisfying myself that the cake I had thought they had did not exist (at least not this year: I think I was conflating cakes, though I was sure I had seen a Marunouchi exclusive on a green tea cake, so not the Bamboo, which you can get everywhere). I had already bought my cake at Isetan, so no problem. I might have to get a cream puff next time, but maybe something seasonal will come out in the mean time: July is almost here. The run was an easy 9 km/h over 11.1 km (69 m up and down each).

Today's delayed cake-off (prepared since last Thursday) was Pierre Hermé's "Deux Mille Feuille" versus Sadaharu Aoki's "Chocolat Pralin", two heavy hitters, both in terms of the shops and the cakes. These are both definitely great cake, but the total decadence of the Deux Mille Feuille wins out: praliné mousseline, praliné feuilletée, as well as the normal caramelized layered pastry. This is one of my favorite cakes, so don't think the Chocolat Pralin was not also wonderful. Tomorrow will be more running and less cake.

Bubó Barcelona: Xabina

After a brisk walk to Isetan to find that they did not have the cake I needed for my next cake-off, I headed home and then set off for Bubó Barcelona. This time, I did not get lost and it did take only half the time. Total, it was just under 6 km, done at 9 km/h.

The shop and street were empty of customers when I went, though someone came in after me. They had 10 types of cakes, so I won't run out of things there soon. I got the Xabina, which is basically a familiar type: mousse chocolate cake with a little Bavarian cream inside (not sure why). In this case, though, there are spices and olive oil involved, and you can definitely taste that there is something different going one. These types of cakes pretty much depend on the quality of the chocolate and this was definitely not bad, and interesting, so I'll say it's excellent and move this shop up to the Quite Excellent category, which means I'll have to make frequent visits there, at least until they disappoint me.

Worth mentioning, before I ate my cake, I had to go out for regular groceries, and I noticed an animal running along the fence between housing units. It was cat-sized, but something wasn't quite right. It came back and couple times, popping and running along the top of the fence (the wire fence: there isn't flat top), and I saw it had a triangular face. Apparently, we have civets (https://japantoday.com/category/features/kuchikomi/whats-that-smell-could-a-civet-be-nearby). I was told Tokyo has feral "Tree civets", or maybe it was "Forest civets", but I'm not sure that's a real thing and the Japan Today article was less certain about whether they are invasive.

Sadaharu Aoki: Éclair Framboise

Went to Isetan first to get something new from the winner of the cake-off before last, since the Marunouchi shop on Friday did not work out. Although not listed on their website, they had their Éclair Framboise. I'll visit their Marunouchi location tomorrow, just for research, and see if their green tea and sweet bean cake is back. If they aren't busy, I'll ask what days it is available in general, in cake want another cake from them soon.

For my run, I tried going to Bubó Barcelona for the first time. Even when I was on the right path, I couldn't tell (I think they've changed the name of one of the intersections, at least relative to Google Maps). I'm not going to try to calculate it, but judging from the time, I ran about 11 km, assuming that I was going about 9 km/h , which seems reasonable except in the sense that it is double the distance necessary. I thought today was going to be a partial rest, but it did not work out that way.

The éclair was excellent, which surprised me a little. I'm learning to like éclairs generally, and as I ate it, it just seemed an especially good medium for raspberry for some reason, so I wouldn't mind having this again or learning to make it some day, which is my basic definition of an excellent cake.

 

Yu Sasage: Princess

I seemed to have recovered from the tiredness of lass weekend. Might be from sleeping late. The actual run was nicer, too. As planned (though I deviated from the course somewhat), I followed close to the Keio line south of the main road rather than using the main road or using the old main road further north. It was so much nicer without all the car noise that I should always use that route, though it added an extra 1 km (though that will decrease slightly if I follow the planned route better). I could go faster (consistently 9 km/h) and still have the energy to run from the cake shop to the station and then from Shinjuku Station home rather than walking like yesterday. Total distance was 15 km.

The cake was Princess, which was a random choice, it just being just the first thing left to right that I hadn't had before. It's red peach, pistachio, and a tea biscuit. The crunchy biscuit was the best part, though the macaron was also very good. Otherwise, it was just a soft fruity cake, I'll say good, but not anything special. Yu Sasage was the lowest in the Quite Excellent list, and this gets it bumped down just Excellent. I'm holding off on replacing it until I get caught up on the newer additions.

Cake-off: Yu Sasage's "Perfum" over Hidemi's "Framboisier"

As expected, today's running was a little tough, so it was all around 9 km/h, which is better than it might have been. First, I went to Hidemi to get Framboisier. I dawdled preparing, so I didn't arrive until 11:05, whereas 10:50 might have been better. Still, I waited only about 15 min, but most of that outside in the sun. For this cake, it was close enough that I ran it back, though, with the lights, I didn't make it within the 40 min that they recommended. It was +11 km round-trip.

For the second cake, I went out to Yu Sasage, which was actually cooler, though it was now early afternoon, so probably not actually cooler. I ran about 1/4 north of the main highly, just to vary the routine (there are parks, which is convenient, and a lot of pretty old public housing apartment buildings, which are not so scenic, but fine), since I've been over to Yu Sasage a couple times recently for research and have previous stuck to the main road for simplicity (usually, I was coming back at the end, so not the best time for complications).

Both of these are fruity cakes, which are not my favorite, so hard to judge. The Framboisier, in particular, was hard to determine what I had thought was great about it, but by the last bite, I was certainly appreciating the balance of raspberry, sugar, and cream (also, may the cake needed some warm-up time, though not much in summer) and think that it is definitely excellent. The other cake, Perfum, is a pistachio tart with a fruity (soft) meringue, or at least the gelatin under the meringue was fruity. This also I liked more as I ate it (and the two cakes went well together, so it was a happy pairing). I liked the more substantial base, even if the three components, tart, meringue and gelatin tended to separate (as did the layers of Framboisier) and the actually lighter flavor of the top worked slightly better for me. It's a weekend/holiday only trip, so I guess that will be my run tomorrow, too, though, I'll trying following the train line south of the main road rather than north. Like today, though, I think I'll take the train back with the cake, at list to SHinjuku Station, because I've been running pretty heavy and the heat is not great for me or the cake.

Dalloyau: Opera

Well, I found that I was really tired, from last night's long run and from having a health check the same day. Not sure how tomorrow's early long run is going to go, but my motivation for a cake-off is still high. Still, I knew I needed to save my energy, so I was running about 8.5 km/h at the beginning but picked up speed enough to be actually around 9 km/h out, but only just above 8.5 km/h back, 11.7 km total. It was longer than I planned, because Sadaharu Aoki did not have what I went there for: I guess I should have sped up my preparations to get theere earlier. My backup shop was Dalloyau, but there they were sold out of my first choice, too, so I was left with my last choice (they only currently have two cakes I haven't had yet), which is the Opera (486 yen). This was last because I hate the taste of coffee, but I did intend to give this one a try. It was definitely good and perhaps could teach me to like coffee, except in the long run, it upset my stomach (I should have eaten dinner sooner after that, though I did have yogurt with it). Anyway, I gave Dalloyau's Opera shot and concluded that though seemed to have a good recipe, I should still stay away from it.

Éclat des Jours: Azelia

Yesterday was training without cake (cached for a second future cake-off). I ran up and down a slope fast for about 14 min and then around the same neighborhood trying to familiar myself with it (I did to a point and then got lost) and seeing whether there are better slopes nearby (probably not, except the one between two stations that might be too busy that I already knew about), for a total of about 40 minutes. The non-cake was a sablé from Jean-Paul Hévin: Sablé Viennois Nougatine, which is a cookie with an almond-brittle center and undercoating of chocolate. Definitely excellent, so I'll try their other similar sablé.

Over the outer moat toward Hibiya.

Today, I got back to a recent priority, Éclat des Jours. I had a fairly good run, almost exactly 10.0 km/h for the 10+ km going out, but with lots of stops for lights. I u need to stop for fewer lights (by ignoring the unnecessary ones). This time I got Azelia, which was a little risky. This is peanut mousse covered in caramel on a chocolate and whole peanut tarte. I'm not generally in favor of peanuts as a cake ingredient and caramel doesn't always work out, but I was willing to give it a try. I told them it would take 100 min (I meant to say 80), and they put three ice packs in it (so I think their service is great, too). Still, the caramel was looking a little melty around the edges, so the extra ice was probably not wasted, but it was fine. Going back was just above 8.5 km/h, which is fine carrying cake. Tried to take a couple pictures with the cheap phone.

Night view from main bridge on route.

The cake was excellent, I think, certainly I had no problems with the peanuts or the caramel, which were both to my liking. I was expecting a richer chocolate, ganache maybe, rather than something more biscuit-like, but you generally need something to soak up extra moisture from mousse, seems like, so this was probably a structural requirement. Even though this third cake didn't reach the great level, this remains a top priority as a still little explored quite excellent shop.

En Vedette: Saint Marc Pistache

Finally got over to En Vedette in Miyoshi, Koto-ku. Can't say how long I ran, but about 2 hours at a low speed, so probably 9 km/h, or that at least would match the distance and estimated time. Got a little lost both ways (didn't take the same way back, as I stopped by at a few places along the way, for research). I got the Saint Marc Pistache (518 yen), which is what you would expect, except that there is a thin red layer under the chocolate cream that did not have much impact--I would guess cherry, since that's commonly paired with pistachio. It was creamy and it was definitely good, but didn't really excite me, so big plan to go back again. Nice looking little shop though, and I like the neighborhood, other than the low elevation (which is also true of Ginza), but not particularly convenient for me, which is why it's taken quite a while to get around to it.

Coming back, I went the north way around the Inner Moat course, where this time of day is mostly high school students, though they've gotten pretty ahead of me. Further up, there were a couple tourists, because of north exits for the East Gardens.

Sunday/Monday: Bubó Barcelona: Choco Deluxe

Had a long bicycle ride to visit some outlying shops to see what was available for upcoming cake-offs (for example, I would have had one Tuesday, but the necessary shops are closed, so I'll give it a try Saturday, though I may run into other trouble, as being sold-out is also a problem, and that's a bigger danger on the weekend). It was a relaxing ride, at least until I got to Ring Road 8, which I forgot how inconvenient/dangerous it is for pedestrians and bicyclists, so I should look for a different route when I perhaps do the same thing next month. No cake, also in preparation for the next cake-off, but at Paris S'éveille, I got a Croissant Orange (or something closely named), which was excellent. It's a fairly how croissant, and very crispy, with some orange paste inside. Not sure what they cut the orange with besides sugar, but almond paste seems like a good choice.

Monday, I got a second cake from Bubó Barcelona at Isetan, since their time there was almost up. It is Choco Deluxe, which is an all chocolate mousse cake. The center seems to be a little chocolate cream, surrounded by a lighter mousse, with a chocolate coating, of course, along with the outside decorations. There is a crunchy bottom and some more chocolate biscuit inside. Being strictly chocolate is limiting, but it is excellent chocolate, so I would like to compare this to other top chocolate, which is to say that I think it is great. Guess I'll be visited the Omotesando shop sooner rather than later, though it's going to have to get in line at least behind Éclat des Jours, which I hope to get to Thursday, and Il Pleut sur la Seine, which will have to wait for next week, as I owe Sadaharu Aoki a cake and want to do a couple cake-offs this week-end, to catch up a little.

There was also a little running. I did about 10 min running hard up and down a moderate nearly slope and then went to the Gaien course and practiced 500 m at a time 8, 8, 10, and 11 km/h speeds using a stop watch, before heading back. It was my first time for this kind of training and I expected hard running the next day, so I didn't work that long. Also, I had a late start.

Cake-off: Sadaharu Aoki's "Valencia" over Paris S'éveille's "Fig Orange"

Had a medium run of 21 km visited various shops to see first hand what their June selection is. The main block (more than 12 km) was just getting to Limevert, for which I won't again demonstrated to myself that I shouldn't try to follow Google's route, because all the streets around Umegaoka are just too random. That was 9 km/h, although the remaining part seemed to be 10 km/h (guess the sports drink was more effective than I expected). Trying a back way between Ryoura and Bigarreaux, though you can't tell well from the picture, there is a reasonably large garden tucked inside this residential area. I went by a block-sized orchard as well (400 yen per 1 km, the sign said, I think, but not sure for what), but that was probably on the other (northwest) side of Ryoura.

Following south from Bigarreaux, the road briefly becomes quite nice, though that is not that surprising for the neighborhood, which is relative upscale. The run ended at Paris S'éveille, where I procured Fig Orange for my cake-off and then took the train to Isetan to get Valencia from Sadaharu Aoki. The Fig Orange is a pretty solid cake, so it probably could have survived further running, but as I've complained before, I've been over doing it this week, so I stuck to the plan of not running that part. Tomorrow I may do 42 km by bicycle, without buying cake to prepare for the next cake-off (as early as Tuesday). 

Unfortunately, I was not feeling the greatness of the Fig Orange. It's heavy on the fig, which is fine in general, and just plain heavy, which I guess I was just not as into as the previous time. The Valencia is the orange version of their standard layered cake with cream, chocolate, nuts, ..., and the formula works and is still great, as far as I can tell, so they take this match-up.

Jean-Paul Hévin: Éclair Praliné

Today I got around to a new cake at my favorite shop, Jean-Paul Hévin. Today's limited-time dessert (until at least June 30) was Éclair Praliné. Like yesterday's choux dessert, I was not having any problem this this kind of crust. Actually, this might be the best éclair I've ever had, though that's still among a fairly limited set, but it is enough that I can call it great, which means two great cakes since the last cake-off. I definitely need to step things up, but fortunately tomorrow is Saturday and I already have a plan (and a prior cake-less run) that seems fairly likely to successful about matching a couple orange-related cakes.

Yesterday's run was somewhat reasonable, though it's been a pretty hard running week, plus tomorrow I've have a big daytime run, so today's run was only 7.5 km at the usual speed, 9 km/h. I went around to Toshi Yoroizuka again, and this time they were open, but I did not see anything new. I suppose I need to swing by during the day some time, if I really want to check their current full selection, preferably the Kyobashi store.

Frédéric Cassel: Saint Honoré Fraise Vanille

Ran to Mitsukoshi to visit Frédéric Cassel and got the Saint Honoré Fraise Vanille (756 yen). I can report that it was 6.2 km there (not a very direct route) going down 69 m and up 40 m (Google Maps now shows an elevation chart: neat). Too many long runs this week, so the speed was only 9 km/h. Going back Google says approximately flat, because I took a direct route that rose less gradually, so apparently 30 m over 5 km isn't enough to interest it in making a graph, so this is the output it usually gives me. I'll have to experiment with routes to see what the rules are. Speed was only slightly slower.

The cake, a saint honoré with vanille custard and strawberry cream, as well as strawberry slices, was definitely excellent as expected. This is despite having no chocolate, caramel, or nuts,

so my tastes are not completely narrow. I notice that I did designate it great, but I may need more experience with this type of cake to make that determination. I may have it, because I've given up on Henri le Roux ever having cake again, so they are off my cake index system and Frédéric Cassel joins Dalloyau in the Quite Superb category, where actually it has already passed it (not sure when that happened). Actually, I have about the same number of cakes from both, but I have more non-cakes from Dalloyau and fewer unsampled cakes (currently, two available, which somehow I have not managed to get to, though the month is half over). Now I'll figure out who to bump up to Superb from Quite Excellent, and I have an extra one there, but the top contenders are still under visited, so first I have to rectify that, which is going to take some time.

Note, one reason the return trip was shorter is, since I was carrying cake, I decided to use the tunnel system as far as Hibiya Park, since it's much less crowded than the street level.

Full disclosure, yesterday was a 17 km round trip run with no fresh cake, but rather just research and a pastry-type cake, a Canelé from Clair de Lune (it was a more specific type of canelé, a region of France I think, but I'm not confident so I'll check or ask when I go back next).

Two trains passing at night on Chuo Line

Between the canal and main road.

Another 9 km/h run, about half along the train line/canal.








Also, I baked an apple tart again. Unfortunately, it leaked, but I verified that there was no problem cooking it the full hour, that I could make the glaze better than the previous time (too runny then), but that the apples shrink so much, that the overhanging crust creates a hollow. Since there's a pause in the apple season, according to my local supplier, I plan to move on and try a cheese-cake tart with the same dough and also try another dough.

Bubó Barcelona: Nameraka

I planned to do a cake-off, but talking myself into waiting, as there are other things I want to get to during the week, so I want to keep to my Saturday plan. Instead, I went to Isetan to take advantage of the visit of Bubó Barcelona (not that Omotesando is so far, but Isetan is cheaper and easier) and got Nameraka (799 yen), which is Japanese for smooth, though it was written in katakana, like a foreign word. This Isetan version has extra chocolate on the sides, if I'm to believe Bubó Barcelona's Facebook picture, but otherwise is supposedly chocolate cream (must be really thick cream) and vanilla cream with dried raspberries on a very nutty base, I assume hazelnut. Also some mint there too, or some green thing at least a little minty, but overall the cream and nuttiness, without actually nuts, dominated. It was excellent. I'm not sure that it was more than the sum of its parts, but the parts were excellent.

For running, I went down to Midtown again and confirmed that Sadaharu Aoki there does not have the next new cake I should get (need to get to Marunouchi), or at least one that I've put off until now, since its green tea and Japanese sweet beans. However, I didn't research ahead of time, and Toshi Yoroizuka was closed except for the bar. I guess I might be back there again Friday night. Another place also has a cheesecake that I should eventually get around to. I was pretty sore after yesterday this morning, though no so much by the time it was evening, but I only did 7 km on the low side of 9 km/h.

Éclat des Jours: Rhum Raisin

Ran to Toyo (just north of Toyo station) in Koto-ku again, 10+ km each way, 10 km/h there, and 9 km/h back with cake in the rain (well, for several kilometers, anyway). Half the run follows a familiar path, and so passes quickly, but it's a nice path to the Inner Moat and then around to the Tokyo Station terminus of Toyo Line through Marunouchi and Kyobashi. On the main street (Route 1/Hibiya Ave.) running along the east side of the Inner Moat, you can see the newer behind the old on the northeast corner, in this old banking district, and the soon to be grand new big project on the southeast corner.

Then east of Tokyo station, which means canals and rivers. In this case, there are four canals but only Sumida River to cross of the bridges, but night and car headlights inferred too much for my old phone camera.

The cake was Rhum Raisin, which I did not have great expectations of, but it was the right shape (I don't trust wedges) and otherwise was not something I had developed negative expectations of. Still, just good was what I expected, but actually this was clearly definitely excellent and, maybe I'm just in a positive mood after 20+ km of running, but I left it was the best cake of this type that I've had and I'd like to have it again and compare it to other cakes, which is a way of saying it was great, so that's too great cakes in a row from them. Guess I'll be making more long eastward night runs. Also, this cake traveled almost double the distance as the last cake and did not even lose a raisin (until I bumped it trying to get it out, but I put it back).

Aigre-Douce: Saveur

Today (I'm finally caught up), I did a research run where I stopped at three places looking for previous great cakes, being successful at one: Très Calm (though it's not the season for Mont-Blanc and I'm not in a hurry). For cake for today, I went to Aigre-Douce, who won the cake-off before last, and got Saveur, which was, before I broke it trying to get it home, a sort of chocolate pyramid. Inside, is soft cake and ganache. It is fairly moist, which I assume was it's original condition before I broke it, though it's possible that it got in the refrigerator, as there was about an hour before I ate it. I haven't had this problem before. In total, the run was 20 km which was close fairly close to the plan, although I was off plan for a lot of the second half. Speed was only around 9 km, and I assumed to be sore from yesterday, despite being not that long a run, although it was late and today's run was early, so only a short recovery time. I'm hoping that I can run a similar distance tomorrow, which is one reason that I kept my Sunday run to a reasonable distance: I have a long list of weekday places I want to visit, long than I'll actually get to this week, but the top priority is the farthest (I have another far weekday target, as a new shop, but I'm willing to wait while I take care of some more convenient alternatives.

Again, I may have broken the cake, I'm guessing that the taste was reasonable close, so won't feel too bad that I can only say this was good. I didn't read the card closely, so I'm not sure what the chocolate is flavored with. I'm thinking honey or maybe apricot, like a Sachertorte, but not a lot. Aigre-Douce does seem to have the other great cake that I want, despite this being the month I got it previously, but I'll check in again in July. Otherwise, I've visited them plenty already. And I've apparently made an impression, only I've only bought things a couple times this month and nothing for a long time before that, but they remembered my name today, which was amusing. (This is one of the few places that ask for your name rather than assigning you a number.)

Cake-off: Frédéric Cassel's Tan Gram over Dalloyau's L'Echiquier

It was time for another cake-off, and I just had time on Saturday evening to gather than competitors, though I probably could have done this any evening: the shops are close to each other and open until 8 pm and 9 pm, and the cakes are year-round offerings. Also, both of these shops are top level shops, though different markets. Frédéric Cassel is a counter in a high-end department store, also has chocolates and a few kinds of macarons, There are only a few regular cakes and then a few inspirations centered on a theme and although confirming to a few set forms that only get varied over the medium term, compared to the short-term inspiration, which is once per month. Dalloyau has counters around town, but they are also a bakery, have wider selection of macarons and in Ginza have a café restaurant. Their selection is more than a dozen, with just a few changes each month.

The run was not direct: I tried to minimize stopping rather than distance or time, although I didn't want to completely run in circles and did have a deadline, so that only added a few kilometers. Today, I did 13 km total averaging 10 km/h each way.

I let the both cake warm up a bit (less than 10 minutes), which was good for L'Echiquier from Dalloyau, which is cream, but the mousse in the Tan Gram was on the edge of collapsing, so not so good for it. Never the less, the rich chocolately Tan Gram, with it's crunch, easily beat the lighter L'Echiquier. Both are great, but the Tan Gram is really great, which is one reason why I need these cake-offs, so I can have great cakes I haven't had in long enough that I've forgotten what was great about them.

Pierre Hermé [Aoyama] (Heaven)

No running Thursday or Friday. Thursday, I enjoyed some cake, though not the fresh kind, though similar. This was Chiboust Vanille Fromage from Konditorei Kobe, brought from Kobe. I like chiboust and good vanille, as well as cheese cake, so this was definitely good.

Friday, we went to the Omotesando (the station)/ Aoyama (the road and official location)/Jingumae (actual address) Pierre Hermé. The Dessert Jasmine [Updated, from latest Facebook post] is financier on the bottom, cut into one centimeter intervals and layered, to create a solid but still easily eatable base, on top of which is a mango gelatin flavored with grapefruit. Then jasmine-flavored mascarpone cheese, topped with meringue leafs. On the plate are mango sauce and grapefruit gelatin. This was definitely excellent and definitely greater than the sum of its parts/ingredients. I'm not that into grapefruit, but it cuts through the mango, which can be overly thick, and adds a complementary citrus taste, and it would not have occurred to me to use financier as the base for a fresh-cake-like dessert or how to do that well, so now I know.

The other dessert is easy to get the name of because it's popular and featured on the official Facebook page. It ends up looking like my photo, but starts as a chocolate ball (well, two chocolate domes put together) and they pour hot chocolate sauce on it so that it melts and collapses. Ideally, one would take video to display this, but I can barely manage to frame a photo (though at least the phone camera does better with the focus). It's called Sensation Plaisir Sucré, and is filled with ice cream and hazelnut praliné. Some solid chocolate survives, but not a lot. It's very rich and definitely good for a chocolate and nut lover, though ice cream is never high on the list of things I want in my dessert, regardless of the season, so I was still happier with my fruity cake.

Jean-Paul Hévin: Goa

I'm behind so, the cake is from Wednesday. I went first to Jean-Paul Hévin at Isetan, where they have Goa from this month, which I don't think I've ever had. Backing up, Tuesday, I tried to do a 21 km run but got lost trying to save time and once I figured out where I was and what I needed to do to get on track, I didn't have the time or energy to make up for it, so I decided to head home and make it a 16 km run (at about 9 km/h average), though I stopped at Dalloyau and got a Pain au Chocolat, which despite the late hour and the poor conditions of me eating it (in a park), was still definitely excellent. This is basically like a very loose croissant, in the sense of being flaky all the way through rather than being bread-like on the inside, in texture and taste, despite the difference in shape, with line of chocolate down the axis.

The run for Wednesday was up to Yasukuni Avenue to a closed shop (I forgot and hadn't checked their closed day) and then down to Tokyo Midtown, where I checked what special cakes Sadaharu Aoki might have there, though I had also intended to check Toshi Yoroizuka, but forgot. Total, it was about 8 km again at 9 km/h. I definitely need to change my running and cake-buying for the long runs so I force myself to rest afterward, but it's hard to balance my different running and cake objectives. Anyway, this week, I needed more rest, but I'm busy Thursday, Friday, and most of Saturday, so I'm rested up now.

Goa from Jean-Paul Hévin was great, though I did not come to that conclusion quickly. It's been a while since I evaluated a new cake from them and they are kind of a special case. This cake is chocolate mousse, Darjeeling mousse, yuzu flavored biscuit, and pecan nougatine. My first impression was that it was subtle for my tastes, and so not my favorite from them, but definitely good. As I progressed, it was clearly excellent and I appreciated the difference. Afterward, I decided that it was great, in that I definitely wanted to have it again, which is the real test, and that I would not have as much trouble identifying it as great if I avoided comparing it to other Jean-Paul Hévin cakes. Even so, it really is great even among their and appreciate their variety (though only among chocolate cakes), and wouldn't have trouble choosing them if I could only have cake from one place, though the variety is necessarily spread out over the year, so my cake eating is a little too frequent to be satisfied.

QBG: Chocolat Kute

I had previous struck QBG off my list of places considered because, although they are in Tokyo, cake is generally only available at a cafe closed after work and on weekends and holidays and at a counter inside the cakes of Shinagawa JR Station. However, I've mellowed and decided that if they were really good, I'd visit them on my day off. Since they are visiting Isetan through tomorrow, I bought a cake not shown on their website (which shows only three cakes, unless you click for details, in which case it just shows two). The phonetic name is shokorakute, which I can understand as far as Chocolat Kute.

For running, I went around major shops in the Marunouchi and Ginza areas to see whether any of the cakes I was looking for had become available this month but did not find anything, though Dalloyau does have things I haven't had besides Opera, though I'm not going to get to them this week. Total run was a little over 12 km averaging below 10 km/h when running.

The cake was definitely good. It's chocolate mousse cake flavored with maple, which along with honey, is a signature ingredient of theirs. Maybe if I loved maple I would be more impressed, but I was just happy not to be disappointed.

Cake-off: Tarte au Caramel Sel over Bonheur

I was finally successful in getting the next cake-off going and did not have any trouble running (at least at a 9 km/h pace) despite yesterdays extreme run and 11 km with pauses in the middle felt rather short. Not sure that I'm getting the name correct, but I think Aigre-Douce called it Tarte au Caramel Sel, and I was quite early, so it was not sold out (just, I had to wait for the other early people's orders to get processed). It was also early enough that Bonheur was not actually available when I checked in at Avançons on the way, though they confirmed that it should appear soon ,and it was there as promised on the way back.

Bonheur and Tarte au Caramel Sel

This time I arranged my Aigre-Douce bag better, so that was fixed, but they still put both cool packs against the back of the box, so it was not well balanced; I shifted the outside one to the front. The Bonheur was definitely good, and I approve of the general design, but at this point of my experience, it does not seem that special. It's nice, but very mild. The caramel tart, however, still has strong appeal to me in terms of not being mild: it appears to my sweet tooth and has a strong flavor. So I don't have any trouble calling this cake-off for Aigre-Douce.

Presqu'île Chocolaterie: Caramel Orange

Went for a long run to, along, and from Inogashira-Jindaiji History and Culture Course, which is my 21st of the 23 Tokyo H&C courses. As well as adjusting the training since the last attempt, I shortened the total route by a few kilometers (not that the length had been the problem) and, more importantly, ran in a way and at a pace that my hips could sustain. Had a little chronometer trouble at various times and I'm not completely sure about the last part of my route to the H&C course, but I seemed to do the ~15 km there on the low side of 10 km/h. After that, I seemed to manage only 8 km/h, which is slower than I'd like but better the failing. The course was about 13 km, though I overshot the end. Not sure whether there was a marker for the end on the other side of the street, but they've buried the train line and station, so got as far as the south station entrance intersection (coming from the north) before confirming that I had gone far enough. The trip back was the most brutal, ~18 km. I just stuck to the most major road (except one pointless detour) rather than get fancy. Interesting point, the beginning of the trail is in Inokashi Park and the number of police around increased exponentially as I approached. I think they were practicing some operation there, because I could see them walking the the grounds in a search pattern, there were lots of officers there to keep everyone away from the part they were using, and there was a pavilion set up with a lot of them lined up like they were going to hear a speech. They were around the first part of the Tokyo H&C course too, even outside the park, just keeping watch at street entrances or giving directions to a flower delivery person.

Although the main point was to prove that I could run farther than I had yet this year without killing myself and complete another Tokyo H&C course, there was also cake, though not where planned. I had intended to go to Voisin on the way, to get some cake to eat in the park and force myself to rest, but they had moved (which I apparently had not checked on, certainly not recently enough). Although I was disappointed, at 10 km, I was feeling fine and could continue. Actually, it's a good thing, because Voisin moved slightly closer to me and are now open an hour later, so I have a new place to do as a workday run. The other good news is, faced with no good alternative that I new about, I noticed a chocolatier that had cake that I could try, Presqu'île Chocolaterie, which is near the beginning of the course in the Kitsujoji area. After my previous bad chocolate experience, I actually went with the Caramel Orange (562 yen). This has thick caramel and chocolate cream (? I don't actually know much about mousse/cream) with chocolate caramel, a light but appropriate balance of orange on a biscuit Joconde (I think hazelnut, but I didn't ask/check and I'm not as much of an expert as I'd like to be). I don't know whether this was exceptional for its type, but it was definitely good, and I like this type and see enough of of it, so it's easy for me to label this an excellent cake, and so this shop as perhaps a quite good shop, so I should got back there relatively soon.

I had original planned to also stop at a new place at the two-thirds point, but decided that I didn't need that and that anyway I wanted to do a cake-off Sunday, even if it meant walking (and using the train, now that I think about it, since I would be pretty slow walking). Instead, I got what the shop, Aurora, called a Cinnamon Mountain (~150 yen), which was good as typical Japanese bakery cinnamon buns go, being fairly soft, and a 900 ml bottle of sports drink and had a rest.

Further disclosures, I rested Friday and did not get cake, but instead got three kinds of cookies: Petite Galette Britonne Chocolat, Nature, and Pina Colada. These were all good and I did not resist eating all that night.

I also made pâte sucrée brisée, though not well, so it was ready to make apple tarts Saturday night, which were delicious; I should make these more (and I still have half the pâte in the freezer, so I probably will, since my only other idea right now is try baked flan. Anyway, the point was to test the pâte recipe compared to my old tart crust recipe, and its definitely different and I can see why the recipe book recommended apple tarts (although it did not give any recipes using it).

Le Pont des Amis: Chocolat d'Or

Took the afternoon off and tried to do a cake-off, but Aigre-Douce was sold out of the target cake, so I had to go with plan B, which was to go north and visit Le Pont des Amis for the first time. A lot of the run was along Yamanote, which
is nice, at least that part. I kept a 9 km/h pace both ways, which is my goal for long distance and good practice for Saturday. It 21+ km total.

The cake was the Chocolat d'Or (<500 yen). This is a chocolate mouse cake with yuzu gelatin. I think it would have better if I had waited for it to warm up more, but I'm not sure what's optimum for mousse, just it seemed like that would take some of the gumminess from the coating, but the main problem ultimately was the flavor of the chocolate wore out its welcome. Given the price, I aspect this might have to do with the quality of the ingredients. (Chocolate cake that uses expensive chocolate will at least sometimes name the cake off the brand of chocolate.) It was still definitely okay, but saddly I can't say that it was as good as a good convenience store doughnut. I've not had much luck with these northern shops, and now I'm wishing for better options than a new store as part of my Saturday plan, but that's a long run and the important point is to have places to stop and rest for a while, so I'll probably still with my original plan.