Frédéric Cassel: Saint Honoré Pêche de Vigne

Pretty hot again today and I forgot my water, so in running to Ginza, I went underground at the main scramble and walked to the Mitsukoshi, but
still was close to 9 km/h for that 5+ km. Walking back, I came out in Hibiya Park so that I could get a drink in the park, so it was 4+ km back at 8 km/h (uphill).

The cake was the seasonal Saint Honoré-Pêche de Vigne, which refers to some sort of peach/nectarine. It's fairly mild, but certainly suitable for summer. It was the usual excellent cake from them. This month specials in cake cover both July and August, so I'll probably run out of new cakes before I get them caught up, but that's fine. There were still a couple more today and maybe there will be something different next month.

Paris S'éveille: Mistral

Changed my Sunday from going to a new place to going to Paris S'éveille for a new cake. I was thinking of going to a new place, since I hadn't visited one for a week, but then I decided that places should remain new until I catch them up to other shops of the same level, in terms of numbers of fresh cakes. Since I'm still doing that with Eclat des Jour, I'm covered.

I did some more exploring of new paths at the beginning (adding maybe half a kilometer and not really finding anything I want to use, though going into Meiji Gaien might still be worth it to stay off the main road longer) and then used the route under Old Yamanote Road that I was on yesterday to do the short path including it, which included part of the route into Gakegei Daigaku Station and avoiding the randomness of my route past Nakameguro Station. It was over 12 km, but just barely closer to 9 km/h than 8 km/h. It's been a while since my knees were sore at the beginning. There will be a 30 hour rest before the next run, so hopefully that will be enough to cover and I won't have to take an actual rest day (again, greed is the issue).

They had a couple new cakes that the "Chef" recommended that looked good, but they also had Mistral, which seems like something I've seen before but not posted on, at least. This is a pâte sucrée chocolate base, with a biscuit biscuit, lavender Bavarian cream, chocolate coating, and the fruit is black currant and blackberry, plus there is wine, though I forget the details. It all works together and of course I like chocolate, so I thought it was excellent.

(FSa) Cake-off: Paris S'éveille's "Monsieur Arnaud" over Clair de Lune's "Chocolatine"

Friday, I went cake-less and ran to Toshi Yoroizuka in Kyobashi and got their Chocolat Croissant (350 yen) as a snack. The run was about 6 km out at 9 km/h and 5 km back at 8 km/h, as it was hot and I was still tired from Thursday and thought I would need some energy for Saturday, more than expected, as it turned out. Besides the chocolate, the croissant had orange confit, which was nice. I would say that it was excellent. The colors of the tables outside the building, though, are are not a good background.

For Saturday, the plan from the beginning was a cake-off between Monsieur Arnaud from Paris S'éveille and something. Originally, I had been thinking of the Marjolaine from nearby Au Bon Vieux Temps, but going in order and matching ingredients, actually Le Piemont from L'abricotier should be next, and since it seemed just not hot enough for that to be reasonable, I went with it. However, I was getting a late start, so I probably should have struck at least to a direct course rather than wandering, though I did not add that much distance and did go down a couple streets (not new, but not used recently) that might be better that those of what has become the standard route. Fortunately, it did not add much to the 12 km route. It was still pretty hot, so only 8 km/h. On the way, as other times, I noticed at least they've been working on preparation of the new national stadium, although the picture is not wide enough to show the full breadth of the site.

Because of the late start, by the time I got to L'abricotier, they were sold out of what I wanted (or at least I assumed so, since they were low on everything and there was no placeholder card for the Le Piemont, though I probably should have asked). Of course, at this point I was regretting not having gone to Au Bon Vieux Temps when it was convenient, as well as not just putting off the cake-off until Sunday, when I had the morning free (greed is a problem). I had not planned the course, but it was faster to go straight to Clair de Lune from L'abricotier than to go home first, so I tried that, though I went about half a kilometer out of my way up along Nakano Road when the light went against me (I ended up following Seibu Shinjuku Line east until I met up with New Mejiro Road, taking that until passing Tokyo Dome and then following the usual route).

At Clair de Lune, I wanted Chocolatine, though I had already decided that if they did not have it, I would give up and get something else for today and save the Monsieur Arnaud for tomorrow (it looked like it could take a wait). It too seemed to be sold out, but the card was still there, so I asked. They were still making things in the back (which is just a meter from the front, being a tiny place) and as it happened, they were just finishing some more Chocolatine. This second leg of the run took 22 km (still at 8 km/h, but at least it cooled somewhat and started raining, which I didn't mind).

As for the actual cake-off, the Chocolatine is a standard mousse chocolate cake with pistachio cream in the middle and I can't remember what I thought was great about it other than the service. Still, I can call it excellent. The Monsieur Arnaud has a hazelnut biscuit with a nutty crunch on top, chocolate cream and solid chocolate, all things I like very much and put together well in this cake, so I can see why I thought it was great and was happy to have it again.

Éclat des Jours: Forêt Noire

Another cloudy day where rain was promised in the evening and didn't come, though it was cool enough that I was probably better off that way. Did the Éclat des Jours run again. Was just above 10 km/h out and 8 km/h back (little below 11 km each way), which is about perfect. I'm spending less time racing where I can't make the light, although lots of running lately meant that I was not as fast where elsewhere where I could have gone faster.

Since I arrive near closing time, I'm running low on options at Éclat des Jours. This time I went with the Forêt Noire, which was a familiar sight there. This is chocolate whipped cream with a couple cherries on chocolate cake on whipped cream with cherries on a bottom of chocolate cake. It was good as a light chocolate cake goes (I was careful to let it have a few minutes to warm up after taking it from the refrigerator, because that's what you're supposed to do with whipped cream), but would have been better without the cherries in my opinion, as expected, which is why I had been avoiding this one. However, this shop remains my top Quite Excellent shop and I need one shop from this group, so I'll be back there in about a week and a half (I'm busy the end of next week). Eventually, I may need to go there on non-workday to get access to the full range, but first I'll try a Monday again (I suspect the odd Tuesday's that they are open are the best day to visit, but I just went, so I won't try that next week).

L'Abricotier: Sicilien Figue

Due to rain, it was not too hot to run today (even after the rain stopped in the afternoon, it was cloudy, so the temperature did not rise so much), and I did rather than cycle, to L'abricotier, even though I ran long yesterday (due to my own mistake) and plan to run long tomorrow. However, I had not need to exhaust myself, and good reason to save some strength for tomorrow (when I'll be racing against closing time), so it was 9 km/h out and 8 km/h backStill, it was not cool and it was presumably 100% humidity. I started out mistakenly taking the path toward Aigre Douce, but they are both northwest, so it was easily correct and actually was probably better than the usual path. In generally, I just switched between north and west depending on the light until I got to Waseda  Road. Coming back, I swung by Jun Honma, just to look in, and then circled around Koenji and came back most by Okubo Road, which is not very direct but was a nice change until I passed Yamanote Line, where the crowds of tourists to the Korean area mad it hard going. Not sure that Yasukuni Road would have been better, but it's less gritty.

The cake, which I ate in, was Sicilien Figue, which is wine-boiled fig in mousse, pistachio cream/mousse (can't remember what the card said, and there were two layers), fruits rouge (of or including raspberries) gelatin, and some pistachio biscuit. I really like a good pistachio cake and am often disappointed. This did not disappoint me, it was, I think great. The pistachio was flavorful, the fig complemented it, and the fruits rouge accented it, everything harmonizing.

As a result, I've decided to return L'abricotier to the Quite Excellent category, though it's a little bloated now (as in real life, preferences are not well-ordered, so there are multiple candidates for getting the boot, though L'abricotier is strictly better than at least one). That takes some pressure off reviewing the less frequented Excellent ones, though I'll get to that soon. Also, it means it's time for another cake-off, so that clarifies my weekend somewhat, and also suggests that maybe Friday night I'll do a cakeless training run so that I can get to a new shop on Sunday.

(Tues) Dalloyau: Tarte Mangue

Had a long run under the impression that Eclat des Jours was open Fri to Tue, when actually they are open Thu to Mon, but sometimes Tue (yesterday was not one of those open Tue times). On the plus side, the return run was much more comfortable without carrying cake. My backup was Dalloyau, which added less than 1 km (total run was about 22 km; 10 km/h out but 9 km/h average over the total). Another disappoint was that it did not rain as forecast, so it remained hot. My purpose in want to go to Dalloyau was to get the Tarte Mangue (540 yen).

The tart was the usual high quality. It was firm custard on sablé, or something similar, with a layer of mango gelatin on top. It was definitely good but very mild and not very interesting to me. To the best of my knowledge, that catches me up on all available fresh cakes at Dalloyau, but hopefully there will be something new next week with the start of the new month, though some shops wait for the first full week or maybe just the first weekend in the new month to introduce new cakes.

Bubó Barcelona: Sacher Raspberry

Short run today, which is appropriate between yesterday's long Sunday run and tomorrows fairly long planned run. I know I already said that Bubó Barcelona wasn't look like it was going to get above the Excellent level, but they were still top of that group in some ways and the other most likely choice is closed Mondays. The run was fine, all on the high side of 9 km/h, but only a little over 6 km total (it would have been less, but I got a little creative on the way back).

The cake, Sacher Raspberry was definitely good. However, making a sacher raspberry sort of takes away it's one interesting point, and I've had a lot of chocolate raspberry cakes, including from the best, and this one doesn't really stand out. Still an Excellent shop, but I should probably search through the other Excellent to find one to promote, which is the plan for both Wednesday and Thursday.

Jean-Paul Hévin: Financier Chocolat

Did a long run down to Au Bon Vieux Temps (which I didn't want to buy anything, just confirm that they have Marjolaine), which opens at 9 a.m., relevant because I wanted to start earlier to avoid the heat, as well as finish earlier. As it happened, my appointment cancelled and it was so cloudy that time of day did not matter. That's just as well, since I oscillated between the shortest path and the path along my favorite route and ended up doing only a little of either and a lot of just going more or less in the correct direction.

I finished running at Shinjuku 3 cho-me Station area and went to Jean-Paul Hévin and got their Financier Chocolat. This was the "non-fresh cake"/pastry since Galette de Rois "Star". This was definitely good and different from other financiers I've recently, besides just be chocolate. It was lighter, by which I mean less oily, which I would say is good, but on the other hand, it also did have the chewiness that I usually expect so I'm not sure this is really what I want out of a financier. Interesting though.

That "levels me up", so to speak, on JPH, at least until new fresh cakes come in, which will remain a priority, which means I'm ready to level up all the levels of cake shops below, except I'm still busy trying to fill the big gap left from deleting Henri Le Roux from the fresh cake business.

Cake-off: L'Abricotier's "L'abricotier's" over Limevert's "Mer"

Did a two-part run with trains coming back (though some running to and from stations). First, I went to Limevert to get "Mer". That was the easy part, even though it was farther. It ended up being over 13 km. I didn't so much get lost as learn why the way I tried today was not the way I was supposed to go. My speed was actually closer to 9 km/h, though 8 km/h was really my target (though if you count stops, I was slow than that). For some reason, the last 1+ km home from Shinjuku Station was 10 km/h, even with cake. Maybe I just wanted to finish.

The part was a slower run with more stops for water refills to L'abricotier for the cake of the same name. This was 7+ km at 8 km/h, but then 2 km km at 10 km/h to get to the station (it should have been a little shorter, but for some reason the north-south roads bend a little west).

The cake-off was lop-sided. Both a chocolate cake with apricot, though very different in flavor. Perhaps the Mer was easier to identify as apricot, but I was not sensing the greatness, though it was definitely good. I don't think the hazelnuts of L'abricotier versus walnuts of Mer were the issue, although walnuts were partially what made the Mer interesting to begin with. Overall, I still rank Limevert higher and expect to visit again for a new cake after before too long, but for now I owe L'abricotier another try.

(Fri) Viron: Citron Noisette

Ran out to Viron today to try to get a new cake, in response to them winning my previous cake-off. I had cycled rather than run the previous day and the heat kept me from pushing too hard, so it was a pretty easy run and went fast both ways. I was somewhat disappointed to be successful, since my backup plan would have added another several kilometers. I didn't split up the time between with and without cake, but the 11 km averaged above 9 km/h.

The cake was Citron Noisette, which is a chocolate mousse dome cake with lemon cream (I think it was cream; it's a little hazy now) and hazelnuts. I had decided ahead of time that I really wanted it to be great, which seemed to work. I appreciated having lots of hazelnut, though otherwise there was nothing surprising other than the lemon and chocolate balanced perfectly, which sometimes they do and sometimes they don't. Right now, this seems to be the standard to beat.

I also tried to make pâte feuilletée, like for mille-feuille, but it was clear after about the fourth fold that things had gone wrong early on, because big pieces of butter started appearing. It still baked up looking good (although it took 35 or 40 minutes to bake), and I definitely got the layers, but they did puff up much, so it was more like a cracker (though still good enough that I ate all of it at once). The picture is just a third of a 300 g recipe (the base recipe was 1 kg, but I definitely wasn't going to try that; fortunately, it's pretty scalable, so my next attempt will probably be only 100 or 200 g).

à tes souhaits!: Harmonie d'Orange

Decided that, for a midweek half-holiday, à tes souhaits! was a good choice, since they are always so crowded on the weekend and they close too early for a normal weekday visit. My experience a few years ago was that they were not particularly special, but the same could be said for some shops I now list as excellent. Since the temperature was above 30 degC, I cycled rather than ran. It's a little over 12 km each way, but fairly straightforward, or would have been if I had been prepared to bypass one intersection (on foot, I'd take the sidewalk against traffic, but I was on the other side on the road and it was too late).

Unfortunately, the photo of the cake did not turn out, so all I have is the shop from the other side of the street. The cake was a standard rectangular petite individual, with chocolate mousse above and chocolate biscuit below as the main layers. On top of the mousse, was a line of whipped cream with some orange compote sprinkled on and between the layers was some sort of greenish citrus with maybe orange cream or something above that. It was definitely good, and while not that out of the ordinary, it was certainly the kind of cake I approve of, so I'm going to give it the benefit of the doubt and say it was excellent, which means that this shop seems to be quite good. I've got a lot excellent places that need one more cake before it, but I should get back there before too long (pr
obably this year).  

Dalloyau: Tarte Cerise

Ran to Dalloyau for something new, but didn't get what I expected. I knew that there existed a Tarte Mangue that I've tried to get once and failed. This time, I was earlier, and mid-week, so there were several, but I hadn't realized that the Tarte Cerise (marked "seasonally limited") was still available. I got the latter. The run was fine. Since I had a long run, I was a little slow today (plus it was hotter), but still managed 10 km/h for the 5+ km out and then 9 km/h for the almost 7 km back (I swung by Toshi Yoroizuka in Kyobashi, but did not see anything interesting).

The tart was excellent, in my Dalloyau-biased opinion. It's basically a small butter tart with a little cherry and pistachio on top, also white heavily sugared, which worked for me. It's cheap, at 324 yen.

Éclat des Jours: Chokochoko

Did my sixth run to Éclat des Jours for Chokochoko (French pronunciation, "shokoshoko"; 596 yen). It rained just before I ran, so the temperature dropped 10 degC, though it increased afterward and still was humid. Still, better than recently and, more importantly, I seem to have finally recovered from my tail soreness. Actually, this might have been the fastest I've done this run, though I was still going too fast through the middle, wasting effort for stop lights that I'll never make.

I've been disappointed in in sufficiently chilled mousse cake, so I might have gone too far this time. It did not freeze, but I'm not sure that the vanilla center should have been semi-solid rather than creamy. Still, I preferred this to too melty and am declaring this excellent. There is some crunch in the base, as their should be for a mousse cake, and a some berry mixed into the chocolate to just slightly modify the flavor. I'm thinking blackberry, but the time from getting the cake to eating it was more than 2.5 hours, so it's too hard to hang onto the details during a 10.5 return run, so it might have been raspberry. Either way, it harmonized and remained a very chocolate cake.

(Sun.) Henri Charpentier: Napoléon Pie

After visiting the pond at Ueno Park, we went down to a Ginza for a café. At was after 7 pm, so we went with Ginza Henri Charpentier, where the last order was 7:30 pm, which was fine with us. There might have been one other customer there, but a couple people might have arrived after us, though a friend said they couldn't visit when they tried. Guess it varies.

Went with the  Napoléon Pie, which inside is like mille-feuille (custard and strawberries), but only had a single layer of pastry top and bottom, covering sponge. It's definitely good but not that exciting to me. We also went with the full Crêpes Suzette package, with seasonal fruit (already forgot; peaches?) and ice cream. Again, not so much my thing, but an interesting experience. They make them next to your table, so it's a whole show with commentary. For the pictures, the picture of the cake was before splitting, but they split the crêpes for us (though we had to split the ice cream ourselves. so it was not perfect).

(Sat.) Bubó Barcelona café: Pear Caramel and Xabina

Was busy an also generally very hot for running (sunny with a high of 35 degC), especially with cake, [for this entire three-day weekend]. Fortunately, it's not too far from Omotesando Station to Bubó Barcelona, especially if you stop at Crayonhouse for a vegetable-intensive (I skipped the chicken) organic buffet. Bubó Barcelona is very modern, though the second-floor space leaves the ceiling and walls bare rather than covering the pipes and things. We went fairly early, I suppose, between noon and 1 pm, and were the only customers when we arrived (in the café/salon; a guy was taking phone photos of the cakes on the first floor). Only a few people came in upstairs while we were there, so I'm a little worried about their longevity. The bakery café nearby was packed on both floors, with people waiting. There were a lot of foreigners specifically coming there (it's a back street with not a lot of things, so most people we saw were going there, but someone got the $200 haircut next door).  They must have a good promotion scheme going on somewhere.

Though at the café, the cake comes with extra bits, as shown (and cost 200 yen extra), but it's still the same as the take-out cake, so it's reasonable to dual list this as cake and café. I only had about half of each, but the Xabina was about the same as before. I was less excited about the Xabina the second time and the chocolate seemed a little watery to me initially, but I got past that and will stick to my original excellent rating. The Pear Caramel was also excellent. Actually, walnuts are more very prominent in this and it's not actually very caramel flavored, but rather more syrupy, which probably depends on how long/hot you coot the sugar for the caramel.

(Friday) Il Pleut sur la Seine: Relaxation

Ran to Il Pleut sur la Seine again, probably at closer to 9 km/h this time. The cake was, I think, Relaxation (my katakana transcription was a little shaky in the middle). It seems to be in the family of roll cake. The meringue on top is interesting and the cake is courser than just typical sponge, but beyond that it's basically fruit (can't remember what, maybe peach) with custard. It was definitely good but not something that I need, which leaves this shop not so different from many Excellent shops, so I'll have to consider who is more deserving of Quite Excellent status. Toshi Yoroizuka certainly seems to be, but I'll need one more to balance out Henri le Roux's exit from the fresh cake biz.

On the plus side, they also gave me a financier, which I certainly appreciate. As a non-fresh cake, particularly a wrapped one, I did not expect it to more than good, but it is definitely that.

Cake-off: Viron's "Mille-Feuille" over Jean-Paul Hévin's "Bergam"

Ran about 13 km. We can just assume any running is 8 km/h. At least, my tail was less sore running today now that I've changed my pre-run routine as of last night to remove the part that has be flat on my back. First, I went to Il Pleut sur la Seine, which was my mistake: I was thinking that I could get great Mille-Feuille, which is true, and that it could be part of a cake-off. However, it's not technically cake, according to the criteria which I should use, because it's eat-in only, so it's a café dessertCake-off.

But I still needed something to pair something with Viron's "Mille-Feuille", so I decided to finally do Jean-Paul Hévin's "Bergam" in the cake off. Both cakes are great, so it the decision came down to the end, but the Mille-Feuille remains the favorite version of the this standard type. The frosting on top is really important, I think, since I like the spike of sweetness beyond what custard and the mille-feuille pastry provides. However, just 30 minutes or so in the refrigerator was not enough for either cake: they need to be cooler, so I'll have to watch that for future cakes, especially in the summer, even though JPH cake only had to travel a couple kilometers and I ate in an air-conditioned room.

Philippe Conticini: chocolate cake

Tried to go to Dalloyau to get their Tarte Mangue, but it was sold out (I'm running really slow these days). As a back up, I went with Philippe Conticini, which I did not have any recommendation for, but it was conveniently across the street and I was curious. Not sure what the thing that I got was called, since the name was not meaningful to me and I had no card to write it down on (and the receipt just says "cake" and I didn't find any online photos) but Chocolate E-something, so I'm just calling it a chocolate cake. It was tart-sized, but more like a pound cake or spice cake. It only qualifies as fresh cake because of the topping. I'm pretty sure it was chocolate, but like I said, it was more like spice cake, though I'm not sure what spice, either. It was good, however, and they had other things that definitely were tarts and couple things that online cross-sectional photos make look like a brownie buried in frosting or mousse. Since they have a café, I might want to try that some time I need a new café to visit in that area.

Frédéric Cassel: P'tite Merveille Apricot Lavender

Ran to Ginza Mitsukoshi by way of La Vie Douce (where they still did not have the cake I was looking for). Usual problem: sore tail and heat, but it was okay. Didn't actually drink any of my water, so it was not that hot, being night. Total, about 12 km at 9 km/h, which might be as fast as I go until September.

I got the P'tite Merveille Apricot Lavender (648 yen), which is cake, for lack of a better term. I really liked the version with caramel, but this time the (lavender-flavored) meringue hemispheres with a little apricot and vanilla cream and white chocolate covering (I think) was less impressive, but still good.

Éclat des Jours: Caramel Poire

It's hot, though my bigger problem running is still my sore backside (cycling Sunday apparently was not helpful, though not a problem at the time). Still, after the run, it feels much better, so it still seems to be a muscle issue and not something more serious. Not sure of my exact time going out, but the speed was very close to 9.5 km/h, but probably under. Overall the 21 km averaged on the low side of 9 km/h, which could have been worse. This was a run out to Éclat des Jours for a fifth cake, and I got Caramel Poire (486 yen), just based on it being next in line besides the one with coffee, even though it's not something I would expect to like.

It was about what I expected, though definitely good from the start: it's soft cream layers, gelatinous enough to say together, with a good deal of pear. In the end, though, I found myself thinking it was excellent. Still not a kind of cake that I'm very interested in, but I wouldn't mind having (though not planning to have) it again and it wouldn't be a waste of time to learn to make. Don't know why I'm so apparently biased for this place. Perhaps, it's the effort that goes into getting the cake or just that I eat the cake in the comfort of my home with tea after a lot of hard work.

Stopped by Viron on my way and learned that Mille-feuille is available in general (though sold out again), but I missed my chance for Fraise in May and now will have to wait until December. It's looking like the next cake-off will be a mille-feuille battle, which should keep the run relative short.

La Splendeur: Praliné Chocolat

Not a very active weekend, in terms of running and cake. Friday night, I had an event to attend so no running, just hotel-catered (I assume) mixed fruit shortcake, which is bland/inoffensive by design (if anyone objects to a particular fruit, they could pick it off).

Saturday, I ran during a window of opportunity in my schedule when a shop that would not be available on a weekday should have been open but not yet sold out (I could also have tried to run somewhere late in the afternoon). Unfortunately, La Famille choose that day to open late (14:00, as announced by the paper sign on the door), and I couldn't wait. I could have grabbed something at Seibu nearby, but I could do that on a weekday and it was not great weather for running with cake, anyway, so I decided to just cache 1 unbought cake for the next cake-off (probably Thursday).

For Sunday, which was also hot, I decided to do cycling instead. First, I went down to new shop for me, La Splendeur, in Kugahara, Ota-ku, for a first cake. There were a few parfait-like desserts, which is probably not unreasonable for the season, but only three fresh cakes. On the other hand, none were the basic Japanese staples (shortcake, mont-blanc, and some sort of milk chocolate layer wedge cake). Anyway, selection was limited but showed some effort, the shop was pleasant, and the service was good.

The cake was also good. Besides decorations, the chocolate was the sponge base and the outer mousse and the praliné was cream inside. Not disappointing, but not interesting or good enough to get me back there until in the short or medium term.

From there, I did a tour of 6 non-workday shops and Paris S'éveille to check whether any great seasonal cakes had appeared or other great cakes had disappeared. Basically, I confirmed all the same cakes as last month, including this time Monsieur Arnaud, which was missing when I visited on Tuesday late afternoon.

Bubó Barcelona: Bubó Malfi

Bubó Barcelona: Bubó Malfi

Sore again today, and maybe tired, so only managed 8 km/h for a round trip of 5.8 km. Guess I should rest tomorrow, since I won't have a lot of time Saturday and will need to run faster. Went back to Bubó Barcelona in Jingumae and got the Bubó Malfi (692 yen), which is white chocolate with a lemon center. It was definitely good, but not exciting, so it seems to be an excellent shop, but not among the top 15. I wouldn't need to go back soon, except I'd like to try their café.

Bubó Barcelona

Pierre Hermé, Mille-Feuille Satine and research run

From Pierre Hermé, got the Mille-Feuille Satine (864 yen) in response to their winning the last cake-off (otherwise, I've over-sampled them a little at this point, so I would have to wait to get something new from them). For research purposes, due to having entered a new month, I did a swing through the Tokyo Station to Ginza area shops, not everyone is everyone changes on a monthly schedule.

Nothing significantly different at Sadaharu Aoki, in Marunounich or Isetan, and the same goes for Jean-Paul Hévin, though they pointed out in the former location that it was the last day for an ice cream drink (they know I'm looking to see what's new), which I'm doubly little interested in (which maybe doesn't make sense, mathematically). Viron changed their season cake, but not one of the greats that I was looking for. Toshi Yoroizuka has four special Parfaits for the next two weeks, again definitely not cake. Frédéric Cassel did not have any greats I was looking for, but I'll be able to get something new from them when I need to. Only a slightly different line-up than the Jiyugaoka shop for Origines Cacao, but none of the former greats (which might all have come from the closed Nihonbashi shop). Dalloyau had zero new things, which is suspicious, but they were busy and I didn't stay to ask; I figure I'll get back there within a week or so, anyway when I visit Frédéric Cassel. Finally, Del'Imo in Akasaka still has the one great cake I'm interested in.

Still have a sore butt, but ran through it as best I could and again, now it feels fine, pretty much like yesterday. One of these days, I'll really be recovered. At least my head feels better now. Still, only 9 km/h for the 14 km. That makes a marathon distance for two days total, so I won't feel guilty with a short run tomorrow. Not sure whether I'll be able to run, and Saturday is a little busy, so it's going to be a relatively short run, though I could do two relatively short runs.

The Mille-Feuille Satine was excellent, as expected. This seems to be their favorite "fetish", judging by them having a whole book about it. Specifically, it's orange and passion fruit. The mille-feuille uses creamed cream cheese (if that makes sense; at least that's my translation of Japanese for "cream cheese cream"), which works well with the slight citrus taste (although their citron fetish is different; I'm waiting for that one to come around again for a couple greats).

Sweet Satsuki: Satsuki

Sweet Satsuki: Satsuki

Had the afternoon free, so I took a long run. First, I went down to Sweet Satsuki in Himonya, Meguro-ku, which is not so far off my usual route to Jiyugaoka and got their Satsuki (~500 yen). It's a tiny shop with only a few fresh cakes. The cake was nice enough, completely competent, if nothing particular exciting: good, but not something to set them apart. It's a little neighborhood shop in the middle of a residential neighborhood, so it's probably hard for them to be much more. That part of the run was 9 km/h for 9 km, which is not bad given that my hips hurt from the beginning due to falling over backwards Sunday. Both my hips and my neck (from trying unsuccessfully to keep me from wacking the back of my head on the asphalt) are much better for the run.

La Base Secrète du GAMIN: Croissant

I went way further south than I needed to (by more or less exactly the route that I'll need to do for maybe the next new shop, which is further south) before turning to Jiyugaoka to check for new or sought after great cakes, though they were down two from last time: I only found 1 total. I went up to Sakarushinmachi for the same reason and still did not find the one cake I'm looking for there. From there, I linked up to the green path that runs near La Base Secrète du GAMIN, where I got a Croissant for 280 yen that was excellent, even though it was the mostly bread-like kind with just a couple millimeters of pastry outside.

Due to just the way the lights were, I ending up coming back north along Yamanote for much of the run, after avoiding major roads. At least Yamanote allows a pretty good separation from the road to run, even if it is still pretty noisy. The typhoon  rain did not start until almost exactly 3 km out (there's a long light there, so it's not an unlikely place for anything weather event). Finally, my hat was useful, to keep me dry. From Satsuki to home was about 20 km at 8 km/h, which I blame on heat, distance, and navigation, but it's a fine speed for any run over 20 km total after 3 days off.

Factory Shin: Mont-Blanc and Strawberry Shortcake

Went to Factory Shin in Kobe as a café (just drink and cake sets). It's modern and frequented more by young people. The selection is still fairly traditional in the sense of being the simplest standard cakes of Japanese cake shops, but they are good. We had the Mont-blanc and the Strawberry Shortcake. The Mont-blanc was definitely good, but nothing unexpected or exciting except maybe the meringue base, which is fairly thick and very sugary (I would guess just sugar and egg white, versus an almond powder based meringue), which is a good thing. Also, I should note that while this was the most common type, a reverse mont-blanc (i.e., the "blanc" is on the inside under the brown chestnut paste crown), there is candied chestnut in the center.

Strawberry Shortcake is not something that much appeals to me, but this seemed very good, maybe excellent. Unlike the picture on the website, the whipped cream layers are just 2 or 3 mm thick, which I think is actually an advantage in this case. I see from their website that actually they do sell cake in Tokyo, through Seibu in Ikebukuro, so I'll label this as Tokyo cake as well, though I've never seen their cake counter, just seen people carry their bags, so I'm not sure what they actually have.