L'Atelier du Sucre: Pave Montmartre

Did a follow-up visit out to L'Atelier du Sucre by bicycle. I got less lost than some other distant trips, but I still got pretty turned around at one point and then sort of wandered between two points that I wanted to visit. I ended up with the endpoint of a history and culture course that I wanted to confirm (which I did: I confirmed that I had gone far enough last time) before wandering south and eventually getting to the cake shop. I ate outside on the terrace again, like last time (which is how I knew going by bicycle would be fine, although there are parks around there, at least within cycling distance). This time I got Pave Montmartre, or at least that matches the phonetics. It's three layers of cream, vanilla, chocolate, and caramel, so it resembles yesterday's great cake in that respect but was very unsatisfying. It was a good, I guess, but not worth coming back. Still, they have fancier cakes than one might expect for the location (and they sell some sec or demi-sec things at a counter at Tokyo Station) and I rated the first cake as excellent, so I should come back in a couple years and try a third.

Toshi Yoroizuka: Saint-marc

Still sore from yesterday, probably because I was still sore from Wednesday, so today was simple. I went down to Tokyo Midtown to visit Toshi Yorizuka and to bring the last of my Quite Excellent shops up to eight cakes. The running was at about 9 km/h and was actually slightly faster coming back, as I was in more of a hurry to take care of some other shopping and also I was maybe less still. It's about 6.5 km total.

It's been quite a while since I've gotten a new cake from there, so most of what they had was new to me or marked a new version of an old cake. Rather than take a cake marked as recommended, I went with a traditional cake, Saint-marc, which, at least in this case, had a somewhat caramelized top with orange liquor (or at least I think that's where the orange liquor was, though there was not a strong enough taste for me to say), a whipped cream layer, a chocolate layer that seemed too dense to be whipped cream but was in the same general family, and a sort of chocolate, maybe, hard biscuit on the very bottom as a base. This is a very basic, traditional cake, in a sense, despite all the layers, with a very simple taste but it's a good design and they executed it well, so I would say that this cake was great. Even though this is a major brand, I'm encouraged that a cake shop that isn't in the very top tiers could give me this level of cake, though I shouldn't be surprised. They aren't rated higher as a shop because their cakes tends to be either great or just good. One great cake out of eight is enough to push this shop to the top of its category, which means I might have to promote it again up to Superb to fill the gap. At the very least, I'll probably get another new cake from their soon to at least see whether that's reasonable.

Pierre Hermé: Tarte Hommage

The October Fetish at Pierre Hermé is already available, and it is chestnut and pear. I got the tart version, Tarte Hommage. Supposedly, it's whipped cream (flavored with chestnut and pear compote), though it seemed thicker at the temperature that I ate it and I'm not really sure that I would want it whipped-cream soft, so I'm not regretting so much that I didn't give it more time to warm up. It was a lot like pie, which is not necessarily bad but not what I'm usually looking for. In the end, I've decided that it was excellent.

For running, I worked on my neighborhood routes and finally finished the one between Yotsuya Sanchoume, Shinanomachi, and Yotsuya Stations without mistake, which is about a 5.6 km by itself and goes up and down steep slopes or stairs several times. Together with being sore from yesterday's run and the rain, 8 km/h seems a reasonable average speed. Having finally achieved the full course, I rewarded myself with the croissant that I didn't manage Tuesday from Paul at Yotsuya Station. Actually, it was just okay; too baked for my taste or or not fresh enough. Of course, I'm also going to have to adjust the routes, since currently they don't really end at convenient locations (I should have them meet at the main intersections so I can transfer to a different route), though I also need to actually learn the landmarks on the route properly. I'm not sure every temple is actually visible, so I might remove some before I finalize the map. The way they cluster, that would probably not actually affect the route.

Paris S'éveille: Tarte Fruits Rouge

I realized a little while back that I was actually one short of my target number of fresh cakes for Paris S'éveille and finally got around to going there. Using the route I choose, it is around 11 1/3 km and 80 m of climbing and descending each way. Going out, I was on the high side of 10 km/h, which is not the fastest I've gone, but pretty good for lately. Unfortunately, I'll still getting there pretty late, so I did not find any new cakes. Of the familiar cakes that I haven't tried yet, I choose the Tarte Fruits Rouge (I think the card said), which did not excite me much, but I figured would be better for me than the Opera or the coffee tonka bean tart, since coffee makes me ill. There is also a revamped version of the Everest, so I should probably review my review of that and see whether I can tell how different the new one is; maybe it's worth trying.

Going back was a similar distance, of course, and I was less in a hurry, so only 9 km/h. It rained a little, but I was prepared to double bag the cake box and had a jacket with a hood if I had needed it.

The tart was actually an excellent tart and reminded me that I don't mind an excellent tart now and then. Sorry, I forgot to set the camera for "flowers" so that it can deal with cake close-ups. Still another week and a half before I get the new phone with the good camera, when I'll have to learn all over again about the settings. Should be a little better than these, though.


I should say that Tuesday I ran without cake, and without even a pastry. I might use that as an excuse to get another cookie from JPH some time (I owe them for a cake-off win). I was doing my culture and cake shop local neighbor runs and managed the first two okay (583 m at 10 km/h and 2.72 km at 9 km/h, with two passes over the pedestrian bridge) but still have not completed the third one (I assume that I ran about 9 km/h, so it would have been another 3.7 km, but I'm not going to waste my time measuring the length directly, even though I know exactly where I went) without making wrong turns (granted, I keep adjusting the route, but I can only blame one mis-turn on that this time). Maybe tomorrow I'll finally make it through to the end, though it will be in the rain. I should also say that I went out in the morning and took some photos of some of the points of interest on the route, so eventually when I get organized and caught up on other postings I'm explicitly post the map with the photos and some comments.

Les Cacaos: Chocolat Orange

I'm going through my list of Excellent shops and getting a fourth cake where needed. The Excellent group is a little bloated, but at the same time I'll like to promote one to Quite Excellent to fill the gap above left over from the withdrawal of Henri le Roux. There are a few Excellent shops that I can visit on a weekday, but Les Cacaos is not one of those, so I visited there today. I still get lost making the transition between the main streets radiating from Gotanda and Meguro, but it's not such a big area, so it's not such a big deal. Even though it was sunny, the temperature was forecast to peak at only 25 deg. Summer is over (and on a weekend, so no extra public holiday--bummer, but it averages out over time and holidays).

Les Cacaos seems to be expanding its lineup, though it still has the better two of the three cakes that I've had before. This time I went with Chocolat Orange. They have some non-chocolate ones now, but they are obviously first a chocolate shop, and I like chocolate, so I tried to stick with what they should do best. This is a somewhat traditional chocolate sponge layer cake with butter cream-based frosting, I think (though don't ask me to remember what the card said about it besides the obvious from the name). It was definitely good and at one point I considered rating it excellent, but I decided that this would probably not be my choice for this type of chocolate cake or for an orange chocolate cake, so I'm going to have to leave the evaluation at just good. I've demoted them down to Quite Good as a shop, but I've had one great cake from them, which will probably get used in a cake-off within this year (they're #9 of currently available cakes).

It's the weekend with two longish runs (compared to recent ones: I plan a near-marathon-length run for next Sunday, as part of a cake-off; wish me luck), so I got greedy and visited Il Pleut sur la Seine, partially to confirm currently available great cakes but also to sample their Bostock. It's of the soft variety with a relatively strong liquor taste. Definitely good but typical. The piece of matcha chiffon cake was okay.
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Avranches Guesnay: Pistache

Went for a run to Avranches Guesnay and got there with no cash. I decided to tour Jean-Paul Hévin shops, Marunouchi, Mitsukoshi, and Omotesandou Hills, in case any of them had speciall 15th anniversary cakes like at Isetan but was not surprised to find that they did not. What I had not know, though, was that the Motesandou one had moved locations and now has a café space, like all but the Ginza one. Total, I ran about 17 km at around 9 km/h, though a little slow at the end. I went back by bicycle after lunch (, which mostly worked, except the cake flipped in the box and cracked, but didn't leak, fortunately.

If I remember correctly what I read, the outer shell, which is pretty thick, about 1 cm, is white chocolate and pistachio paste with pistachio bits stuck on. Inside, there is a solid lower half and raspberry sauce, which splits out when you cut into the center, but is reasonably thick so that you have some all the way through (assuming that you done each the cake top to bottom; I ate radially). This was definitely good, but I'm feeling in a strict mood these days, so this was not special enough to lift this shop from their current Excellent rating to fill the gap in the Quite Excellent listing.

Cake-off: Jean-Paul Hévin's Mont-blanc over Sadaharu Aoki's Marron Fruits Rouges

As planned, I did a cake-off with Jean-Paul Hévin's Mont-blanc and Sadaharu Aoki's Marron Fruits Rouges from Isetan. First, though I did another run my Naitou neighborhood course, which I changed slightly again, just to avoid the main street another block, and the Daikyouchou neighborhood course, which I did without problems. I was only running 8 to 9 km/h, since it was raining pretty good. I again did most of the Wakaba neighborhood course, which is twice as long and I still haven't done all of. I found another few parks (though not public parks, and one is need in an alley, so I'm not sure that I want to go back in there to visit a designated evacuation area) and a church, so the course is getting a little complicated near Shinanomachi Station. Someday I do the whole thing, maybe by skipping the first two neighborhood courses, but I haven't even memorized all the names of the points of interest yet, though I was able to add a name of a park that Google Maps was hiding from me. I ran 58 min.

The cake was great. Both with chestnut paste and whipped cream, but the JPH one has its thick almond meringue base, whereas the Marron Fruites Rouges obviously has its fruit. Though the tastes are different, it's hard to choose between them, but I'm going with JPH's Mont-blanc, which remains the best mont-blanc that I know. One warning, though, is that it's sweetness can get overpowering by the end, so definitely be prepared with a suitable beverage (I'm drinking shincha lately at home).

Pierre Hermé: Tarte Infiniment Mandarin

Today, I got the tart I skipped yesterday, Pierre Hermé's Tarte Infiniment Mandarin. Also, I check at Jean-Paul Hévin's and supposedly they are celebrating 15 years in Japan, so it's reasonable to suspect that other shops besides the one in Isetan may have special cakes; I should look around. Maybe I'll do that Saturday, though I've got an excellent shop to get a fourth cake from. Today, I tried what I'll call a neighbor culture and cake run, where I visit local culture spots, include any cake shops, on a local run. I missed my first turn only about 100 m in, so I didn't make it far, though the first course was only 400 m. It just goes around a couple parks and a shrine that are grouped in one block, so I'm going to change my start point to be somewhere not requiring that I tell one house or apartment building from another in the dark. Also, I decided to add the police box (it's a kouban, which is not actually a box, but close enough translation), since that's as import a landmark as a train station (both may have officials that you can ask directions from). In course two, which is about 3 km long (or was until today's revision), I forgot the route two-thirds in and thought that I was off it, but since I remembered where I had to go, I ended up following the correct route after all (since there was not a better way to do the four locations in the order that I could remember). I did mess up my timing, though, so I'm guessing that I ran about 6 km total at 9 km/h. I do know that I ran about 40 minutes. I explored the next neighborhood over a little more deeply than yesterday, finding a couple parks I'm not familiar with and seeing where there are problems.

The Tarte Infiniment Mandarin tasted more like a lemon tart than orange, but that's a good thing (I'm not sure I've ever seen an orange tart, not counting this). This uses all parts, including the peal, so it has a good citrus tang for a tart but is different from lemon. The trust is a very tough one, so I probably should have used a sharper or serrated knife, but it was not overly brittle, so it didn't fall apart despite my crude efforts. I'm going to say that it's great, it being the top of its type, as far as I know; those kinds of ratings don't always hold up as well under cake-off conditions versus something that appeals to my particular tastes, but I'm not sure that they repeat cakes enough for that to matter (I'm still waiting from some citron cakes that I "great"ed a couple years ago to reappear).

Jean-Paul Hévin: Princess Chocolat,

Went to Isetan intending to get something different, but ended noticing something new at Jean-Paul Hévin, Princess Chocolat. It's there through the end of October to celebrate 15 years (at Isetan, maybe; I'm not sure).

For running, I worked on my neighborhood routes, having revamped the one bound by West Gaien Road and Gyoen Park, and the one bounded by JR Chuo Line, Shinjuku Road, and the East and West Gaien Roads, having redrawn the latter part to work my way from southwest to northeast so that I can do the neighborhood including Wakaba next, which has lots of shrines, temples, and churches, as well as parks and one cake location of note, but on a dead-end alley, so I'm not sure how I'm going to handle that. I checked out a few points of interest in the latter area, but mostly went directly to Midtown Tokyo to make sure that the JPH there did not have some different special cake (because I'm not actually sure what it's the 15th anniversary of, but I'll be back at Isetan again tomorrow for what I skipped today, so I'll read more carefully); they did not. The neighborhood part was only about 3.4 km and the total was 10 km. Even with pedestrian stairs (along West Gaien Road) and some congestion around stations and Tokyo Midtown, I was around 10 km/h for every section.

The cake is almost all (besides that chocolate outside and a little butter cream sandwiched in the middle) like the base of their mont-blancs, which is an important part: a light almond meringue. It was excellent, but sort of like eating a big meringue cookie, so the design is somewhat limited as cake.

Le Mieux: Mille-feuille Fraise

Sunday, a typhoon went through, so at first it looked like it might be too windy, but it wasn't so bad. However, it was sunny and hot, so I gave up a plan to make a super long run and instead took the bicycle out again. First, I went out to Le Mieux, after overshooting by two stations. This was a new shop mentioned by Sweet Sonobe. I took the Mille-feuille Fraise, even though I could see that it didn't seem to be real mille-feuille, but more like crackers (which are similar, but I can't see why you would want this), because they listed it as their most popular and I was not trusting anything else anyway. It was good in its simply way, but not more than, which meant that I was disappointed.

I was also disappointed when I went to the beginning of what would be my next History and Culture Course run, if I could run 100 km. The area would be like running along the main road leading to the Mall, although main rural train stations tend to be like that. Really, I was on my way to confirm that Maison Douce existed and had the cake I rated as great once, which they did, it being their pride and joy, so I should be able to get it any time, if I can manage the 36 km run out there, which I think I can. I should stay on the main roads, though, for ease of navigation.

Total, it was probably a 80 km ride. I further rewarded myself with a Escargot aux Raisin from Rituel, which took over one of the bakery spots of the Isetan basement. I hadn't thought their croissant was very special other than being expensive when I visited them around Omotesando Road, but this was excellent, so I'll go back.

Today (Monday), I skipped cake and just got Chocotine (I think; it seems like a pain au chocolat to me). I need a cake-off to convince me that cake is worth being interested in, but the next available cake on the list isn't available until Friday. For running, having been discouraged by the History and Culture Courses, I decided I need to make my own that goes to points of interest in areas I know. I didn't quite manage my goal course on the first try and also need to make a couple adjustments for places I left out, so I'll try again tomorrow, perhaps. The actual course was just 4 km going through two neighborhoods (defined as areas surrounded by major roads), going by five parks, two museums, two shrines, two temples, one elementary school, and one cake shop, as well as a couple hospitals. I can't believe I left out the subway station, though it is going to slow me down to swing by there. I missed an art exhibition space unintentionally due to my one wrong turn (I ended up going through a university hospital complex parking lot), but I'm thinking that I want to omit that anyway. Also, once I memorize this local run (which is a memory exercise as much as anything) and expand it as far as I'm willing to run for local runs, I'll probably design some runs that skip other landmarks that I'm less interested in for a medium-scale neighborhood run. I felt good after the run, though, since I found a dropped wallet, which I turned into the police. I'd like to think that I helped someone out (as people have helped me out when I've dropped things).

Frédéric Cassel, Mille-feuille Framboise

Another typhoon is coming through, so I decided to stick close to home today, and just went to Ginza to visit Frédéric Cassel. Normally, since it's available on workdays, I wouldn't visit on a Sunday except to facilitate a cake-off, but their regular mille-feuille is only available weekends and I wanted to try this month's raspberry variation, Mille-feuille Framboise. Raid was actually fairly light and the wind not to strong, but there was some variation, so better safe than sorry seemed reasonable. Also, I found that my upper legs were tired from yesterday (also, I found that a bicycle offers good leverage for putting pressure on my lower back, so I have to be careful about my gearing).

Shimizudani Park

On the way there, I experimented with alternate routes (since it's too close for me to get really lost, even on a cloudy day). I ran through this park, went out the wrong exit for it to be useful go going east-southeast. Look at a map now, there should be a path at the southeast corner (this is looking back southwest), but I'm not sure whether the construction/renovation on the left (note the white barrier) has closed that path. I should find out. I'm just looking from a way to avoid the noise pollution from the major roads.

The mille-feuille was excellent, so I'll try to remember to work in a weekend visits to vary the cakes, though I'm caught up their cakes with them now, so no hurry.

[Sat] Limevert: Noir Chocolat

Saturday was another long research ride. I tried the technique of asking, which rarely works (Hidemi and Viron it did, but those are pretty high-end with long histories, so I'm not surprised that the staff has some knowledge of the schedule, unlike part-time staff at less famous places). Also, I spent a lot of time lost from not trying to follow a particular path; too many rivers make too few straight roads, so on a cloudy day, it's easy to get turned around. More than once I had to reverse course once I realized where I was, but at least I never completed loop myself. Need to find out about mounting a smartphone with a map app to my bicycle.

At Limevert, I got the Noir Chocolat, which is dark chocolate with some nuts over chocolate mousse with probably Bavarian cream flavored by earl grey. It was well composed and so should perhaps have been excellent, but perhaps because I have a lot of chocolate, I couldn't say that this was interesting enough that I would want to make it even if I could, which is my working definition of excellent cake (not that I've done any baking at all lately, which is a problem, because I have two eggs at the limit of their usability, perhaps: 3 months past "expiration"). Although not pretty, I'm including a half eaten version so that the inside is visible. I'll without hold that from Twitter version and would certainly not post that to Instagram (which I've yet to post to, since I don't have a smartphone, but see the above related remark to guess my future shopping plans).

As almost the last shop (I stopped at the Ginza Mitsukoshi on the way back), I also got a pasty from Éclat des Jours for the first time, a Kouign Amann. This was usual, in that what would usually be a single solid crystal of caramelize sugar was instead left almost completed granular, melted only just enough to make it stick together. I'm not convinced that its a better idea, but its was interesting to try. Also, this seemed like the saltiest puff pastry I've ever had, though not to a point of being a problem.

Pierre Hermé: Mille-feuille Infiniment Caramel

Tried to run past P. La Vie Douce, but did not make it before they closed at 7 pm, so then I ran down to the Akasaka Palace course and did one lap. I broke it down into 8 parts to try to get a feeling for how to balance the different sections with their different grades, though some parts that I measured had varying grades (the fastest 200 m is lumped with a flat and then slight upslope 200 m). Overall, I was 8.5 km/h, but over the 3.3 km course, my speeds on parts from 170 m to 800 m long corresponding to major corners or (barricaded) entrances varied from 9.5 km/h to 7.4 km/h (actually, these two parts follow each other in that order, before and after the turn at the southeast corner). It'll try to learn the different distances for the parts and calculate ahead of time what I need to aim for in future training runs, but it's going to take some practice.

For cake, I had gone to Pierre Hermé and gotten the Mille-feuille Infiniment Caramel, which is one of their monthly "Fetish" cakes, so it will be gone in about a week and a half (they start each Fetish late in the calendar month). This was definitely excellent, being a mille-feuille with caramel flavored mascarpone cream as the filling. It was not disappointing, but it did not seem to surpass their 2000 Feuilles, which would be hard to do.

Cake-off: JPH's Fondant Chocolat Mon Enfance over Yoroizuka's Annya

Had a long run today, which makes up for my somewhat laziness yesterday, when I cycled (50+ km) rather than ran. I was looking again for the same cake-off selections and eluded me yesterday (instigating a research ride). I first tried Toshi Yorizuka's Kyobashi shop again, but they were sold out despite my getting there as earlier as reasonably possible for a weekday (I didn't actually ask, but there was not much cake there, so I have no reason to think they were hiding some), so I next ran down to Midtown (it was a risk, but I want a no cake day sometime to offset the cake off, so failure would have been fine), where they had better supplies of everything, including the target, Annya. However, at that point, it was too late to go back to a department store (where I have a savings club card), so I had to take the 8% hit and get my Fondant Chocolat Mon Enfance (I know, there should be another preposition in there, but they don't include it in the Japanese pronunciation or include it on the website, though they write it on the card, which I don't remember, and I have conflicting information between my old notes and general online information about this type of cake) from the Jean-Paul Hévin at Tokyo Midtown. Today, it was 11+ km averaging 10.5 km/h, as I balanced being in a hurry and wanting to run at a calorie-burning pace (I ate a lot last long weekend). Going home, I was at 8.2 km/h, which is normal with two cakes.

It's hard to compare chocolate cake (the pear does not have much impact, less even than I remembered) and what tastes like (great) rhubarb pie. The important thing is that I still think both are great, so they stay in the cake-off competition, but I have to pick a winner and I'm more interested in how the chocolate cake compares to similar cakes than how the rhubarb tart plus mousse cake compares, so I'll take that as I sign that, for me, the fondant wins. Still, I look forward to second-round match-ups of both around this time next year.
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L'Abricotier: Chocolat fumee

Had time during the day so went for an about 5-hour cycling tour of cake shops, although I probably could have done the meaningful parts in less than 2 hours with better planning. My original plan had been to get cake from Toshi Yoroizuka and do a cake-off after a training rul, but apparently Tuesday is the wrong day for doing that. The shops are only partially open (Kyobashi's salon is closed and only the dessert bar is open at Tokyo Midtown). I may try tomorrow, but getting two cakes for a cake-off is always risky after work, whereas today I was off.

Anyway, I went out to Kichiyoji by the new bicycle, where both both shops I checked were closed (the second one was a last-minute thing, and probably they are always closed on Tuesday, but they were sort of on my way anyway and I wanted to check the route, so I didn't check my notes). At Koenji, both shops were open (which I could and did check) and there were no changes from last month. One of those was L'Abricotier, which I was ready for an eighth cake from, so I got the Chocolat Fumee (their spelling), which is smoky chocolate mousse on top of a chocolate cake filled with bandy and, I think, crème brûlée seasoned with caramelized almonds, and although I couldn't really tell except for the almonds, which were mostly just the ones on top (I only found one more inside). It was a very interesting taste, as far as the chocolate mousse, and definitely good, so I was ready to call this excellent, but I had to admit later that it was not something that I was very interested in eating again, so "definitely good" is going to have to be my finial review.

Went off north, where it was demonstrated that I should not believe a shop's Facebook page which says "open now" over their general schedule (that they are closed the second Tuesday of the month). Did get by another shop and confirm that they still did not have Chiboust. However, and here's a shop I could have checked in on when going to Toshi Yoroizuka, since I essentially passed it on the way, At Sugino Hidemi, they told me that the cake I was looking for was a Fall thing and I should look for it in a month, so I'll look forward to that for a cake-off in October.

After that long a ride, I thought I deserved a second treat, so I got Praliné from Viron nearby in Marunouchi, which is a puff pastry with sesame seed sized granular praliné as filling (same as between the "fingers"). It was definitely good (it would be excellent, since there's a lot of competition among sugary puff pastries, so I'm not sure) and well appreciated.

Voisin: Delice Framboise

Cool again today, which is to say, rain, but not heavy or constant. I finally got around to visiting Voisin after finding out that they had moved within weekday range. They are still about 9 km, but open until 8 pm, so no problem if no overtime. I just used this round the other day, though by bicycle. Most of the way is out Honan-dori/Avenue, which I was really liking because, at least if you get past Shinjuku Station (I went underground at Isetan and came up just past the west bus area), the crowds thin out fairly soon and then I had a nice side walk and made almost all lights. Also, I managed to avoid stepping on the fist-sized frog cross the sidewalk, so I consider that good luck.

Despite the walk underground both ways, which I including in my timing, by speed was above 8.5 km/h average (though faster out). At Voisin, I got the last Delice Framboise from not a huge selection near closing time. This is raspberry, pistachio, and chocolate. Unfortunately, this was not really working for me. Maybe it tasted like it was supposed to, but it seemed more like just an odd-tasting chocolate with a good amount of raspberry. It was never bad, but it was not until the last bite that I really got used to it, just as chocolate and raspberry, so I'm going to have to go with a rating of "okay". I could get back there again some day to given them another change (or more likely, try them again when they are at Isetan), but it's a pretty low priority.

Frédéric Cassel: Mille Feuille Finger Framboise

Cool with a mist of rain today, so should have been comfortable, but I felt slugish. Not sure why, since actually my average time over 9.6 km was 9.9 km/h, which was faster than I expected.

Visited Frédéric Cassel at Ginza Mitsukoshi again and got Mille Feuille Finger Framboise, which was excellent, as their Mille Feuille Finger series usually is. This is layers of white chocolate, two layers of cream---mango and passion fruit, and raspberry (thus, Framboise)--- and mille-feuille.

Pierre Hermé, Tarte Infiniment Citron

Today I got my cake from Isetan first again and then went running. I planned to do a loop around the Akasaka Palace course at a constant level of effort with the idea of timing the different segments to see the proportions for designing a trainig run, since I'm going to go much fast on the down-slope parts than the up slope parts and the difference. However, I took a detour down to Tokyo Midtown after the first 550 m stretch and then returned, so I found myself far from sustaining the same level of effort and gave up at the north-most point, though I came by back streets that maybe did not save me any horizontal distance, although they limited the slopes. Today, I still did 8.4 km at around 9 km/h.

The cake was Tarte Infiniment Citron, which is a kind of lemon tart. Note sure what all the parts, but there are heavier layers as you go deeper, starting with a very light layer (but with a kind of crust, like on a macaron) on the outside and moving down to lemon custard or thick cream, with some lemon comfit mixed in. The little disk on top has a sort of lemon cross-section pattern on it and is hard (probably mostly sugar). The cake was excellent quality and I like lemon once in a while as something different, but next time I'll try to get the more obvious choice of Mille-feuille Caramel. I've got until the 26th, which should be enough time.

Sadaharu Aoki: Saya (dome)

I know, I need to run without cake one day to make up for Sunday, but I've decided that the day will be Friday, since that's the hardest day to get cake. Also, I'm behind on following up on cake-off winning shops and the dome-shaped Saya at Shinjuku Isetan Sadaharu Aoki is limited to two weeks and tomorrow is the last day (though they had a good supply today at 18:15). It was not obvious that this was the cake I should get, since I've had their regular rectangular Saya (and found it great the first time and excellent the second time) and have generally had better experience with rectangular cakes than domes (though I have not checked the data to prove a significant difference). Nevertheless, Isetan should be my first choice for convenience and member discounts and I made the mistake of trying for something different at the Tokyo Midtown in my last new cake run for them and failed.

For running, it was not at all hot (actually, it started raining after I started running, so I was a little nervous because I didn't have a jacket), so I decided to do some speed training for once, since it's been so long since I've run fast (except going down-slope). I choose just +11.0 km/h as a comfortable but recently seldom used speed and did 5.0 km around the Meiji Jingu Gaien course (it's actually 1.325 km/lap, but there are 100 m markers, so four laps minus 300 m is easy to plan), which is definitely farther than I've sustained that speed for probably a number of months. By half way, I found myself in danger or being too slow: it was fast enough and long enough that I needed to pay attention to my speed and make extra effort. Actually, the first 525 m apparently was too slow, but only if my timing is accurate to the nearest second, which I'm not going to assume: the nearest tenth of a kilometers per hour is going to be close enough, I'm deciding now, so it was 11.0 km/h, safe. The full laps were 11.2, 11.4, and 11.4 km/h, and the last 500 m at 11.2 km/h, so cleared that goal.

The cake was strawberry and pistachio, which is what Saturday's cake was and shows that the right cake can make these ingredients great (at least with the right mental attitude). Texture (not overly gelatinous with a nice reasonably firm biscuit bottom) and flavor (much more intense than Saturday's) were both great. I won't hesitate to try any other dome-shaped versions they want to try on me.

Cake-off: Mont-Blanc Jewel over Mont-Poire Yuzu

View of south center of Hibiya Park

Started off by running to Mitsukoshi in Ginza to get there near opening time so that I could get both cakes for a cake-off: Mont-Poire Yuzu from Jean-Paul Hévin and Mont-Blanc Jewel from Frédéric Cassel. It wasn't too hot going, but was heating up coming back. I saw some people with "staff" shirts, so there was probably some sort of specific running event along the inner moat coarse, but since there would always be a lot of people on it Sunday morning, I think, there did not seem to be that much of an effect. I walked underground from the corner of Hibiya Park, so the running was less than 5 km each way, 11 km/h going and 9 km/h coming back.

Before eating my cake, I went out to do more month survey of other shops looking for seasonal great cakes but did not find the two tarts I was looking for at Paris S'éveille and Ryoura. It was about a 30 km ride.

Both cakes were great and reminded me that eating great cake is the goal, so I should balance out trying new cakes with enjoying known ones. It's hard to choose between these two. They are both mainly chestnut, but fairly different. The FC give a dense cake with cassis (currant) for flavor on a dense butter (? still haven't studied how to make different kinds of tarts so much, beyond the crusts) tart, whereas JPH flavors with pear and yuzu and has very light whipped cream in the middle on a very light meringue base. Different, but both great. In the end, I thought the cassis flavoring was more effective, but I hope to have the pear and yuzu again next year.

Bigarreaux: Bronte

Planned a big cycling tour of the usual shops I check every month, but decided to start as last week and explore the route out to Maison Douce halfway, which I was satisfied this time, before heading down to Bigarreaux, which opens earliest of the ones I'm interested in, 9 am. I got the Bronte, which they marked as a specialty, I think. It's Sicilian pistachios and wild strawberry. It was definitely good, but I guess I'm not that into strawberry, and I definitely don't like a gelatinous texture (as gelatinous textures go, I have no complaint here, just I don't have any praise either). This knocks P. Bigarreaux out of the Excellent category, since there are definitely some Quite Good shops that I rate high, though based on fewer cakes, so Bigarreaux did well staying at the level it was to cake number eight.

I did manage to get up to Aigre-Douce, but called it quits after that, since I was getting dangerously tired (I'm more of a danger to myself and others tired on a bicycle than running) and, having started in rain, had neglected to put on sunscreen and the September subtropical noon sun was breaking through the clouds.

Total I did about 48 km, near as I can tell, though Google does not allow that all used paths are usable. For example, I was briefly along this river when trying to get back southeast to Bigarreaux without following Ring Road 8 (which I have good reason to dislike). I like the way this picture turned out. To bad it was not taken with a good camera (or by someone who knows how to use any kind of camera well).

Jean-Paul Hévin: Tarte au Chocolat

New month, new cakes from my favorite shop, Jean-Paul Hévin. Okay, it's not new, I've had it multiple times before, but it's been more than a couple years, so I haven't posted on it before. I got my cake early and then did the usual monthly tour of the shops in the areas south of Tokyo Station: main Sadaharu Aoki, Marunouchi Jean-Paul Hévin, and Viron on the west side; the Kyobashi Toshi Yoroizuka straight east to the other side along the road between the last two; and then down to Ginza for Frédéric Cassel in the Ginza Mitsukoshi dept. store, Origines Cacao in the new Ginza 6 complex, and the main Dalloyau. No new cakes at the first three, but finally Toshi Yoroizuka has that the cake I've been looking for all year (though I shouldn't surprised, because they told me back in winter or early spring that now the the time it was most likely to appear). Frédéric Cassel already introduced their new stuff, which I saw yesterday, but both Origines Cacao and Dalloyau still did not have any of the several cakes that I'm looking for at them and I don't need any new cakes yet.

Well, one cake found by touring is better than I've done most months. The run was about 11 km (with a little walking) and started out around 10 km/h for the first half, but the fact that I ran 28 km/h the previous day made me slow down later, so the average was around 9 km/h, even without carrying cake.

Today's cake was the standard Tarte au Chocolat, which I declare great for the usual reason that I like chocolate, this was definitely good chocolate, and it's from my favorite shop. Of course, I already suspected that I would have it again, since I have in the past, but I've had many cakes since then. I'll look forward to comparing it to something from another shop to see whether it's really special or just my bias for this shop. (I'll keep my eye open for any announcement of its discontinuation so I can get it in this cycle). Note, this is also their cheapest cake.