Bien-être: Mont-Blanc

Ran over to Bien-être today. On the way, I tried for the first time to follow part of he neighborhood course I created through Sendagaya and failed to follow correctly to find the first park and then, back on the correct route past the second park, I found that I were I had planned to turn had a cross light, which is against the course rules. Fortunately, I could shift that turn south a few blocks where the street is quieter and signals are not necessary. Found the first park on the way back.

At Bien-être, I was disappointed by not too surprised that the Chiboust Pistache that I thought was great earlier in the month and wanted to match in a cake-off this Friday has already been replaced in the line up, so I'll have to get my second pistachio cake from L'Abricotier then, who still lists it on their site, at least for now. Anyway, Bien-être was relatively busy with three other groups (there were a couple pairs of people, but I can't remember whether the person in the corner was alone). I decided to go with the conventional choice of Mont-Blanc, which they had a large supply of (I did not thought about it then, but commonly I would go for what they have a low supply, figuring that it is popular, though that contradicts my idea that popular does not equal good). The first think I noticed was that the chestnut paste was the kind of very dense chestnut paste that I'm not that into,so I was not optimistic, but as I dug deeper, I got to the hard, thick base, which was challenge to cut through, but could. Once I got the biscuit, whipped cream, and chestnut paste in proper proportion, the cake worked well for me, and I quickly decided that it was actually definitely excellent. In the end, I was curious about it and wanted to compare it to other mont-blanc, which is the definition of great cake, so this ended up being great, in much part because at the beginning it did not seem like it was going to me. Of course, whether it can stand of to competition or whether it works as well eating at home versus in the middle of a jog, remains to be seen (though, actually, this was pretty heavy for a middle of a jog, but I'm not going to hold that against it).

Woo-Roo-Goo: Joan

Got stir crazy or something and went out despite the rain in front of the typhoon. It was not that cold and wasn't windy, and the rain was mostly light and even stopped, but it was more than a non-crazy person would put up with. I took the train back so that at least I could warm up before eating the cake (I wasn't cold running, but a little more clothes for the train back would have been nice, though at least the subway tunnels are warm, still).

I went with Joan, which is a yuzu-flavored chocolate mousse cake with a little cream in the middle and also a center base with chopped nuts. It was definitely good and I might once have given it the benefit of the doubt and called it excellent, but maybe I'm not feeling that generous, but I would be surprised if other cakes were of similar good quality, so I expect I'll be back again there some day.
 

Cake-off: Éclat des Jours's Rhum Raisin over Hidemi Sugino's Améthyste

Rain front coming through, but it slowed down, so I could get out before it. I'm hoping it will speed up again, so I can go out tomorrow afternoon, though there's the next typhoon coming in behind. Ran 15+ km total at 9+ km/h average, first to Éclat des Jours, which was a little late opening (there were a few people waiting ahead of me, but not more than there were staff inside, so no problem) to get their Rhum Raisin, and then to Hidemi Sugino, where I arrived 15 min before opening and got in a long line. Lots of foreigners, like me, as the place is famous and maybe some of them don't know better (like I should have) than come here on a Saturday morning. It took me 1 hour to get cake, but maybe I could have gotten it faster if I had come earlier (to get at the front of the line) or later (to come after the line had diminished, though it did not seem to have at 11:45). I should have waited and done this when I had a day off, but I was hoping for only a 30 min wait. Well, it will probably be a couple years before I need to go back, and I won't be in such a hurry that I can't wait to do it during a personal holiday.

As you might guess from the above, Rhum Raisin won the cake-off. Améthyste was not bad but I wasn't feeling the greatness (maybe it was too cold) and the Rhum Raisin still was a nice flavor with a creaminess that I'm not sure I've had elsewhere. Haven't decided yet when I'll try to go for the follow-up cake. I had about run through the whole line-up of cakes available at the end of the day when I stopped making them a weekly thing, but I can get something other than fresh cake as follow-up for a cake-off if I don't find anything new when I go.

La Vie Douce: Ginger

Trying to make this quick, I hit my last Excellent shop for a fourth cake: Ginger at La Vie Douce. The run was all the neighborhood courses that I've learned (mostly) so far, despite changing them almost every time to include parts I've never run before. I'm fine on the SW of Yotsuya 3-chome course, so I finished that one last, no problem, but the big challenge was the Yotsuya 3-chome, which is 10.3 km. Of course, a large part of that is a connector running along the north side of Jingue Gaien, which could be its own loop, only all it has is one park and one exit into a deadend loop (no other bridges out). The Under Shinjuku Gyoen loop was not really run as planned (long actually), but not in any part that matters. It's not a deadend, so I'll try it again and see whether the construction actually allows me to do the post map (once the new street goes, the west part is going to get cut off, but the connector south will still be there, so no problem). Overall, it was about 19 km at a slow 9 km/h, which is pretty good for how uncertain I was, how long it was, and how many stairs and steep slopes there are.

The Ginger cake was good. Even though it's a dome, it's not mousse or a lot of cream, but fairly stiff cake (maybe dacquoise), which is what I like. Besides raw ginger, which was not the strong (the outer layer is just a few millimeters), there was orange compote inside, along with the cake. It was definitely good cake, but I'm going to have to denote the shop down to Quite Good. I've got to keep checking there for when they make Chiboust Yuzu again. It could be never.

Now that I'm caught up on old shops (not counting ones that I promoted), I should start visiting new shops, occasionally, for instance a couple that I've put on my Neighborhood Map that I've posted on. For Sunday, though I plan to follow up on the more distant ones that I got from Joshi Plus (which seems to be out of the business as far as new posts) and Sweet Sonobe (who seems to have been outside of the country recently).

Jean-Paul Hévin: Chausson Chocolat and O de Chocolat Venezuela

As planned, I went to Marunouchi to visit the Jean-Paul Hévin chocolate bar in the Isetan Men's Salone. I had a Chausson au Chocolat reserved and also got an O de Chocolat Venezuela. The former is a traditional pastry made chocolate with a center of almond paste and chocolate (maybe 3:1). The pastry is very thick and the filling is sufficient but not too much. Very well balanced. The pastry itself, though chocolate, does not show it off much, since the butter tends to dominate, though still good. As I progressed, though, the sugary and chocolaty paste kicked in. This is really heavy and probably equal to at least 2 if not 3 pieces of cake, in terms of energy. My stomach was not too happy about running back, though it was not too bad and I recovered mostly by the end. The French means "slipper" and the most common type of chausson is apple, in my experience, though I generally choose something else as a pastry. The pastry was great, though that's partially because it was at least excellent and I have nothing close to compare it to. It's not cake, so it doesn't really effect my evaluation of the shop, although some time I'll have my pasty reviews organized enough that it will matter.

Jean-Paul Hévin usually does not have pastries, so I got this for it's rarity, because I like pastries, and because I owe JPH two items from two cake-off wins and I've already had all the current cakes. The other item I mentioned is water-based (versus milk-based) hot chocolate using the indicated source of chocolate (other options are Brazil and Columbia). The hot chocolate was good, especially as a drink, but not something I'm very interested compared to other items found at patisserie.

The run was about 5 km at about 10 km/h and 4.5 km at about 9 km/h (I took a slightly longer route back but stopped for groceries).

Yoshinori Asami: Orangerie

Finally got to Yoshinori Asami again and bought cake (I've often gone there this year looking futilely for a particular cake, but not to actually buy something new). It's +7 km, which I did 10 km/h going out and 9 km/h coming back. They close at 19:30, so the schedule is a little tight but I was fine. They are relatively new and in a big building (didn't get it all in the shot) a few blocks from the station on a fairly quite street. It's outside the Yamanote Line, so I guess we're in car country and you need to have parking, though I'm not sure I've seen anyone with a car the few times there were other customers.

The cake was a chocolate dome, Orangerie, which is always risky. It was pretty standard in construction. I'm assuming it was something like Bavarian cream inside the chocolate mousse, but that was not exactly what was written on the description (which I didn't bother to figure out the French from the phonetic Japanese). I'm pretty sure it was Bergamot orange flavoring the cream. The chocolate was suitably dark to go with the orange and this was definitely excellent.

(Mon) Toshi Yoroizuka: Choux à la Crème and Saint Honoré Caramel

Went to the Tokyo Toshi Yoroizuka on Monday afternoon after a failed trip to Jean-Paul Hévin (the typhoon blocked the shipment of special pastry, so I reserved one for the special delivery on Wednesday) and shared three cakes: Baba, Choux à la Crème, and Saint Honore Caramel. The Baba is a repeat but worth mentioning, as I dismissed the whole cake type previously as uninteresting but am now willing to appreciate it and say that, even among baba, this one was excellent. The unusually feature (besides the strong warning about the amount of alcohol) was the fig. Another type of cake (?) that I've disparaged is Choux à la Crème, and in fact I got a really fancy one from Toshi Yorizuka just last week and was not impressed at all. This, however, was excellent. In fact, it's just what I said custard needed, something to contrast with it. I was thinking of a custard tart with a dense shell, but this cream puff was fairly thick, though not sense but rather had some air in it but it was baked enough to caramelize it much more than an one I've had before, and it really worked to make contrasting tastes that went together. (It's like, they are professionals, or something.)

The third cake was my choice and was a Saint Honoré Caramel and was definitely excellent. Not sure what else I can say about it. Also choux and cream/custard, but with a strong caramel taste that I liked (even though I'm not always a fan of a stronger, smokey caramel taste). 

The running was another failed attempt to run just my neighborhood course, which I can't stop fiddling with (which is what I do instead of playing computer games, which I also rarely finish). I confirmed some new parts but then got lost and found a couple things I didn't like so I've revamped it completely again (though the sights are the same, so the paths are not so different). My plan for Thursday is to make the next attempt of the approximately 20 km for the Yotsuya 3 chome SE & SW and surrounding Shinjuku Gyoen west, south, and east. In the unlikely event that I complete it without finding any parts that need to be further fixed, I've already confirmed that I can expand southwest without working out the details. The map thus far is here. 

Toshi Yoroizuka: Choux Paysanne

The rain continues and will get worse through Tuesday as a super-large typhoon sweeps through. Despite that, I went out Thursday night, late, and did a quick tour of the very small neighborhood course, which I'll probably revise (so the link will disappear, but I'll update with a more stable link to a total neighbor map that includes it). I shaved a couple minutes off my time but still came just a fraction under 9.500 km/h for the 3.93 km. No cake or even cake substitute, like a pastry or bread.

Friday, I went to Tokyo Midtown, where the choices were few again. One thing that I've been seeing for a long time was Choux Paysanne, which has praliné cream, which I like, so rather than get one of the chestnut or pumpkin cakes that I haven't had, I got it. I like the cream, but it needs something more substantial in terms of texture and taste. Instead it comes with choux pastry, which is just a light shell without providing much taste, and custard, which needs at least something substantial in terms of texture but does not really go with any other taste as far as I can tell. This is all more criticism of my choosing skills rather than the actual cake, since these probably meets my needs and was good even to me, just I should have taken a chance on chestnut shortcake instead.

Clair de Lune: Dalcey

Backstreet northeast of central Tokyo.
 Just people's houses.

In reviewing Excellent shops and bring them up to 4 fresh cakes each, I finally got to P. Clair de Lune, which is 8+ km away. Used Runtastic for the distance and route and had the first failure: it stopped recording the route near the end of the outbound trip, although it kept counting the time. It seemed to have the distance about right, though, for what it recorded. I was around 9+ km/h going out and 9- km/h coming back, so it averaged out. I chose to get take-out rather than eat in (the eat-in space is pretty cramped, so it's not very attractive at night and the rain took another night off, though the next incoming hurricane is going to keep it coming back for the next week). On the way back, I took some back streets of part of it for the usual reason of not waiting at the first light to get down to my preferred east-west road right away, Kuramaebashi-douri (I don't like the nearest big round from the shop, because it crosses the JR lines in a very busy area, in terms of pedestrians).

The cake was the Dalcey (I avoided the temptation of getting the St.-Marc this one time). It's a mousse cake of caramel and passion fruit. Either flavor can be overpowering but were reasonably mild in this case and harmonized well. Also the texture was very nice, so I'm calling this excellent. Related to recent concerns about temperature, I actually ate this straight from coming home without refrigerating it, so maybe I should give up trying to figure out what optimal conditions are.

Excellent was actually high enough that I decided to swap this shop into the Quite Excellent group, taking out Abricotier, which I've visited a lot, so I'll be back to Clair to Lune relatively soon. Now 3 of 8 Quite excellent shops are now new to the list, but they have so few cake that all their positions are pretty fragile.

Ginza run: no cake, just cake news

Went to the Jean-Paul Hévin chocolate bar in Marunouchi for the Chauson Chocolat, but found out that they only get those Mondays and Fridays. I was due to skip cake at least one days, so I wasn't really disappointed and now I know when to go (it would be weird that they would have them every day, because I wouldn't think their customer volume was high enough). Thought about completing the loop around the inner moat again, but could not remember very clearly whether I had seen this month's line-up at Frédéric Cassel, so I went to Ginza Mitsukoshi, where they had the Breteuil again, finally. I've got other plans for the next cake-off, but maybe after that. The other news is that Dalloyau, which used to be my #2 shop but now is just in the top 7, has closed their main store, in Ginza. It's a really old building, I noticed, looking closely at it, and seems to be completely vacant now, so I assume that they'll tear it down. Of course, the Mitsukoshi Dalloyau counter is just one block away (and now makes more sense, as I don't think that was there has year). Dalloyau's shop in Jiyugaoka will become their new main store, after some renovations (though it's big enough already, it seems like, but I'm not sure where they actually make the cakes). Running, I was trying to go a little fast going out, since I was slow getting started and didn't want things to close on me, so it was about 10 km/h for about 11 km total.

Satsuki: Mont-Blanc

Rainy week, not that it's a change from the end of last week. Decided to finally try Satsuki on account of them being at Isetan (until tomorrow). This is literally the most expensive place I know. The featured cake at Isetan is the Extra Super Melon Short Cake, which is 4000+ yen. I went for the regular Mont-blanc, though they have a special triple-plus version.

The run was along the new Short Neighborhood course, just to set a standard time (at a slow pace in the rain), which was 27'35.8'' for 3.94 km. Then I tried the first of the medium ~12 km version that expands west via the southwest corner and filled up the hour. I was running at a low 9 km/h. I measured too with Runtastic, which tends to round the corners, and this was a lot of corners, plus 4 pedestrian overpass crossings, so it lost about 1 km of 9 km, so I still need Google for complicated measurements.

The cake was a very dense, very chestnut (including at least part of one in the middle) Mont-blanc, which may be great for people who like that, but I'm fairly uninterested. Still, good cake and no doubt their other cakes are good, but it's just as well that I won't be working my way through their lineup.

Cake-off: Jean-Paul Hévin's Tarte au Chocolat over Limevert's Pruneau,

Rainy and a little cold today, but not enough that I needed more than a windbreaker and a wide hat. Wanted to do a cake-off with Jean-Paul Hévin's Tarte au Chocolat today, since it's only available this month and I don't want to wait until the last minute (next weekend, is definitely out), but was not sure what I would be able to match it with, so I had some back-ups in mind. It's 12+ km and I kept it fairly slow, on the low end of 9 km/h, because I might end up at 30+ km if Pruneau was not available at P. Limevert. Their site is fairly detailed and it was not listed, but I could not remember whether their site is reliable. Apparently it isn't, or I'm not at reading information from it, which amounts to the same thing for me, except I could do something about the latter. I was of two minds, apparently: I was anxious approaching the shop, worry that they would not have it, and yet I felt disappointed that I was getting what I wanted (otherwise, it would have been a longer additional run to Les Cacao, with Bubo Barcelona as the next back-up). 

This is the second time that I rated a cake from Limevert great when I had it in the shop but could not finding anything special about it at home. As always, I'm not sure whether it is the change in my condition or the change in the cake's condition (maybe I should have let it warm up more from the refrigerator). Anyway, I'm happy that Tarte au Chocolat was still great. I hope I get it match it against another chocolate tart next year (I've had other great ones, but not ones that I know are available now). If other shops disappoint me, I might be back there, and I'll eat in again. For now, though, they get demoted to Excellent and I am tentatively promoting Bien Etre and 14 Juillet Tokyo to Quite Excellent. It leaves the Excellent group a little under, but the Quite Good group is too tangled up to promote any of them yet and too unimportant (I'm after great cake). Maybe after I finish topping up the local Excellent shops, if too many crash and burn. 

Yeah, finally about to be caught up on the blog. I want to get something from the visiting shop at Isetan tomorrow, but I should skip cake a couple days, for among other reasons, to get a couple non-cake things from JPH for their two cake-off wins.

[Sat] DelRey: Chocolat Dome

Had a relatively busy Saturday, but I fit in photographing a selection of neighborhood sights along my neighborhood running course (here's a tiny version which I just spent way too much time making). I ran about 12 km at 9 km/h in just a little rain at the beginning, not including walking under Ginza. First I went to Hidemi's to confirm that they had a cake that I want for a future cake-off (they told me it should come into season in a month about three weeks ago) and then went to the DelRey patisserie (buried back along a foot path from a back street in Ginza) for a second cake. I went for the Chocolat Dome. It was good enough, but nothing special, unlike the price. Maybe it need more time to warm up first, as the flavor was not very strong.

[Fri] Pierre Hermé: Tarte au Potiron

Starting with the cake (which I did, but only the buying part, not the eating part), I got the Tarte au Potiron from Pierre Hermé at Shinjuku Isetan. This is the seasonal cake that is not part of the chestnut and pear theme set.

This is a pumpkin tart with a "tuile", which is French for "tile", but seems like brittle, in this case pumpkin seed brittle, though it could have nuts or something in it to balance it, since at least it was not all whole obvious pumpkins seeds, but just a few. I started on the just pumpkin part and thought, "yup, that's pumpkin", which I've been a fan of as in pumpkin pie. Mixing in a little tuile, though, great balance and this was an excellent tart. Even after the tuile ran out, I was either used to it or had enough sweet aftertaste that it was not too strong a pumpkin for me and was till excellent.

On the running, I'm working on a new ~15 km neighborhood map, as other days, but I still did not get very far without making mistakes and realized that I should add another patisserie, even though I've not blogged it yet (because it's more cafe and somewhere that really needs a recommendation, though I'm probably get around to them eventually), so I cut off the run at 1 hr, which I estimate was 8.5 km. I've learned always to use Runtastic (which I didn't), because even when I'm trying to run a course that I already have an exact measurement for, as likely as not, I've going to get off course. At least this time I backed up and found the correct course each time (and a church that I had forgotten about), so I hope next time goes more smoothly. Today I figured out how to expand the current map considerably without breaking the run of no stops for lights, but I think that'll wait to learn the current map first before I add the next several kilometers or more.

à tes souhaits!: Grenoble

Did a second visit of à tes souhaits! by bicycle, trying to bring up all the Quite Excellent shops to two fresh cakes. I had the afternoon off, but first I had to go buy a new bike pump that took French valves and had a pressure gage and hen I did really understand how to use it (it's super simple, but I'm simpler). Eventually I got it and then got to the shop at probably around 3 pm. à tes souhaits! is the most crowded place that I know (and they've opened up a separate shop next door for ice cream and I forget what else), which is why I prioritize getting there on a weekday. I don't know why other than there not being much else out there and they appearing at the top or near on Tabelog, the main restaurant rating system.

There are two tables out from and there was a window when one became open (not that surprising, as people usually come for take-out), so I snagged it and was able to eat my cake. The cake is called Grenoble and is walnut and caramel. The walnut is highly sugary, not to the point that it was not definitely good but too much that ultimately I decided that it depended too much on that for flavor, so I could not really say that it was excellent. Maybe it would done better if I had tea and it had chilled a while first (even straight from the shop, I often find cake not as chilled as I would like, so this may just be partially my preference. The end result is that this shop stays in the Quite Good category, so it will be a couple years before I get back there (but it seems likely that they'll still be there).

Full disclosure, in the late afternoon I ran a few kilometers to P. Shima to correct the name of their cake from Tuesday. I was a little tired from cycling, so that was only 9 km/h. I'll see about getting to the last one-cake Quite Good shop (which just means that the one cake was excellent).

[Wed] 14 Juillet Tokyo: Au Lait Noix

Sasadera at night

The little Inari shrine on the same grounds as Sasadera

Worked a little late, but 14 Juillet Tokyo is open until 9 pm, which is not the same as having a good selection that late. Still, I can't complain, as it happens. I left Runtastic to measure the distance, which worked out. It's about 5.5 km to "New" Marunouchi Building, where the shop is, and I did 10 km/h and 9 km/h back with cake. For a change, and because the distance is not that much different, I returned going north, completing the loop around the inner moat (though I left the course at the northwest corner).

The cake I chose was Au Lait Noix (actually, it was written "Noa", but let's pretend not), which has some aspects of a chocolate tart. Milk chocolate is not my favarotie and often fails, but the walnut and jasmine made this something different and the base gave a good texture contrast to the creamy top, so I'm going to say that this was great.

Shima: Montélimar

I'm working my way through the under-visited Excellent shops and tried P. Shima today. Nothing was particularly recommended, so I took a chance and got Montélimar. It's vegetables in cake, and it's sweet enough and creamy enough that it's different from vegetables in Jello, but really not that big a step up, so I couldn't really see the point and no particular flavor stood out besides the sweetness to make it cake. It's ok, but I regret not going for something standard, like their mont-blanc. I'll probably be less adventurous next time.

For the running, of course, first I had to get the cake and bring it back, because they close early (but are close). Then I wanted to try a new long neighborhood map that swings out to the temple and shrine on the northwest corner of Shinjuku Gyoen Park by swinging all the way south. I installed a new app, Runtastic and tried it out. It's not the pro version. It didn't quite handle the tricky bit at the far point where I circled around the temple (Google also recommends the same wacky route there if you don't really pin it down at the right points, which is probably why) and the phone was hard to get out (I need a new bag for jogging with a bigger outside pocket) and figure out how to get it to stop recording, though may I'll get better at that, but it was reasonably close about the distance and speed, so I'll probably leave it to do future calculations. Still running on the balls of my feet today, which I did the first 5 km at a relatively fast 10 km/h, but the next at 8 km/h, partially from being tired, partially from more obstacles in the form of people, a pedestrian bridge, and less familiar roads.

Cake-off: Jean-Paul Hévin's Mont-Pomme Caramel over Il Pleut sur la Seine's Le Saint-Marc

Monday, which was a holiday, I did a cake-off. This month's special mont-blanc is at Jean-Paul Hévin is the Mont-Pomme Caramel. To match it, I ran to Il Pleut sur la Seine for the somewhat caramel Le Saint-Marc. Due to a post about medieval walking patterns, I did the run on the balls of my feet, versus heels, which is not the most efficient, but it's good for posture and seems good for my foot problems, so I did it again Tuesday, but I'm getting ahead of myself. The run was about 5 km each way, a low 9 km/h going out and a high 8 km/h coming back.

Another tough cake-off, though both were good enough that they don't need to be denoted, though It's hard to say whether I would rate them great, which always depends on the day. In the end, I have to go with the Mont-Pomme Caramel, which is more interesting and certainly there is more to it (for barely more money), both in terms of volume and interesting elements.

[Su] Toshi Yoroizuka: Cassis

Not sure of my distance for Sunday, but I went to Midtown by a not totally direct route, as I checked out some neighborhood sites, but also I think I was running pretty slow, so maybe around 8 km in an hour.

Haven't decided that Toshi Yoroizuka is the best candidate to be promoted from Quite Excellent to Superb, I'll looking to double my number of cakes from there, which is going to be hard, at least if I keep going near closing time. But I neglected them from a long time so even late on Sunday I could get something new to me, Cassis. Actually, the fig dominate this, not the cassis (black currant), and it has a fairly heavy biscuit (?), though I won't be able to say what it is until I get back there ask or check the card. It wasn't flashy or intense but it was good and interesting enough that I'll give it a tentative great rating and see whether that holds up (or how long Yoroizuka maintains interesting in making this). Still should go back there during the day and look for great one's I'm missing.

Okay, I did not upload that picture in a smart way, but now I've given Google permission to upload my photos, since it's getting everything eventually anyway. From now on, no more swapping SD cars, which is a huge improvement. Going to calculate Monday's route now, before I forget, but the next step is to get my phone to record it automatically.

[Th] Pierre Hermé: Mont-blanc Hommage

I'm way behind. I was busy preparing for a busy weekend, and then I got a new phone that I am still setting up and learning to use, like how to get it to stop blinking and sending me endless messages that I (probably) don't need, in Japanese.

But back on Thursday, it was time to visit Pierre Hermé at Shinjuku Isetan and run around the neighborhood course again, which of course, I've send completely revamped to combine all directly (no stop lights) connected paths between temples, shrines, churches, at least semi-public parks (ones that I can enter for free at most times that I would want to), and cake shops (that I've acknowledged). Again, my plan is to label all these at least minimally and add photos where Google Maps lets me (I haven't found it consistent about that). This day, I went about 11 km, I think, but anyway definitely 77 minutes.

The cake was definitely good, but fell in the category of mont-blanc that I'm not into: really dense chestnut paste (with pear, of course, that being the combination for the monthly ones). There are more in this series, but I think I'll got for the pumpkin tart first, which will at least be different.

Friday, I didn't have time to run, but I did have time to get a Cinnamon Danish from Andersen, and this I found excellent. It really is pastry rather than simple a roll.

Bien-etre: Chiboust au Pistache

Despite foot problems last night, things seemed better today. Need to get that balance between being too stiff and maybe spraining my ankle trying to stretch, I guess. I ran 5+ km each way to Bien-etre at 8+ km/h. It was a good run in that it made me feel better about my ability to run and my ability to enjoy running.

This was my fourth cake from Bien-etre, as I try to get all 18 shops in my Excellent shop list up to four cakes (there are several at three, all ones I can get too on a workday, if I want to). My goal is to have 16, so I'd like to demote one and promote one. I ate in, as I've done before, since they have a reasonable amount of space. There were even two other customers eating in. I went with the Chiboust au Pistache (a.k.a. Pistachio & Grapefruit Chiboust), because I've never seen a pistachio chiboust before, I want to like pistachio (though I'm often disappointed), and I usually have good luck with chibousts. Their cakes always have a sort of rough almost homemade feel, which usually is a bad sign but works for them. This one had a big tart base with pineapple mixed in with the filling (sorry, it's mostly hidden by the paper, though you can see some grapefruit on top) and then a thick chiboust layer, in which the pistachio was not a strong taste, but it did not need to be (and maybe can't because, because chiboust is so light). It was all good, and I'm to say it was great, even if I'm not totally confident that I won't be less impressed the next time, like I was with last weekends cake-off contestants, and that's fine. I certainly enjoyed this cake more than my weekend cakes, so it deserves some recognition.

Now that I've recovered my faith in running and my faith that I have not lost my taste for cake, so that even just Excellent shops cane impress me sometimes, I think I'll take a day off from both cake and running tomorrow, just to get some things done around the house, since I never have time for most things, like most people.

Cake-off: Maison Douce's Trevi vs. Del'Immo's Royal Milk Tea

This is the view from a bridge crossing the Tama River.

Finally did the semi-long run to Maison Douce in Hachiouji City, on the west edge of Tokyo. Things went a little more smoothly than the last bike ride, though I still got a little off track and was uncertain about turns, because its in the part of the usual pocket map for the 27 Wards of Tokyo that's at 1:62,500 scale, so it doesn't really resolve the details. I stuck to the main roads and was okay until where I was supposed to follow a river and ended up following the wrong one, but that only took me about a kilometer out of my way, so no big deal. I kept it to a reasonable jog, which was about 8.5 km/h averaged over 37 km. I could have kept going (I did keep going for the kilometer after I got the cake, Trevi, since I was not sure how far the entrance of the train station was and ended approaching from the wrong side (I eventually realized that and back-up a bit and found an elevator that took me up to the right level so that I could see the station. It took about 90 minutes to get back with the cake, since I stopped in Shibuya and again went out the wrong side and spent a walked a long way to get to Hikarie, where Del'Immo has a shop, so I could get the Royal Milk Tea (at least, that's what's written in English on the card, but you have to keep in mind that the phonetic Japanese says something different, Earl Grey, I think, when you're trying to tell the counter person what you want).

"Big Chestnut" River, followed to reach Ouzawa.

This was the hardest cake-off ever because both cakes were excellent but I could not say which was better and I wasn't sure I was feeling the greatness. Both are impressive for what they do with what they have. The tea cake is very mild but has an interesting dry biscuit and the right about of sweetness, whereas Trevi is sort of chocolate mousse, nuts, and fruit at a low price (about 400 yen) that still works. I decided every combination and then took it back. I wouldn't try to be strict, but Maison Douce is so far, that I'm not going to commit myself to going back there lightly. In the end, I decided that I have a long list of great cakes and I'm glad to revisit them, but have enough doubts about their greatness that I don't want to give either the win, so I'm not: they both get excellent rates on the second taste and get demoted to semi-great.

The above was Sunday. Monday I rested from cake, though I still ran, after some errands, to check out any changes in Ginza shops. It was about 12.7 km on the low end of 9 km/h. Actually, my right ankle was very weak afterward, so another reason to be careful about distances (though it's also probably related to doing stretching exercises that I usually don't and the fact that I also did a long bicycle ride on Saturday, which my ankles probably haven't become used to). Knees seem fine, though. Rather than cake, I took the cheap and convenient choice of a croissant from Andersen at Isetan, which was definitely at least good.