Cake-off: Frédéric Cassel's Inspiration Passion Framboise over Toshi Yoroizuka's Cassis

Friday, I had a long run, starting by running down to east Nishi-Azabu again to do loops of my neighborhood course and swinging up through Moto-Akasaka, which is at least somewhat on the way back. I could do three small loops, finishing them, but failed on the two largest due to not recognizing a narrow road or path that I needed to turn on. Skipping ahead in the story, I went back by bicycle and ran those Saturday afternoon (it was hotter than I had hoped but apparently manageable). I also finally managed clockwise on the Dougenzaka north loop, after cycling over to Shibuya Hikari but failed on completing the adjacent loop and two other simple loops I tried for the first time. I'll see what I can do Sunday night.

Friday, as my first snack, I tried a Pain au Chocolat from Fiorentina Pastry Boutique, which is my first pastry. It suffered a little from the late time/humidity/my sweaty condition, but it was made the way I like it and I liked the chocolate (which I often don't in these), so I'm going to call it excellent and maybe get another one.


Saturday, I did a third-round cake-off with Frédéric Cassel's Inspiration Passion Framboise, even though it was its last day and it will probably never appear again. I started by running to the Kyobashi Toshi Yoroizuka to the Cassis, which was the nearest cake that was a suitable match. The Cassis, besides as the name indicates, is maybe the best fig cake I know, but that was not enough (though it complimented) against the stronger flavor of Inspiration Passion Framboise. The next "Inspiration" cake with be pecans, which sounds good, though I have other places to visit, so I'm probably not going to get to it right away.

Pascal Le Gac, Tarte Chocolat

Was late getting started, but ran down to Pascal Le Gac for a third cake. On the way there and back, I successfully ran three loops of my neighborhood running course, completing the (trivial, in terms of knowledge) Moto-Akazaka west loop (Akasaka Palace running course). I was getting a third cake from this shop and choose the Tarte Chocolat. This is definitely excellent, for a chocolate lover, so this shop stays in the still crowded quite fine shop group. The negative point is this tart is tiny, so a bit pricy for cake, but if you consider what bonbon chocolates cost, not unreasonable. Still two more two-cake quite fine shops to go, so I should finish them off around mid-September.

Fiorentina Pastry Boutique, Peach Shortcake

Decided that I didn't want to run to Ginza again (like Tuesday) and instead ran to Roppongi Hills again (like the previous few days). It's not such a far run but I did do four 1-min dashes on the way and ran most of the way back. I went to visit Fiorentina Pastry Boutique at Roppongi Hills, which is the pastry shop for Grand Hyatt Tokyo. My justification was that FC was 2 cakes down out of 48, whereas one exceptional shop was 2 cakes down out of 6, so they should be the priority, but the latter was below Fiorentina, so first I had to resolve where Fiorentina belonged. Unfortunately, though Fiorentina are open fairly late, they don't have a big selection late, so my choices for a fifth cake were between three kinds of shortcakes and a couple verrines, so I went with a shortcake. I chose a slight upgrade from the basic model and got the Peach Shortcake. There's also a high-end shortcake for more than double again the price, but I would want to share that. By virtue of a slight detour on the way back, I completed the new Nishi-Azabu northeast loop clockwise, so I should be able when I finished it off with the larger loops on the other side of the main street that I've been working on, hopefully Friday.

The shortcake was typical in structure, but peach was an excellent choice and I have to admit that it was excellent, which I was not expecting, given my preference for heavy cakes. This balance of cake, cream, and fruit was much more to my liking than last night's, but still it was the fruit as central. This puts this shop squarely above at least one exceptional shop with the same number of cakes, so it gets moved up and Bubó Barcelona gets moved down to the quite fine group, perhaps never to be visited again for cake, though it's solidly a fine shop. Still at least two more challengers from the quite fine group to go before these two groups are properly separated, though now that Lenôtre is settled, I can visit a completely new shop. Before that, I think I'll work on the two-cake quite fine shops tomorrow.

Lenôtre, Éclair Gourmand Orange

Monday was a no-cake day, so I'll deal with that first. I wanted to rest somewhat from running, so first I did my basic indoor trunk workout and then went by bicycle down to Roppongi Hills to run some loops. I was successful on all four this time (from practice), which means I completed two easy ones and finally got clockwise on two others. Along the way, I found a shop specializing in scone and cheesecake, Happy Day for You, so I finally have a reason to make a loop in the northeast sector of Nishi-Azabu.

Tuesday, I went to Ginza to get another cake from Lenôtre, since it is now in the exceptional shop group and needs to more cakes to catch up and also is challenging the bottom of the quite exceptional shop group, so it's a priority. I did the running without walking, except for when the light was red, and did dashes between 4 minutes of running, so I got in a little more than four 1-min high-speed stretches. I ran back rather than walk the whole way, but didn't do any dashes. The rain started falling lightly a little more than 1 km out, but I could protect my cake. For the cake, I choose one of two open-face éclair, which I figured I should try. I went with Éclair Gourmand Orange (versus citron). The fruit is high quality, but overall it's not too exciting, despite the price. I need a lot more with my fruit. Lenôtre is still down 1 cake, and their great cakes haven't finished this year's cake-off challenges, so I expect more cake in the near future, but they are no longer a top priority and I'll go somewhere different next week.

Y par Potager, Komatsuna and Moringa Cheesecake

Working through the 2-cake quite fine shop list, I got to the last of the non-workday ones, Y par Potager (at the Nakameguro location, formerly Potager, though now in a new looking school). It's hot to run during the day, so I went by bicycle, which also allowed me to check a couple sites on the way to looking in on BE and DA to check lineups for great cakes (without any luck).

Since it was recommend out front, I went with the Komatsuna and Moringa Cheesecake at Y par Potager. Komatsuna is Japanese mustard spinach and moringa is a "superfood", though it's a tree, so I'm not sure what part they used, the leaves or the pods. It's not really suitable for Japan, since it prefers try soil. The cheesecake tasted like good cheese cake flavored with greens. Nothing wrong with that, but not something I particular need to look for, as I prefer sweets. The label shown indicates under 5 g carbs. So this shop gets banish to the fine list, probably never to be visited again. Three more 2-cake shops from the quite fine list to go.

In the late afternoon/evening, I went down to the area south of Roppongi Hills stretching down past Hiroo Station. For the main target, the Nishi-Azabu--Minami-Azabu loop, I failed again at the same second traffic signal bypass (although that bypass also serves to pass the entrance of Amida-ji, which is on a narrow lane). I kept going anyway and feel a lot more confident about the rest of the loop now. On the way, I tried two loops to the east of it and was able to do both of them correctly. The only problem is, reviewing the maps, the first one left out a temple, and looking for a way to correct that loop, I also found a church I had missed, so I'm moving the section with those sites over to a different loop. At least the Moto-Azabu south loop seems stable, and I was able to do clockwise without getting sucked into a dead end. I failed the Roppongi 6 north loop clockwise (wasn't sure how far south I needed to go after where I use a crosswalk to get over a major street), but at least the Roppongi 4 loop is finished, all 243 m of it.

Cake-off: Frédéric Cassel's Inspiration Passion Framboise over Ladurée's Plaisir Sucré

After a morning appointment, I ran to Nihonbashi Mitsukoshi to pick something up and then walked down to Ginza Mitsukoshi to get Frédéric Cassel's Inspiration Passion Framboise and Ladurée's Plaisir Sucré. This was a second-round cake-off, where the former is just for this month (barring leftovers, maybe) and the later is the earliest of the round-one winners waiting for a second round. I brought them back by train.

As expected, paired against the sweet Plaisir Sucré, Inspiration Passion Framboise did not seem sour. It is tough to decided between these two, but I'll go with the more diverse (among my greats list) Inspiration Passion Framboise, so I remain two cakes behind on Frédéric Cassel. In any case, I'm two cakes behind on Ladurée, as I have been for a while, but that's because there are challengers from the category below (Ladurée is grouped with exceptional shops) that I need to sort out first, though Ladurée isn't lowest among the exceptional shops, so it won't be next to be demoted to make room for a new shop.

The main running was in the evening, and the main target was Nishi-Azabu--Minami-Azabu loop, but there are some tricky old and new turns that I don't know well enough, so I was quickly running just for practice. Similarly, I tried to run the Moto-Azabu--Roppongi loop, which has a double back and couple crossovers using footpaths, so ultimately, I see that even my practice was not correct (I ran way to far, around Roppongi High School). Also, there was a street festival (which showed up on Google maps), so I'll want to check for that if I try the same location tomorrow. On the other hands, I noticed St Moritz as a bread shop at the from turn from the main east leg of the loop. I also did the Moto-Azabu loop correctly clockwise, which is a 1.1 km loop with just three sites (two temples and park), but it's on some back streets where where I needed to turn to keep from getting sucked into a dead end. I also missed a jog to the right one block before getting back to the main street. Though trivial, I could do the Roppongi 6 north loop (794 m) and Roppongi 4 loop (243 m) clockwise, so I'll be able to get those out of the way, though the former is just one loop in a chain of little loops clumped with the Nishi-Azabu--Minami Azabu loop, so I might end up jogging along it one way more times.

Pierre Marcolini, Éclair Vanille

Thursday, I did a lot of food shopping errands, starting with visiting Pierre Marcolini, which had four éclairs I haven't tried. Since it will probably be a long time before I'm back and finding something great that's about to disappear would be less useful, I went with one of the two standards rather than the seasonal ones, and got Éclair Vanille. The filling is vanilla, but obviously there is some red fruit on top. This is one of the quite fine shops that I've only had two cakes from and I decided that this éclair was excellent, so they stay on that list. This is despite the crust not seeming to be the traditional choux pastry, but was rather soft. Maybe I'm influenced by the high-end atmosphere, but in any case, this remains as some place that I would like to visit again. Actually, I'd like to visit the salon and get one of their salon deserts, but like the éclairs, everything is about double what you would except from an ordinary shop, though they are not trying to be ordinary. I think eventually I'll do it, but it might not be until October. Interesting trivia: if you pay by cash, they round down to multiples of 10 yen.

I'll include Friday here, since no food is involved: I went for a long run that took about 3 hours, though I walked on stairs and crowded places, so maybe close to 2 hours actual running. The balance was good, and I was still running well at the end and am ready to run again on Saturday, though there was a lot of stretching between. Back to the trivial details for Friday. I did the recently altered Jinguumae--Kita-Aoyama south loop counterclockwise, so that route is confirmed. The main goal was to do counterclockwise the Daikanyama-chou--Ebisunishi--hachiyama-chou--Nanapeidai-chou--Shibuya--Uguisudani-chou loop, which is 9.75 km long and has a lot of stairs and slopes (as well as churches as sites). Along the way, I first confirmed the current (until the construction on the southeast corner is finished) updated Dougenzaka south loop (1.1 km), but later failed trying to do the Maruyama-chou--Shinsen-chou loop (I did the first turn at the correct intersection, but onto the wrong street (it's a five-way intersection). I didn't try to do connecting Dougenzaka north loop. I'm going to call the main Daikanyama... loop a success. Actually, I turned early at the end, but it was dark and a long run and I could immediately see that it was wrong (and the reason for not turning there is not that important), so I'm not going to ding myself for it, or I can never do long runs in the dark. So I'm done with that area for now, and I'll move over to in front of and south of Roppongi Hills for the run Saturday afternoon, where I've really only run a little bit, though I've previously done runs to officially add those loops to the neighborhood course, while consulting a map.

Frédéric Cassel, Mille-Feuille Finger Chocolat et Vanille

Another week, another great cake from Frédéric Cassel. The running was much like yesterday (same route, same destination), only I walked a little less (but substituting a dash for 1 min walking on the grounds that I had rested at a traffic light during the preceding running period) but again decided that walking back was good for the cake and my body (also, it had been raining, so it was seriously humid). I got my target cake, which was the Mille-Feuille Finger Chocolat et Vanille (otherwise, I was considering going elsewhere and trying again tomorrow). There was a time where every month had a different flavor of this as part of the monthly "inspiration", but not lately. Instead, I think that they've had this mille-feuille finger for a while. I can't find the official announcement for Ginza Mitsukoshi, though it was at Ebisu for a few days back in April, so maybe it's been around since then. Great texture (the base has some crunch, as well as the mille-feuille) and great chocolate, so how can I resist. I'm never going to get to third-round cake-offs of older cakes at this rate, although the only other new cake at FC is about to be replaced (from mangue (mago) to maron (chestnut)) and FC has to keep winning cake-offs or else eventually I'll get fewer cakes from there even if they have new cakes. Still, It's the kind of probably that you want to have. At home, I did the base indoor workout, to get some more exercise, and so that I don't feel compelled to stay in on Friday night. I should do more upper body tomorrow, though, when I plan to run to a different Ginza shop.

Lenôtre, Éclair Chocolat

Did the first run to Ginza of the week, but expect to be repeating it a few times. I only ran one way, as far as Hibiya, and then walked back with cake from Ginza Mitsukoshi, protecting my cake more than my feet. Pretty light exercise after two days without running, but the cake comes first and I'm hoping for longer runs Friday and Saturday. Today's target was Lenôtre, as the top shop in the quite fine category that was challenging all the shops in the higher exceptional category. I've gone through the traditional fresh cakes there and I'm starting on the éclair types. Today I got what seems to be a standard, the Éclair Chocolat. It's not easy to stand out as an éclair, but this convinced me that it was excellent, with a nice rich chocolate filling with some nibs (?) on top to add to the texture. This puts Lenôtre even in number of cakes with a shop in the exceptional group, so I have to bump the bottom of that group, Fraoula, back to the quite fine group (which doesn't have a great effect, as I've oversampled this shop even as an exceptional shop, so I wasn't getting a new cake from them any time soon). Now Lenôtre is tied for the top of the exceptional group with the fewest cakes and having new cakes available, and marginally challenging the bottom of the quite exceptional group in terms of rating, so it still remains a top priority, after cake-off winners. However, when I do get a chance, now Fiorentina Pastry Boutique is the top of the quite fine shops and is challenging at least some of the exceptional ones, but with fewer cakes, so it's next in priority. Probably won't get to it this week, though, as FC deserves another visit for its cake-off wins, and then I'll take another shot at the 2-cake quite fine list, which has two shops in Ginza that should now both be open.

Mandarin Oriental Gourmet Shop, Mango Short Cake and Tart Lemon

Sunday, I was busy, but I got a chance to do cake for two at Mandarin Oriental Tokyo Gourmet Shop, which was on the list of shops to get third cakes from. Actually, I got two cakes of course. There was not a big selection left at a little bit before 5 pm on a Sunday, so I recommend going earlier (there was also some sort of glass desert and a coffee desert), but we could get the last Mango Short Cake and the Tart Lemon, both at hotel café prices.
We would have rather eaten inside, due to the heat, but having stopped walking and purchased iced tea, it was actually fine at an outside table. Both cakes were good, although difficult to eat (big pieces of mango don't cut easily and the tart was designed for looks), but not any more than that. It's a fine shop, but this will probably be my last visit. Only five shops to visit, and I might get to two over the next week, if plans go as expected.

I didn't actually run on Monday but instead did a fuller upper body workout than I've done for a long time. The next few days will probably also keep me from doing runs on the neighborhood course, but even if I do indoors again on Friday, Saturday evening I should be able to hit the neighborhood loops from last Saturday again. I need considerable running to burn off this weekend (extended to Monday), so maybe I'll fit in some extra running on a smaller or more convenient loop, like around Akasaka Palace to Jinguumae--Kita-Aoyama.

Cake-off: Frédéric Cassel's Inspiration Passion Framboise over Pierre Hermé, Baba Infiniment Citron

Friday night, I tried to do some neighborhood loops. I knew I wouldn't do a run on Saturday until evening, since it would be hot, and I had used up my cake quota by Friday, so I was free to run wherever I wanted. To speed things up, I went by bicycle and parked at Shibuya Hikarie (2 hours for free, so I had a target time). There were some wrong turns that required backing up and in particular I lost my nerve near the end after Tokyo Shibuya Evangelical church (this loop is full of churches) and turned where I should have gone straight and wasn't confident what to do to correct it until I went back and looked, so I had to call that a failure. I wasn't even able to do either of the side loops correctly and my ankle was feeling twisted near the end.

Saturday, I walked to Ginza to get cake for a cake-off in the morning, Frédéric Cassel's Inspiration Passion Framboise, to match against a cake I had put on the great list 4 years ago, Pierre Hermé's Baba Infiniment Citron, before my definition of "great" was very firm or I had any intention of doing cake-offs. Also I should mention that I'm not a fan of baba's in general, so I had little confidence in my old relative evaluation. Still, it was on the list, so I wanted to have it again and give it chance. The baba was as I expected, very nice for a baba with interesting accents. Definitely excellent, but not something that I really needed to have again. That leaves Frédéric Cassel's Inspiration Passion Framboise as the winner, and it was definitely superior, but the sourness of the baba (which was fine for it) carried over a little too much to the Inspiration Passion Framboise, so I was less confident about it this time around. My plan for next week is to pair the latter with something that is super sweet for its second round, so hopefully it will be able to show itself off better. I'll have time for a third round at the end of the month (and it's run), so no need to do extra cake-offs.

Saturday night, I tried Friday's run again. On the way, I confirmed Blenz Coffee and expanded the Jinguumae--Kita-Aoyama south loop to include it. While I as at it, I added the Toraya Café / An Stand ("an" as in the beans, since this is traditional Japanese sweets maker). Having changed the loop, practiced the clockwise run and was successful. The main loop in this run was again the Daikanyama-chou--Ebisunishi--Hachiyama-chou--Nanpeidai-chou--Sakuragaoka-chou--Sarugaku-chou--Shibuya--Uguisudani-chou loop (it's a huge loop and there are lots of little neighbhorhoods), which I did satisfactory this time. I should say that I walked down to it, running only to do the Jinnguumae--Kita-Aoyama south loop, and then on the big loop, rather than using the timer for walking or doing any dashing, I was careful walking up stairs and steep slopes, and also making sharp turns, so my ankles were much better off. Also, Saturday was the hottest day this year in Tokyo I think, which is saying something (high was around 36 degC), so even in the evening, it was still quite hot. I tried to do the Douzenzaka--Maruyamachou--Shinsenchou loop there in the crowded area between Shinsenchou Station and Shibuya Station, to the west of the latter. I had already realized that I needed to break that loop into two, according to the rules applied elsewhere (not having to remember which side of the street I need to be on when there's a choice and a figure eight being two loops, not one), so it's not cheating to report that I was successful with the (newly designated) Maruyamachou--Shinsenchou loop, but failed on the Douzenzaka west loop, though even looking at the map now, I'm not sure where I went wrong for the latter. Anyway, now that I'm recognizing this as a pair of loops, they aren't side loops and I can put off doing them for another time. I also was successful with the Douzenzaka east loop, which circles parts of Shibuya Station, though I have to allow a deviation for construction. So four loops successfully down clockwise (though only one major one).

Le Précieuse, Caramel Salé

I originally planned to bicycle to a nearby place and get cake and then go for a long run, but the first shop apparently closed early for the Obon season and the search was on. I was trying shops I'm trying to get a third cake from. There are six left that theoretically available on a weekday, but apparently not this week. The first was Pascal Le Gac. Then I tried the hotel cafe at Tokyo Midtown, but found out that they are renovating for the next 5 weeks, which is good to know. From there I tried south Ginza, where they were closed for the week, then north Ginza, where they were sold out, and then Nihonbashi, where they close early, this time at least posting a sign so I knew that was what had happened. I ended up coming back to the closed place, Le Précieuse at Yotsuya Station. By then there were only 15 minutes left to eat in, but it was enough. I got Caramel Salé (salt caramel) which includes nuts (I'll guess roasted peanuts). I thought it was definitely excellent, which surprised me, because I keep underestimating this place. Anyway, it's good enough to keep them in the quite fine category, leaving only six to check. I wouldn't be trying again this week anyway, so at least 4 should be available on a weekday next week and maybe in a couple weeks I'll get to the last remote one. I should also say that on the way I found another patisserie in Akasaka, but it requires using subway tunnels to get there without using a traffic signal.

Vincennes, Délice au Cassis

Working through a list of cakes I want a third cake from, I finally got to Vincennes out in Meguro-ku, when I went to by bicycle, taking a break from running and doing my short indoor workout. I got Délice au Cassis, which is almond biscuit with some cassis butter cream (?), and some "raw" chocolate on top. It's a nice little cake from a nice little shop, for a nice price, and was good. Don't imagine that I'll need a fourth cake, but I respect them, even if I search for fancier things.

Frédéric Cassel, Inspiration Passion Framboise

Managed to get to Ginza and back without seeing the rain that made the street wet. Just under 54 minutes, or 6 cycles at a 1:9 walk:run split, not counting forced stops and underground walking. I've finally got back to Frédéric Cassel for a new cake, in response to probably a couple cake-off wins. There were three new choices, which should be enough for this month. I went with the one cake from this month's inspiration series, Inspiration Passion Framboise, which is raspberry mousse, passion fruit mousseline, and a fairly thick biscuit in the bottom of that dome to balance out the texture. It's not a combination that I see or would think to search out, but I think it was great. Finding the next great cake was easier than I expected, I just needed to get back to the best shop with new available cakes. For cake-offs, it's not so convenient, since it will be gone at the end of the month and will probably never reappear, but that gives it time for the maximum three rounds, so it deserves its chance while its here.

Lenôtre, Tour Eiffle Voluté

Monday, which is a holiday, I changed my plan when I found my target shop is closed for a week of summer holiday. My next choice for a holiday-only shop also has their holiday this week, so I stopped searching and went with my top overall priority of available places, which is Lenôtre, both as a cake-off winner and as a shop listed as quite fine that is obviously going to need to be in at least the quite excellent category, but hasn't had that many cakes yet. As a department store counter, it was safe to assume that they would be available. Not sure what the closure schedule is, but probably just a Tuesday or two. Since I want to go back tomorrow for FC, I better confirm when those are. I went with their other most cake-like chocolate cake, which is the Tour Eiffle Voluté. This is their chocolate and caramel cake. I should mention that I went by bicycle, which seemed like a good idea, given the heat, but if I had known it was going to rain, I might have chosen running.

After bring back the cake, I went out by bicycle for an hour or so to confirm some shops and to see whether Vincennes was closed for holidays or had a schedule posted, neither of which is true, so I might visit Wednesday. I still need to check their regular hours.

Tour Eiffle Voluté was definitely good and the cake perhaps was the same quality as the others, but I felt like the added caramel texture and sweetness was muting the chocolate rather than harmonizing with it, so I prefer their other cakes. There are still other cakes to try, so I'll probably be back there next week.

For running, I tried two loops in the evening: the Jinguumae central loop counterclockwise and the Daikanyama-chou--Ebisunishi--Hachiyama-chou--Nanpeidai-chou--Sakuragaoka-chou--Sarugaku-chou--Shibuya--Uguisudani-chou loop, which are not as close to each other as would be convenient. It took about 2 hours of actual running over 14+ cycles of walking:running 1:8, so 14 dashes. The Jinguumae central loop was no problem, since it was just a minor change and the basic loop is not so hard or long. I hit the target loop, but now I can't remember why I split off one tiny loop, so I'm merging it back in and will have to try again. Currently, this is the largest loop I'm trying to confirm memorization of, at 9.75 km. Also, I've added half a dozen new sites (there are a lot of shops in this neighborhood), though none requires a movement of the course.

Sourire, Sicilian

Working on the last two of the 9 remaining 2-cake possibly quite fine shops that aren't accessible on a weekday, I cycled (since it was above 30 degC at 9 am) out to Sourire. Since I was not willing to buy beverage, I got take out and consumed a box and three ice packs (perhaps I should figure out how to re-use those, but they get dirty easily) bring it back.  That took about an hour. Then I went out for another two hours and hit two shops north looking for maboroshi (phantom, by which I mean not visible) great cakes on the north side, of course not finding either, as always.

After lunch, I had the cake of choice, Sicilian. I didn't actually read the card beyond the name, so I left it as a surprise what was inside. Actually, it remained a surprise as I ate it, but by the end I could tell that the center mousse was (milk?) chocolate. It harmonized better than maybe dark chocolate would, though in general I prefer dark chocolate, if not necessarily with pistachio, but still, I don't think it was a good choice over fruit, which I don't generally prefer, though maybe it would work with stronger, fruitier chocolate. It was well-constructed and pretty (and traveled well by bicycle), but I can't rate it higher than "good", so Sourire doesn't make the cut and get sent down to join the fine shops, though in the upper fraction that will make the next cut of them, which I have about 60 too many of.

In the late afternoon/evening, I went for a run to confirm changes to the the Jinguumae central loop to add the Starbucks on the west corner. Noticed a tea shop that should be added on the current route. I need to make a slight change to avoid running through the middle of a outdoor eating area and I confirmed the Starbucks at Omotesando Hills, which replaced a Tully's Coffee, I think.

Cake-off: Lenôtre's Feuille d'Automne over Pierre Hermé's Cheesecake Infiniment Citron

Not counting making a run for breakfast supplies by bicycling, my exercise began a little before 9 am, when it was still just under 30 degC. I ran for about 1 hour, though I was doing 2:7 walking by the second cycle, and I was taking pictures of sites (or confirming lack or sites), so I was making adjustments for another severe heat day. I had intended to finish in an hour to arrive at Ginza, but I got involved in tracking down sites to fill in detail on my map, so actually I walked the second hour to finish. Found a Starbucks I had missed in Akasaka and thought I would have to repeat the Akasaka loop again, but actually it's on a block with only one guaranteed continuous access point, so it will be another isolated loop. Really, it should have already been there for the Cozy Corner (by Akasaka Stn., the one by Akasaka-Mitsuke Stn. is not a drugstore, though you can probably still get low-quality cake from t he family restaurant on the second floor, and actually maybe it's the same cake, if they're in the same group). I could make this part of the Akasaka loop, since it touches it on a point, but I see that elsewhere I made a rule about not having to remember which side of the street to run on (either because either is okay or because there is no choice). I've gone through meticulously now and checked all the Starbucks overlapping with the neighborhoods of my map, and I did find another that's going to make me have to redo a loop, the Jinguumae central loop. I've actually been in that one, so I should have remembered it, but it's on the 4th floor, so I wasn't noticing it, but there is a sign outside, so it counts. Guess redoing that is next. I'll work in a cake from a place on that route to make it worthwhile.

After two hours outside, I was ready for a break and got Lenôtre's Feuille d'Automne from Ginza Mitsukoshi and then took the train to Isetan's Pierre Hermé to get Cheesecake Infiniment Citron.

After lunch, I went out again by bicycling to make another attempt at finding missing great cakes from the list, starting southwest. The first and lost shops were closed for summer holidays (5 weeks and 1 week) and the others had nothing I was look for. It took 4 hours and I still have two shops to the northeast to check, but it shouldn't take so long. One is closed on Mondays (national holiday or not), so I'll need to do it tomorrow.

Well, I wasn't surprised that the cheesecake was excellent, but didn't need to be on the great list. It was from 2015, before there was an excellent category between good and great or any idea about doing cake-offs. Still, for someone who likes cheesecake, it's got more different layers than any other cake I know and is worth checking out. So Lenôtre's Feuille d'Automne, which loos beautiful, but is actually rather simple, just chocolate and straight (sugar and egg) meringue, I think. As a chocolate lover, that's good enough for me, since the chocolate is good.

So I'm not longer feeling an urgent need to do an extra cake-off. I still want to find another great cake, in case the citron baba really is great, but I think I won't let it change how I choose new cakes. With one shop gone, one shop moved, and one shop with shorter hours, looks like there are 9 shops left among the quite fine contenders that I need a third cake from, two of which require a holiday visit, so I'll hit them Sunday and the Monday holiday, I think.

Toshi Yoroizuka, Récolte

Wednesday, I went by bicycle again to Tokyo Midtown to run the Akasaka loop (even yesterday's two days in a row was more than recent running, so it seemed reasonable to speed up the first part), but also to get a cake from Toshi Yoroizuka because of the previous cake-off win. I choose the Récolte (I'm guessing), which is earl grey tea and orange. It's good quality, but too subtle for me, perhaps, so just good. I ate at one of the tables outside, so that lighting wasn't great.

I had a good run, but I noticed at the appropriate point that my map had a major flaw in that I no longer went by one of the parks, though I was very conscious of where it was (the street in front of it is blocked off at the cross-street that the new course follows). I did a on-the-fly swing past the park, which had me coming down the stairs of another park, so I was able to successfully complete the counterclockwise route, but it meant that I still need to do the clockwise route.

Thursday, I was back doing the same thing, only clockwise with the corrected route, so four days in a row of running at least 7 km. I seem to be okay from it, but still need lots of stretching for my plantar fasciitis. I was successful, so I'll finally be able to move on to a different loop, but I got comfortable with rather than tired of the Akasaka loop. On the way, I tried something from Honolulu Coffee, thinking that I would add this to the course. Strictly speaking, I got a café item, since they had to make it for me, but since it's actually a type of age-pan, which I've already allowed elsewhere, I can't complain. This Hawaiian treat is a cinnamon Malasada, so similar to a yeast cinnamon donut, without the hole.

I had originally planned to a fourth cake for the week, but say that Pierre Hermé's now was featuring Fetish Infiniment Citron, which includes two cakes that I rated as great but never followed up with a cake-off, so potentially I could need to run extra cake-offs with a month's time to catch up, though there's a pretty good chance that at least one won't make the cut, since I became more selective over time. Since I don't do cake-offs with two cakes from the same shop, though, I've going to have to hunt to get another new cake, so this weekend I plan to review all the shops that also haven't had great cakes that I later couldn't find, probably a hopeless search. Otherwise, I'll just have to focus on my top shops as much as possible and hope that I get lucky.

Sadaharu Aoki, Forêt Rouge

Tuesday, I got cake first from Sadaharu Aoki at Isetan, managing to get the last piece of Forêt Rouge, unlike the previous day in Marunouchi, though that was much earlier in the day. Having straightened out the Akasaka loop on the neighborhood running course, I went by bicycle to Tokyo Midtown to park for free next to the loop. Before running, I found out that Toshi Yoroizuka is now open on Tuesdays, as of this month, when I went to double check their summer holiday, which is next Tuesday to the following Sunday. I successfully completed the planned course and did not have any corrections to make (at that time). I also completed the counterclockwise from-memory runs of the Akasaka 9 east and west loops, so that takes cake of the dead-end loops in the Akasaka clump. This time I was up to 1:8 walking to running, but the distance did not give me 10 full cycles, so I'll be holding that for a while, and may need to do specific interval training run next week if I don't try a longer route.

The cake was excellent quality and liquor (kirsch syrup)-soaked cherries in cherry suwent well with the cream and almond biscuit, so I'll rate this one was excellent.

Lenôtre, Plaisir

Was busy Sunday and most of Monday, but Monday afternoon went to Jean-Paul Hévin, since the cake I wanted from Sadaharu Aoki was sold out at Marunouchi and I needed someplace for two to test. We got hot Chocolate (Chocolat Chaud Mangue and Viennois), which is relatively cheap there, and two macarons, Frambois'in (not sure what the "'in" concatenates from) and Mésange. The first hot chocolate is mango, obvious, and wasn't anything special, though good of course, and the second is whipped cream, which also was nothing special but good. I liked the Macaron Mésange most. This is passion fruit and matcha and was excellent. The Frambois'in was raspberry and Venezuelan chocolate and was good but not exciting.

I hadn't had cake Sunday and I was already at Yuuraku-cho, so I got a third cake from Lenôtre, Plaisir, which seems like a Saint-Marc from the components (milk chocolate and vanilla mousse), but isn't. For running, I ran down to Akasaka again (like Saturday morning) and tried to do the revised Akasaka loop that split off all the stuff south of Roppongi-Doori, and a little on the Akasaka 2 side and I was successful, but realized afterward that I didn't like that the route doubled back where it could have gone around the block, so it was a failure of route making. I finish practicing Akasaka 4, doing it counterclockwise, and did the new Akasaka 3 east loop clockwise, so I had to be satisfied with that.

Plaisir is nice and well made, but definitely not a Saint-Marc and ultimately, though it's definitely good, I can't rate it higher, as it's just not that exciting. Still, with two great cakes before this, Lenôtre easily is a top the quite fine category and is challenging the quite exceptional one, so I'll be back there again early next week, regardless. Also, I need to find another great cake, quick, but I should get to that later as I catch up with this week.

Cake-off: Toshi Yoroizuka's Annya over Fiorentina Pastry Boutique's Estate

My plan for Saturday, was to run the newly revised (after failing the previous attempt) Akasaka--Azabudai--Roppongi--Toranomon loop by cycling to Tokyo Midtown, parking, doing the run, getting one cake at Tokyo Midtown and the other cake at Roppongi Hills, which are on either side of Roppongi Station, not so far from each other. This time I got about halfway before I failed, do to not remembering where to turn to cross from Roppongi 1 to Roppongi 2. I didn't help that where I needed to turn was at a T with a long blank wall on one side (the American Embassy dormitory compound) and new construction sites on both corners. I still went on to get a danish at Pierre Gagnaire, since it had been more than an hour of running (plus a little cycling), and I specifically forewent a pastry Friday, and forgot to pack my energy cookies. Specifically I got the Ananas Danish, which was the only pastry-class bread they had that I hadn't already tried (the other three were all excellent). As the name says, this was pineapple, which doesn't sound so good, but with hyacinth, I think. Anyway, it was an excellent fruity pastry, and I don't consider myself that into fruity pastries, so I'm impressed.

Coming back toward Tokyo Midtown, I saw that I had left another Natural Lawson from my map, and I have another excuse to revise this loop. After making sure I included all Natural Lawsons in Minato Ward (there was one more that I had missed on the sound end of the route), I decided to address other deficiencies (such as not going by the entrance to a certain temple, just because it is inconvenient) and after several attempts split the loop back into its main Akasaka part and smaller southern end. Next up, then will be trying the new revised Akasaka loop.

For the cake off, I got Toshi Yoroizuka's Annya for a third-round cake-off for one-and-one great cakes, because it came available, and Fiorentina Pastry Boutique's Estate because it was highest priority, being earliest in the year of potential opponents. These are both cakes that are fruity and delicate, so it was a good match in that way. Also, I've had my doubts about both of them. Not doubts this time, these were both great. With repetition (the four tastings have been all in the last couple months), I'm satisfied that Estate belongs in among the greats. Note sure what the fruit is, something citrus or apricot, both in goes well with the pistachio and still less the white color really express itself. I'm giving the win to Annya, though. I've compared it to pie before, and it is a little tart, which many cakes are, but I realize that more than any other cake it reminds me of while berries from my childhood, and the pies we made from them. This is, of course, a rhubarb cake, so it might be some sort of harmony.

Origines Cacao, Double Fromage

Hit my highest priority target by running to Ginza 6 and getting my 18th new cake from Origines Cacao. Looks like they'll keep their seasonal cakes through Aug. 25, and it looks like JPH might do the same (they are running at about 2 months between changes, or half the speed of previously). Didn't try to stop by Sadaharu Aoki on the way back, so not sure what they'll do for August, but usually they have have some special somewhere once a month (not necessarily cake) and change the seasonable cakes every 3 months. I have to check Tokyo Midtown on Saturday and maybe Isetan on Sunday. Back to Origines Cacao today: rather than one of the seasonal ones, I went with a standard I hadn't had yet, Double Fromage (I think it was called), which is obviously a rare-baked combo cheesecake, usually the best kind of fancy cheesecake. This time the running was 1:7 walking/waiting:running, with 1 min of dash in the middle of the running, for actual muscle training. Only could do 8 full cycles, though, so just over 55 min of running. Not sure whether I'll adjust the ratio for the next run planned Saturday morning, since I'd like to hit 10 dashes in a run, though once a week for that might be enough. I'll consider.

The cake was definitely excellent, flavorful with a relatively light texture, so this shop is still in line to take a spot among the superb shops, but it's no longer challenging the quite superb shops, which I now can get back to visiting, after Lenôtre (the new top priority) and cake-off winners, along with quite fine shops and occasionally new shops (though maybe not until Lenôtre's place is settled).