Très Calme: Exquis

Saturday, I did another long run. My first destination was Sengoku to visit Très Calme, which was made longer by the fact that I kept running laterally rather than wait for lights to change and the streets don't run straight. As usual, I ate in (the only person). I choose Exquis (not sure that was the spelling provided, but it matches the Japanese phonetics) and immediately forget the ingredients. It's chocolate cake with sponge bottom and a chocolate mousse layer above which has a mellow and fruity taste. Actually, the card said Earl Grey, though I was thinking blackberry, since that's the garnish, but Earl Grey is infused with bergamot, which should be quite a different flavor. In terms of construction, I'm against sponge cake, and certainly wouldn't combine it with a block of mousse. However, it worked perfectly well, so what do I know. Maybe not otherwise remarkable, but the chocolate was harmonizing well with the tea and I can call it excellent. I had this shop was listed with very good shops, but I'm upgrading it to excellent. Now the standout very good shops is Maison Douce, which has the advantage of a sample of only two, one which I have listed as semi-great (it got demoted from great after it's first cake-off round). That's a problem because it's a 35-minute run or more than 1 hour by train, so I keep hoping that it visits Isetan again, but I've been waiting quite a while.

The run continued down to Nihonbashi, to visit Mitsukoshi, and then as far south as Ginza 6, with various stops along the way. Other than the first visit, where I noticed a cake counter that I can now ignore as they visit Isetan and bought a kitchen gadget, it was fairly fruitless, because shops are waiting until Jan. 15 to change their line-ups. Coming back home, I was only just in time for a 2 pm appointment, which I was fortunately able to put off until after a shower and lunch.

(Mon.) 14 Julliet Tokyo, Nuit Saint George

This will be quick, as there was no running. Actually this cake was reward for getting a flu shot and not running on Monday. This was the sixth cake from a potentially Quite Excellent shop, 14 Julliet Tokyo in the Shin Marunouchi Building. Unfortunately, this cassis doom cake with a layer of vanilla Bavarian cream was only good, so 14 Julliet Tokyo joins Clair de Lune down with Excellent shops and L'Abricotier rejoins the Quite Excellent shops, were Bien-Etre is the only remaining probational Quite Excellent shop. In the near term, besides new shops, I'm working to get it up to 8 cakes, Toshi Yoroizuka up to 16 cakes, and Pierre Hermé up to 32 cakes to catch up all the probational ones. Not that I'm likely to get to any of those this week, as Isetan has a new visiting Tokyo shop tomorrow for the first time in a while, Thursday is Labor Thanksgiving Day, so I'll go out by bicycle and research what great cakes are available and visit one of the few remaining recommended shops that I haven't hit, Friday will probably be a rest day from cake, though not from running (though I might get a pastry somewhere; one idea for next year is to get my pastry ratings organized and start doing at least one pastry a week), Saturday will probably be a cake-off, and then I'll hit another new shop by bicycle Sunday.

14 Juillet Tokyo: Délice Cassis Marron

Ran out to 14 Juillet Tokyo for a fifth cake, and also toured the shops of interest in the Marunouchi-Kyoubashi-Ginza area without finding anything interesting except that Frédéric Cassel still has one of their standard cakes that they just put back in their line-up, so no surprise. On the way, I saw this shop, Christa, open for the first time along the main road. I've never been there, or their incarnation under their previous unfortunate name, but they're the Neues guys, so I have them covered. Still, I should cake something from them some time just to be neighborly.

The cake, Délice Cassis Marron, was simple and cheap, which is not a bad thing. Shockingly, the cake is mostly (spongy) cake, though you can see some cassis (black currant) and marron (chestnut) layers in there. Had it with Earl Grey. It was good and I have no complaints about the quality, but my preference is toward something more decadent.

[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.

14 Juillet Tokyo: Albatross

It was raining all day, but at least in the evening was not the heaviest. Still, no other runners seen on the way, and I went by the moat course. On the way back, when I was running against the prevailing section, I saw one runner coming from it and then one person just before I left it (for a couple kilometer stretch), even though the rain was down to more of a mist and it wasn't that cold (though the wind was a problem. Still, it was slow running, averaging 9 km/h both ways (about 11 km total).

I'm miffed that 14 Juillet Tokyo did not give me a rain cover for my cake. Really? I have to ask? Where did they think I was going to go that it was not raining? Sure, I could have asked, but since I had a plastic bag in my pack for similar occasions, I wrapped the box in the bag and still tried to use the paper bag. It lasted until home, but it was pretty weak when I tested it afterward, so next time I'll just leave the paper bag after repacking.

I choose the Albatross (アルバトロス; 550 yen), a chocolate mousse cake flavored with cassis and orange, on the grounds that it was obviously one of their signature cakes, since they had large versions of it for multiple people and there was only one left, so some people think it is good. Popularity is not really a good judge, but as a third cake, I went with it. And the balance between the fruit and chocolate mousse was good. Actually, the fruit was a little runny rather than being gelatinous, though not in a bad way (there is probably a better word than runny). Couldn't really taste the orange (or the alcohol), but it was presumably there to achieve the right balance between fruit and chocolate rather than call attention to itself. I'll say this was excellent, where I'm considering it relative to other similar mousse cakes with fruit.

Also of note, their former neighbor Igrekplus got the boot, which is fine with me. Have to wait to see what it gets replaced with.

14 Juillet Tokyo: Carmel Chocolle Prelle

Mixed rain and snow today, but not so much and the ground is not cold enough for ice, so I was able to run, but kept it at around 10 km/h all 11 km, which is fine. I'm going to run up against my budget limit Sunday, so I don't need to run fast. Actually, because coming in from outside as soon as possible seemed more important than shortest distance, I came back the slightly longer way that runs past P. Shima in Kohjimachi, which seems to be more level (which can be good or bad, but definitely good in bad weather). Also, I notice looking at a map that this takes me near a natural baked-goods shop TiMi, which I realize that I should check out, although I'm more interested in French sweets with exotic ingredients, which probably is not their thing.

I went to Marunouchi again for 14 Juillet Tokyo for Carmel Chocolle Prelle (カラメル・ショコラ・ポワール; 480 yen), which is definitely not the French spelling and Google doesn't recognize, so it probably was not thought about very much. Anyway, this is chocolate and caramel mouse with a caramel gelatin coating and pear in the center, as well as a some alcohol of some sort and visible nuts, which I didn't try to identify. There are so many things that could have gone wrong for me here, but actually this was a good well-balanced cake. It didn't "grab me", but the more I considered it, the more I respected it, so I went from rating it good to definitely excellent, which is very nice, since this shop is very accessible and has a large selection.

14 Juillet Tokyo: Pensee

Since Sweet Sonobe posted on 14 Juillet Tokyo, I figured I might as well try it. Also, I want to go to lunch around there Saturday morning, so I wanted scope out options in the Shin Marunouchi Building and Marunouchi Building, though mostly I just looked at the latter, since I found my cake shop before many restaurants.

The run there was a fast 12 km/h, whereas the return trip was a reasonable (for carrying cake) 10 km/h, for a today of about 11 km. I didn't run yesterday, so I was in the mood. I'm busy this weekend, so I'll probably have a lot of budget for long runs at the beginning of the week, but not now. When I've got 21 km to use on a weekday, I'd like to get down to Paris S'éveille again, this time for cake. I can just barely get there, if I'm not too busy with work, which lately I often am.

The cake was Pensee (パンセ; 470 yen), which is almond cocoa biscuit sandwiching a little raspberry jam. Sorry, must not have hit the "flower" setting on my camera, so it looks a little fuzzy. It was definitely good cake, but it took me a while to convince myself that it was excellent. It certainly isn't as complex or rich as my usual favorite cakes, but it isn't light and it's well balanced between the chocolate and raspberry. I can certainly see times when this is exactly what I would want or trying to make it myself (if I were any good at making cakes, which I'm not), and that makes it excellent cake. Also, it's a first cake from them, so they get the benefit of the doubt. It was certainly much better than I was expecting, though I haven't heard anything bad about them (or really any cake shop, except from myself).