Heritage: La Mûre

Got my most difficult cake shop goal for this week out of the way early by getting to Heritage before they closed (and it was earlier enough that there was a good selection). Unfortunately, I'm not remembering the name of the cake well, so I should have made a note while I had the time. The name in Japanese seemed close to La mûre (500 yen), which is French for blackberry, so I'm going with that rather than L'Amour, but I'm not confident. Anyway, this was chocolate biscuit with maybe blackberry (certainly not as strong as raspberry). It was not a strong fruity taste, not super sweet, not super creamy, or at all nutty, so it didn't really press any of the usual buttons for me. But it was definitely good and over time afterward I decided that I respected it and consider it an example of excellent quality. Certainly, I was happy to eat it and enjoy my tea. So I've three cakes from a shop that seems excellent, which is my currently goal for this level of shop (in the bottom half of the top ~31 cake shops for Tokyo).


For running, I had to start out fast, which was only 3.2 km at 12 km/h, and I took a long way home going past Iidabashi for another 4.5 km at 10 km/h. Then, because that still seemed short to deserve cake, I took the Gaien Walk around as far as the Lawson 100, which was another 3.6 km at a deliberately slow 9 km/h.

Long run to Frédéric Cassel for Mille-Feuille Caramel Pomme

Took the Shinjuku History and Culture course from the beginning of the Gaien Walk to as far as Akasaka Mitsuke along the Outer Moat Walk. I noticed that the on-site guide marker map indicates the Outer Moat Walk should climb up to the footpath parallel to the road after St. Ignatius Catholic Church, so I did. Also, running on the north side in front of Hotel New Otani causes a lot of delay from the stop lights, so I finally switched to the south side. Both changes made to the map. From there, I ran to cross Inner Moat Road and then did the imperial moat course one full lap and then to Hibiya. There was a running event of some kind going on, so people were standing with signs at the kilometer mark points (I joined just before the 4 kilometer point and the woman of the couple in front of me was surprised that the person holding the sign and cheering people to not give up was her mother), though it was only obvious that a few people were obviously participating (beyond the few hundred at the start/end point). Rather than go all the way to Ginza running, I decided to just stop at Hibiya and take the subway tunnels to Ginza Mitsukoshi (which is about 700 m).

The cake was the Mille-Feuille Caramel Pomme (ミルフィユキャラメルポム, 864 yen), which is a fairly normal mille-feuille with a layer of apple in the middle and some caramel taste. It was definitely good, but I can't call it excellent: I'm not interested in having it again, and also I didn't appreciate that the apple was surrounded by layers of sponge cake. In mile-feuille? There might be structural reasons why it could not have been surrounded by mille-feuille (puff) pastry, for example, or caramelized almond slices, which I would like, since keeping the layers from sliding was obviously an issue, but it just seemed wrong to me, even though it was too thin really to affect the texture much more than the apple already did.

Took the short route back to Lawson 100. Total, I ran 16.4 km, all three parts averaging 9 km/h. I'm feeling good. Maybe this week, I'll finally use up my budget enough to expand it for the first time in three weeks. It's going to get colder tomorrow, but I'd like to get over to Viron, with a backup in Tokyu Plaza (Ginza), which will be another 11 km, so I'll only have 6 km left for Friday night, so I'll probably go to Tokyo Midtown, not find anything new, and come back and eat homemade canele or macarons, which I'll be doing Saturday anyway, since I plan to get this year's flu shot.

Frédéric Cassel: P'tite Merveille Caramel,

Took a long run along the Tokyo History and Culture courses, starting with the Gaien Walk of the Shinjuku course and continuing on along the Outer Moat Walk to Akasaka, from which I followed the Akasaka Sanno Walk to where it meets the Marunouchi Past and Present Walk, which I jumped off to transfer to the Sukiyabashi Walk to Ginza. Total, that's about 9 km at nearly 9 km/h.

At Frédéric Cassel at Ginza Mitsukoshi, I got the P'tite Merveille Caramel (according to a French Facebook post) for 648 yen. The bottom is merigue, on top of which is caramel mascarpone cheese cream, then mango and passion fruit. topped by "biscuit-like" caramel type chocolate. It's very good, and not like most cakes, so I'm going to say it's great. Maybe I'll get tired of it if they do another version next month (didn't get to last month's yuzu version), for for now that will be my choice.





The end of the run was just 3.4 to grocer, and was a slower 8 km/h, as I was tired at the beginning.

Not sure when I'll get my next run in, as I'm busy this weekend. Probably something Sunday night, but I hope to get cake before then.

Dalloyau: Jack O' Lantern

Went to Dalloyau in Ginza again, but, never learning, did not choose well. I got the Jack O' Lantern (540 yen). It is supposed to be kabocha cream, but at most I tasted butter, but good butter. However, I'm not out looking for cake that is just good. So even in the case of great shops, my first choice shouldn't be the novelty cake.

In terms of rank, this doesn't change how I feel about Dalloyau, but I'm moving them from the bottom "Great shop" to the top "Near-great shop". This means I can step up completing my sampling of cakes of great shops. Reviewing, my top nine patisserie-level shops for cake, in order, are (Great) Jean-Paul Hévin, Henri le Roux, Frédéric Cassel, (Near-great) Dalloyau, Paris S'éveille, Pierre Hermé, Sadaharu Aoki, Viron, and Aux Bon Vieux Temps. I also have 24 shops I rate as at least tentatively "excellent" and I don't know how many at least tentatively "good" shops, but many more than that (most of which I probably nave not posted on yet, but are on the map).

In running news, my knee seems not bad, but just in case I didn't run very fast today, staying just within the range of 8 km/h for the total 11.8 km I ran. The extra length this time came from following the Gaien Walk for the first part, though this is still only 0.9 km longer than Oct. 16 (to Viron), which was faster, but I lost some distance from deciding to be less obnoxious by not running within Ginza. My weekly budget expanded today, based on hitting 39.2 km of 9 km/h running last Sunday. I added a little to that the next day, so as of tomorrow, my budget will be 47 km, whereas I'm only at 41 km now. Think I'll do some laps tomorrow rather than rest and see whether I can still do at least 300 m stretches at 10 km/h without problems. That will give me a chance to see if the Isetan visitor now is worth visiting/adding to the map (usually, I add no matter what, but I don't need every hotel with a patisserie counter, since I've yet to find any worth bothering with, as far as their in-house stuff.

Gaien Walk

Decided to do the Gaien Walk, for the hills, rather than the track, although it crosses through the middle of the track on it's southern most segment. This involved about 5 km total, most of it on the Gaien Walk itself, averaging closest to 9 km/h, even with some steep slopes here and there. The reward at home was finishing off the mini canele supply.

Meiji Memorial Picture Gallery in Meijijingu Gaien.

Opposite view from in front of Meiji Memorial Picture Gallery.

Jean-Paul Hévin: Turin

After failing to find framboise eaux de vie, I got Jean-Paul Hévin's Turin from Isetan for 512 yen. This is a almond base with cassis (blackcurrant), on top of which is chestnut cream with a chocolate coating. It was simple but very well balanced in taste and well constructed, so I regard it as excellent. Still several cakes to try from there before the cakes disappear (particularly the Mont-pomme Caramel, which is only around weekends this month). This is two blurry pictures in a row; I better figure out what's going on with my auto-focus.

The run was the Gaien Walk (4.2 km by my Google Maps calculation, but 4.0 km officially) again and I failed to keep it closer to 8 rather than 9 km/h, though I was at 8 km/h on the runs to and from the ends. Tomorrow I'll rest, but when I run on Wednesday, 9 km/h will be the new normal (which means I weight it 9:8 against 8 km/h rather than 11:8). I'll see if I can maintain that speed consistently enough to starting building up some distance again, although my knees are telling me that there is no hurry.

Maison Douce: Tarte Caramel Jolaine

Went first to Isetan for cake and got Tarte Caramel Jolaine (?) from visiting patisserie Maison Douce for 540 yen. I didn't deliberately choose the one with coconut shreds to sabotage my rating, just I had caramel on my mind. I did notice that they had an unusual number of cakes especially for Isetan, this one being one of them, which makes me think that their regular clientele supports a simpler selection.

Then I went and ran the Gaien (Outer Garden) Walk for the first time in a while; I am not used to those slopes, but I averaged 8.2 km/h over the 4.2 km before running back 0.6 km to Lawson 100. I only took photos and the end, which is the beginning of the Sotobori (Outer Moat) Walk. Here's an album showing the marker and surrounding view. If I ever get the time and strength, I'll do a Tokyo History and Culture Walking Course blog, but no sign of that happening soon.

The cake was fine, that is, good, and the coconut didn't even bother me. The base was strongly attached to the cardboard base and was difficult to cut even with a metal knife, so I'm not that thrilled with the design of this one, but you have to put something under it to support it, I suppose. That little layer of sponge is not going to do it. The main under-layer is a fruit mix with rum (not that strong), but all I can remember is pineapple. From the photo, I can't really tell---strawberry?

In baking news, my last couple macaron attempts were seriously cracked, so this time, I (i) ran the air conditioner on dehumidify from an hour before putting them out, (ii) touched them to try to learn the different textures as they rest/dry, and (iii) tried two different resting times before baking, 40 and 90 minutes. The latter did the trick (notice bellow that I also got "feet", which is related), but I'm not sure which one actually tastes better, because I like some chewiness, which I got more of, perhaps, with the cracked ones, and I'll choose taste over appearance every time. I might just one to bake them longer for more chewiness, although I should turn them half-way anyway (you can also cover them, to avoid browning, I've been told). Note that most recipes say 20 to 40 minutes of resting before baking, but an acquaintance who took classes told me he's done a couple hours and used a fan for making them in summer in Japan, so they are difficult in this climate, at least with the French method.

90-minute rest

40-minute rest

 Next new thing, I need to make chocolate ganache with fruit puree.

Yu Sasage: Gaien Walk

Got a second cake from Yu Sasage during their visit to Isetan before running.

For the run, I did the east half of the Shinjuku History and Culture course, Gaien Walk and Outer Moat, before following the Shibuya course to the Inner Moat and coming back through Akasaka-Mitsuke and up past Yotsuya Station. Mostly, I was really slow about it, although the point was more to get some hills in. There was 0.2 km of very fast at the beginning, and I managed a moderate speed 6.4 km for the Shinjuku H&C (despite the hills and stairs) and a little extra to cross the main road (and because I overshot the turn onto the Shibuya course), but there was 2.7 km of slow and 2.4 very slow after that, for a total about about 11.7 km.

The cake was the Perfum, which they list as a specialty. This is a tea tart with raspberry cream and jelly with rose-scented meringue and was 486 yen. I can't say that I could pick up on most of this. Certainly, there was a tart that was good, but I couldn't tell you the flavor, and the cream/meringue was raspberry. I wanted to like it, so I did and will call it great, which means that I need make a priority of getting over to Yu Sasage itself, since they are done at Isetan. Also I was reminded that shops have Isetan-only cakes, so I should check out the visiting patisserie even when it's some place that isn't otherwise a priority, just to see if there is anything special.

Sunday: Morning run to Gaien

First thing in the morning (for me, that is; actually, fairly late), after a brownie (did not want to come out of the forms: should have floured, as well as greased them, and made fudge rather than cake brownies; also, more chocolate), ran down to Gaien: 1.5 km fast to the startpoint, a 6'16''00 lap, which is 4.73 min/km, which is one level faster than "very fast". Rather than calling it "very very fast", I'll call it "racing speed". On a good day, I might be able to get one level faster (under 4.6 min/km). To the Lawson 100 by way of the Gaien Walk, I managed a moderate speed (despite the hills and stairs) over 2.4 km.

So my weekly numbers (rounding) are very slow, 36 km; slow, 20 km; moderate, 6 km; fast, 9 km; very fast, 3 km; and racing, 1 km. Comparing to last week, in total, 75 km, which is +9 km, first recording of "racing" speed, of +1 km, but very fast+ is -2 km, although fast+ is the same as last week. However, moderate (and so moderate+) is -9 km, so a big drop in faster running. Slow is +1 km, so most of my gain is in very slow: +18 km. My priority for next week is then to get in more faster running during weekdays (I avoided that this week because of the increase in distance). If I manage to get in another H&C run next weekend, I'll probably stretch it to 40 km, although the next one, the Suminami course, is not that long or far away (whereas the Fuchukokubunji one, which I just finished plotting, is both long, forked, and far away, so it would probably require around 100 km, and so may turn out not to be feasible; the last is also now done, Takao-Hachio, which is about 50 km to the startpoint and heads back, so it's about the same as Fuchukokubunji).

The cake today was from Ruysdael, at Shinjuku Station Keio. This was based on Sweet Sonobe (although not necessarily Keio Department store), but I should have followed my own Shinjuku Station rule, which is to only trust Isetan (though Takashimaya has some good cakes mixed in). This was Gateau Chocolat, for 518 yen, and was layers of chocolate mousse/cream and chocolate cake. I could tell from the beginning that there was something I did not like about it. It was not watery, but it was not rich. Perhaps it's a milk chocolate flavor. The result was sort of a American traditional chocolate cake taste, although that might just mean that it is high in sugar. It was not bad or poor in quality, and I can't say I disliked eating it, so I guess I'll say it was good and count this place as "good" enough to try again eventually, maybe, but they only had four cakes (the other there were strawberry of the shortcake family, a Mont Blanc, and a standard-looking raspberry mousse) and the end result was wanting to have great cake.


For the future, not sure whether I'll save that for later, since I still have 4 "worthy".shops I want one more cake from at Isetan, plus their visiting patisserie, but S'éveille, Pierre Hermé, and Toshi Yoroizuka are the priorities among the great shops. If I get off work exactly on time this week some day, I might try to run fast enough to make it to S'éveille, although that's a longer round trip than I've done on a weekday, so this might not be the best week for it.

Bel Amer (Isetan): White Chocolate Short

Today, since I ran Akasaka Palace fast yesterday, I thought I should do a longer distance on the flatter Gaien course, which was pretty crowded today, no doubt as people train for Sunday's Tokyo Marathon, in the cold rain.

First, a moderate 1.5 km to the start and then 4 laps (1325 m each) for 7'06''07, 7'19''46, 7'17''55, and 7'25''38. Actually, the first lap turned out very fast, with the other three laps fast. I took the long way back, following the east part of the Gaien Walk, which ends just past Yotsuya Station. There was a chronometer mishap and I only managed to time the last bit, so I'm extrapolating that the last 4.4 km was very slow.

So 4.4 km very slow, 1.5 km moderate, 4.0 km fast, and 1.3 km very fast. Slightly less total distance for two runs than last week, but a lot more fast running. I want to try to go farther tomorrow, so i'll plan on not trying to go too fast, although it may be hard to get out of work in time to get to Glycine before they close.

Had gotten the White Chocolate Short from Bel Amer (Isetan) for 540, after finding the visiting shop without any fresh cake and Demel never seems to have anything but their Sachertorte, recently. Other choices at Bel Amer were an unusual looking mont blanc (which I remain curious about) and a chocolate cream puff. The short cake, which boast 4 fruits (not sure which ones, besides kiwi and strawberry, but not a lot of fruit to worry about anyway and the white chocolate flavor was not strong enough to save this from being just another spongy short cake. Still, it was basically good, so I'll designate the shop good. Probably, I should try their larger chocolate cakes. Maybe some weekend.

Saturday: Chez Cima

Today was forecast rain from late morning, building into a storm in the evening, with intense winds. Since I had a late-morning appointment, I gave up doing a big run for day; also the weather was reported to be unstable and I've going to need to check the map a lot for a run along a new history and culture course. Instead, I did an early-morning run along just the east half of the Shinjuku H&C course: Gaien Walk and Outer Moat Walk. These I did in 22'34'' and 9'20'', both relatively very fast. Total, I did 6.1 km very fast and another 3.1 km at moderate speed. So not a big run, but harder than recently (and also, like yesterday, using my racing shoes, although this time I used the running backpack).

On the moderate stretch coming back, I got an Croissant Amonde (345) from Paul, which was excellent, so I'll post a not particularly exciting picture.

Rain started on time, but light, so I walked to the home store of Chez Cima. I did not get something that I couldn't get at Isetan, but if I get back to Isetan and compare, I'll maybe get a sense of what additional things are available at the Home store. The cake is Jardin (?) and was 594 yen. It's just a chocolate cake, which a crunchy base, but it is excellent, so it makes up for Friday's cake even if it was not great.

Running and a Canelé from

Tried running. My initial instinct to just do 1.5 km was correct: I did 3 km and it was a 1 km too much for my shins, although I'm fine. I'll not run tomorrow, watch for any problems, and try again Wednesday and keep it at just 2 km. My time was  20'38'', so near but under 7 min/km, which was what I was trying for: a slow run. Went too far because I got sucked into the Gaien Walk part of the Shinjuku History and Culture course (or at least the west half of it). Found another discrepancy between the posted 2010 version and the markers on the ground. Since the posted one crosses where you can't cross, I'm definitely going with old route and updated the map using the new information. I also did some refinements elsewhere for the entire Shinjuku course, as I've been more strict with routes that I've drawn more recently.

I compromised as far as store-bought cake and got a bakery-type cake from Noix de Beurre, at Isetan. I got a Canelé (for 194 yen), which I've been reading up on because I have a bunch of canelé forms for tartlets, although stainless steel ones rather than the copper ones that are supposed to be best for actually making canelé. Anyway, I've had this in the past and was disappointed, but I've had a lot of cakes since then and today had a better idea of what to expect, so I could appreciate it this time.

Definitely something I want to try to make, in a small amount at first, like one, maybe. My forms are huge compared to this thing (mine are 7.5 cm in diameter, but this was probably about 3 cm). In the meantime, I'll be sampling canelé from other places. Doesn't look like I'll get farther than Isetan during the week, so I'll look around there Wednesday. They are closed tomorrow, so I'll have pecan pastries again, which is fine. I know Sadaharu Aoki has chocolate ones.