Heritage: Miroir

Monday I cycled up to Heritage to get a fifth cake from a shop on the excellent list. I chose Miroir, which is chocolate around pistachio and raspberry (I think) and Bavarian cream, sort of a standard thing, really. Unfortunately, as is often with these types chocolate mousse with cream filling cakes, it didn't really add up to much. No specific complaint other than boring taste, which is sort of the greatest complaint, but for what it was, I don't think they did anything bad. Still, Heritage is look more quite good than excellent after five cakes, so it might not make it to six.

I ran for the first time for more than a week, just around the Yotsuya 3/4-choume area loop, for 17 minutes. It seemed okay (though that was true 3 weeks ago for longer distances) and, more significantly, didn't get me special trouble the next day, so I can try longer, and may need to if the choice is between cycling or running in rain (or no cake).

Actually, I forgot the Japanese phonetics of the name before I left Monday, so I cycled up there again Tuesday and then took the long way down to Mermaid Cafe near Daikanyama Stn. on my neighborhood course down south, which took more than 90 total, so I didn't try to run again too. I got the Kouign Amann as something different. It was like other cheap ones and seemed a little worse for wear for the late hour, but had a very butterscotch-flavored caramelized layer that was working for me, so I would say that it was good (but I forgot to take a picture).

Heritage: Chocolat Framboise

Finally ran again, and everything seems okay. Went up to Heritage, as I'm visiting the better excellent shops to see which I should promote to quite excellent. I tried to keep it slow, despite the early closing, but still did the 3+ km in a little above 10 km/h. I did the 4 km back slower, as I swung past D-Style Tokyo for the first time (tiny shop), which I'm thinking of go to tomorrow.

The cake was Chocolat Framboise (600 yen), which was their most expensive, though not by much. It was definitely good, balancing the raspberry and chocolate well. They were pine nut size, so I assume that they were pine nuts, though I just found a couple and am not sure what pine nuts taste like anyway, so I'm not sure. Still, not special enough to promote it, so I'll keep looking. Sorry, the photo cake out a little blurry.

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.

Heritage: Ambre Noix

Cut out of work as soon as possible (maybe rudely so, but success/failure depended on just a few minutes), and made it to Heritage in northeast Shinjuku-ku in time, though, of course, not many types of cake left just before closing. It's only about 3 km each way, which I did at 11 km/h out and 10 km/h coming back using some unfamiliar back roads.

The cake is Ambre Noix (アンブルノア; 550 yen), I think, since "amber walnut" makes more sense than "jet" (ambre noir). This is walnut, though I didn't read so carefully as to remember walnut what. I suspect some egg, like a meringue or chiboust rather than cream (chantilly), though there were multiple layers, so actually I expect both. In any case, walnut is not a common taste I get with this type of cake and I appreciated it, making this a second excellent cake from what seems to be an excellent shop, so I should get back there again in the not so distant future, although my priorities now are Limevert, Dalloyau, Noix de Beurre, and Morozoff, as well as new places.

It's been a while since I could run long two weekends in a row, so potentially I'll expand my recent two-week top amount by 10% or more, so I don't need to expand my one-week top amount this weekend. Reviewing where I went wrong last Monday, I've found that I was at 118% of my old three-day top amount, which is maybe okay, but I shouldn't be doing it at maximum speed on a cold day, for example.

Heritage: Amour

Got to a very new shop just within reach on a weekday: Heritage, up in Yamabukicho. They are so new, they don't have cards printed yet, or bags with their name on it. Just within reach also means just about to close, plus tomorrow and Thursdays they are closed, so just three types of cake left. I chose Amour (?) (アムール; 550 yen), which is white chocolate mousse and raspberry. I remembered too late that I shouldn't choose heart-shaped cakes, because that requires gelatin, but a chocolate tart didn't seem a fair choice for comparison, and Chantilly Fraise is not what I look for in cake. Also, there was only one white chocolate mousse, so I figured lacking other information, that indication of popularity would have to do.

The run was not much more than 3 km each way. I thought I was doing a nice warm-up speed for the first 1 km, but where I thought the 1 km mark was, now Google is telling me is 1.15 km, so actually I was averaging 11 km/h the whole way out (still not that fast, but not warm-up speed). Coming back was 10 km/h. I'll mention that it was cold (about 5 degC) and very windy today, so the cake survived pretty well, considering.

The cake actually was excellent, at least if you like white chocolate mousse, which I do. Not gelatinous in a bad way. The raspberry was very slight on a firm cake base in the middle. Pretty simple, but good. I don't have high expectations, but I'm happy to find another at least potentially excellent shop nearby, even if getting there by 19:00 on a weekday is tough.