Le Jardin Bleu: Misérable

Got a second cake of Le Jardin BLue at Isetan and then did a training run in only like rain. This took three laps at Meiji Jingu Gaien, running 8 km/h there, alternating 300 m (7 times) at 10 km/h and 200 m at 8 km/h, but then I went too fast going home and have to count that as 10 km/h, but I'm still okay for this week's plan, since I already substituted out two laps around Akasaka Palace course for one lap and a short side trip for cake for one run this week.

The cake was Misérable (ミゼラブル; 432 yen) and I was expecting a rather plain cake. The description says it's dacquoise with buttercream filling as a traditional Austrian cake, but if you Google this name, it comes up Belgian, which makes more sense, since the name is French. I just had this cake type of cake from Échiré Maison du Beurre not long ago, and that one was not as good, as it was just very sweet buttercream. This one, the buttercream is praliné, with actual nut pieces and uses syrup, which has a more caramel flavor than just sugar, although the effect would perhaps be the same if they brushed some syrup on the dacquoise, which many recipes do (I've learned from experience baking). So it was excellent cake, and I could go back get another there tomorrow, to have three, which is my target now for excellent shops, but I have to rest from cake and running sometimes (actually, I'm hoping to make macarons tomorrow), so I'll just have to wait until either they come to Isetan again, or I get up to being able to run 60 km in a day (or admit that that's never going to happen and go by bicycle).

Échiré Maison du Beurre: Misérable

Went to Marunouchi for a third time trying to see the same new shops, and actually found Échiré Maison du Beurre without a line, though of course mostly sold out late on a Friday. The cake they had was Misérable (which seems like a bizarre name for a cake, but it's apparently a standard French cake), for 756 yen, since no mille-feuille, what was recommended. I didn't really mind.

It was definitely good, being (vanilla?) buttercream between pretty standard almond biscuit, though pretty sweet. Very buttery, so I'm not sure that there actually is vanilla, since the point is to show off the butter, that being their specialty, and it did that.

Felt pretty good about finally getting something new worth having from a new shop on my list/map, but I was too fast going them and am now 1% over budget, having run about 4 km at 8 km/h, faster than I intended, with 6 km of walking. Because I ran a lot during the week and not much last weekend, I've got nothing left for tomorrow, so I'll just have to stay in and work on the next cake, as well as brownies, macarons, and canele (for surplus egg yokes, or I can try making brownies without egg whites). Sunday I may also skip running, since I still won't be able to get far, and instead cycle to Jiyugaoka.

39 km loop:

Tried just dipping into Kanagawa pref., looking to see whether I should expand again outside of Tokyo. The detour at Shibuya Sta. was was much more than I intended, although I liked the south part of it and should use that again. Shibuya is not just runner friendly, which is why I don't usually go there for cake. Since I'm not trying to find the shortest route, I should stick to detouring around it more fully.

WIth the detour, the run to Bigarreaux was about 13 km, which took an acceptable 80 minutes. Because I was doing a loop stopping for cake and exploring new roads, I was not trying to do maximum speed, although I still tried to time myself, to stay motivated. Total was about 39 km at the same pace (4 hours total), although I was definitely slow at the end. For a faster run, I need less stuff in my backpack or no backpack. It's more a problem of bulk making it press against my back than weight. I could wear the jacket (I'm still running in my same super cool UV protection shirt, although I get watery eyes rather than so much sweat. No special skin problems except for burning eyes and dried out feet). At least for today, my back was the weak link for increasing my speed.

At Bigarreaux, they've got three autumn cakes out, so I'll need to get back there again. This time, I got the Misérable for 500 yen. This is said to be a traditional Belgian cake of fermented butter cream sandwiched between high-almond-content cake. It's not that sweet, but, as you can see, that's a lot of butter. It's the kind of thing that I like very much, for variety, but can't really say that it is great. Would definitely like to have it again.

So, the entrance to Kanagawa is still not my favorite, although I was not the only runner or cyclist on the two-lane road on the Kanagawa side coming from Futakotamagawa, and it was okay, as far as I went on it. I liked the canal route that I took for the south end of the run. Google is wrong about the need to detour to cross the big expressway: there are crosswalks and lights right at the canal roads. My problem was getting off and making my way back to Tokyo. So I can use the canal route to move east-west (if I don't need to be very deep in Kanagawa), but I still need to find a good entrance point and initial road.

Coming back, I stopped by (Patisserie) de Bon Coeur in Koyama (Shinagawa dist.). They have a cafe downstairs, I think, but there is a regular moderately sized adult, fancy cake counter. I got the Gateau Pistache (guessed spelling) for 648 yen. This is pistacio and raspberries. Fairly standard cake. It was very good. Can't say that it reached great, but there's a lot of competition in this category, so it's hard to stand out. There are several parks around and it's close to one of the History and Culture Walking Courses, so maybe I'll get back there again, but I'm not going to make it a priority. I have enough other places to keep me interested. I'll update the map to reflect that I've been there.