Pierre Hermé: Éclair Infiniment Chocolat

Got this week's fresh cake from Pierre Hermé via Isetan: Éclair Infiniment Chocolat.

The running was once along the second half of the Shinjuku History & Culture course (which is from Shinjuku 1-chome to Akasaka), which is about 6 km, at 10 km/h, despite hills and stairs, and another 6 km home (well, a convenience store, really) by way of the Ichigaya Nikunohanamasa to get some roasted peanut pieces for making peanut butter, at 9 km/h. It was hot, due to being too hot a day and cloud cover, though I started after 8 pm, but not terrible, so I survived despite forgetting to bring water.

Éclair Infiniment Chocolat was definitely good, but not special, just a straight chocolate éclair. Maybe I'll try one of their baked goods tomorrow, as a non-patisserie day. I'll have to go to Omote Sando, since Isetan is closed.

Pierre Hermé: Ispahan

I should perhaps have taken a day off cake to make up for two pieces yesterday (Sunday's failed cake-off), but I'm going to do that Tuesday, when my main department store sources are closed (Isetan and Mitsukoshi) for a summer holiday. Instead, I wanted to get in a cake for my new "Quite Superb" shop Pierre Hermé. It was a tough choice between a cake I had been putting off for a long time and type of cake that I barely recognized as cake (cream puffs) and I went with the former. First, though I visited Pierre Gagnaire to see if they had their chocolate tart from March for a future cake-off, but they didn't.

Coming back, I did the second half of the Shinjuku History and Culture course in reverse, which for all the times I've done this stretch, I think I've never done. It was actually maybe better, in terms of the timing of lights, and the variation in which hills were up and which were down was interesting (much steeper slopes than what I've been calling training hill running, although with some space between them). It's about 6 km (just for the H&C course) in under 40 min, which is pretty good for the up-down. Also, I could run along the embankment overlooking Yotsuya Station (not sure why the embankment is there, but maybe it's related to the old outer defense wall for Edo).

The Ispahan is a traditional cake, apparently, or at least Dalloyau is not the only place that has it. It's a big macaron with lychee on the inside and raspberry on the outside, as well as a little cream to cement things in place. I'd like more cream and less fruit, but I respect it and so I'm going to say it's excellent (also, it's beautiful). I tried cutting it with a knife and eating it with a fork but if I ever get it again, I'd rather just pick it up so that I can more easily get a balance of all the elements, which I think is best.

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.

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.

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.

Shinjuku History and Culture course

Got up early and ran the Shinjuku History and Culture course. I ran it in the official direction, although maybe I should have run it east to west, to avoid the sun, but I was more worried about avoiding crowds around Shinjuku Station, which was still busy, being the busiest station in the world, and I stand by that decision. There are markers along such routes, but you cannot count on them being easy to find, being correct (I've found ones that were mis-oriented, although not on this route), or even to exist. In my map, the routes are based on 2010 routes, which do not necessarily exactly match the routes shown on the markers, and neither of which necessarily matches where it's legal to cross the road. Today, I couldn't find the start or end marker or any markers west of Shinjuku Station (route 1, from Shinjuku Central Park to Shinjuku Station) except one north of the west entrance. I was under pressure from needing to get back and showered for a 10 am appointment, but no problem. Much of this is my old hill route, which I haven't been doing, so I'm somewhat out of practice on the steep hills, but it was not a big deal (I think: strange lump around my Achilles tendon). Total time from my original start was about 1 35' 17'', but I failed to mark my lap correctly (apparently, my watch lets you stop the chronometer even when displaying time of day, but you can't also advance the lap number). I'll estimate the Shinjuku History and Culture course time today as 53' based on at another 600+ meters my watch showing about 56'30''. I like this route, other going going by the station, but you have to cross somewhere and it shows you a lot of highlights: the center of Tokyo government, Shinjuku Station, Isetan, Meiji Gingu Gaien, Yotsuya Station, Akasaka Mitsuke Station, and various shrines and temples.

Made my appointment, but made the mistake of buying a snack at Doutor (a coffee shop chain store) without reading the ingredients. Margarine--what kind of monsters are they? Although, the butter shortage continues, based on the availability I see in the groceries. I do not know what the deal is. There is cheese, milk, and cream, no problem as far as I know, and yet the butter problems continue for more than a year. Some sort of market breakdown, I assume.

In the afternoon, I went to Lettre d'Amour [Closed], as planned. Rather than the usual course through Meiji Gingu Gaien, down Icho Avenue and through Aoyama Cemetery, I just took the Gaien West Road around just to check whether there was a marker I missed along there in the morning. Coming back, I had intended to taking my usual route, since I was running with cake, but I realized why my first route was smart: Icho Avenue was packed with people viewing the spectacle of leaves changing colors (which I don't really get), so I had to curve around the other way. The map shows the combined day's route, which was 29 km.

The cake is Myrtille for 600 yen, which is supposedly (and basically tastes like) a baked cheese-cake tart with blueberry mouse on top. The confusing part is "myrtille" is the French word for "bilberry", which is related to but different from blueberry. I guess since bilberries can be called "European blueberries", they decided not to make a distinction, so I'll assume the name is correct but the description is not precisely correct. Now I'm doubting whether other "blueberry" cakes are actually bilberry.

The cake is good. I didn't choose it because I thought it would be great, but because I intend to try everything and this was more or less next, working left to right and top to bottom (of course, they move things around) and perhaps skipping varieties I'm not that into and new things that might be temporary, although that's not a general policy of mine. I like cheese cake, but it is not a strong taste, so it is limited. The tart crust was good, the baked cheese cake inside was good, the macron on top was good, and even the slightly gelatinous "blueberry" mousse was good. I'm happy with still saying this is a great shop and was not disappointed by the cake.

Checking Joshi+ Sweet, looks like it got around to Mont-Blanc, so I added it to the map and should give it a try. Since I don't like the cake mont-blanc so much in general and there are many places in Jiyugaoka and I hadn't heard anything about this one, I hadn't visited or planned to visit before now, although I'll see it and looked inside (they are near the station and seem to do a good business).