Croissants: Sadaharu Aoki, Fraoula, and St. Marc Cafe

Thursday, I was busy. Friday, I took the day off. Mid-day, I worked on two revised and one loop I'm adding to the neighborhood running course. I failed at the Jinguumae 5&6 loop going counterclockwise because, after stopping at the new Hotel Chocolat, I thought I needed to run farther for the turn to go by Number Sugar. Now I know. Going down to the Shibuya Stn. area to start the next loop, I got a Croissant Matcha from the Sadaharu Aoki at ShinQs. Like the plain, it was high-quality, but I thought the match was unnecessary in this case, but it was still excellent. I look forward to catching their chocolate version some time.

I was successful at the Kamiyama-chou--Tomigaya--Udagawa-chou loop counterclowise, interrupted at the north end by doing the Tomigaya--Yoyogi loop, so the latter has been reconfirmed and the former has been officially added, which is out of order, but I had to run what I had time for. Before finishing off the former, I stopped at Fraola, at got their croissant. This also was a proper pastry croissant and was definitely good, but I'm raising the bar on croissant now that I've confirmed that they can be great. They have other pastries there that I want to retry on other days, so I'm not writing them off by any means.

Saturday, I had more time for running, so I made an attempt at the Daita--... loop, but failed almost immediately on a new part near the beginning (with respect to counterclockwise), but at least could confirm the proper route. It was just as well, since I wasn't well prepared (hadn't charged my phone for a couple days). Coming back, I passed near Yoyogi-Uehara to confirm the Starbucks there and also found a Fujiya bakery nearby (on the route) and confirmed the route near where I previous failed. I can also say that at least I did the tiny Moto-Yoyogi-Chou loop correctly this time, so just counterclockwise to go. At the station, there is also a St. Marc Cafe, which I had a bad experience with several years ago, but since they have fresh pastries, I figured I should give them a try. I think they call this little thing a ChocoCroi.

My memories was that it was disgusting. Actually, though it is overly soft, the chocolate is fine so actually this is good. I thought adding this chain would disrupt a lot of loops, but actually I only have to revise two, the Kamiyama-chou--Tomigaya--Udagawa-chou loop that I had just done and the Ebisu-nishi west loop. I did have to add a couple tiny loops near two other loops because I couldn't incorporate them directly into existing loops, due to the needs of other sites. However, after returning home and having lunch, I went out by bicycle to confirm sites (and take pictures, though now Google maps is rejecting all my pictures) and found a dessert shop that's forcing a revision of the Akasaka-Roppongi loop again, which just doesn't seem to settle down. Most of my effort was confirming new loops east of Ebisu Station.

Paris S'éveille: Menton

Sunday, I finally got, by bicycle, the new cake at Paris S'éveille, the Menton. They were busy to the point of asking someone to wait outside, but the tables were not full, so I could eat in. This is a very light lemon cake. The top is lemon flavored milk foam, but the inside is a very dry, very aerie meringue (or something similar) with space for some more lemon (compote or something; I still don't have those kinds of things straight in my head), but nothing to overpower the milk foam, so fairly milk tasting. I'm into stronger cakes, but can allow that this was excellent.

Afterward, I went to Dalloyau. I hadn't had any pastries the previous week, so I decided to make up for it by having my first pastry-off. My favorite shop for pastry is Fraoula, so I was looking for a match for their Croissant d'Almonde. I was open for an orange pastry, but Dalloyau didn't seem to know what I was talking about. My previous pastry purchases were mainly from the Mitsukoshi counter, and there may have been changes since the Ginza shop was closed. The other great pastry I've had from Dalloyau is their Croissant, which I've had more than once. But when I tried it this time, it seemed rather ordinary. I'll give it the benefit of the doubt and say it was excellent, so Fraoula wins the first pastry-off. There is no reward other than staying on the extremely short list of great pastries.

On the way, I ventured to grab a few pictures of sites along planned future parts of the neighborhood course. Hadn't known about this school/restaurant? They have a Tabelog entry, but there is only one comment, from 6 years ago, and no pictures, which I've never encountered. The homepage link gives an error message in Chinese and the Facebook page posts are from 2014. Maybe it really is just someone's house now.

Cake-off: Rue de Passy "Opera Pistache" over Fraoula "Angers St Laud"

This time my side trip to Fraoula looking for "Angers St Laud" paid off. My original plan in looking for it was to see it through the window and go on to get the second cake, picking this one up on the way back, but the the usual counter person spotted me and pointed to the cake, so I had to come in and buy it, especially since they said that they had specifically made it because I had been asking about it (the patisserie was also out front). They are very friendly and I'm very recognizable, but also not that many people probably come asking about a specific cake and then stalk them over the next few months looking for it. I decided to take it home first rather than carry it 13 km, most of that with a second cake. Actually, I was faster going home, 10 km/h versus 9 km/h, both 4+ km.

I was equally successful for my first choice of a match for this, as Rue de Passy still had their Pistache Opera. This time I was faster going (10 km/h) than coming back (9 km/h), both 8+ km, which is reasonable for a second run where I'm not trying to make a particular pace, but rather trying not to over do it. Just watched a show on two "talents" trying to do sub 3.5 marathons, which requires a 12+ km/h average speed. Neither made it, though each was close in his way. I'm just not enough of an athlete, but at my speeds, I never have trouble with specifically muscle pain stopping me, like they did, so I'm not sure that I really need more training. Instead, I'll try to use my capacity to get where I want to go without causing any tendon or joint failures, or compromising my immune system.

These were both early evaluations of shops I've mostly moved on from (though Fraoula has great pastries). This Angers St Laud is a little different from the one two years ago. On the plus side, it has a great pistachio flavor and is well complimented by the almonds and biscuit. On the downside, it has somewhat gelatinous parts that slide off each other (you can see the white top and green bottom) when you cut into them. I still think it's excellent, but I have a hard time saying that it's great. In contrast, the Pistache Opera is a standard layered cake of biscuit and thick praliné/ganache, so in that way it's not exciting, but I like the taste and like the structure of this type of cake, so maybe those are why I am choosing it over Fraoula, at least today.

So I guess Yu Sasage is for next Saturday. In the meantime, I need a shopping run or research run with no cake to balance out the extra cake today. I also want to get to JPH for a Verrine this week, since they only have these and summer and classify them as cake; I don't consider them cake or like them much, but I should give them another chance while I have the chance: they have three varieties per month for 4 months, so they would keep me busy if it turns out that they are worth trying. Also, I want to work in a new shop and now I owe both Sadaharu Aoki and Rue de Passy another sampling, though I definitely won't get to the later this week. Not sure whether I'll take a rest tomorrow (probably not, as I'm not that tired or sore) or whether I'll need a rest Friday before my Saturday run (again, greed/obsession will probably prevent that). I'll probably keep the Saturday run to only 30 km, which is easily done but I'd like to stop by some other shops on the way for research purposes, though I'll also need a snack for that long a run, as Yu Sasage doesn't have eat-in space to eat my cake there and I'd rather avoid eating outdoors.

Limevert: Pruneau

For my long run of the week, I went over to Limevert again, taking a longer path of going south to the middle of Aoyama Cemetary before heading west to Roppongi Ave and then over to my usual route down to Old Oyamate Ave. (though I took the southern branch for some reason) and then down to follow Meguro River northwest and then the green path to Umegaoka, and from there along the train line.

I ate in again (obviously) and got chocolate again, this time Pruneau (580 yen) according to the French, but the Japanese name seems to be phonetic for "Brick" (though wrote down "Buritta": hard to write those cards). This is a couple solid chocolate sticks on top, then cocoa powder, chocolate mousse, chocolate cream, a little unlisted chocolate sponge (probably for cohesion), chocolate ganache, and finally a feuillantine base for crunch. I'm not completely confident, but I'm going to say it was great and look forward to testing that in the future.

From there, I went back a different route so I could stop by at Fraoula because I had overlooked that theirs was the first cake I rated here as great, so I should have started with them (I was greedy back then and had two great cakes on that day). Unfortunately, though they were happy to see me again, it seems to be something that they make on an irregular schedule. They offered to give me a call when they made it next, but my schedule is a little more complicated than that and I don't mind stopping in occasionally. I bought there Croissant d'Almonde, which was great. It is the soft kind, maybe with almond syrup, but the powered sugar definitely was part of the appeal for me. More than for cakes, this is a quite excellent place for the few pastry they make, so I need to get there more often just for that, though I'm not sure whether I've missed anything at this point.

Paris S'eveille: Monsieur Arnaud

I went a not very direct (at least at the beginning) route down to Jiyugaoka by bicycle. First I went to Cuoca, got some 7.5 cm brioche forms (I may finally have enough, although maybe not for cheesecake pie tartlets, which might require 18), some carob powder (I'm curious abut carob brownies), and cacao mass (usually I substitute powder in brownies without replacing the missing fat and like the results, but my fudge brownies are completely unfudgie, at least until I start substituting in almond powder for flour; in short, I'm not good about following recipes and it's not because I know better).

Then I went to Paris S'éveille to have great cake, which I was successful at. I got the Monsieur Arnaud for 650 yen + 8% tax and hot Choco a l'Orange for 760 yen + 8%. The drink was good, although not necessary (actually, buying a drink might have been necessary to eat in and they are all about the same level of priciness). The cake is chocolate cream on top of and between probably milk chocolate above a hazelnut base. The bottom of he base is definitely baked cake (with hazelnut power), then the middle of the base has large pieces of nuts, but there was another praline layer on top that probably has a specific technical name, but I don't know enough, even if I throw out terms sometimes when someone provides them in a description. This great cake has some similarities to recent chocolate cakes from other great stores that I referred to as almost chocolate bar like maybe, but this one pushed back the balance someone toward cake and was better for it, I think.


Having had great cake, I decided to visit a shop Joshi+ posted on that I rightly had low expectations of. I should really stay away from these homemade style shops. This one was Kabocha, which does this with kabocha, which is the standard Japanese pumpkin equivalent. Basically, they do pie-like tarts. I tried the Kabocha Chibust, apparently, although I thought the name listed was Caramel Pumpkin, but it doesn't really matter. I was definitely okay, but not enough to get me back.

Being completely greedy today for some reason, I stopped at Fraoula, where I got meringue cookies (actually, Muguet, "Lily"), despite urging to get some fresh cake sometime (I'm a little too recognizable, so they know I haven't bought cake there for some time, despite once being a frequent customer). I had already eaten almost half of these at the time of taking the picture, because they are excellent (I need to hide them now).

46 km loop: Au Bon Veux Temps and Fraoula

Did a 46.3 km loop according to my calculation (Google routes had trouble at the river, gorge, and end, where I think I ran out of deviation points I could add), which still excluded some double-backs. It was not a continuous run, of course, because I need food and water, not to forget stopping for lights, but it was something like the posted map. Number 1 Tokyo-Yokohama route had its good and bad parts, but mostly seemed good for a run, for a trip to central Yokohama (if there was something there I wanted visit, which there currently isn't). I followed Tama River for a while and then jogged over to follow a canal, which was fine, although only ornamental at first (the real canal was presumably underground). I took a right when it met up with another canal, which ran through the only gorge in Tokyo's 23 special wards (the east/metro part of Tokyo, versus the outer suburbs and mountains in the same prefecture-level grouping, where there should be no lack of gorges). Since there were families and only a narrow wet stone walk along the waterway, I eventually had to reduce to a walk, although it's only 1 km long. I had seen it from above where Ring Road 8 passes over it, but hadn't known what it was, where it led (nowhere in particular, really) or how people actually got down there. Now I know. I swung by A Bon Vieux Temps before heading to Jiyuugaoka (where there are benches), and then back along familiar routes. I deviated from my original plan (which would have been 44 km), and following the Meguro River to Yamanote Road, taking that up to the south end of Yoyogi, where I visited Fraoula. By then it was raining, and if it were raining as much when I entered the shop as when I left, I was going to take the train back, but it had let up mostly, so I jogged.

I spent something like 5 15' actually running. My right hip/haunch was still sore, and did not improve the first couple hours, so I decided that I was not being careful with my form on my right side. If I don't kick my leg out straight enough, it sort of swings around a little, which is not good, so I focused on that the rest and it gradually got better. Naturally, I'm tired, but I can imagine going farther. It might be a few weeks before I get around to that, though.

At Au Bon Vieux Temps, I got the Paradis, which is raspberry gelatin (but not disgusting gelatin), but only about 2 mm thick, and a little mixed in below, not much more pistachio brûlée (if they say so), inside white chocolate mousse for 561 yen. I like white chocolate cake and the raspberry and pistachio were good accents, but I can't say this is great. It's consistent with greatness, but it does not make up for other not great cakes, so I'm taking this shop off my great list. They seem to be doing well (despite being in an area that doesn't look like the future holds a lot for them, being a little too far for them to fare well in the declining population).

Meanwhile, Fraoula is a modest shop on a back street near where two train lines meet, close to central Tokyo, and in particular close to Yoyogi Park, but I worry that it will disappear, because you're not likely to find it unless you're looking for it, and it's not that easy to find even then, the streets being somewhat tangled. This time I got a croissant, which is not cake, but their baked things are so good (and much cheaper), so I could not resist and even took a picture. It was 194 yen and delicious, of course.

The other item I got was the Tarte Poire Pamplemousse, for 518 yen, which is pear and grapefruit. This combines two fruits that I generally don't want on tarts. The bottom had lots of green, so I wonder if it was pistachio again. It was certainly interesting tasting and good, but it did not convince me that I want grapefruit desserts (although it was not sour, so I wouldn't have known what fruit it was from the taste). Still, well made, with well balanced tastes, so it is consistent with a great shop, and I'm not disappointed, even if I probably enjoyed the white chocolate cake more. There are still several standard cakes there that are not my favorites but I'm happy to try, so I'm not finished. Even if new cakes ended, there are other sweets there I would go for, such as meringue.

36 km to La Noboutique: Chocolat Noir and Sicily

Took Yamanotedoori south and then came back up by route 17, which starts out as No. 1 Tokyo-Yokohama road but changes names or switches paths a couple times: route. The west side was as I've seen before near Nakameguro: temporary asphalt sidewalk, highway-type steel barriers, and traffic barricades  rather than brick sidewalk and the regular fences/barriers. Still, it was okay. Route 17 as okay too, although crowded right at Shinagawa Station, even at 8 a.m on Sunday, and Ginza was a pain because the lights are so frequent that I had to spend half my time stopped (although a cheated some times). At the far north end was best, the last few kilometers before the city hall of Itabashi District, where it meets up with Yamanotedoori, but other parts up to there were fine. I'm thinking that my previous journeys outside of Tokyo should have followed a road like this: a main radial road from central Tokyo. I've complained about the main roads crossing into Kanagawa pref., but those were actually connecting suburbs between prefectures. Maybe I should take a radial road from the center first and then turn west inside the neighboring prefecture to find routes that don't feel like truck routes.

The actual run was good too. I've been trying to do 6 min/km, and I did that for 35 km (Google route finder says 36.0 km, but using Google distance measuring tool, I got exactly 35.0 km). It worked about like my laps: it became harder as I went but I kept that in mind and worked myself harder, and it managed to balance out without my having to think about it too hard. I only check about once every 5 or 10 km, so I can't really make micro-corrections to my speed. Since I'm happy with the speed for long distances, I could up the distance to 40 km or more next, but actually I've already planned out a route that is more about navigation and visiting two shops along the way (so actual cake running might be involved, but maybe only to the nearest park) and even that is going to have to wait a couple weeks.

Today's cake was far from great, at least from the target shop, La Noboutique. These were Chocolat Noir for 390 yen and Sicily for 420 yen (or at least those are my guesses from the Japanese phonetic spellings). The chocolat seems to be just chocolate flavored whipped cream as the filling (the website says ganache, which apparently covers a wide territory of chocolate-dairy mixtures, based on my experience) and there is a tiny bit of nuts in the topping. Just too weak for me. I expect this from Henri Charpentier or Ginza Cozy Corner. It was not watery bad, but it was just okay and something I want to avoid. Sicily is pistachio and either strawberry or raspberry mousse, but was about the same: just okay. The combination left a bad taste in my mouth, figuratively and literally. But they did give me 5 yen "service" in the form of rounding the total down to the nearest 10 yen, so I should mention that.

Unlike yesterday, I did not restrain myself and went out again to Fraoula (by bicycle) and got their new Mille Feuille for 432 yen, along with a Croissant d'Almande for 237 yen. The Mille Feuille was fine. The interesting point was that only the top was a solid piece (in a few layers), whereas the rest was flakes, so that you could cut through it easily, which is one solution to make it easier to eat. The croissant (which does not count as a fourth cake) was very good, maybe better than any of the cakes, which does not surprise me from there.

Cycling to Rue de Passy and Fraoula

I was late, and arrived at Ryoco at 10:45 so there was a huge line. I was reminded of Hidemi Sugino in Kyoubashi (north of Ginza), which is a rightly famous cake shop/cafe that I have not listed as great, partially because of the bother of lining up there and partly because their fruity mousse cakes are not my highest interest (although I'm talking myself in to going there). Anyway, I'll try again when I can go early enough to get cake in under an hour and probably also get at least two pieces for my trouble.

I went west next, as planned, to Rue de Passy and got their new Galaxy for 518 yen. It is a mousse dome. There is a base of milk chocolate ganache, a couple millimeters of chocolate (maybe) cake on next, then a dome of praline mousse with fruit, a covering of chocolate, and a few more pieces of fruit and other bits as you can see. The fruit was apple and pineapple compote, although I'm not sure which was which. Maybe the pineapple was the tiny hardish pieces on the outside and the apple was the fruit inside (it was a fairly small amount). It was a good balance all around, except it was a little too sweet and candy-like for me. Maybe I should have eaten in with tea. Given how bad the mosquitoes were in the park I tried, I wish I had used their cafe. I think I'll go back to considering this shop as very good and not give it further special attention.

I next, by an unintentionally long route, went to Fraoula, where I got the new Fig Tart. This was 518 yen. It is very good. You can see that it is slices of fig on a custard tart, or at least something in that family. Probably a good compliment for the Galaxy, but not really trying to be great. I also got La Boule, which is not cake, so no picture, but is a 4 cm sphere of sweet bread, for 108 yen; it was very nice and I'll continue sampling their their baked goods. 

Was quite tired later and needed a nap. I shouldn't be doing another long run this Wednesday---once a week would be more than enough---although I might try something special, like going out to Bigarreaux, to see what they have that I haven't tried. I'll need to get more done at home before then, though. At least the dishes aren't piling up, the mail is a little better dealt with, and three loads of washing got done. Also, I have ingredients for a big pot of curry and another version of cheesecake tarts.

No running: Lettre d'Amour [Closed] and Fraoula

At Lettre d'Amour, I got their Shirogane Fromage (Shirogane is neighborhood name), which is their cheese cake, for 600 yen. There were actually several customers, so I had to wait a few minutes, but most of those disappeared upstairs to the cafe by they time I had made my decision. The cake is three kinds of cream cheese blended into a mousse with a little citrus juice and gelatin with a sponge base. I went through a progression of thinking it was good cheese cake through about half, not something I need more than half of in the second half, and maybe not something I need at all afterward, although I'm not sure why. Rare cheese cake is not my favorite anyway. That's only my fourth from there, and there were plenty more cakes. More importantly, I found a good nearby park to eat in.

It was Sunday afternoon, so Ryoco had people lined up outside (early afternoon, that is; late afternoon when they run out, they just close), despite the light rain. From experience, I would say it would take about an hour (for 10 people: most people get several pieces and it takes time to box those up well), so I passed and circled back to Fraoula, who are never that busy (I hope they have some restaurant contracts; there were a couple people in the back busy, so they must have something).

I got this Senteur for 486 yen, which is Earl Grey flavored and has prunes. I was very happy with it. I'd be a good compliment with something sweeter, which I mean in a good way.

This is the Arre, I think (the register is having a little problem printing). It's a huge, flat, crunchy thing, perhaps with sesame but very sweet and chewy, for 324 yen. I prefer the Bostock, but I wanted to try this.

So, I'm thinking maybe I'll give up on cake shops outside Tokyo. I'm past the point of needing to go to new cake shops every time and I'd rather find nice paths for running than visit every shop within range. There's plenty that I've been to before that I haven't blogged about, and I can set other destinations and then visit, on the way or on the way back, whatever cake shop is convenient. Since I have a place 30 km out within Tokyo that I want to visit, I won't need to change my habits soon.

22 km day off loop run.

The rain mostly stopped and I got in a long run with only a vague plan. I went by Avancons, but decided that my expectations were not that high, so why bother and continued on to Aigre-Douce. There I got the Caramel Chocolate Brownie. After I ordered it, I noticed that it had coffee (and why? Does the pistachio cake have tobacco mixed in, you know, for the flavor?), but didn't back out. After all, maybe the coffee makes it better. Well, it did not kill it, but it did not really make it good, so I'll just leave it as a cake for someone else (caramel and chocolate sounds good, but only if the caramel is fairly sweet, and no coffee, please). I don't remember how much it was, but probably around 500 yen plus tax. They have another chocolate, which I'll try another time. They were really busy for a Monday afternoon, though. Lots of people making big orders, so my cake was already melting by the time they got around to closing the box.

Next, I went to Fraoula, because I could, although I did not do much better. I got their chocolate, the Tomoe, for 453 yen. On the one hand, it was nice to have chocolate without the coffee. It has rum as well, apparently, although I could not taste it. I'm not sure what to call this type of cake. It's not baked, but it's more granular than a mousse but isn't fudge dense. It's kind of a standard texture, so there's probably a good name for it. Ultimately, it did not work for me, although whatever the rum was doing worked, as there was not a problem with too strong a chocolate taste, just its sort of a lot of one flavor that is not enough. It's pretty and I like the macrons, but I don't need it. It would be good to split with someone and have with tea or wine (although there is no space for a cafe there).

I looked around for a third cake, although I had not intended to visit anywhere else. I swung by Takagi and passed from not knowing what to get, went to Toshi Yoroizuka, but they did not have the cake that I had in mind, and so I ended up going to Henri le Roux, which like Toshi Y. is in Tokyo Midtown, but is actually a caramelier, if that is the right word for a master maker of caramels, the only one that I know. They have some little cakes too, which are also available at their Isetan counter, but the draw for the Midtown store is the Kouign Amann. I got the chocolate and C.B.S. (salt butter caramel). These are definitely great, especially the C.B.S. It's sort of croissant-like as far as being flaky and buttery, but of course there is caramel inside, so it's also chewy, not dry. Next time I'll maybe get the C.B.S. again and try the pineapple. These are 324 yen per, so like little cakes.

Cycling: Fraoula, Paris S'éveille, and Bigarreaux

Since I ran long yesterday, just leisurely cycling (and it would be more leisurely if I had a bicycle better geared for slopes).

I started with Bigarreaux, since they open at 9 am, and got the Mille Feuille (for 500 yen). It's a standard cake, so I'm not sure how to tell whether it is great, but I like it and had no complaints. They use 100% Viron Co. flour and fermented butter for the crust. The display-case picture looks better than the other one I took outside, so I'll use it. I'm running out of things to get from there.

Next was Paris S'eveille (where there is a sign telling you no photographs of the display case), where I am definitely not running out things, certainly not things to blog about. This Theatre is two kinds of mousse inside: milk chocolate and bitter chocolate. This was great, although I'm not that into milk chocolate. The balance seemed okay, but heavy on the milk. It would probably be better in colder weather. This is not a cheap place: it was something like 620, or maybe 670 with tax. They have people lining up, so they can charge high, although their location is no doubt more expensive than the other two today and most places outside of those in central Tokyo.
Finally, I stopped by Fraoula. This is called Paradis and has a completely unhelpful description on their card. Obviously there is chocolate on top and some browned orange with that. I'll guess Bavarian creme and chocolate mousse of some type for the main layers. I also got the Bostock and confirmed that it was better than Aux Bacchanales'. The moistness is better distributed, I think, rather than having gooey parts and drier parts.

Sunday cake shop tour, 3rd shop: Fraoula

Today I went last to Fraoula and got the Tarte Fraise for 540 yen, which the description says is full of strawberries, which it is. Too much strawberry for me really, although a very good tart. Notice that they are mostly whole strawberries. About Fraoula (I'm not sure whether to capitalize it, based on their card), they did have another customer around noon, but not really the volume you would want to maintain a store. Also, they use the spelling Bostock for the French toast-like pastry, with a "k", although I resisted buying, since I knew I had more than enough already, even after 35 km yesterday.

Sunday without running: Fraoula and Aigre-Douce

It as a rest day, so I was lazy and did not take notes. After other shopping, I went to Fraoula and got (update: bostoc?) the below. The first is salted caramel macarons, although they just seemed like macarons to me. The set was only about 400 yen, which is reasonable. They are slightly smaller than average, but not tiny. I recommend with tea or sharing, since by the third one I was finding them a little too sweet. I wish I could remember what the other thing is. It's from the baked things and is only about 200 yen but is better than most cakes. It involves a lot of eggs. There are almond slices there, but the taste is of maple. Whatever it is, it is great and I get it when I can.

This sad thing is a Charlotte aux (or maybe "de") Framboise. Again, I've demonstrated the futility of trying to use the bicycle basket to carry cake. If I go on a ride, I should just eat where I go. Anyway, there is some raspberry in there, but actually the main part of the center is a light lemon chiboust, or maybe the chiboust is the top part, but that does not seem to match other things I've seen called chiboust in Japan. Anyway, the middle part is semi-frozen, or starts close to that, and then there are some raspberries on the bottom. I'm not that much into Charlotte's, I guess, although I've had ones that used more a biscuit for constructing the ring around the soft middle, which I like better.

This was supposed to be based on my mother's recipe for cheese pie (cake), but I did a major substitution so it doesn't taste like anything I've had before. Also, you're not supposed to brown the top, but I can't see that it's hurt any thing. The inside seems a little soft, if anything, so it's not overcooked. It still tastes good, but I'll try to do it properly next time, as I'd like a firmer texture in the cooked cheese. Also, I should not have used the pie crust (although so delicious with olive oil) recipe that goes with it, since it's definitely a pie crust and I'm using 14 cm tart forms (just bought a third one Saturday: they're expensive). One of these used a leftover tart dough from my custard tart experiments (with only two tart forms), so I'll eventually compare the crusts.

Full disclosure, I also finally failed to resist the cinnamon bun at La Saison near Sanmiyabashi Station. It was as a large cinnamon bun should be (especially if it is 400 yen plus).

(Sunday 1) 9 km run (and 17 km run): Frauola

Visited a few shops (but hit the tag limit, so I'm splitting this). A straight to and back from Fraoula in the late morning was about 9 km. (Then from noon I took a long path that took me by Lettre d'Amour for the first time and to Ryoco again.) I updated shops on this map. From Fraoula, I got Fran Nature and Tarte Citron for 367 and 410 yen, because I was taking them home to share and I wanted something that I was sure would run well, as well as being something I had not gotten there before. They were very good. Note sure if they were excellent, but I might get them again. Definitely a great cake shop. Supposedly, that is meringue. Certainly it is egg-like and whipped. This tart is less sweet that some I've had, which is not a bad thing in a lemon tart.

Cycling from Au Bon Vieux Temp (Tentation Chocolat) to Faraoula (Angers st Laud)

To rest my feet, I went out with my granny bike to what I think of as the Jiyugaoka (自由が丘) area, which includes within a couple stations. As usual, having okay cake yesterday made me crave really good cake, so I went where I knew I could find some.

I started with my far point, which was Au Bon Vieux Temps (オー ボン ヴュー タン), which recently moved around the block to the wide street from the narrow shopping street that runs to the station (Oyamadai Station; 尾山台駅), though it's actually on the Todoroki side, not Oyamadai. No picture because I demonstrated to myself again that you can't carry cake on a bicycle (but I can run several kilometers carrying it), at least not operating it (the bicycle) in a legal manner. My cake was decapitated, but still quite edible, so no problem. The cake was a Tentation Chocolat ("chocolate temptation"; タンタシオンショコラ) for 650 yen. It had a not quite solid block dense chocolate tart-like base of about 1 cm (3 to 4 cm diameter), a middle slightly thicker layer of still fairly dense chocolate mousse, and was topped by chocolate whipped cream. Great cake (which is why I go to this shop). I need to go to the cafe/restaurant and have one of their frozen desserts, which are slightly more expensive.

Next, I searched for one new place among the many cake places listed on the local area website but that I had never heard anything particular about. m.koide, who I've seen open and with customers, was unexpectedly closed with a "help wanted" sign on the door. I had already gone past where Patisserie R Okasawa used to be and seen that it had moved, but since I knew that I also had also passed the new shop somewhere though was not sure where, I figured that it was better to look online later (which I've done) rather than go back and search. Patisserie Rikyuu (where I might have gotten cheesecake as maybe the only thing of much interest listed on the menu out front) had a tiny note on the door saying "back at 1:40". Merger-sasa (?) was no where to be found, although I did find an empty storefront with an awning at about the right place that would fit for a patisserie. So I ended up visiting Patisserie de la Loire, which is a tiny Mom (and I think I heard Pop in the back) place that admitted that they didn't have any specialty, which pretty much sums them up. They looked completely basic, but a little sachertorte for 300 yen tasted about like what one would expect, in a good enough way. If you need to buy a bunch of little cakes for students/children/underlings, they have a few basic varieties, and the lady was very nice. No reason for me to go back again.

Okay, back to the greats that bring me to Jiyugaoka: Tarte Tentation (タルト タンタシオン) at Patisserie Paris S'éveille (パティスリー・パリセヴェイユ). This was also chocolate, but a little wider and only about 5 mm thick of chocolate flavored with citrus (with a few orange pieces on top). It was high quality, but the orange (or whatever specifically it was) overpowered the chocolate, so it did not work for me, although not bad tasting. Still, I'll be back until I've sampled everything and then go through the one's I think that I like again (the main purpose of this blog is as a record, since I can't remember all these cakes and shops in detail).

Finally, a shop that just recently moved and came to my attention, Fraoula, hidden between stations at the southwest corner of Yoyogi Park, sold me one of the below (518 yen): Angers st Laud (アンジェ サン ロー)、which is pistachio flavored with vanilla Bavarois (Bavarian cream), but notice that there are little biscuits (English spelling is such a pain, I write as I try to figure out French from phonetic Japanese every day for this blog, although in this case, I didn't need to) in there, as well as almonds: great cake (or whatever you want to call it). Not disappointed with this place yet, so I expect more last stops there (if I can get there by when they close, 5 pm!).