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: Saint Honoré Caramel

Been out of commission for several days, but finally I felt better than last time I ran, so I took a chance. It was just over 8 km at 9 km/h (although I was having trouble keeping the speed that low on the outbound). At Frédéric Cassel, I got the Saint Honoré Caramel (756 yen). I liked last month's saint-honoré and I thought one other caramel cake this month was great, but I didn't care for this taste at all and the texture impressed me less than with the last saint-honoré. Still, it's a common enough caramel taste, despite I not being fond of it and I didn't really mind eating it, so it was still good.


Not sure whether I should try the third caramel or wait from the next batch, but I'll probably get to it. Now I'll see if I can manage to run the next three days to at least get a little caught up, not that it matters, since I'll take the weekend off again, so next week the running budget is going to constrain me.

Jean-Paul Hévin, Caracas

Cake came first, from Jean-Paul Hévin at Isetan: the "saisonnier" cake Caracas, which is a mild chocolate mousse in layers between vanilla and chocolate flavored biscuit, all coated in chocolate (ganache?). It was definitely excellent, but I have to stop short of calling it "great", especially next to their Mont-Blanc. Sadly, they aren't doing a different special "Mont" every month this year, but of course the regular Mont-Blanc is great anyway and is hard to resist when it is around. Still two more seasonal cakes to try at Isetan and one at the Marunouchi chocolate bar, although that one has coffee, so I'll save that one for last. Now if I could only get to Kyoto, where they have several interesting things, although Isetan also has an interesting mousse selection that I might try as eat in.

I should also mention that I went toTokyo Midtown Henri le Roux the day before, and the exclusive eat-in-only cake I thought I saw a sign for just 12 days before was already gone, so instead I had a repeat of the great chocolate cake, a good cup of Chocolat Chaud, and part of a chocolate crepe that was good, but I don't really need either crepe or the ice cream that comes with it. Never saw any information about that cake on line, so I guess I have to just stop by now and then and see what's going on over there if I ever want something like that. Something to do when I want to take a day off cake but am willing to be tempted.

Running was simply down to Meiji Jingu Gaien and two laps alternating between about 200 meters and 300 meters at 8 and 10 km/h, respectively, for a total of 1.525 km at the higher speed. It was a little difficult due to police at one entrance (that is often used) and a lot of people with cameras at the south end (which has been crowded all week), which I put down to leftovers from the Design Week event, but did not explain why there were photographers on step ladders at the 100 m mark. I assumed some celebrity was still inside and people were trying to get pictures of them, but I found out from the news later that the couple of firetrucks with the police were due to a tragedy involving an exhibit that burned, taking the life of a 5 year-old child. Sorry for the grim report, but tragedy comes from anywhere and affects us in unexpected ways, which we should be prepared for as best we can.

Henri le Roux (Tokyo Midtown): Kouign Amann Yuzu Matcha

Took a short run to Tokyo Midtown for the first time in a long while to visit the Henri Le Roux there, where they have kouign amann. Round trip, it's only about 6 km total, and was on the low side of 9 km/h (I don't count the vertical distance from using the pedestrian overpass twice, which is about 40 steps high). As the seasonal flavor, they just changed over to the Yuzu Matcha (powdered green tea). These are small but only 324 yen. This one was only okay. I might have gone with "good", but I was not fond of the green tea aftertaste. The yuzu was particularly detectable over the caramel taste. On the other hand, I count this as a pastry, so it does not penalize them as a great cake shop.

More importantly, I've been wrong about them: they do have cake at the Midtown store (although getting it before it sells out is a separate issue), which of course they do: they have an eat-in space. This evening, they only had one cake left around 19:30, but I should have noticed before that they have cake (the hard part is not noticing, it's retaining any memory after running). The more important information for me is they have a supposedly exclusive cake there that is only available as eat in (and is 900+ yen), so I'll definitely go back. I was planning to go to Midtown for dining over the next holiday weekend already, but I'm going to want to change the target now to them.

Tomorrow is baking, although it might just be canele to free up some eggs whites, though really I want brownies: too many competing recipes.

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.

Dalloyau, Mont Blanc

Somewhat as planned (at least the route was right on), I went to Kappabashi and bought some cake making things, Silikomart silicon forms for canele and 4 cm cylinders (I really just needed fairly shallow disks, but I'm hoping these will work close enough). The shop is already cheap, and they were on sale. Forgot to look for macaron cases (the same company makes them, although they probably don't import them, since they aren't on Amazon, where I got my mini canele Silikomart one). Only about 20 km cycling today, but got soaked (should have waited an hour). More rain tomorrow after noon, so maybe I'll wait for the afternoon to run to the Marunouchi/Ginza area, with Viron my main aim.

Next was to Mitsukoshi, where I picked up some coating chocolate and a couple 6 cm d, 3 cm h cake rings. While I was there, I got the Dalloyau Mont Blanc (and forgot to get my card stamped, I just realized). The chestnut is more the familiar flavor than the special seasonal one I posted on before, although still very mild. It's very buttery, so maybe a chestnut butter cream is what they work with. Still, excellent, although someone who wants a stronger chestnut flavor might not think so.

Dalloyau: Tarte a la Myrtille

Walked and ran to Ginza, this time by the long preferred way, so the total trip was almost 12 km. Walked down to Meiji Gaien track and then ran, apparently really slowly (6 km/h) at least on average with the hill past Akasakamitsuke, until the rain made me pull out my umbrella and I walked to and along the Moat course to the Sakuradamon Station entrance and then ran again, this time 7 km/h average, to Dalloyau (this time I took a picture from the front entrance),



where I got Tarte a la Myrtille for 594 yen, I think. Sorry, it's facing backward, but I didn't trust myself to get it turned around without wrecking it.

Went to the park by the overpass rather than wait for Hibiya Park. It's better lit, but someone lit up a cigarette near me just after I finished my cake, so the location has it's good and bad points. The blueberry tart was, I'll say generously, excellent. This is a solid butter tart (I imagine) base. The nice thing about blueberries is that they are not overpowering. I haven't had the strawberry one yet, and I'm worried that might be too much strawberry for me. I would have gotten the regular Mont-Blanc maybe, but it was sold out (though they had the pricier seasonal one with Wakayama chestnuts that I posted about before).

Coming back, even though I was not sure of my distances, I knew I was going slow, so I worked in a little more running (1.5 km), again averaging 7 km/h (no steep hills), before walking the rest of the way home. It's good to expand my running distance, but I'd like to at least do it at a faster speed than my walking, so I'll try to step it up tomorrow night.

Au Bon Vieux Temps: Marjolaine

Did a round trip to Au Bon Vieux Temps in Oyamadai (well, Todoroki, actually, but the nearest station is Oyamadai Station, also in Todoroki but next to Oyamadai, so let's go by that): 25 km. Kept up a good pace, definitely 6+ km/h and not that much slower coming back. Happily, my feet didn't turn red, unlike the big walk last Thursday, so I did something right. Not so sure about my knees yet, crossing my fingers, but I plan to rest tomorrow anyway.

Got the Marjolaine, for, I forget how much, around 500 yen, anyway. 496 yen? They keep their regular individual cakes small, more than do the big international brands, not high priced, unlike their frozen deserts. This was a great cake, and the best Marjolaine that I've had, I think. Not sure whether they made Japonaisemasse as the biscuit, as it is not baked that dark, but it's hazelnut dark and tastes right. They went with powered sugar on top and included a layer nut slivers in the creme praline. The ganache layer is pretty thin, but seems a good choice for keeping the chocolate from taking over from the praline.

Finally, a near-great shop lives up to its designation, so I'll give it a new color on the map and mark it and other ones as such when it's convenient. Not sure when I'll get back to this shop, as it's a good distance, but if the weather ever clears up (typhoons keep bring in rain), I can take the bicycle out for more trips to these farther ones.

Dalloyau: Nakayama Chestnut Mont-Blanc

I must confess, that I had some pain from the previous run, which was only 2 km, but with 20+ km of walking. So I should limit how fast I ramp up my running and even my total. Even taking two days off, I felt at some point a little bit of the same soreness in my knee today, when I walked 8.7 km (I've decided to quit timing walking since I've moved on to worrying about my running), and 4 km of running averaging 7.6 km/h, which may be too much/fast at this point.

For cake, I did the rounds around the Tokyo Station, more than I needed too. First I went to
Echiré Maison du Beurre, which had 20 people in line, and then to Le R. Cinq, despite it being closed on weekends, as clearly noted on my own map. So I just went to Dalloyau (but stopping to check Frédéric Cassel) and got the seasonal Nakayama Chestnut Mont-Blanc, which was 702 yen.

This was a mild, creamy chestnut paste; in the center was a layer of sponge cake (like the base), which I was not expecting. Still, it was excellent, I suppose, even if the result is rather standard tasting as cake, although not of mont blancs.

This bird was posing so much in Hibiya Park, that I had to take a picture.

Running and walking: Jean-Paul Hévin, Tonka

And, finally, I did some running again (well, I jogged a little down a slope last Wednesday, just because it was so steep that it was too hard to walk). Had some business around Shinjuku Station, so stopped at Jean-Paul Hévin at Isetan for Tonka. No seasonal cake: I need to check the homepage. Or, maybe like Frédéric Cassel, they don't do some specials at the beginning of the week. Tonka was the last regular cake at that shop, although I need to get back to the Marunouchi shop.

Total, I only did about 3.7 km, using the Meiji Jingu Gaien for one and a quarter laps. There was some slow (0.3 km) 5 km/h walking (I'm guessing, since I messed up the timing), 2 km at 6 km/h, 0.4 at 7 km/h, and 0.3 at 8 km/h. In the middle, I jogged 0.7 km at 7 km/h; so I learned I can walk faster than I thought and jog slower than I thought. I'm counting jogging double, since it's a lot more stressful, so I won't be converting to 60 km of jogging a week so soon, but my budget should still allow 5.4 km tomorrow, jogging slowly about 1.7 km of it, and 24 km of walking Thursday at 6 km/h while still  leaving some budget for the weekend. Last weekend was pretty irregular, so I need to smooth the lumps out, which means I might not be so strict about following the budget. Now I'm actually still lower for the last 7 days than the previous 7 days, whereas I'm allowing a 10% increase per week (generously including the current normal non-recreational walking in that budget, which has been getting faster as I recover), so if I suddenly get to 120% of one week ago, it's not a crisis. Maybe I should smooth over a longer period in calculating.

Cake! Cake was the Tonka (chocolate mousse and biscuit harmonized with tonka bean), as I said, which is just under 700 yen. It was great! I really love chocolate, I guess, so Jean-Paul Hévin always rates far above other shops with me, to the extent that I should just call them "Top".

Ginza walk: Dalloyau, Narutokintoki Murasaki Tart

Been a while. I was confirming that Tokyo is the best place for cake. Did some long slow walking there (16.6 at about 4.5 km/h), but today the first half averaged above 6.5 km/h. I'm going to drop keeping track of half-kilometers/hour speeds at the next update of my chart to track my running budget, probably when my average exceeds 6.5 km/h in general for a total of 9.2 km both ways (skipping a lot of shopping walking).

Frédéric Cassel's last announced special (not the monthly) was not visible there at 5 pm on Monday. I suspect that normal specials only past until Sunday or they run out of ingredients, not sure which. Anyway, Aux Bacchanales is close and is the highest priority of the near-greats that I'm going to set (because I've only blogged 4 cakes), so I thought I'd get a head start on catching them up, but it turns out they gave up on patisserie stuff in June. Too bad, because they had a couple cakes I really liked. Ended up going back to Dalloyau and got the Nautokintoki Muraski Tart, which is a seasonal sweet potato tart for 324 yen. I don't think Nautokintoki is normally purple and there were non-purple chunks inside, so I suspect the purple part is normal Japanese sweet potato, not the Narutokintoki. It's nice for a change and as sweet potato tarts go, I'll say it's excellent.

Dalloyau: Architexture

Walked fast (6 km/h) to Ginza (5.5 km) Dalloyau (photo of the back street entrance)

for Architexture (594 yen), 

which is a mousse dome with the usual vanilla cream center, I think, but the chocolate is flavored with tonka bean, which I wasn't sure of, but was fine as a different flavor (it's a normal thing with chocolate, but not my favorite, though my experience is shallow). It was perhaps excellent, meaning I would enjoy having it again, but don't have a particular aim to.

Walking back was a little slower (for one thing, because it's the uphill direction), at 5.5 km/h. It's about time I raised my speed, but I'm out of practice. I should warm up and then do intervals instead. Not sure whether I'll get out Wednesday night or where I'd go, but I have some time Thursday morning, so if I got then, I'll try going to Le R Cinq, which opens at 8 am, but might only have baked things then. Thinking of shooting for 9 am.

Walking to Dalloyau: La Pomme

Another walk to Dalloyau in Ginza. Was going faster today, which means I can't increase my distance as much/fast this week. Basically, the first couple kilometers were 6 km/h, the middle 6.5 km were 5.5 km/h, and the last couple kilometers were 5 km/h, I think (and the rain was starting).

Got La Pomme for about 600 yen, which is apple, of course. It's a dome, I think mascarpone cheese based, but it's so humid that the display case was too steamed up to read much through the glass very quickly. The outer gelatin is fairly thin, then the main white dome, like the flesh of an apple, so probably some apple juice in there (I remember reading enough to see a mention of apple juice). Certainly, the taste of the outer parts was a mild apple taste not unlike a real apple. Then, in the middle is some filling which is sort of apple sauce like (well, puree then, I guess), but solid/dry enough not to run when cut into. It was definitely good, but I didn't decide that I could call it excellent until the end. Some of the reason of "excellent" is just giving a great shop the benefit of the doubt, but as an apple cake, it was definitely one of the best I've had, I enjoyed it, and I wouldn't mind having it again, although I'm okay with not having it again.

Jean-Paul Hévin bar(re) in Marunouchi: Goutte d'Or and Aquitaine

Did a café-ish stop. This is the casual budget version of the chocolate bar in Isetan Salone Men's, which I scoped out last week. It's sort of hidden, Google might help you find it, but it currently doesn't identify Isetan correctly and assuming that you come to the correct block, the signs outside telling you and dozen shops and restaurants inside include neither, because they are only for the ones you can get too after you enter the main interior hall, not the ones that have only their own street entrances. As I read on someone's post and observed yesterday, never became full over the almost hour we hung out there (there aren't really that many customers to justify the Isetan shop, either; maybe it's temporary until the building across the street goes up, though huge skyscrapers take some time, I would imagine).

They have only a small selection of the chocolate drinks and they come in paper cups, but at about half the price (and they have coffee). Also, just a few cakes, but almost all not at the main Isetan. I got one advertised on their web site as an exclusive, the Goutte d'or, which is almond I though I read (the good thing is hollow chocolate with sugar inside), but the website points out star anise and sesame as accents, which I have reason to doubt. The other cake was Aquitaine, which has cheese (and maybe it has almond, since there's some nut on top), which might be a first for me from JPH. These were each 640. Both were excellent. Neither was especially exciting, but they were both interestingly different from other cakes I've had. Besides the different themes, the Goutte d'or was a fairly hard drier cake (not sure were the glare in the middle came from: must be reflecting off the camera)

and the cheese one was soft (sorry, it's upside down; actually, they put both on their sides, though that is reasonable, even if they don't display them that way in the case).

There were a couple other cakes there that I haven't had yet, but there are a couple seasonal ones at Isetan that ' haven't had either. Decisions, decisions.  

Saturday: Frédéric Cassel: Tarte Ruby Roman and Mille Feuille Vanillle

Walked to Ginza, 1 km at 5.5 km/h and 4 km at 5 km/h. Went to Frédéric Cassel and could get both the Tarte Ruby Roman (there just thru Monday for a Ginza Mitsukoshi fair) for 1080 yen and their frequent sell-out Mille Feuille Vanillle (I certainly have not seen it recently at night, if ever before) for the usual 777 yen.

Ruby Roman is, or at least was, the most expensive grape in the world. Certainly, the tart was excellent and interesting for a fruit tart. I didn't realize that it was grape when I bought it, thinking this was some strange kind of chestnut.

The mille feuille was also excellent, and really big, for example, compared to their special "inspiration" Mexican vanilla finger mille feuille. Like that one, though, this is vanilla cream but not a custard. Since I'm tired of custard at the moment, I was fine with that.

Walking to Frédéric Cassel, macarons

Walked to Frédéric Cassel, again in on again off again typhoon rain (tail end, or maybe the next typhoon). My goal was their vanilla mille feuille just mentioned on the website (not the seasonal "inspiration" finger version), or macarons if not. I was so focused on that, that I missed that they actually had another cake I could have gotten until after ordering one each of Macaron Vanille and Macaron Chocolat for 260 yen each. Now, I'm too used to my chewy homemade ones (probably I should bake them less, but I'm still working on other problems to spend time experimenting with that), so while these soft ones were good, I'd rather get chocolates there next, if I don't get cake.

On the walking side, I did 10 km, with the first at 6 km/h and then the rest at my target 5 km/h (distance over speed).

The cake I didn't get was over 1000 yen though, for a single-serving-sized "ruby" chestnut tartlet, which requires mental preparation. I think I'm there now, but I wouldn't have wanted to carry it home walking in the rain, and I'd rather share it.

Paris S'éveille: Éclair Printanier and Bombe Amande au Citron

Some recent leg pain seems to be from a new stretch, which I  been doing morning and night. When I did it at noon, I realized it's effect. So (i) I can stretch the part that hurts, which is good (the stretching, not the hurting); (ii) I should do it less strongly.

Today did about 13 km at 5.5 km/h to Paris S'éveille and got an Éclair Printanier (spring eclair) for 630 yen and a Bombe Amande au Citron (lemon almond bomb) for 450 yen. (I also got a Bostock from fraoula on the way, still the best I know, because they caramelize the bottom.)

The éclair is chocolate custard with liquor-soaked cherries under pistachio cream. I'm still not into cherries but the liquor flavor balanced them out as far as meeting the general excellentness of this cake. Also, I'll say it was interesting because I haven't had that many éclairs.

The pastry is in a crust but is mainly non-sponge almond cake, flavored with lemon and also a little raspberry on the bottom. Sugar-glazed. Definitely bomb-like in being heavy, but excellent.

Miss-framed the photo of the shop again. Have to try again next week.

Paris S'éveille: Tarte aux Fruits Noir and Pont Neuf

Walked to Paris S'éveille, as planned, averaging almost exactly 6 km/h. Coming back was slower, but still closer to 6 km/h than 5 km/h. Next exercise plan is go to track and try a kilometer at 7 km/h again.

At Paris S'éveille got one "fresh cake", the Tarte aux Fruits Noir for 600 yen, and one "pastry" (my terms) , the Pont Neuf for 450 yen. Both of these are good, but nothing special that I would want them again.

The picture of the tarte didn't work out, but came out super bright, as it tried to use the really dark fruit as a light reference maybe. It was blackberries and a dark blueberry or something similar on a custard tart. Good fruit, but I want cake and the tart doesn't really add anything (I'd rather eat each alone). This was the "Chef"'s (their term) recommendation, or I would have gone for the pistachio eclair. One more not-excellent cake before a great one and I'd have to demote them, and the other unsampled cake is another fruit tart. However, I've left out the Fondant, which I count as fresh cake (although it has a separate display) and I'm optimistic about.

The Pont Neuf is a standard type that I see around patisseries but have never tried before. It's sort of a butter tart with a baked custard dome (not solid custard, but more like the inside of a canele). Also, there was a lump of fruit baked inside the bottom, maybe apricot, as well as some fruity (?) glaze.

Photos of the shop were also poor, so instead I got one of the entrance to a shrine that is an official sightseeing point in Meguro District (#55) that I've often seen the edge of just off my main route but not the entrance. Now that I've found it, sometime I'll actually go in to see the old trees and statues.

Friday night, Dalloyau: Vanille Fraise

Walked 6 km/h for 6 km (so, the long but nice way) for a Vanille Fraise from Dalloyau, vanilla cream and strawberry compote combined with white chocolate (there's a thin square visible in the middle) sandwiched between between pink dacquoise, for 594 yen.

As usual, leg tendon was a little sore from previous walk, tried not to over-do it, walked back slower, again avoiding straining, and seemed okay but a little sore the next day (but no burning).

Park still crowded with zombies, but got a better seat. This was excellent. More something I would want for someone else than myself, but a really nice strawberry flavor that I don't get too often. The dacquoise was soft enough to cut with a spoon without the cream completely squirting out, though a little dangerous eating without a plate.

Frédéric Cassel: Tarte Vanille Ghana

Walked too much, although was trying to be good: 1 km at 7 km/h, which was semi-intentional, and then I lowered the next kilometer to 6 km/h; the rest was supposed to be 5 km/h, but really hard to make myself go that slow so another 2.5 at same speed it turns out, after which I stopped timing. Could feel discomfort on the way back, so probably did do 5 km/h then, which, along with a really hot bath (someone likes 43 degC and now I'm used to it, but only soaking about 5 min), maybe fixed things. We'll see tomorrow what the damage is.

Goal was Frédéric Cassel at Ginza Mitsukoshi, where I had unreasonable expectations for Tarte Vanille Ghana, for 648 yen. The web description oversells it, but these mascarpone cheese tarts are really mild, whereas I like my vanilla intense. Still, definitely good and probably excellent, but I'm going to get tired of these minor variations.

Ate in Hibiya Park, which must be a Pokemon Go spot, because there were 50 to 100 times more people than last time, thus the well-lit bench was not available..