Ryoura: Soyeux

As planned, I got a fifth Ryoura cake via Dean & Deluca at Tokyo Midtown. Of course, there was not much selection and I'm not sure home much it varies from week to week. Basically, they had three desserts from this shop, one cake that I've had before, one in a glass, and the one I got, Soyeux. On the one hand, it was pistachio. On the other hand, after pistachio mousseline (though fairly solid), it listed cherry gelatin, two things I don't want in my cake. But further on, actually there is some chocolate inside which smooths out the cherry and harmonizes with the pistachio. Also, the bottom is meringue, but a very powdery almond meringue that crumbles fairly easily; I haven't seen this kind of meringue before. Mostly reflecting my appreciation for good pistachio (though I've had plenty of bad pistachio cakes, especially with cherries), this was great.

I've been avoiding promoting shops recently, but two great cakes out of five puts this one at the top of the next higher category by one measure (but I apply a two-measure system, so not necessarily the actual top), so I'm designating it Quite Excellent. There was an opening even without demoting any suspended shops in that category, so no general shake up. That's a second great cake this week and the second shop (beside Yanagi) to get promoted. I've had good luck recently.

Cycling to La Rose des Japonais: Pixy

As promised, I did not run, but I did go to a high-priority patisserie, La Rose des Japonais, that I had written "very good" on their card so I wanted to check out how they fell in terms of my current evaluations. It's a long trip, but because of my knee (and poor bicycle), I was not going fast. It took about half the time as running, which is about the best I can do, with everything factored in. Still, halfway there, I was wondering whether I was making a mistake, as the trouble spot (tendon, I think, under and on the outside of the left knee) starting tingling, but it never got very sensitive and didn't bother me on the way back (which may just been it was numbed, although it never really hurt).

I got their top cake, the Pixy, for 561 yen. It's pistachio nut mouse on the outside (also, some sort of nut clusters and a strawberry, both good) and custard (?) mixed with tiny pieces of strawberry and a thin layer of strawberry gelatin on the inside. The strawberry flavor, when I get to the custardy part, reminded me of pie or a flaky-crust tart filling, which is okay but not usually what I'm looking for. It was definitely good and might be excellent under the right conditions and for the right person. So I'll mark this shop as probably good on the map (and fix the shop name spelling) and not feel a need to visit again soon.

However, I still want to do the nearby Tokyo History and Culture Course, so I'll probably stop in and get something there, but I've plotted out a 60 km course (which crashed the map, so I just have to remember it for now) that would swing me back around west far enough to visit a possibly excellent to great shop, so I'll probably go for a pastry at La Rose des Japonais, if they have something of that sort--I can't remember.

47.5 km with Nishiarai-Takenotsuka History and Culture course and P. L'Automne

Rain in the morning, so I waited an hour before it at least was thin enough that I could not see the splashes in the street and someone was not bothering with an umbrella. It still rained light for a few hours.

Had an okay run. Went very slow the whole way, which was 47.5 km. I was very tempted (after 4 hours running) and willing to extend the run to go back to L'Abricotier, since they are a top priority in a sense and I would just have to change where I turned to go by them, but I finally talked myself down into sticking with the plan. Left knee was not happy most of the time, but doesn't seem any worse and I don't feel anything when I'm not running (when I rested for a little, it felt completely fine and didn't really get more than annoying for the whole run). I'll try more complete rest for 48+ h and taking anti-inflammatories for the next could days and see if things go any better.

Still trying to figure out my next run. I'm busy on the weekend, so I'm taking a Monday off (also, to catch up on shopping, sleep, laundry, or whatever I'm low on after being busy). If I did them in order, after this one should be Shimabata H&C course, but that one goes by La Rose Des Japanais, which is a far shop I really want to get back to but is closed Mondays. Instead, maybe, I'll jump ahead to Sunamachi-Kasai-Mizue, which is less far but long. Originally, I planned to visit a shop I remember as being good but haven't posted on, but then the run would be little long for my next run, if I try to keep my increases to 10%, so I think I'll skip that cake shop, which is not a high priority and not so far by itself. I can pick up cake when I come back through Ginza or go by Isetan later. With that shop out, I save 3 km. Of course, then I'll have to think once again about how to increase Shimabata H&C course run, which I already added visits to Chiba and Saitama prefectures to stretch it to 49 km.

Today's target, the Nishiarai-Takenotsuka History and Culture course, comprises the Shimane-Rokugatsu Temple Tour Walk and the Ikou Temple Town Walk (according to my translation of the Japanese names), as shown on my map and is just over 7 km by my calculation. It's okay. There are few nice temples to go by and much of the last bit is on a stone paved sidewalk along an artificial irrigation channel (which sounds better than drainage ditch). I don't really need to come back up here, though, probably, but I haven't planned that far ahead.

The cake was at L'Automne, which I remembers as good without really evaluating it here. It's a nice shop, spacious, modern, and elegant. There are three two-person tables for eating in, which I did, and they didn't make me buy a drink (milk or yogurt would be great, but I think they just had tea and coffee), though had some reasonable cake and drink specials. I stuck to just the one cake, though. Not sure how that works out for them. They have to wash dishes, but save a box and bag. The custard and fruit was a nice touch, but the glass of water was more important. The cake is call Collage, for 540 yen, and is a thick layer of chocolate mousse, a medium layer of pistachio mouse, and a thin layer of raspberry between, covered in chocolate with a crunchy nut base. And it was definitely good. The raspberry is gelatin, but the mousses are without I think, or at least I remember being told that about their cakes on another day when I said it would take 2 h to take some mousse cake back home (back when I was doing long walks). Everything was good, and sometimes chocolate mousse is not for me, so I'm actually satisfied (it was better than today's Seven-Eleven donut, which was a Sweet Cream Donut, I think), but there was not really anything to make it excellent. Still, they're nice, so I'll look forward to getting back there some time.

Ran out to potentially great shop Yu Sasage. I should probably mark this route (and routes for other main destinations), since it is a pretty good route and this shops seems like it at least is going to end up as an excellent shop. Most of the run is along Tokyo City Road 431 Tsunohazuiisumi-town Line, which is also an old water transport road. Lots of parks. From the end, at Inogashira Road, you can pick of a park route that crosses the train line and puts you in front of Meiji University. Passing that and the neighboring temple complex, you can get back a on a series of linear parks and parallel roads that runs parallel to the main highway (4) all the way to where 20 splits off. At the split I took 20 (after Ring Road 8, you can take a local road, but I remembered that it's pretty crowded for running, so I took the longer route) to the light just west of Yu Sasage before cutting south and then back a block for Yu Sasage. It's about 12.6 km and I managed a moderate pace. I was slow coming back (although I might have managed moderate but for the congestion around Shinjuku Station) a slightly longer 12.75 km route, due to staying on the park on the east side of Meiji University too long (although knowing that there is a relatively big public toilet building there, is good, as the main strip park on the other side has just one more limited one).

That gives me a 2-day distance of 51.5 km, which might be the most I've done post-injury, so more than I probably should have done after a training break for a cold (which my left knee was quite willing to tell me fairly early on, although I slowed down and kept it under control). The 4-to-7-day distance then is 63.3 km, which doesn't leave me a lot for the next 3 days in my 7-day running budget of 85 km (which I can raise to 95 km after Wednesday). Of course, I could just rest tomorrow, but it's a holiday (for the Spring Equinox), so I'd like to get out. Perhaps I'll take the bicycle to Jiyugaoka, for Paris S'éveille (which I can run to during the week, theoretically, but is a little tough and uses a lot of kilometers) and maybe Cuoca, although in the latter case, I should check Mitsukoshi first, which is in the opposite direction.

But to the cake, that being a main theme. I didn't prepare my camera, but the phone camera worked reasonably okay, even if I can't see the image on the screen well enough when I'm taking the picture. The cake is the Sicilienne, which was introduced in December (on their Facebook page, anyway) and is 500 yen. Outside, is pistachio mousse (with maybe pistachio cream on top, along with pistachios and a cherry), and cherry mousse and gel inside. Something that sounds like "Fond du Roche" adds crunch, but I can't find a Japanese phonetic French to actual French translation. The cake looks like it might be gelatinous, but actually, at least for me, the outside was more like a thick sauce than gelatin, and covered an airy pistachio mousse. The taste and test was excellent. I could say that this was great, but I don't really like cherry so much in my cake, so I'm going to have to hold back with excellent, even if it seems perfect for what it is.

15 km to Origines Cacao: Alicante

It turns out that it takes about 45 minutes to get to the Nihonbashi Takashimaya, which is 15 minutes less than I left myself, but I could still get in and look around enough to see that they did not have what I wanted at the Au bon Vieux Temps counter (I wanted sauces, but they seem to just have cookies). Next I went to Origines Cacao, where I expect them to be sold out, but they weren't. Fortunately, although I didn't remember, I didn't get the thing that I had already gotten there (although that had been great), but instead got the Alicante (I think the Roman spelling is correct) for 550 yen, which is pistachio mousse around chocolate cream (again, I think; I'll need to go back and confirm; it seemed rather nutty). Really great cake. I've got to go there more, even if it is small and inconvenient. I managed to reach the 105 min mark before sitting down to eat it (I was out for 2 hours, although there were the usual stoplights and stops for shopping). Today, of course, Libertable had Zennith, but I already had my great cake, so no problem.