The Ritz-Carlton Café and Deli, Caramelia Pineapple Hazelnut

Ran down to the renovated The Ritz-Carlton Café and Deli for a third cake, working in some 1-min dashing spurts. They don't seem to have pastries and bread any more and very modern looking (and dark). It looks nice. As my third cake, I went with the Caramelia Pineapple Hazelnut, whose name speaks for itself. I walked it back. It was definitely a good cake, but that's not enough to keep me trying there, so this shop gets shifted to the fine shop category. Only one more 2-cake shop in the quite fine group, which I've at least gotten down below 48, even if no where near the target 32 shops.

Pascal Le Gac, Tarte Chocolat

Was late getting started, but ran down to Pascal Le Gac for a third cake. On the way there and back, I successfully ran three loops of my neighborhood running course, completing the (trivial, in terms of knowledge) Moto-Akazaka west loop (Akasaka Palace running course). I was getting a third cake from this shop and choose the Tarte Chocolat. This is definitely excellent, for a chocolate lover, so this shop stays in the still crowded quite fine shop group. The negative point is this tart is tiny, so a bit pricy for cake, but if you consider what bonbon chocolates cost, not unreasonable. Still two more two-cake quite fine shops to go, so I should finish them off around mid-September.

Y par Potager, Komatsuna and Moringa Cheesecake

Working through the 2-cake quite fine shop list, I got to the last of the non-workday ones, Y par Potager (at the Nakameguro location, formerly Potager, though now in a new looking school). It's hot to run during the day, so I went by bicycle, which also allowed me to check a couple sites on the way to looking in on BE and DA to check lineups for great cakes (without any luck).

Since it was recommend out front, I went with the Komatsuna and Moringa Cheesecake at Y par Potager. Komatsuna is Japanese mustard spinach and moringa is a "superfood", though it's a tree, so I'm not sure what part they used, the leaves or the pods. It's not really suitable for Japan, since it prefers try soil. The cheesecake tasted like good cheese cake flavored with greens. Nothing wrong with that, but not something I particular need to look for, as I prefer sweets. The label shown indicates under 5 g carbs. So this shop gets banish to the fine list, probably never to be visited again. Three more 2-cake shops from the quite fine list to go.

In the late afternoon/evening, I went down to the area south of Roppongi Hills stretching down past Hiroo Station. For the main target, the Nishi-Azabu--Minami-Azabu loop, I failed again at the same second traffic signal bypass (although that bypass also serves to pass the entrance of Amida-ji, which is on a narrow lane). I kept going anyway and feel a lot more confident about the rest of the loop now. On the way, I tried two loops to the east of it and was able to do both of them correctly. The only problem is, reviewing the maps, the first one left out a temple, and looking for a way to correct that loop, I also found a church I had missed, so I'm moving the section with those sites over to a different loop. At least the Moto-Azabu south loop seems stable, and I was able to do clockwise without getting sucked into a dead end. I failed the Roppongi 6 north loop clockwise (wasn't sure how far south I needed to go after where I use a crosswalk to get over a major street), but at least the Roppongi 4 loop is finished, all 243 m of it.

Pierre Marcolini, Éclair Vanille

Thursday, I did a lot of food shopping errands, starting with visiting Pierre Marcolini, which had four éclairs I haven't tried. Since it will probably be a long time before I'm back and finding something great that's about to disappear would be less useful, I went with one of the two standards rather than the seasonal ones, and got Éclair Vanille. The filling is vanilla, but obviously there is some red fruit on top. This is one of the quite fine shops that I've only had two cakes from and I decided that this éclair was excellent, so they stay on that list. This is despite the crust not seeming to be the traditional choux pastry, but was rather soft. Maybe I'm influenced by the high-end atmosphere, but in any case, this remains as some place that I would like to visit again. Actually, I'd like to visit the salon and get one of their salon deserts, but like the éclairs, everything is about double what you would except from an ordinary shop, though they are not trying to be ordinary. I think eventually I'll do it, but it might not be until October. Interesting trivia: if you pay by cash, they round down to multiples of 10 yen.

I'll include Friday here, since no food is involved: I went for a long run that took about 3 hours, though I walked on stairs and crowded places, so maybe close to 2 hours actual running. The balance was good, and I was still running well at the end and am ready to run again on Saturday, though there was a lot of stretching between. Back to the trivial details for Friday. I did the recently altered Jinguumae--Kita-Aoyama south loop counterclockwise, so that route is confirmed. The main goal was to do counterclockwise the Daikanyama-chou--Ebisunishi--hachiyama-chou--Nanapeidai-chou--Shibuya--Uguisudani-chou loop, which is 9.75 km long and has a lot of stairs and slopes (as well as churches as sites). Along the way, I first confirmed the current (until the construction on the southeast corner is finished) updated Dougenzaka south loop (1.1 km), but later failed trying to do the Maruyama-chou--Shinsen-chou loop (I did the first turn at the correct intersection, but onto the wrong street (it's a five-way intersection). I didn't try to do connecting Dougenzaka north loop. I'm going to call the main Daikanyama... loop a success. Actually, I turned early at the end, but it was dark and a long run and I could immediately see that it was wrong (and the reason for not turning there is not that important), so I'm not going to ding myself for it, or I can never do long runs in the dark. So I'm done with that area for now, and I'll move over to in front of and south of Roppongi Hills for the run Saturday afternoon, where I've really only run a little bit, though I've previously done runs to officially add those loops to the neighborhood course, while consulting a map.

Mandarin Oriental Gourmet Shop, Mango Short Cake and Tart Lemon

Sunday, I was busy, but I got a chance to do cake for two at Mandarin Oriental Tokyo Gourmet Shop, which was on the list of shops to get third cakes from. Actually, I got two cakes of course. There was not a big selection left at a little bit before 5 pm on a Sunday, so I recommend going earlier (there was also some sort of glass desert and a coffee desert), but we could get the last Mango Short Cake and the Tart Lemon, both at hotel café prices.
We would have rather eaten inside, due to the heat, but having stopped walking and purchased iced tea, it was actually fine at an outside table. Both cakes were good, although difficult to eat (big pieces of mango don't cut easily and the tart was designed for looks), but not any more than that. It's a fine shop, but this will probably be my last visit. Only five shops to visit, and I might get to two over the next week, if plans go as expected.

I didn't actually run on Monday but instead did a fuller upper body workout than I've done for a long time. The next few days will probably also keep me from doing runs on the neighborhood course, but even if I do indoors again on Friday, Saturday evening I should be able to hit the neighborhood loops from last Saturday again. I need considerable running to burn off this weekend (extended to Monday), so maybe I'll fit in some extra running on a smaller or more convenient loop, like around Akasaka Palace to Jinguumae--Kita-Aoyama.

Vincennes, Délice au Cassis

Working through a list of cakes I want a third cake from, I finally got to Vincennes out in Meguro-ku, when I went to by bicycle, taking a break from running and doing my short indoor workout. I got Délice au Cassis, which is almond biscuit with some cassis butter cream (?), and some "raw" chocolate on top. It's a nice little cake from a nice little shop, for a nice price, and was good. Don't imagine that I'll need a fourth cake, but I respect them, even if I search for fancier things.

Lenôtre, Plaisir

Was busy Sunday and most of Monday, but Monday afternoon went to Jean-Paul Hévin, since the cake I wanted from Sadaharu Aoki was sold out at Marunouchi and I needed someplace for two to test. We got hot Chocolate (Chocolat Chaud Mangue and Viennois), which is relatively cheap there, and two macarons, Frambois'in (not sure what the "'in" concatenates from) and Mésange. The first hot chocolate is mango, obvious, and wasn't anything special, though good of course, and the second is whipped cream, which also was nothing special but good. I liked the Macaron Mésange most. This is passion fruit and matcha and was excellent. The Frambois'in was raspberry and Venezuelan chocolate and was good but not exciting.

I hadn't had cake Sunday and I was already at Yuuraku-cho, so I got a third cake from Lenôtre, Plaisir, which seems like a Saint-Marc from the components (milk chocolate and vanilla mousse), but isn't. For running, I ran down to Akasaka again (like Saturday morning) and tried to do the revised Akasaka loop that split off all the stuff south of Roppongi-Doori, and a little on the Akasaka 2 side and I was successful, but realized afterward that I didn't like that the route doubled back where it could have gone around the block, so it was a failure of route making. I finish practicing Akasaka 4, doing it counterclockwise, and did the new Akasaka 3 east loop clockwise, so I had to be satisfied with that.

Plaisir is nice and well made, but definitely not a Saint-Marc and ultimately, though it's definitely good, I can't rate it higher, as it's just not that exciting. Still, with two great cakes before this, Lenôtre easily is a top the quite fine category and is challenging the quite exceptional one, so I'll be back there again early next week, regardless. Also, I need to find another great cake, quick, but I should get to that later as I catch up with this week.

Tadashi Yanagi, La Deux Chocolat

Monday, they told me my arm was not broken (no surprise) and otherwise just gave me drugs and told me to come back to reception if I want more. Actually, I have the same leftover drugs from previous visits for other ailments. Doctors, often not very helpful, and/or sprains, not getting the respect that they should, or so I've heard, so I'm going to try to be careful even once the pain subsides.

In the evening, I went back to Tadashi Yanagi for a third cake, La Deux Chcolat (I'm interpreting). This is a brownie under chocolate mousse with orange (I think; they have dozen of cakes on their website, but not this one). I was not optimistic really. It has structural advantages, but a hard brownie (best as a cake base) is not really a good brownie, so I've yet to have this type of cake work out. It was still good, but that's all. With two excellent cakes and one good, Tadashi Yanagi seems to be quite good, and so three cakes is enough for at least a year.

En Vedette: Chocolat S

Since they seemed to be a quite good shop and were still at Isetan, I got a third cake from En Vedette, Chocolat S. Like yesterday, I tried to cycle hard without killing my knees, visiting Tokyo Midtown (to confirm which shops' cakes Dean & Deluca sells on Tuesdays) and then ending up going up and down Aoyama-dori, riding for 1 hour total. Next time I'll just wait for the light to change and ride where I want to.

The cake is chocolate cream above a chocolate cake base. It was excellent, at least if you appreciate good chocolate. This seems to be a Quite Good shop that might even be excellent, but under my current system it's practically impossible to get promoted out of Quite Good.

I should review the system, but I still haven't decided on a new computer yet and I'm running out of time with the loaner. Dell seems a likely choice, based on price.