Acacier at Isetan: tarte framboise joanes (updated)

This week's shop was Acacier, which is in Saitama Prefecture. If I run out of Tokyo places I want to go, I'll visit neighboring prefectures, as long as running in Tokyo is involved. It is their first day at Isetan, so they were half sold out of cake when I got there. I got the Tarte Framboise Joanes (golden raspberries). I need to check my camera settings and lighting, because they look pink, which the ones I saw on Saturday were not. This was 599 yen. The flavor is very mellow and the tart was excellent, although nothing stands out as special except the fruit, nor would I expect it to. It's a standard shell with custard and then whipped cream, perhaps, forming the dome on which to arrange the raspberries.

13.5 km to Origines Cacao (Shinbashi): Fraicheur

So, today (Tuesday) was the day is was not supposed to rain so much this week, which was pretty much true, although there was a little on the way out. I did 1 3/4 laps around Meiji Gingu Gaien, with 1 lap in 6:05, which beat my old best but involved a lot more foamy spit than I like in my runs, so I think I'll work on a different distance next week. I took the counterclockwise route around Akasaka Palace and continued along Aoyama Street until it connected up with the moat route. I joined the path there and continued until Hibiya Park and then turned south. I should have gone back the way I came (although then I would have had to run against the pack with cake, which you can, since there are always some people going the other way, but usually not runners). The problem with heading west first to head back to Akasakamitsuke is all the major cross streets. Fortunately, I have exercises to do while waiting. I stopped at Paul's at Yotsu Station for some bread for my diner and at the 100 yen shop for a few things. Of course, I continued jogging all the way.

The far point was the Shinbashi branch of Origines Cacao, which I had never been to and had forgotten about (I suppose I had noticed it on the card that I had gotten from the Jiyuugaoka branch, which is a little bigger and has a small bar/cafe area). They had all of two pieces of cake left at 8 pm. I got the one marked new, which was the Fraicheur (フレシェール) for 497 yen. It's an Earl Grey scented (?) white chocolate mousse flavored by a passion fruit and orange gelatin. I had low expectations, but it was extremely good, with a great balance of flavors and very rich. Great cake again from a great shop.

 

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).

Saturday (1st shop) 30 km to Patisserie Bigarreaux: Le plaisir, Citron, and Pithivier

Well, since I had put together almost 26 km in two runs last time, I had planned to run 28 km, but I have to add 1 km for not looking at the original map and 1 km because I missed a turn (I updated the map), so I suppose I should plan 32 km for next time and see whether I can stay on course.

I ate in the store, Patisserie Bigarreaux on Sazae-san (longest running television animated series) Street, so given how tired I was, as soon as they put them in front of me I dug in (but in small bites, dissecting). However, since I was still in the store, I could take pictures afterwards.

First is Le plaisir, which, as you can see from the card is 540 yen and has hazelnuts and orange and some caramel-type flavor mousse chocolat. It is just the kind of mousse, cream, and crunchy base that I like. I'll say great cake, knowing that this evaluation might have more to do with the kind of cake I like than whether it was actual well made, but that's just the way it has to be.

The citron (lemon) for 480 yen is a lighter sweeter cake with actual somewhat spongy cake and lemon icing/cream. Again, great cake. 

The Pithivier for 340 yen, which is an almond cream filled mini-pie/tart, did not work following the sweet lemon. It did not taste bad, just a little bitter, so I did not appreciate it. I assume that it's actually fine, normally.

Saturday (2nd shop), Maison de petit four: "vague"

I did reconnaissance for next week in the Oyamadai to Jiyuugaoka stretch and stopped in some great shops but found that I was satisfied enough that I didn't want to wait (they were all busy on a Saturday afternoon). However, I swung through Isetan on the way to the 100 yen shop to stock up on yogurt, bananas, tofu, and some cheap snacks because I realized that I had not checked on the visiting cake shop of the week, which was a new one to me, Maison de petit four. I got the vague (or that's what the name looks like to me and their website doesn't list the little cakes). By coincidence (because Tokyo is a really small city), I jogged right past it today without noticing it (I wasn't noticing a lot by that point) when I was jogging along the Nomikawa (a river). I had jogged only the end part of this before where the river is buried and it's just a trail with a narrow park down the middle, but this time I jogged most of it, probably as much as you want to bother. It seemed a good place to jog, without not too much difficulty continuing without major detours or waits for cross-traffic.

Anyway, it's obviously chocolate cake. Supposedly it has bittersweet chocolat ganache. My impression was that it was a little watery, an impression that I've had before with chocolate cake. I'm not sure what it signifies, since it is not literally wet. Maybe the cake is very low fat or something, so it lacks richness. I don't know if I'll give them a second chance: they've got three more days at Isetan. Too bad, because I don't know any other shops down in Ota-ku.

Korinky (コリンキー)

No running Thursday or Friday. Felt a little weird both days and anyway there's heavy rain on and off. There should be a window of not raining all the time Saturday. Also, no cake. Instead I tried to make meringue. That 90% failed and took a lot of time and exercise. I'll try again under ideal conditions (fresher egg whites, electric mixer, maybe I'll dehumidify the room).

Instead I put into record this thing, the korinky (not necessarily the official spelling):

As you can see, it looks like a squash, because it is a squash, related to the common Japanese pumpkin, kobocha (which is the same species as the giant pumpkin rather than the common variety). One source (and it's hard to find any: Wikipedia was no help in either language), says it was first recording in 2002. You can cook it, I think, but it's main feature is that you can eat it raw. Basically, it tastes like cucumber, so it can go a long way in salad. You don't have to peel it or seed it (although people probably do), just eat the whole thing besides the stem. It's pretty cheap too, as exotic produce goes, 200 yen at the local store and probably much cheaper in the region where they grow it.

Running slopes and stairs to Libertable: Crystal

The rain stopped most of the time and otherwise was not significantly different from the rain of sweat. Still, it was a late start due to work, so I had an excuse to not stray too far. I did my usual steepest slope loop near the Soka Gakkai campus/complex three times and did two and a half times around the pair of stairways at the nearby main neighbor shrine, and some other regular slopes before heading around Akasaka Palace and visiting Libertable again for the Crystal, which is a shu cream which is mostly hazelnut praline cream, which is different. For 388 yen, it is pretty reasonable and very good. It had been since Sunday that I had had a professionally made cake, so I would have bought the Zenith if they had had it, but this was still a good choice.

I also completed the rum banana tart and have to say, eh. I like bananas in my yogurt for breakfast, but I guess not otherwise. I've never had anything else with bananas where I appreciated them, just I had this tart recipe (from the cookbook that came with my oven) and wanted to try it. The custard and shell are still fine. I wonder whether I could substitute peaches. Run and peaches go together, don't they? I've still got 80 ml of rum, or about 5 more 14 cm tarts. 

Almost forgot that I took the next picture. I correctly judged that it would still be clear at night with my shaky hand. This is on Aoyama Street near where the loop around Akasaka Palace grounds runs into it going clockwise.