Atelier Kohta: Mont-Blanc

In response to their winning a round of cake-off, I finally got back to Atelier. My best option for a new cake was Mont-Blanc, again, for 470 yen. This one was definitely good. It's a chestnut on top, French chestnut paste which was sweeter than average (reminding me of frosting), rum-flavored cream, which was good, on a nice almond tart. I was happy with it, but did not find it special (besides being sweet, which does not impress me, even if it appeals to my sweet tooth). Still a fairly good shop.

The run was fine. I seem to have been slow lately, so I tried to push it a little harder and averaged 11 km/h going out and 10 km/h coming back, for only about 6 km total. I don't have any short runs for next week's weekday runs, so I might only be able to reach one new shop, due to running budget constraints (104 km at 12 km/h is expected to be the maximum for 7 days) unless I take a rest day, which might happen just from spring weather.

Pierre Gagnaire: Chocolat Gianduja

My running is scaling down as I approach the weekend runs, which aren't planned as that long, although Sunday has room to grow if I decide to add to the basic plan of Jiyugaoka and Isetan as sources for great cakes for another cake-off. Specifically, I ran just under 10 km at about 10 km/h, which was actually a little faster than I had planned, so probably going to run right up to my running budget limit on Saturday (unless Fraoula finally comes through with the one cake of theirs that I've rated as great, in which case I'll maybe switch Limevert to Sunday).

The cake was Chocolat Gianduja, where the only other information on the card besides the Japanese pronunciation and price (600 yen) was "Chocolate Praline". This turned out to be mostly cream under the chocolate coating, half plain and half apparently hazelnut (or the name doesn't make sense). There was also a little spongy chocolate (or maybe Gianduja) cake in the middle and a flavorful sablé on the bottom that I'll guess was hazelnut, though I'm not that good at even basic identifications. It was definitely good cake, but did not have enough flavor to balance all that cream for me to get excited about it. Since it's very windy today and might rain, I chose to eat in (there are some tables in the sort of hallway next to the shop), where the lighting is not very flattering, at least for my phone camera.
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FOBS: Mont-blanc

Finally visited another new shop from among those Sweet Sonobe has mentioned, (Patisserie) FOBS, which stands for "Farine Oeuf Beurre Sucre". It's over 8 km away and closes at 8 pm, so there was not a huge selection when I got there. I think the other cake was their Fraise, which also looked pretty standard, like what I chose, the Mont-blanc for 540 yen. 

This particular mont-blanc is about equal parts French chestnut paste, unsweetened cream, and meringue. The meringue had more than just sugar and eggs, but did not seem heavy on almond powder. Can you make meringue with flour, or does that destroy it? Also, alcohol somewhere, supposedly, and inside was a little cassis. It was definitely quite good (I should say that I like a mild chestnut) but it was not so distinctive., which I don't mind, but affects my rating.

I was a little slower today than yesterday, on purpose: 10 km/h going out and 9 km/h coming back. I mean to mention yesterday that I did shopping Monday, which gave me more than 6 km, so my Sunday to Tuesday 3-day runs broke 70 km. The next couple days I have more local shops in mind. The weekend runs too are more modest, maybe 25 km per day. The weather is not looking great, so it's just as well. I should have the budget to hit more new shops on the weekday, and I extend farther on the list of what's accessible. (I've got one 15 km each-way shop that's open until 9 pm. I'm saving that for last, but there are only a few others on the list right now.) 

Paris S'éveille: Poire Caramel

Did my long weekday run, maybe the longest I've done between two full work days (assuming I make it to work tomorrow). It was about 22 km round trip to Jiyugaoka, a fast 11 km/h out and a deliberately slow 9 km/h back with a Poire Caramel (ポワール　キャラメル; 600 yen), which is my 17th kind of fresh cake from Paris S'éveille. It's a fruit dome and the fruit has much of its texture, so it is not just gel, but the caramel was too subtle for me (in Bavarian cream, though maybe other places; I carefully read the description, but time and running wipes it away), so it was just like eating fruit, good fruit, but still just fruit, and running for fruit doesn't much interest me. Still, I consider this a superb shop and I want more from there eventually.

L'Atelier du Sucre: first cake, Sanguine

As planned, I ran the Shibamata History and Culture course, or at least I ran most of it. After the Shibamata Taishakuten temple, there are not any signs until the park, so I don't seem to have exactly the done the final part correctly. I suppose I should try again, which I should do anyway, since I want to get back to the cake shop. The run there was about 10 km/h apparently, which is faster than I expected. I was trying not to press it, since this is my longest recent run. I had the same speed from the end of the H&C course to the cake shop, but then dropped down to the high end of 8 km/h on the way home, not surprisingly, though some of that was navigation issues and a lot of it was the quite heavy crowds on the streets for the cherry blossom viewing. Total distance was between 42.5 and 43.0 kilometers, so I met my goal of a marathon length run. I'll do two shorter runs next week, am busy the week after that, so maybe I'll try a 50 km run in three weeks, though I haven't planned out where to go yet. I still have maybe three more H&C courses to do, but that last couple are ~100 km, so probably not until the fall, if ever.

The Shibamata course is pretty nice, although the temple entrance shopping street was packed, so so running it would be better to skip that. Like many courses, the beginning is not marked that I could see, and no signs after the temple until you get to the end (or near the end), where they have of the full-sized maps. Otherwise, it seems like a nice neighborhood, especially compared to the bleak view running east from Tokyo, though that is skewed by the fact that I need roads that will connect me reasonable well between bridges.

The cake was the Sanguine, that is, blood (orange), which is used with one layer of cream. There is also Bergamot orange, which I suppose is the slices on top. The other cream layer is milk chocolate. The bottom has chocolate crunch and paliné. I done that this is sandwiched between probably a almond biscuit, though I haven't backed either for a while, so I'm not sure that I could distinguish from a hazelnut one. It was simple and cheep (only 400 yen), but I'll have to say it's excellent, so I'll have to get back there, which is not very convenient, but maybe I'll work it into a longer training run.

Note that I was fairly restrained after all the gorging the previous two days and did not have any other snacks along the way, or even a sports drink (which would probably be bad if it were hotter and I was sweating more). I did have a couple English muffins with tea milk jam immediately upon getting home.

[Saturday, Isetan] Le Salon Jacques Borie: Mille-fieulle and Tarte Citron

Took a rest at Jacques Borie, which is the most expensive café I go, by far. This is café cake, which follows different rules. I'm not even going to get into the pricing, since you're paying a lot for atmosphere (though the 10% service charge could be said to cover that).

Had the Mille-feuille, which is vanilla cream (not custard) in between fairly loose layers, so it was more like vingt-feuille than mille-feuille. This is not necessarily a complaint. Because it was cream, not custard, the inner layer could not support much force, so the pastry layers need to be fairly easy to cut through for it not to be quite difficult to eat. It was unique and excellent, as it should be. The lemon tart was definitely good, but not so much that I was too impressed, at least not by the couple bites I had. So the café is still excellent. I'll save up and maybe go back again in a year.

I also got the new Canelé au Caramel from Henri le Roux, C.B.S., Chocolat, and Framboise. These were disappointing. I'll say they are good, but they aren't anything I need at all. They are bit heavy without being particularly chewy and I can't recall much rum flavor. These run at least through April, so I'm still waiting for the cake to come back to see whether it was really as great as I thought the first time around.

[Friday] Angelina: Mont Blanc and Mont Blanc Chocolat

No running, but I went out for lunch a Angelina and get Mont Blanc and Mont Blanc Chocolat (demi size; 500 yen each). The tea salon and cake counter just reopened in the new building (or maybe it was renovated; I wasn't really paying attention to that part of Ginza), which is now called Marronnier Ginza 2, mark of Marronnier Gate, since, I guess it marks the start of Marronnier Avenue, so chestnut dominates everything.

There are many styles of mont-blanc. This particular one follows the more common reverse form of putting the white cream on the inside and the chestnut paste on the outside. The base is a sugary (no almond) meringue, and the inside is only cream. The chestnut cover is relative thin, but not inappropriately so. The balance if the standard Mont Blanc cake is actually excellent, although people who like a heavy chestnut flavor would be disappointed. The chocolate version is relatively sweet chocolate and complete hides any chestnut flavor; it is good but in this case the balance doesn't really add up to anything special, so I'm not in a hurry to try the other flavors and variations (they also have a couple token cakes).