Lenôtre, Tour Eiffle Voluté

Monday, which is a holiday, I changed my plan when I found my target shop is closed for a week of summer holiday. My next choice for a holiday-only shop also has their holiday this week, so I stopped searching and went with my top overall priority of available places, which is Lenôtre, both as a cake-off winner and as a shop listed as quite fine that is obviously going to need to be in at least the quite excellent category, but hasn't had that many cakes yet. As a department store counter, it was safe to assume that they would be available. Not sure what the closure schedule is, but probably just a Tuesday or two. Since I want to go back tomorrow for FC, I better confirm when those are. I went with their other most cake-like chocolate cake, which is the Tour Eiffle Voluté. This is their chocolate and caramel cake. I should mention that I went by bicycle, which seemed like a good idea, given the heat, but if I had known it was going to rain, I might have chosen running.

After bring back the cake, I went out by bicycle for an hour or so to confirm some shops and to see whether Vincennes was closed for holidays or had a schedule posted, neither of which is true, so I might visit Wednesday. I still need to check their regular hours.

Tour Eiffle Voluté was definitely good and the cake perhaps was the same quality as the others, but I felt like the added caramel texture and sweetness was muting the chocolate rather than harmonizing with it, so I prefer their other cakes. There are still other cakes to try, so I'll probably be back there next week.

For running, I tried two loops in the evening: the Jinguumae central loop counterclockwise and the Daikanyama-chou--Ebisunishi--Hachiyama-chou--Nanpeidai-chou--Sakuragaoka-chou--Sarugaku-chou--Shibuya--Uguisudani-chou loop, which are not as close to each other as would be convenient. It took about 2 hours of actual running over 14+ cycles of walking:running 1:8, so 14 dashes. The Jinguumae central loop was no problem, since it was just a minor change and the basic loop is not so hard or long. I hit the target loop, but now I can't remember why I split off one tiny loop, so I'm merging it back in and will have to try again. Currently, this is the largest loop I'm trying to confirm memorization of, at 9.75 km. Also, I've added half a dozen new sites (there are a lot of shops in this neighborhood), though none requires a movement of the course.

Sourire, Sicilian

Working on the last two of the 9 remaining 2-cake possibly quite fine shops that aren't accessible on a weekday, I cycled (since it was above 30 degC at 9 am) out to Sourire. Since I was not willing to buy beverage, I got take out and consumed a box and three ice packs (perhaps I should figure out how to re-use those, but they get dirty easily) bring it back.  That took about an hour. Then I went out for another two hours and hit two shops north looking for maboroshi (phantom, by which I mean not visible) great cakes on the north side, of course not finding either, as always.

After lunch, I had the cake of choice, Sicilian. I didn't actually read the card beyond the name, so I left it as a surprise what was inside. Actually, it remained a surprise as I ate it, but by the end I could tell that the center mousse was (milk?) chocolate. It harmonized better than maybe dark chocolate would, though in general I prefer dark chocolate, if not necessarily with pistachio, but still, I don't think it was a good choice over fruit, which I don't generally prefer, though maybe it would work with stronger, fruitier chocolate. It was well-constructed and pretty (and traveled well by bicycle), but I can't rate it higher than "good", so Sourire doesn't make the cut and get sent down to join the fine shops, though in the upper fraction that will make the next cut of them, which I have about 60 too many of.

In the late afternoon/evening, I went for a run to confirm changes to the the Jinguumae central loop to add the Starbucks on the west corner. Noticed a tea shop that should be added on the current route. I need to make a slight change to avoid running through the middle of a outdoor eating area and I confirmed the Starbucks at Omotesando Hills, which replaced a Tully's Coffee, I think.

Cake-off: Lenôtre's Feuille d'Automne over Pierre Hermé's Cheesecake Infiniment Citron

Not counting making a run for breakfast supplies by bicycling, my exercise began a little before 9 am, when it was still just under 30 degC. I ran for about 1 hour, though I was doing 2:7 walking by the second cycle, and I was taking pictures of sites (or confirming lack or sites), so I was making adjustments for another severe heat day. I had intended to finish in an hour to arrive at Ginza, but I got involved in tracking down sites to fill in detail on my map, so actually I walked the second hour to finish. Found a Starbucks I had missed in Akasaka and thought I would have to repeat the Akasaka loop again, but actually it's on a block with only one guaranteed continuous access point, so it will be another isolated loop. Really, it should have already been there for the Cozy Corner (by Akasaka Stn., the one by Akasaka-Mitsuke Stn. is not a drugstore, though you can probably still get low-quality cake from t he family restaurant on the second floor, and actually maybe it's the same cake, if they're in the same group). I could make this part of the Akasaka loop, since it touches it on a point, but I see that elsewhere I made a rule about not having to remember which side of the street to run on (either because either is okay or because there is no choice). I've gone through meticulously now and checked all the Starbucks overlapping with the neighborhoods of my map, and I did find another that's going to make me have to redo a loop, the Jinguumae central loop. I've actually been in that one, so I should have remembered it, but it's on the 4th floor, so I wasn't noticing it, but there is a sign outside, so it counts. Guess redoing that is next. I'll work in a cake from a place on that route to make it worthwhile.

After two hours outside, I was ready for a break and got Lenôtre's Feuille d'Automne from Ginza Mitsukoshi and then took the train to Isetan's Pierre Hermé to get Cheesecake Infiniment Citron.

After lunch, I went out again by bicycling to make another attempt at finding missing great cakes from the list, starting southwest. The first and lost shops were closed for summer holidays (5 weeks and 1 week) and the others had nothing I was look for. It took 4 hours and I still have two shops to the northeast to check, but it shouldn't take so long. One is closed on Mondays (national holiday or not), so I'll need to do it tomorrow.

Well, I wasn't surprised that the cheesecake was excellent, but didn't need to be on the great list. It was from 2015, before there was an excellent category between good and great or any idea about doing cake-offs. Still, for someone who likes cheesecake, it's got more different layers than any other cake I know and is worth checking out. So Lenôtre's Feuille d'Automne, which loos beautiful, but is actually rather simple, just chocolate and straight (sugar and egg) meringue, I think. As a chocolate lover, that's good enough for me, since the chocolate is good.

So I'm not longer feeling an urgent need to do an extra cake-off. I still want to find another great cake, in case the citron baba really is great, but I think I won't let it change how I choose new cakes. With one shop gone, one shop moved, and one shop with shorter hours, looks like there are 9 shops left among the quite fine contenders that I need a third cake from, two of which require a holiday visit, so I'll hit them Sunday and the Monday holiday, I think.

Toshi Yoroizuka, Récolte

Wednesday, I went by bicycle again to Tokyo Midtown to run the Akasaka loop (even yesterday's two days in a row was more than recent running, so it seemed reasonable to speed up the first part), but also to get a cake from Toshi Yoroizuka because of the previous cake-off win. I choose the Récolte (I'm guessing), which is earl grey tea and orange. It's good quality, but too subtle for me, perhaps, so just good. I ate at one of the tables outside, so that lighting wasn't great.

I had a good run, but I noticed at the appropriate point that my map had a major flaw in that I no longer went by one of the parks, though I was very conscious of where it was (the street in front of it is blocked off at the cross-street that the new course follows). I did a on-the-fly swing past the park, which had me coming down the stairs of another park, so I was able to successfully complete the counterclockwise route, but it meant that I still need to do the clockwise route.

Thursday, I was back doing the same thing, only clockwise with the corrected route, so four days in a row of running at least 7 km. I seem to be okay from it, but still need lots of stretching for my plantar fasciitis. I was successful, so I'll finally be able to move on to a different loop, but I got comfortable with rather than tired of the Akasaka loop. On the way, I tried something from Honolulu Coffee, thinking that I would add this to the course. Strictly speaking, I got a café item, since they had to make it for me, but since it's actually a type of age-pan, which I've already allowed elsewhere, I can't complain. This Hawaiian treat is a cinnamon Malasada, so similar to a yeast cinnamon donut, without the hole.

I had originally planned to a fourth cake for the week, but say that Pierre Hermé's now was featuring Fetish Infiniment Citron, which includes two cakes that I rated as great but never followed up with a cake-off, so potentially I could need to run extra cake-offs with a month's time to catch up, though there's a pretty good chance that at least one won't make the cut, since I became more selective over time. Since I don't do cake-offs with two cakes from the same shop, though, I've going to have to hunt to get another new cake, so this weekend I plan to review all the shops that also haven't had great cakes that I later couldn't find, probably a hopeless search. Otherwise, I'll just have to focus on my top shops as much as possible and hope that I get lucky.

Sadaharu Aoki, Forêt Rouge

Tuesday, I got cake first from Sadaharu Aoki at Isetan, managing to get the last piece of Forêt Rouge, unlike the previous day in Marunouchi, though that was much earlier in the day. Having straightened out the Akasaka loop on the neighborhood running course, I went by bicycle to Tokyo Midtown to park for free next to the loop. Before running, I found out that Toshi Yoroizuka is now open on Tuesdays, as of this month, when I went to double check their summer holiday, which is next Tuesday to the following Sunday. I successfully completed the planned course and did not have any corrections to make (at that time). I also completed the counterclockwise from-memory runs of the Akasaka 9 east and west loops, so that takes cake of the dead-end loops in the Akasaka clump. This time I was up to 1:8 walking to running, but the distance did not give me 10 full cycles, so I'll be holding that for a while, and may need to do specific interval training run next week if I don't try a longer route.

The cake was excellent quality and liquor (kirsch syrup)-soaked cherries in cherry suwent well with the cream and almond biscuit, so I'll rate this one was excellent.

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.

Cake-off: Toshi Yoroizuka's Annya over Fiorentina Pastry Boutique's Estate

My plan for Saturday, was to run the newly revised (after failing the previous attempt) Akasaka--Azabudai--Roppongi--Toranomon loop by cycling to Tokyo Midtown, parking, doing the run, getting one cake at Tokyo Midtown and the other cake at Roppongi Hills, which are on either side of Roppongi Station, not so far from each other. This time I got about halfway before I failed, do to not remembering where to turn to cross from Roppongi 1 to Roppongi 2. I didn't help that where I needed to turn was at a T with a long blank wall on one side (the American Embassy dormitory compound) and new construction sites on both corners. I still went on to get a danish at Pierre Gagnaire, since it had been more than an hour of running (plus a little cycling), and I specifically forewent a pastry Friday, and forgot to pack my energy cookies. Specifically I got the Ananas Danish, which was the only pastry-class bread they had that I hadn't already tried (the other three were all excellent). As the name says, this was pineapple, which doesn't sound so good, but with hyacinth, I think. Anyway, it was an excellent fruity pastry, and I don't consider myself that into fruity pastries, so I'm impressed.

Coming back toward Tokyo Midtown, I saw that I had left another Natural Lawson from my map, and I have another excuse to revise this loop. After making sure I included all Natural Lawsons in Minato Ward (there was one more that I had missed on the sound end of the route), I decided to address other deficiencies (such as not going by the entrance to a certain temple, just because it is inconvenient) and after several attempts split the loop back into its main Akasaka part and smaller southern end. Next up, then will be trying the new revised Akasaka loop.

For the cake off, I got Toshi Yoroizuka's Annya for a third-round cake-off for one-and-one great cakes, because it came available, and Fiorentina Pastry Boutique's Estate because it was highest priority, being earliest in the year of potential opponents. These are both cakes that are fruity and delicate, so it was a good match in that way. Also, I've had my doubts about both of them. Not doubts this time, these were both great. With repetition (the four tastings have been all in the last couple months), I'm satisfied that Estate belongs in among the greats. Note sure what the fruit is, something citrus or apricot, both in goes well with the pistachio and still less the white color really express itself. I'm giving the win to Annya, though. I've compared it to pie before, and it is a little tart, which many cakes are, but I realize that more than any other cake it reminds me of while berries from my childhood, and the pies we made from them. This is, of course, a rhubarb cake, so it might be some sort of harmony.