Pièce Montée: Thevert

The rain held off mostly, so I could run today. I did 4 km running total at 7 to 8 min/km alternating  2 min running, 1 min walking again, which I'll keep doing through next Tuesday, as my running week. I was a little worried because pain from a little pain from sitting at, but it was okay running (though it generally is, whereas the next day might bring other news). Now, it's my left arm that's the problem. I probably shouldn't be typing with it, but it's not hard to rest it enough.

I finally got back to Pièce Montée, but didn't get a good picture of the cake. It's a long way walking home, so I ate in the park and my lighting was not as good as last time (I started from the other end of the park), but I had already wrecked the box. It's worth seeing though, so the photo is taken from their blog. It's Thevert (for Thé Vert, green tea). I think the "cup" and lid are chocolate, although the sesame seeds mask it, or maybe it is sesame seeds and nuts dilute, since it looks more like nuts than sesame in the picture . There is quite sweet green tea mousse inside, although the green tea flavor is hard to taste. I'm not sure if the beans are real, since there was no bean texture, so maybe just brown mousse. This is a very interesting and good cake, so I don't regret it, but as a second cake and for 1000 yen, I'm not inclined to give them the benefit of the doubt, so I'm calling it just "good" and taking them off the list of potentially excellent shops, which still has about 35 shops in it, about half only visited a couple time and half bumped down from potentially "great". At some point, I'll sort out the semi-great from just excellent ones, but I'd like more cakes from some of them first. In the meantime, it's been too long since I've had really great cake, so I'll see whether I can get to Pierre Hermé tomorrow night after my other errands. I'll be unusually busy, but there's always Saturday (which I haven't decided where to go yet, although I always need to get back to Paris S'éveille and I'm not up to running that far or fast enough on a weekday or have high enough need to use the bike).

http://piecemontee-blog-new.seesaa.net/upload/detail/image/DSC_0607ver2-thumbnail2.jpg.html

Il Fait Jour: Tarte Citron

Yesterday the rain stopped and I didn't want to be stuck with 7 km for the week, since it's kind of a benchmark for how fast I can increase, so I went out and did another 3 km of running, either in 2 minute or 200 meter stretches separated about half that of walking. I did part on the Gaien course so I could make sure I was running between 7 and 8 min/km, which is really slow (walking was less than 10 min/km). I was kind of pressing my luck running, though. I'm okay today, but it was not hard to convince myself to finally take a rest (instead, I did running stretches and exercises inside). That gives me 10 km within a week, so my goal/limit next week, I think, is 19 km, with 2 km of that 6 to 7 min/km (probably, I'll go back to the same course next Monday or Tuesday for those). Then the week after that I can do 27 km with 6 km of that faster than 7 min/km. Maybe I'll want to completely eliminate the super slow 8 min/km pace (it's a little awkward), or maybe I'll want to keep it around for really long runs. We'll see. I don't expect to try anything with more than 5 km of running next week, though I don't have a particular plan for how I'll ramp up the maximum. Just a 2 or 3 km a week would be fine, and I'm going to be stricter about the rests afterward.

Today, I did rest, but I went for cake, which I did not do yesterday (instead, I ate a lot of cherries with a lot of syrup, so getting cake is a huge improvement as far as diet). I already had three excellent cakes from Il Fait Jour, so they are ahead in that category, but since they were visiting Isetan, where I can get a discount and it is very convenient, I decided to get one. Unfortunately, I had already had the best three choices of not many. At Isetan, there were lots of little glasses of things, which is true of lots of places these days, but I have very little interest. As an Isetan exclusive, there as Tarte Citron for 486 yen, which sounded much better than a seasonal mixed fruit tart (which I've never found to be good anywhere, since most fruits require some subtly to work in cake, not to forget working with each other). The Tarte Citron was perhaps good, which is giving them the benefit of the doubt. It is tiny, which is not a big deal, since I got the idea after half. The thick visible base is a semi-firm (for cake) but moist butter tart maybe, or a dacquoise, though I don't have enough experience yet to say either way. On top of that is a little lemon gelatine dome (hidden) which was fine under a several-millimeter cover of probably meringue (or just whipped egg whites, as there was no identifiable taste). Nothing bad about it, just nothing impressive about it.

The plan for tomorrow is 4 km of running as part of finally visiting Piece Montee again, although I better confirm that they are still there first, since it's been a while since I've been by there.

Frédéric Cassel: Violet Étoile

I went to Frédéric Cassel and was tricked into getting the Violet Étoile (which was excellent for 777 yen), in the sense that there did not seem to be anything different from the regular Violet except for the start theme, for the upcoming holiday. The picture just shows the top. Still, excellent cassis cheesecake, which makes me think that I'm going to have to get around to trying to up my game on my cheesecake. 

In the meantime, though, I got the yearly 1 km of fresh cherries from work (you can opt out, but no substitutions), so I should have made custard instead of hazelnut pranilé French buttercream. The little that was in the refrigerator has gone into the freezer. Maybe I'll try to make a creme brulée syrup, but I can just eat them in yogurt. They'll probably turn by the weekend, though. 

On the running side, since I just ran yesterday morning, I only ran 16 minutes, this time in 2 min running and 1 min walking intervals, among a full trip to Mitsukoshi Ginza, which is on the order of 10 km, walking the rest. I'm not sure whether this is the running for next week or adding to this week. Only increasing 5 km a week would be pretty strict, but more than 7 km a week might be dangerous. Better safe than sorry, as long as I can walk and still get cake.

Avranches Guesnay: Tarte Rhubarbe Fraise

Jogged about half of the long way (to hit a couple Bookoffs, where I bought one cheap sweets making book) to Avranches Guesnay, where I got Tarte Rhubarbe Fraise for 486 yen. I had noticed before the one cake I from Coin Vert was also here, but I noticed today that the Fortissima from Coin Vert is also here, and got a little worried that I was overlapping, that these were really the same cakes. When I got home, I found a blog that pointed out that they were happy to see the rhubarbe tart at Avranches Guesnay after seeing it at Le Coin Vert, so I researched further and found that the Patissier of the former worked at Coin Vert until last year. I'll assume that coworkers have taken over at Coin Vert and even if the recipes are the same, the person actually making them is different. The actual tart was quite good, so I'm going to say it's excellent. It's very pastry like, at least the crumble crust kind, not flaky crust. The topping is very marshmallow-like, which was not what I expected or would choose, but then I can't really say that it's a good season for meringue. It was fine, though, so I won't avoid this topping, though I don't need to seek it out, either.

The running was 1 min walking/1 min jogging again. My initial thought was just 10 repetitions (leaving 10 more Monday or Tuesday) and walk from there, since I did have soreness, although I'm not sure that it's exactly where I was having the most problems before. Things were going fine, though, so I just kept going and did 20 repetitions, which I'll call 2.5 km of running (total walking then was maybe 8 km, not counting the few kilometers walking in the afternoon for shopping), so I made the week's goal of 5 km. I'll see how I am tomorrow to see whether I want to add to the week's total. My priority places are in or near Ginza, so that will be a similar distance, which I can make walking even without running, assuming I don't have to work late.

On the homemade front, I have the usual problem of wanting to bake more than I can process the calories for. Finished off the creme brulée frosting today (I was a little worried about it sitting around too long, since it has egg yoke, but the scalding caramel syrup might might have cooked it enough that it was not a big problem) without making more cake, but I still have an egg yoke left over from yesterday's failed (but edible) macarons, so I'll probably separate another egg and make two yokes' work of canelé and use the egg white for something this week. Or now I'm thinking I should try to use the egg yoke in creme brulée again (which might still be a bad idea because of the egg, this time measuring the syrup temperature so that I'll actually know what I'm doing, even if the instructions seem a little vague: I'm supposed to heat it to 121 deg C, but then am I supposed to hold it there or is it done? That is hot enough to caramelize sugar, so I suppose I'm done, but I'll have to try it and see what happens.

Paris S'éveille: Saint Honoré Praliné Yuzu

Decided that walking would be better for my knee for walking, so I walked to Paris S'éveille, which is perhaps longer than last weekend, although I only walked one way and came by a train, since it is hot and I had chocolate for making cake. I definitely was walking farther at a strong pace. Tomorrow I'll perhaps throw in a little running and do more total distance.

At Paris S'éveille, I got cake for takeout, so I could take a picture (and also for ice for my leg, although I didn't need it so much), but then went and ate it nearby on a bench in the Kuhonbutsu River Green Way, which passes in front of it (although in the stretch on the other side of the tracks). I had forgotten where I had put my card with my previous cakes written on it, but I knew I had never had the Saint Honoré Praliné Yuzu, for 620 yen (I also knew that I had never had anything that came in a glass, which I find hard to recognize as cake, but I wasn't sure about which of the tarts I had had). I've never had a saint-honoré before, probably because I didn't regard choux as cake. For my expectation, and giving the shop the benefit of the doubt, this was excellent and I feel more comfortable about ordering saint-honoré elsewhere. The taste was pretty much as advertised, with the yuzu and praliné combining fine.

Noliette: Opera Révision

It's been raining off and off, but really I didn't run because I'm still babying my leg. I'm not babying it enough that I'm not walking fast on the commute, taking the stairs, and practicing some running stretches and "switches" (if that's the correct translation), although my left arm was not happy about one of those involving getting into a push-up position and shifting around laterally to loosing up things. I haven't given up on running this week, though, but the target is definitely not going to be over 10 km, and I'll be happy to get 5 km total (that is, another 2.5 km by Tuesday). However, I'm thinking I'll try for Paris S'éveille one day tomorrow cycling and use the other day to jog and walk to Avranches Guesnay.

For bought cake, I got Opera Révision (updated) from Noliette at Isetan, for 518 yen again. This is a pistachio opera (pistachio and chocolate). It was definitely good, but these cakes are maybe a little wet for my taste, although I'm not sure how I would change this specific cake. So Noliette is immediately back off the list of potentially excellent shops, at least until I have more cake from there that changes my mind, which is really hard to do with all the other places to visit.

I did get around to making creme brulée aux noisettes (?), though I didn't know how much to heat the sugar and water before adding to the egg, so I just cooked until it browned, and it's edible, so I'm satisfied. Now I've got a bowl of frosting, but no more hazelnut powder (expensive stuff) to repeat the cake, so I'm thinking of trying maracons instead. It's really humid, so I'll need to run the air conditioner while I do it, though I'm sure they would be edible if I made them like I make the pate maracon naturale, where I don't wait at all before baking once I've piped it.

Noliette: Gateau Marjolaine

This week's visiting shop at Isetan is P. Noliette, which I haven't posted on. I could not resist the Gateau Marjolaine for 518 yen. It was better than mine, I'll tentative say, so it must be excellent. Certainly, the cake was softer, although you can make Marjolaine with sponge rather than a Japonaise, like my recipe (which I should mention I really do need 180 deg C rather than 170 to get the middle properly caramelized), and I have to wonder whether this is buttercream filling rather than creme chantilly. Still, I'm somewhat inspired to try again soon. At the very least I'm inspired to get back to Isetan while Noliette is there and get their Opéra Révision, which is a pistachio opera.

My own cooking was to make a biscuit noisette, even without "bubble emulsifier" and without an oven that can be set for 225 deg C on top and 165 deg C on bottom (and fits a 40 x 60 cm pan). It worked, but I didn't spread the better thin enough in the pan (it needs to be pretty thin, like just a few millimeters). Tomorrow I plan to try making, I think, "creme brulée au praliné" (the recipe puts an extra "au" in there, "creme au") despite not having a candy thermometer to figure out whether the syrup is at 121 deg.