Il Pleut sur la Seine: Polonaise

Finally got to Il Pleut sur la Seine again after upgrading it to the superb cake shop list to replace Abricotier. Today's cake brings me up to 5 cakes reviewed for here (so still 2 more to catch up). It was a slow after yesterday's long run following a training run the day before that. So I did not make any of the lights through Omotesando (I did stretches while I waited). I'm consider altering my path going that way on slow days to try to at least line up with a pedestrian bridge crossing the street between Omotesando Station and Harajuku Station. There and back, about 5 km each, were both at exactly the same speed, close to 9 km/h.

The "cake" for today is Polonaise, which is a brioche Polonaise, so perhaps actually a pastry, but I think the meringue is enough to push it over into the cake category, at least for me, especially after allowing Fondant Choc
olat yesterday. This is a brioche (which is a sweet bread) spiked with kirsch, filled with candied fruit (so it tasted like fruit cake), with a little bit of custard at the center and a lot of meringue (more than 1 cm thick) covering it, with sliced almonds. It sounds like a mess and not something I would be into, maybe, and actually it did become messy because my eating strategy was to cut out radial wedges, which obviously imbalances it, and it tastes like a baba, which I'm not excited about, but it all works well together and it was excellent.

Paris S'éveille: Fondant Chocolat

Yesterday, I had to work late, so I did a cake-shop-less training run. This time, it was an actual training routine, not just a person challenge: I ran slow (9 km/h) about 1.5 km then about as fast as I could for 1 km (>13.5 km/h), then walked for about 3 minutes and ran as fast as I could again for 1 km (just short of 13.0 km/h). Then, without a break, I jogged at the slow speed again for about 7.5 km. This is supposed to train the body to burn fat more efficiently, which is important for long-distance running because you'll run out of stored sugar if your body can't burn fat at your running speed (it can't generally burn fat when you run too fast, but what counts as too fast depends on training). It was a good run: I did the speed part at the Gaien course and then sort of followed the green stop signals, intending to do a lap around Akasaka Palace but instead doing a lap around Aoyama Cemetery, which is nice on the east side, not so much on the south side, and then just sort of isolated on the west side. As a substitute for fresh cake, I made canelé again. Now that I have the recipe right for my molds and oven, I varied it by using brown sugar (and accidentally a little too much rum), but I think I should stick with regular granular sugar, though it does not matter much except for the color. My next variation will be to lower the temperature and cook them longer, as the middle is very soft, which I like, but I'd like to see what my other options are.

Today, I could leave work on time, so I could go down to Paris S'éveille as planned (Monday's planned shop is closed today, so I'm shifting that to Wednesday, if nothing comes up). I couldn't speed through Omotesando so well this time, though I did make one difficult light, as I was still tired. But I could do the about 11 km each-way run at 10 km/h down and 9 km/h back without pushing too hard in general, so it was okay. I worked on a smoother pace so I don't wear out my hip from the impact on long runs, like I did in my recent failed 50 km attempt. I chose Fondant Chocolat (450 yen), which borders on being a baked good/pastry, but I know it's good and the unblogged "cake" alternative was a fruit tart that I'm not optimistic about (if/when I eventually get it, I should eat in or at least eat it in the neighboring park area, as it definitely doesn't look like it would travel well). I ran it home and microwaved it 20 seconds, as recommended. The inside is essentially thick chocolate sauce/cream, with only a relatively thin outside baked layer. It is great and I would not be afraid to pair it against other great chocolate cakes.

Limevert: Fromage Citron

I planned cycling today when I was thinking that I would run longer on Saturday and would need the rest in order to run again on Monday, which is still somewhat true. It certainly will keep me from being worried about the weekday runs and I'm going to try again to do a 40+ km run next weekend, so it doesn't hurt to keep things lighter this weekend. Still, I planned longer (30+ km), and got more lost, making it even long, because I was cycling.

First I went up to Aigre-Douce again, just because I missed seeing or at least remembering their cake that was planned as the primary in the next cake-off (I found it this time). Then I continued along Mejiro Avenue to Yamanote Avenue and turned off onto Honan Avenue, which was correct, but

turned too early from there, though at least was going south. I eventually got to Limevert, where I got the Fromage Citron (540 yen), chosen somewhat arbitrarily from things I haven't had, but it was definitely excellent. It's cheesecake, of course, with rare cheesecake on top (mousse) accented with lemon and a thin solid layer of baked cheesecake on the bottom with another layer of citrus (the card only mentioned lemon, but the color was different here and not as sour, but it could have been lemon too). Note sure whether the fruit helped or hurt it, but I'd be curious to have it without.

Cake-off: "Le Suprême" over "Miroir Cassis"

Saturday, I did a two-part run, first up to Aigre-Douce to get Miroir Cassis, that I have an ambiguous "great" report on, so I wanted to resolve that. I had forgotten how poorly their bags fix their boxes, so that it's impossible to keep them level. To make matters worse, they put cool packs both inside and outside the box, both on the back, so it would take a pretty well fitted bag to keep it from flipping over. Needless to say, it was pretty banged up from trip home, which was longer than necessary. Next time (I'm planning to go back Thursday), I'm taking a route that sticks to main (straight and relatively level) and bring a good back that I can repack in, as needed. This was about 11 km, with slightly more of that 10 km/h versus 9 km/h.

The second run was to Paris S'éveille for Le Suprême. This has blueberry and chocolate, so I wasn't sure what to match it with anyway, which was why I paired it up with Miroir Cassis, which is at least fruit. This is a mousse cake, though, and they advised me to get it home within 1 hour, which running wasn't going to accomplish to I used the train. At least I saved myself the cost of the sports drink that I would have needed to run back, though the front chocolate sheet stuck to the box and broke when I pried it loose. I varied my running route just because I knew I would cycle the next day and most of my route would otherwise be the same as Thurday's, so that added about another kilometer, to make it about 12 km at 10 km/h.

It was a pretty lopsided contest. My original estimation that Miroir Cassis was not great, and I'm not sure that it even qualifies as excellent, though the texture is good, I appreciate the mini macarons, and the fruit taste is nice. But Le Suprême is rich and blue berries provides an uncommon accent. So, in recognition, I also need to get back to Paris S'éveille.

I should also mention that Friday I tried Henri le Roux's Noir Signature tablette bar/tablet, which was definitely excellent, though I'm comparing to months-old imported chocolate from the grocery. I haven't had other chocolatier tablette chocolate for quite awhile.

Rue de Passy: Noble

Did a workday run down to Rue de Passy for the first time and got there in time, no problem, other than turning one street too soon (so 100 m more than necessary). It's about 8 km each way and the first half out was around 11 km/h, but I was just on the 10 km/h side overall for going. I was able especially to maintain a high speed for the couple kilometers along Aoyama Avenue, which is hard with the crowds but good for making the lights, which are the other thing besides the crowds that make this potentially the slow part of the trip that could make me late. Running fast there is also a good strategy for endurance/fat burning: warm up a couple kilometers, go fast for a couple kilometers, and then go slow and long for several kilometers. Coming back, I was almost exactly 9 km/h, but it felt more uphill.

The cake was Noble (573 yen), which is a dense chocolate cake. I was happy with this cake. It was definitely good and I like chocolate, though there was nothing to strongly distinguish it, but it still confirms this shop as quite good. I was not disappointed.

DelRey: Hazelnuts Chocolat

Ran over to the Ginza Mitsukoshi to catch DelRey's last day there and got the Hazelnuts Chocolat (756 yen). The run was fine, as far as I can remember, averaging 9 km/h over about 11 km, despite my walking maybe 1 km of that into and out of Ginza in the subway tunnels to avoid lights. The cake was kind of a tough one to rate, as I wanted to like it and it was high quality, but it was very mild and soft, whereas I'm more into intense and crunchy. Still, in the end, it was something I'd want to be able to make, so I'm going it excellent, so I should get back there before too long.

Today actually I was back just to see whether Delrey's replacement had any cake on offer. They didn't, so I tried the Almond Croissant (405 yen) from Dominique Ansel. It was a typical almond paste calorie bomb and definitely good, but did not stand out other than being maybe larger than average (though they are often pretty large). This was about 1 km more than yesterday and 10 km/h, even with the same walking, though I got a little turned around at some points, so there is a distance error of a couple blocks.

Jean-Paul Hévin: Verrine Chocolat Apricot & Verrine Truffle Blanche

Was at Isetan Monday afternoon (taking a half-day off) and decided to visit Jean-Paul Hévin and tried the other two verrines, Verrine Chocolat Apricot and Verrine Truffle Blanche. The first also has a layer of pistachio cream and the bottom biscuit has sansho, which is unusual. The other one obviously has truffle besides chocolate (it's a chocolate shop, so always expect chocolate). These are both definitely good, but I'm sticking with my original opinion that this is a bad substitute for cake. Actually, the biscuit on the bottom sort of ruins the smoothness of the rest (from the texture, not the taste), so my best strategy going forward, I think, is to try to avoid it until the end, as the chocolate apricot one was maybe excellent as just gelatin and mousse.

In the evening, I wanted to check at Yoshinori Asami, just to see if they had the Van Dyke (which, as expected from their website, they did not) and I could get there before the closed. Despite getting lost and taking a long way, I did make it (someone else was before me, or maybe they would have closed, but they didn't seem impatient to get rid of us). The selection is not really very special, although sometimes what looks simple and basic is quite good. I had already had verrine, so I just got a canele, which was excellent (and a lot bigger than the ones I make at home). Total, the running was about 15 km of running averaging 10 km/h.