Éclat des Jours: Odile

Did my fourth run to Éclat des Jours, so I'm starting to learn the tricks, like run fast enough after being stopped at a light to get through two lights but don't waste energy on the third unless there are three close together, because it's the main road and I cannot run as fast as a car to make timed lights. Also, I may have run more "Don't walks", just because there was no one coming and only a sort way to cross.

Still, I was a little surprised to come in under 1 hour of running for the first time, which means an average speed when running of around 11 km/h. Even so, it was slim pickings on a Friday night, so I don't expect to repeat this run on another Friday (unless I'm in the same situation of being busy on a Saturday). Back, I just barely kept around 9 km/h and probably missed a lot of second lights.

The cake was Odile (alternatives were a coffee-flavored cake and black forest chocolate cake, which has cherries), which is a cream cheese sandwich (I didn't check, but another blogger wrote "speculass", which is a kind of spice cookie, in the same sense as gingerbread) with rhubarb sauce. I passed it up until now, but I've had good look with rhubarb, so I got it and ran it home.

Of course, it is a mild cake, but very nice, and the sauce balances the slight acidity of the cream cheese well. It was excellent, though that may be my bias for this shop speaking.

Speaking of bias and full disclosure, technically, I received another cake that day, but it's not from a place I respect: it's from P. Frips. This is mostly a tart place, and it's cheap and convenient, and even has an outdoor table on the street in front of the park, but I had a tart I didn't think was fresh and quit them before starting this blog. For free "cake", it's perfectly reasonable, and actually, there was a selection, so I chose their one actual cake, Gateau Chocolat. It's soft and characterless (but consistent in texture) and the whipped cream was perhaps not enough to give much taste, but the strawberries were sufficiently fresh, so maybe I should be less suspicious of them. Still, only okay, so I regret eating it other then confirming that I should pass on even free cake from there. What can I say, I'm a cake snob. 

Tout le Monde: Gallia

Today I went down to P. tout le Monde for a first look/cake. It's a nice little shop near Musashi-Koyama on the Meguro Line, in Shinagawa. This was a day time run, which is necessary because they close at 19:00 and aren't that close to me (it's about a 9 to 10 km run, depending on how direct a route I try to do; in this case, less so on the way there). The run was fine, though I'm still slow compared to winter, being around 9 km/h around trip for 19 km.

I chose the chocolate cake, Gallia. This is sort of an everything-but-the-kitchen-sink kind of cake, as the base is maybe a chocolate feuillantine, above which is Japanais (hazelnut biscuit), chocolate whipped cream, cream, mousse, and ganache layers, and a couple kinds of chocolate covered nuts, as well as just some loose pieces. It was all good, and works good together. The chocolate itself was maybe nothing special but it was also not bad. Definitely a good cake. I cake on the terrace. No drinks service (which I didn't really want, but free water would have been nice), but I got a complementary financier, which is a pretty good score, though I'm not sure how good it is, because I'm saving it to share.

Cake-off: Pierre Hermé's Deux Mille Feuille over Sadaharu Aoki's Chocolat Pralin

For my run, I went a long way to Sadaharu Aoki's Marunouchi shop to satisfying myself that the cake I had thought they had did not exist (at least not this year: I think I was conflating cakes, though I was sure I had seen a Marunouchi exclusive on a green tea cake, so not the Bamboo, which you can get everywhere). I had already bought my cake at Isetan, so no problem. I might have to get a cream puff next time, but maybe something seasonal will come out in the mean time: July is almost here. The run was an easy 9 km/h over 11.1 km (69 m up and down each).

Today's delayed cake-off (prepared since last Thursday) was Pierre Hermé's "Deux Mille Feuille" versus Sadaharu Aoki's "Chocolat Pralin", two heavy hitters, both in terms of the shops and the cakes. These are both definitely great cake, but the total decadence of the Deux Mille Feuille wins out: praliné mousseline, praliné feuilletée, as well as the normal caramelized layered pastry. This is one of my favorite cakes, so don't think the Chocolat Pralin was not also wonderful. Tomorrow will be more running and less cake.

Bubó Barcelona: Xabina

After a brisk walk to Isetan to find that they did not have the cake I needed for my next cake-off, I headed home and then set off for Bubó Barcelona. This time, I did not get lost and it did take only half the time. Total, it was just under 6 km, done at 9 km/h.

The shop and street were empty of customers when I went, though someone came in after me. They had 10 types of cakes, so I won't run out of things there soon. I got the Xabina, which is basically a familiar type: mousse chocolate cake with a little Bavarian cream inside (not sure why). In this case, though, there are spices and olive oil involved, and you can definitely taste that there is something different going one. These types of cakes pretty much depend on the quality of the chocolate and this was definitely not bad, and interesting, so I'll say it's excellent and move this shop up to the Quite Excellent category, which means I'll have to make frequent visits there, at least until they disappoint me.

Worth mentioning, before I ate my cake, I had to go out for regular groceries, and I noticed an animal running along the fence between housing units. It was cat-sized, but something wasn't quite right. It came back and couple times, popping and running along the top of the fence (the wire fence: there isn't flat top), and I saw it had a triangular face. Apparently, we have civets (https://japantoday.com/category/features/kuchikomi/whats-that-smell-could-a-civet-be-nearby). I was told Tokyo has feral "Tree civets", or maybe it was "Forest civets", but I'm not sure that's a real thing and the Japan Today article was less certain about whether they are invasive.

Sadaharu Aoki: Éclair Framboise

Went to Isetan first to get something new from the winner of the cake-off before last, since the Marunouchi shop on Friday did not work out. Although not listed on their website, they had their Éclair Framboise. I'll visit their Marunouchi location tomorrow, just for research, and see if their green tea and sweet bean cake is back. If they aren't busy, I'll ask what days it is available in general, in cake want another cake from them soon.

For my run, I tried going to Bubó Barcelona for the first time. Even when I was on the right path, I couldn't tell (I think they've changed the name of one of the intersections, at least relative to Google Maps). I'm not going to try to calculate it, but judging from the time, I ran about 11 km, assuming that I was going about 9 km/h , which seems reasonable except in the sense that it is double the distance necessary. I thought today was going to be a partial rest, but it did not work out that way.

The éclair was excellent, which surprised me a little. I'm learning to like éclairs generally, and as I ate it, it just seemed an especially good medium for raspberry for some reason, so I wouldn't mind having this again or learning to make it some day, which is my basic definition of an excellent cake.

 

Yu Sasage: Princess

I seemed to have recovered from the tiredness of lass weekend. Might be from sleeping late. The actual run was nicer, too. As planned (though I deviated from the course somewhat), I followed close to the Keio line south of the main road rather than using the main road or using the old main road further north. It was so much nicer without all the car noise that I should always use that route, though it added an extra 1 km (though that will decrease slightly if I follow the planned route better). I could go faster (consistently 9 km/h) and still have the energy to run from the cake shop to the station and then from Shinjuku Station home rather than walking like yesterday. Total distance was 15 km.

The cake was Princess, which was a random choice, it just being just the first thing left to right that I hadn't had before. It's red peach, pistachio, and a tea biscuit. The crunchy biscuit was the best part, though the macaron was also very good. Otherwise, it was just a soft fruity cake, I'll say good, but not anything special. Yu Sasage was the lowest in the Quite Excellent list, and this gets it bumped down just Excellent. I'm holding off on replacing it until I get caught up on the newer additions.

Cake-off: Yu Sasage's "Perfum" over Hidemi's "Framboisier"

As expected, today's running was a little tough, so it was all around 9 km/h, which is better than it might have been. First, I went to Hidemi to get Framboisier. I dawdled preparing, so I didn't arrive until 11:05, whereas 10:50 might have been better. Still, I waited only about 15 min, but most of that outside in the sun. For this cake, it was close enough that I ran it back, though, with the lights, I didn't make it within the 40 min that they recommended. It was +11 km round-trip.

For the second cake, I went out to Yu Sasage, which was actually cooler, though it was now early afternoon, so probably not actually cooler. I ran about 1/4 north of the main highly, just to vary the routine (there are parks, which is convenient, and a lot of pretty old public housing apartment buildings, which are not so scenic, but fine), since I've been over to Yu Sasage a couple times recently for research and have previous stuck to the main road for simplicity (usually, I was coming back at the end, so not the best time for complications).

Both of these are fruity cakes, which are not my favorite, so hard to judge. The Framboisier, in particular, was hard to determine what I had thought was great about it, but by the last bite, I was certainly appreciating the balance of raspberry, sugar, and cream (also, may the cake needed some warm-up time, though not much in summer) and think that it is definitely excellent. The other cake, Perfum, is a pistachio tart with a fruity (soft) meringue, or at least the gelatin under the meringue was fruity. This also I liked more as I ate it (and the two cakes went well together, so it was a happy pairing). I liked the more substantial base, even if the three components, tart, meringue and gelatin tended to separate (as did the layers of Framboisier) and the actually lighter flavor of the top worked slightly better for me. It's a weekend/holiday only trip, so I guess that will be my run tomorrow, too, though, I'll trying following the train line south of the main road rather than north. Like today, though, I think I'll take the train back with the cake, at list to SHinjuku Station, because I've been running pretty heavy and the heat is not great for me or the cake.