(Café) Le Pommier, Mont-Blanc

I'm probably not going to catch before the weekend, but last Sunday I hit a couple local shops. Imperfect is a chocolate shop that's gotten out of the cream puff business, so they no longer have anything that qualifies as fresh cake. Next in that neighborhood was (Café) Le Pommier, from which I got a Mont-blanc. I'd probably have a bigger selection if I went to one of the regular shops, but I was only looking for a fourth cake, so this seemed good enough. It's got the meringue-type base but the unusual feature is a chocolate coating. That's not a bad idea, but wasn't really making this special. Still a good cake, but probably not enough to keep this shop in the quite fine category. 

Le Pommier, Saint-honoré

Sunday was no cake, but I did take the full walk to Jiyuugaoka, where I got from Paris S'éveille both their Croissant d'Almonde and their, Pain au Chocolat. It was somewhat greedy, but I'm trying to get my sample count up there and they keep not offering me no new cakes. I took the train back, not trying to tempt fate, but my feet seemed (and still seem) fine. I ate the Croissant d'Almonde first, and thought it was excellent; the important point was the almond liquor taste. I can say that the Pain au Chocolat was also excellent, though not distinctive. Fortunately, neither of these was heavy relative to their type, so it was not too much after a couple-hour walk. They've still got a few things in the pastry family, as well as lots of other things in the shop, so I'll be back there again this month. Also, I ran about 1 km later, which also worked out fine.

Monday, I got a third cake from Le Pommier, who were still at Isetan (and again the top guy was there taking my order, so he recognized me as having been there last week). I decided to go traditional and got the Saint-honoré.  Before having my cake, I did a couple errants and ran about 2 km total, which seemed to be fine. Compared to other versions, this had a lot of whipped cream and less custards and small chou balls. Also, the crust was flakier than usual. It worked well and was excellent, so my upgrading them from good to quite good was justified. I noticed in revising my spreadsheet lately that the latter category is actually larger than the former and almost double the intended size. This is because I have I lot of two-cake shops (one good cake and one excellent cake) that could go either way, but this group isn't high enough priority for me to need to take care of that yet. But I would like to find a few to fill out the excellent group.

Le Pommier, Pour Moi

Back again to Isetan today for cake, this time for a second cake from Le Pommier, which I had one good cake from previously. This time I went for the pistachio mousse cake, Pour Moi. I like pistachio mousse, but then I've had enough to get critical. This one was up front about having raspberry jelly, which put me off some what. Actually, it had quite a bit. But in fact, the textures matched when and the flavors also did not have trouble harmonizing (raspberry sometimes is overpoweringly sweet in cakes). Not sure what the white thing is even after eating it. It's not white chocolate, it was more like hard candy but not. Like yesterday's, which was an excellent cake, which bumps the shop up to potentially quite good, so I'll try to get back there for a third cake while they are at Isetan, but not tomorrow.

For excercise, I tried walking farther. Went as far as across from Akasaka Palace on the neighbhor route, taking more than 30 minutes to reach Lawson 100 for groceries. It was enough that I could feel it in my right foot but not enough for it to linger, so I hope to try farther tomorrow to get a pastry from Libertable (I've had three weekday cakes already, so even if I fail, I won't be too disappointed).

P. le Pommier: Le Pommier

P. le Pommier is visiting Isetan, so, even though I've sampled them enough in the past to know that they aren't great, I also know they aren't bad and I have some respect for them, so I got their signature piece, the Le Pommier for 540 yen. Now, the shop is not trying to be that high-end, but rather more family friendly but still authentically French. They have three shops and get invited to Isetan, so they aren't doing to bad. This particular cake has a dacquoise base, which their website actually explains (it's hazelnut mixed with meringue, which is exactly what I've been making lately, only if you bake it long to caramelize it as I have, it becomes Japonaise instead), which is kind of nice but also a sign of the friendliness over sophisticated, which I would trade for the latter, although only if it came through in the cakes. Anyway, there are also a couple of hazelnuts on top, so the dark color of the base gives away the hazelnut powder, but it's a wet sponge in this case because the bulk is caramelized sautéd apple mousse and pretty loose and wet. There is a little chocolate ganache in between the mouse and dacquoise, but not so much, certainly not enough to form a barrier (although wet chocolate would not be a good idea). It is very good, put I can't say that I like it enough to call it excellent, that it's something I need to have again, though it has the advantage of being different from my usual stuff.