Presqu'île Chocolaterie, Mont-blanc

Having brought Presqu'île Chocolaterie, a quite fine shop, up to the target 4th cake level, I went back the next day to get one cake ahead with them on the grounds that it could be years before they come back to Isetan (whereas normally they are inconveniently far from central Tokyo). I went with the only cake of theirs that has no chocolate at all, the Mont-Blanc. The unique feature for me was the base, which has pastry more like what I only see with quiche: salted filo crust. Inside the base is almond cream. It's definitely excellent even among the crowded category of mont-blanc.

Presqu'île Chocolaterie, Ruby

I took advantage of Presqu'île Chocolaterie being at Isetan to pick up a 4th cake from them, which is my goal for the 48 shops in my quite fine category. Ruby chocolate is still rare, and it can be great, so I went with their Ruby, though it's closest relative is probably Mure, which was my least favorite of theirs at the time. Nevertheless, it turned out well, as this was excellent, which means it will make the next cut (32 shops is the target number for this category, but just 3 cakes wasn't enough to make that fine a division). Besides being ruby chocolate with the traditional raspberry addition, the center is lychee liquor marinated grapefruit in lychee cream. It works. These days, I'm working late and doing more indoor exercises, though I still got in some running (not that I can remember now whether it was a 30-min or 45-min day).

  

Presqu'île Chocolaterie, Mure

Still having trouble with foot pain, so I took off yesterday and did some upper body work, which I should do more often (hopefully I will). Today, I took a half-day off work and went cycling up to Kichijouji to visit Presqu'île Chocolaterie (versus one other their other operations, like wine making), which is a quite good shop that rates higher than some of my excellent shops, so I wanted to resolve the discrepancy, despite those shops outside the top couple dozen being a pretty low priority, so I haven't done anything about it for months. (On the way, I also confirmed that Aigre-Douce still doesn't have a cake I've been looking for about 3 years).

I went for Mure (I'm updating with the 2020 website spelling), which is a chocolate and mulberry cake, though the decoration seems to be a relative of the blueberry. I didn't trust the cake to survive the road trip back, due to vibration, but melting may have been a bigger problem, as there was less ice inside a not so small box than I expected. In either case, I ate it in a little park within a couple kilometers, which was not optimal (mosquito repellent was necessary, which I had). This was definitely good. Now I'm curious how mulberry would go with a darker chocolate, but I don't see that flavor usually, so now I'm going to be looking for that. Now that Presqu'île Chocolaterie is firmly in the quite good group, I can deal with other overlaps. Right now, along with Très Calme, Hidemi and Del'Immo stand out among quite good shops, so maybe I demoted them too soon.

Presqu'île Chocolaterie, Chocolat

Couple kilometers past Shinjuku Station.

Did a long run today, about 28 km, plus another couple kilometers walking under Shinjuku Station and near Kichijoji Station. It rained in the morning and was cool to the point of being cold in just my mess running shirt, though the rain did not return despite the dark clouds all around. I knew it was a long run, so I was running between 8 and 9 km/h the whole way.

Getting near Kichijoji Station

Mid-way, in car country.

My intended target was L'epicurien, but there is not good information on when they are open other than not particularly during the posted hours, at least for cake. Today, there was a sign on the door saying that they were closed for today, though I did not read it very closely, for one reason cause it was 1 meter away, do to a shutter over the entrance. Last time I went there and they were not open for cake, at least you could go inside and see that they were not open for cake (they were just selling the non-fresh-baked baked goods, like cookies).

I had a couple alternatives that I wanted to get to in the area, so I made a second visit to Presqu'île Chocolaterie, which was open (which is kind of amazing in itself, as far as not being out of business, but someone was buying before me, so maybe they sell enough). I got "Chocolate", which is classic chocolate cake with thick layers of ganache and enough biscuit for a reasonable texture. The chocolate was a beans-to-bar Granada chocolate, which they also hard bars for. It's a little basic, but definitely excellent. That's two excellent cakes from them, so if the Excellent shops ever make room, Presqu'île is perhaps the top candidate among the Quite Good shops for promotion.

In other news, September starts tomorrow, which means we've left hottest month behind and shops can move away from summer substitutes and get back to cake. Jean-Paul Hévin has four great cakes that are being reintroduced to the line-up, one for just a month, so it's going to need to be in the next cake-off, as well as their regular Chocolate Tart, which I have not blogged yet, so maybe I'll get it (with something new from Sadaharu Aoki as a back-up, for the previous cake-off win). Another JPH great cake is thru Oct., and another is the Mont-Blanc, which is an old favorite that would otherwise be the top priority based on when I first blogged that it was great.

Presqu'île Chocolaterie: Caramel Orange

Went for a long run to, along, and from Inogashira-Jindaiji History and Culture Course, which is my 21st of the 23 Tokyo H&C courses. As well as adjusting the training since the last attempt, I shortened the total route by a few kilometers (not that the length had been the problem) and, more importantly, ran in a way and at a pace that my hips could sustain. Had a little chronometer trouble at various times and I'm not completely sure about the last part of my route to the H&C course, but I seemed to do the ~15 km there on the low side of 10 km/h. After that, I seemed to manage only 8 km/h, which is slower than I'd like but better the failing. The course was about 13 km, though I overshot the end. Not sure whether there was a marker for the end on the other side of the street, but they've buried the train line and station, so got as far as the south station entrance intersection (coming from the north) before confirming that I had gone far enough. The trip back was the most brutal, ~18 km. I just stuck to the most major road (except one pointless detour) rather than get fancy. Interesting point, the beginning of the trail is in Inokashi Park and the number of police around increased exponentially as I approached. I think they were practicing some operation there, because I could see them walking the the grounds in a search pattern, there were lots of officers there to keep everyone away from the part they were using, and there was a pavilion set up with a lot of them lined up like they were going to hear a speech. They were around the first part of the Tokyo H&C course too, even outside the park, just keeping watch at street entrances or giving directions to a flower delivery person.

Although the main point was to prove that I could run farther than I had yet this year without killing myself and complete another Tokyo H&C course, there was also cake, though not where planned. I had intended to go to Voisin on the way, to get some cake to eat in the park and force myself to rest, but they had moved (which I apparently had not checked on, certainly not recently enough). Although I was disappointed, at 10 km, I was feeling fine and could continue. Actually, it's a good thing, because Voisin moved slightly closer to me and are now open an hour later, so I have a new place to do as a workday run. The other good news is, faced with no good alternative that I new about, I noticed a chocolatier that had cake that I could try, Presqu'île Chocolaterie, which is near the beginning of the course in the Kitsujoji area. After my previous bad chocolate experience, I actually went with the Caramel Orange (562 yen). This has thick caramel and chocolate cream (? I don't actually know much about mousse/cream) with chocolate caramel, a light but appropriate balance of orange on a biscuit Joconde (I think hazelnut, but I didn't ask/check and I'm not as much of an expert as I'd like to be). I don't know whether this was exceptional for its type, but it was definitely good, and I like this type and see enough of of it, so it's easy for me to label this an excellent cake, and so this shop as perhaps a quite good shop, so I should got back there relatively soon.

I had original planned to also stop at a new place at the two-thirds point, but decided that I didn't need that and that anyway I wanted to do a cake-off Sunday, even if it meant walking (and using the train, now that I think about it, since I would be pretty slow walking). Instead, I got what the shop, Aurora, called a Cinnamon Mountain (~150 yen), which was good as typical Japanese bakery cinnamon buns go, being fairly soft, and a 900 ml bottle of sports drink and had a rest.

Further disclosures, I rested Friday and did not get cake, but instead got three kinds of cookies: Petite Galette Britonne Chocolat, Nature, and Pina Colada. These were all good and I did not resist eating all that night.

I also made pâte sucrée brisée, though not well, so it was ready to make apple tarts Saturday night, which were delicious; I should make these more (and I still have half the pâte in the freezer, so I probably will, since my only other idea right now is try baked flan. Anyway, the point was to test the pâte recipe compared to my old tart crust recipe, and its definitely different and I can see why the recipe book recommended apple tarts (although it did not give any recipes using it).