La Précieuse, Montelimar and Waguri Mont-Blanc

Though it doesn't feel so long ago now, last Saturday I got a couple cakes for two from one of the shops on my quite fine group, La Précieuse on the north side of the Yotsuya Station building. I got the take-out, though they have a café space that I've used before. My choice was Montelimar, since I've had good luck with at least one cake of that name, and I like pistachio (hard to see in the picture, but the bottom is pistachio cream) and I think the top is mousse with honey and fruit. It was good. 

The other cake was the Waguri (domestic chestnut) Mont-Blanc. The sign says that you have to wait a couple minutes, because they make them fresh, but I think they didn't take so much time in the backroom. It also was good and had a meringue base, if I'm remembering correctly. So it's definitely a fine shop, but will get cut if I every manage to do a cut (I'm running out of shops to test, so it will probably depend on whether I add any new shops that make it to that level).

Jun Honma: Waguri Mont-Blanc

Still trying to sort out the quite fine shops versus the exceptional shops, I ran to Jun Honma again. I didn't get turned around 180 degrees again, but I also didn't pick my route that well, so it took about the same time. Actually, coming back with cake took the same time, and I walked under Shinjuku as far as Isetan. Takes a couple hours total.

I went with the Waguri Mont-Blanc this time, very traditional. And it was very traditional tasting, so good but nothing special, so Jun Honma slips behind, giving a different shop a chance for the next day. I'll say that this had a sort of almond tart base, since besides using Japanese Chestnuts, the base classifies it within the Mont-Blanc family.

Ryoura: Waguri Mont-Blanc

Monday (a substitute holiday for the September equinox), I tried running to a local cake place in Daikanyama area, but they took a holiday as well, though in theory they are open Mondays. It was not a very direct run there, as I wanted to get a new picture for Shibuya 4-choume Town Park (which Google maps kept substituting a different picture of mine for, even if I deleted it, so there is some corruption in my Google map) as well as a couple places around Shibuya Bridge and Ebisu Station. Since I was running, I had decided on Ryoura as a backup, which is several kilometers away, and then back by train. First, though, I stopped at Café Le Cordon Bleu for a second pastry. This time, they had a big selection, so it sells out fairly early. Back-translating the shown English name and receipt name (not the same) to the Japanese and then back to French, it was Torsadé Pistache (pistachio twist, which I should know). This also has some chocolate twisted inside, as well as pistachio, and the outside nuts and chocolate are held well by a hardened syrup coating, which made this chewy over the flakiness of the pastry. Definitely excellent, so I would like to get back there again.

They just started the Waguri Mont-Blanc at Ryoura (and I had seen the photo on Facebook), and last time's Mont-Blanc had been great I thought, so I got that. It was good, so I enjoyed it, but it did not standard out as a mont-blanc. The simplicity of just a simple meringue base, whipped cream, and chestnut paste means that it pretty much depends on how the chestnut hits me, and it was fine but not my favorite for cake, apparently.

I'll mention that it was more weekend running than other weeks, but I'm doing stretches for my foot pain twice a day now, and it seems to be improving nicely, so not too bad this morning. Tonight, I did some local shopping running around places looking at drinking vinegar. I've gotten some recently, and it has more honey in it than expected, so it's not very low calorie. I ended up getting some black vinegar today that has about half the calories, though it still says add honey to taste, so I'm not sure how it's going to work out for drinking. I can still use it for other things.

Before finding that, I've added several alternative dessert locations in the Omotesandou/Harujuku neighborhood area to my neighborhood running course, and tentatively changed it for future runs. Still on the old course is the Aoyama-douri Pudding Shop, so I bought a little baked non-fresh (packaged, actually) cake there today, called Chocolat Aoyama Sanpo (stroll/walk). It would be pretty messing to try to eat it walking, so I'm glad I didn't try. This was much better than I expected, so I might even try their other "white" version of this. It certainly qualifies as definitely good.

Noix de Beurre, Waguri Mont-Blanc

Sunday, I got some cake for two from Noix de Beurre, Isetan, the Chantilly Fraise (not pictured, damaged in transportation) and one new one, their Waguri Mont-Blanc. It was definitely good, though I wished that I had used a sharper knife, just to cut through the chestnut paste without crushing the whipped cream underneath. The base is tart-like rather than meringue and there is a large piece (pre-cut into smaller chunks, I think) of chestnut in the center as well. I should look at knifes when I got back to Tokyu Hands to see about a glass jar for pickling.

In the evening, I finally did another one-way neighborhood run, this time as far as the Shibuya--Minami-Aoyama loop, which is ten loops out (not that I start from Loop #1, but I start before my neighbor courses start branching, so it's all proportionate beyond the first few). Not surprisingly, I found flaws in my old course (crossing signal), so I ran an approximation and updated the course for next time, though I don't feel compelled to repeat it before starting on the next set of loops (the 11s out). Took a picture on the way back that works even at night for the neighborhood map of a cafe on the Jinguumae--Kita-Aoyama Central Loop (which is 8 loops out) that seems quite good for cake.

(Saturday) Maison g Tokyo: Pistache Fraise and Waguri Mont-Blanc

There were a couple cakes that we didn't get yesterday at Isetan from Maison g Tokyo (patisserie for Meguro Gajoen) that there was still interest in today, so we got them rather than stand in line at Jean-Paul Hévin for expensive special-event cake (which I was interested as a eat-in experience, but now the chocolate bar has been converted to to make space for Valentine's chocolate season, as happens every year). The cakes are Pistache Fraise and Waguri Mont-Blanc, so a probably white chocolate and pistachio mousse (with sufficient gelatin) around some strawberry part with some nice whole pistachios and a strawberry, and a Japanese chestnut Mont-Blanc with a meringue base and a whole chestnut inside. Both were good, but not better than that. After five cakes and nothing great and a couple only good ones, I may never get down to the actual Hotel in Meguro, though definitely good.