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).

Cake-off: Très Calme's Pistache Apricot over L'Abricotier's Montelimar

Working through fourth-round cake-offs for May cakes (based on when I first ate), I ran to L'Abricotier to get their Montelimar (for which I was successful). I went via Aigre-Douce, but the sign on the door indicated that, while they are still in business, they've shorted their hours and switched their holidays so that my working hours overlap theirs. It's a good measure to keep the riffraff out of the neighborhood, though it works better if they don't have to visit to find out. My backup was Très Calme's Pistache Apricot, which is somewhat out of order, but this cake is seasonal, whereas they always have their Mont-Blanc, and also this meant a match-up of two fruity nutty cakes, which seemed reasonable.

After getting the cakes safely home, I had lunch with a pastry rather than the cakes: a Canelé de Bordeaux from L'Abricotier, which usually doesn't have pastries (they also had a card for a chocolate tart next to it, but it was sold out, so I'm not sure what kind of product it was). It was definitely good, which a pretty thick firm crust.

It's a tough choice. The Montelimar is more distinctive among my great cakes, but I really like the pistachio better (versus almond), so I have to go with the Pistache Apricot.

Cake-off: L'Abricotier's Montelimar over Noix de Beurre's Fraise Chantilly

Walked as far as L'Abricotier's, then to nearest JR Station, then Shinjuku Stn. to Isetan, and then home, which was a lot, and certainly more than other controlled walks, but seemed reasonable, so better than previous walking tests. I was there to get Montelimar for a third-round cake-off of cakes that were one and one. It's opponent was Noix de Beurre's Fraise Chantilly, which is why I went to Isetan. The wait was less than 30 minutes there, which was less than I feared, given the lines from opening time (not sure when or why this started). I questioned last time whether the Fraise Chantilly belong among the greats, but when you want cream and strawberry and a little sponge cake, this is still my favorite, and it is nice sometimes, so I'm keeping it in. However, I like the hazelnut accented by apricot of Montelimar better. Wish it was a little more solid, but then it would be a different cake.

Cake-off; L'Abricotier's Montelimar over Sadaharu Aoki's Tarte au Citron

Got the Tarte au Citron from Sadaharu Aoki first, walking to and from Isetan. I noticed that they also had a new coconut cream puff, which I assume will stick around for at a least a couple weeks, so I'll not worry about it next week. Then I went by bicycle and picked up Montelimar from L'Abricotier, came back and had a half-lunch, and then went about again (like Thursday) to try to do the Daikanyama-chou--Ebisunishi...Uguisudani-chou loop. I tried starting at a different part and messed that up, and then after I got on track, I missed the first turn, so clearly I don't know the course yet, which is not so surprising given the many changes. Also, as it happens, pointless to try to know it, since I've had to completely revised it much more dramatically again. One bakery was lost (which simplifies that part), one was found (so I have to turn early, but that's more natural anyway), and I've decided to add a religious headquarters for one of the Shinto-related "new religions" (which meant I had to split off the Mark City part into a separate loop), and one café (which has a convenient pedestrian crossing near it). However, most of the changes are due to the loss of a pedestrian bridge connecting the north and south parts on the west end (and also this loop to Nakameguro), so I have to loop all the way back to the east side, flipping the order of a bunch of things, although in some ways the course looks less convoluted now. The bridge was replaced by a regular crosswalk, probably because there is a lot more traffic across that road now that the new music college opened. In other news about that course, Il Pleut sur la Seine is back in business, though in a smaller shop on the west rather than east side of the building and they have the cake I need for a cake-off, so probably I'll be there next week if I don't finding something higher priority before then.

Unfortunately, I've decided that Sadaharu AOki's Tarte au Citron isn't really that different from other high-quality lemon tarts, so it loses to the Montelimar and gets kicked out of the greats list.

Cake-off: Michalak's Paris-Brest over L'Abricotier's Montelimar

I went by bicycle in one outing for both Michalak's Paris-Brest and L'Abricotier's Montelimar, in the opposite order, so the latter got a little beat up, as the vibration seemed to make the cake base lose it's adhesion to the cardboard base, although the latter was not actually taped down, I think, so maybe it's pointless to try to find a cause other than the bicycle.

My previous evaluations of both these cakes hold: I don't want to give up either as great cakes, but I'm on the look out for better versions to replace them with. I'm going with the Paris-Brest as the winner, as a guilty pleasure, but this thing is really decadently sugary, even for me, so have a glass of milk or lots of straight tea ready to balance it out.

I had said that the winner of this first-round would be in a second-round cake-off next, but I had already realized as soon as I posted that the Paris-Brest would be around for a while, so maybe I should do the other two one-win no-losses cakes instead. I'm debating between that and saving all three for match-ups with anything seasonal that appears, because I think there is no hurry for any of these three. Montelimar, however, I'll do a cake-off for as soon as I get another one-loss cake, which might take time.

L'Abricotier, Montelimar

Montelimar from L'Abricotier

For the final, 10th day of GW, I choose one holiday-only shop and decided that, under the new shop ranking system, L'Abricotier was by far under-visited as a quite excellent shop with 4 cake-off wins so far. They had a new cake, Montelimar, which is a honey mousse with dried fruit and hazelnuts on top of a hazelnut and Japanese apricot tart. This combination of fruit and nuts is common to many of their cakes, especially my favorite ones from them. I wondering whether there are other nuts in, since some seemed green, suggesting pistachio, and the combination gave a taste that made me think of butter pecan.

Cross-sectional view

I didn't ask, since another customer had come in, but there is a center custard-like disk, but I couldn't distinguish the taste. This cake was great, unlike others I have. I'll match it against Paris-Brest in the next cake-off I think, which is also hazelnuts, but praliné, so completely different from the raw fruity nuts of today's cake, in keeping with the contrast between the trendy modern foreign Machalak and the neighborhood shop L'Abricotier. Less of a ride today. I'll probably rest from even bicycling tomorrow, which I was thinking would be easy because all my cakes during the week will be from Isetan, since I only have two more cakes this week and might eschew pastries (and definitely bread) for reasons of weight control under my current reduced level of activity. I was hoping for a new cake from Sadaharu Aoki, since they are are finishing their main seasonal cakes today, but I'm now thinking that the chance of something totally new is small, and it has not been that long since I had cake from Machalak, so I'm not sure what I was going to get from Isetan. At least I'll visit them to see what the situation is. Maybe I'll finally get to P. Très Calme or Jun Honma again this week, assuming that they aren't taking the week off.