Aigre-Douce, Tarte au Citron

Back on Sunday, the last day I had cake, due to their cake-off the day before, I was back in line at Aigre-Douce. This time I ran about 1 km and walked the rest of the way, as well as walking back. As I've noted, I've had a lot of less than good from here,  so this time I went with a cake that was similar in type, though not in flavor, to the caramel tart that I so much. I got the Tarte au Citron. It was definitely good, relative light, as lemon tarts good, which is no criticism. It was a good choice, even if I still haven't found a new great cake from there.
 

Viron, Tarte au Citron

As a weekday destination, Viron in Shibuya is pretty reliable about not running out of cake, though actually I went in the morning. This was the second-to-last of a long run of mornings off to use up my expiring paid holidays. In response to a disappointing lemon tart/pie over the weekend, it was natural to hit Viron for the Tarte au Citron. This seems so traditional for them that's surprising that I haven't had it before, though that's probably because tarts were low on my priority list. This has meringue on top, naturally, and is excellent, thankfully. 

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.

Sadaharu Aoki, Tarte au Citron

Following Golden Week, as the new seasonal cakes, they brought back the Symphonie for all the shops and also added Tarte au Citron, which surprisingly, I haven't had before from them. This might be the best lemon tart I've had (the pistachio is basically decoration, but it doesn't hurt and a minor flavor enhancement). I've had other ones that were stronger, I think, in sweetness and tartness, this seems better, and I trust the source. While my attempts to designate cake greats as top representatives of some class haven't always worked out very well, I'm in the mood to do it again say that this was a great cake. It will be around through July, so I'll have a few cake-off rounds to confirm that it belongs among other great cakes.

But not the next cake-off, as B-E's grapefruit pistachio chiboust is back, but in a new shape. Not sure whether it is really the same, but it does indicate that I won't get another chance at the older version soon, so I should at least assume that it's equivalent and do a third-round cake-off with it before it changes again (I won't be shocked if it changes even before Saturday, based on previous experience; I hadn't thought about them when I visited, so I didn't ask).