Saturday, September 15, 2007

Mooncakes, mooncakes I love you

Mom just remind me that the 'chinese lantern festival' which falls on the 15th day of the lunar 8th month is coming soon (on the western calendar that will be on the 25th Sept this year, another 10 more days to go).


Lantern Festival in Chinese Garden, Sg

Back home, there will be more celebrations..usually the little kids will carry their lantern and walk around the park. I remembered when we are little, the group of cousins, we loved to lit up candles in our paper lanterns and ah gong will bring us downstairs to the playground to walk around with our lanterns..giggling, laughing. It such a beautiful sights with so many lanterns. As we get older, mom will hang some lanterns on the balcony (we are too old and too shy now to carry them) hahaha

What is a latern festival without mooncakes! :) With the commericalisation of this festival, in Singapore, you can get almost all sort of mooncakes! All the hotel pastry chefs will be competing for the most innovative, most tasty mooncakes every year during this time..lets hv a look at this year's varieties...

Marriott's Hotel new flavour this year : Snowskin Blueberry cheese mooncake




Pan Pacific's hotel "Six Chefs, Eight Mooncakes, One Boutique Collection"

Imperial Golden Custard (Chef Lai Tong Ping, Hai Tien Lo Cantonese Restaurant)
Sweet Wolfberry & Wai Shan (Chef Lai Tong Ping, Hai Tien Lo Cantonese Restaurant)
Osmanthus Divine (Chef Lai Tong Ping, Hai Tien Lo Cantonese Restaurant)
Velvety Umeshu & Sweet Potato (Chef Hiroshi Ishii, Keyaki Japanese Restaurant)
Decadent Brandy Truffle (Executive Chef Joseph Martin, Global Kitchen)
Heavenly Red Wine and Chocolate (Chef Phillip Lee, Atrium Deli)
Ambrosial Honey & Ricotta Cheese (Executive Chef Dennis Sim, Zambuca Italian Restaurant)
Aromatic Cloves & Figs (Executive Sous Chef Vinod Kumar, Rang Mahal)

The famous D24 Durian mooncake from Goodwood Park Hotel

The traditional baked mooncakes, snowskin mooncakes including the signature D24 Durian and Cempedak Paste in Snowskin, and the new addition – Golden Mooncakes with Yam Paste or Durian Paste (cripsy texture)

Home's Favourite (L-R): 100% Black (Charcoal) Gold Durian Mooncake, Champagne Paste With Baileys Truffle Mooncakes and Pure Mango With Mung Bean Mooncakes



Of course there are alot more varieties in more hotels that I simply dont hv to remind myself that I dont get to eat them...here is our humble mooncake that we got here. The traditional baked lotus paste with double yolk (hmm, pretty small yolk compared to those that I used to hv) hahahaha



Happy Mooncake festival!

Cheerios and keep smiling!
With Love from PoohBear

30 comments:

J.T. said...

Oh..yummmm... one year ago I was in Malaysia during the Mooncake festival. I managed to bring home a box of mooncakes which I feasted on for a couple of months. I'm going to miss it this year.

I usually like the plain original ones. Looking at the other versions of mooncake, I wouldn't mind trying the durian and cempedak. Have you tried them? Are they tasty?

nyonyapenang said...

Hi Winniethepooh,

Seriously, the array of mooncakes available is just mind-boggling, and I have not even tasted those new-fangled types and they cost a bomb, what with their fancy packaging. Have you tried those in Toronto?

The boys at home give the thumbs-up to those plain lotus paste ones with melon-seeds fillings without the salted egg-yolks and that's what we get all the time. And they like those 'piggy biscuits' too.

Have a relaxing weekend!

TZ said...

I still remembered when i was in Canada during the Mooncakes festival. We only able to get the Hongkong style Mooncakes which is different from what we have in Malaysia.

BTW, lot's of new type of Mooncakes have been introduced by various hotels and some big bakery factory... Guess what? I'm still prefer the two traditional type of mooncakes i.e. Lotus with salted egg and Mix nuts.

winniethepooh said...

j.t. a box of mooncake there's only 4 in a box isnt it? u managed to 'bear with the temptation' and slowly enjoyed them for a couples of month! wow, ure surely patience :)

yup, i tried the D24 durian and the cempedak ones a year or 2 back, they are DELICIOUS! if onli someone will air flown me some..but since they are the snow skin type, they cant be kept as long as the traditional baked ones. My gf tried the 100% black charcoal golden durian and she said that it taste really good..i want some too! :(

j.t. is there a chinatown near ur place? if there is, usually they should hv, do they?

winniethepooh said...

nyonyapenang, in Singapore at this time of the year, Takashimaya (one of our biggest shopping centre)always has a 'mooncake fair' and alot of those hotels mooncakes and those famous brands of mooncake makers will be there. To do business, they do hv samplings, so we do get to taste a bit of everything! thats something I love :) When i find something fancy that i like, then i'll get it :)

I hvent been to Toronto Chinatown so I dont know if they hv fancy ones there, but i suspect there wil be more traditional mooncakes since most of the chinese are hongkongers. The last 2 pics of the mooncake, that is what we managed to get at the asian gorcery here in toronto, the traditional baked mooncake :)

The lotus with melon seeds filling, yeah i remembered those too. Taste good too and talk about 'piggy biscuits', we used to hv them when we are little, now dont get to see alot of those around.

u hv a great week ahead!

winniethepooh said...

tz whats the traditional hk style ones? i tot they will be those baked ones? not the same?

seems like all of u (j.t., nyonyapenang n boys, n u tz) like the traditional original flavour? :)

As for me, my taste buds dont really stick to the traditional ones too much. I love to try any new kind of flavours. Guess its the nature of the food technologist in me hehehe..any new interesting flavours in KL? :)

sbanboy said...

I used to play lanterns during mooncake festival ... now big boy already loh

winniethepooh said...

hehe sbanboy, i oso big gal, so paiseh to carry lantern all around. Just hang lanterns on the balcony :) do u do that too?

Lee said...

Hi Winnie, gosh! That many varieties? I didn't even know there were. I guess kind of lost touch.
However, I only go for those with mixed nuts in them but will take a detour on those with eggs or whatever.
But I sure wouldn't mind try the durian ones as in your nice pics.
Market Village will have their celebrations I guess.
Have a nice sunday. Cool day, huh? UL.

Anonymous said...

winniethepooh: happy mooncake fest to u too. hope u get to enjoy the mooncakes in canada too.

i love mooncakes. the snowskin with lian rong. i dun fancy the rest.

pearly said...

hi so far is mooncake festival ..
I am so lucky the other day when brandon birthday party hold at the dragon Inn .. the lady who bring brandon birthday cake tracy she bought me a tin of 4 mooncake the hong kong wah la .. I eat 2 already I give aways one to my best friend lor share share la in UK so expensive la ....
I remember too the when we young my dady make us a lente the best one inthe small town no one have the same as mine cos my dad make specailly for me hahahhaha,

those mooncake you show on the post wow I never know there so many kind one la ... must go back to try la wowww I am really ( big farm home lady ) hhaha.
thank for post out all those lovely mooncake to share ... i wish you a very happy festival too .

J.T. said...

Hi Winnie

Unfortunately, there is none within an hour's drive. I will have to check another town on my next grocery day. It is in the town where Mitch works - about 1.5 hours out. I will be thankful if I can find an Asian store there. At least I won't be short of local food. :) It will be a bonus if I can find mooncakes.

Jonzz said...

All these new-fangled mooncakes look so tempting. Mmmm

Anonymous said...

Wow you reli know how to make me drool. Unfortunately the first thing customs ask me upon entering was "do you have mooncake"? Sigh...

trueblue said...

I've never tasted mooncake before. Kinda curious actually :)

Nightwing said...

Wow!! nice pics of different moon cakes.

Every year i buy from AMWAY. I like their packing and their mooncakes.

Without fail, i buy 3 boxes to give away. For grandma, for grandma's sister (usually comes back around this time from Australia) and for grandma's good friend.

hehe..and 1 for me.

winniethepooh said...

hehe Oh yeah Uncle Lee, every year I look forward to mooncake fest coz i'm just wondering what newer and fancier varieties of mooncake there will be..and that of coz when i get to try! yumyumyum hehehe

The durian ones from Goodwood park hotel in sg, they used REAL durian flesh to make their mooncake not some flavourings, u sure make a good pick! :)

Did you buy any mooncake this year? have a great week ahead Uncle Lee :)

winniethepooh said...

poohbearee happy mooncake fest to you too! :) ahh, u like the lian rong ones like most huh..but u like the snow skin version. Snow skin or baked skin, i like both since its just once a year that i eat them :) oh and of course, i do like the teochew ones..those fried ones with yam filling!

winniethepooh said...

happy mooncake fest to u too Pearly! yeah so fast, its mooncake fest again. Mooncake in UK is expensive huh..might be u can try making? :)

ur daddy make lanterns for you all, wow, one of a kind, no one else has it. Do your kids carry lanterns over there? It sure was fun when we are younger..lots of fun carrying our pretty lanterns walking around 'showing off' hahaha

u hv a great week pearly!

winniethepooh said...

oh yeah jonzz, they look tempting and that durian ones..yummy!! :)

winniethepooh said...

hopefully u will be able to find one asian gorcery j.t.! i bet if u do, u will be buying lots to stock up! :) i will if i'm u hehe..and keep fingers crossed that u will be able to find the mooncakes too

hv a great week j.t.!

winniethepooh said...

wah FH, custom so smart one ar..wonder if u say no, can u 'secretly' get passed? hmm i tot mooncake is ok as long as no yolk or its like individually packed? how come cannot huh?

*share share mooncake with FH*

winniethepooh said...

they dont make 'halal' mooncake in malaysia, trueblue? if they do, hv a try, u might like it :)

winniethepooh said...

wow nightwing, u so good..*look at nightwing* buy one more for winniethepooh plss? :P I give u one lantern in exchange? hehehe

Nightwing said...

Hehe...thanks Winniethepooh, will fedex over but takut the fedex ppl themselves eat them.

The mooncake from Amway is Halal..

winniethepooh said...

hehe nightwing, might be huh..:P

enjoy ur mooncake fest!

Chen said...

yum yum
happy mooncake festival :D

i'm amazed at the varieties of mooncakes. They even have chempedak paste !! LOL

Lee said...

Hi Winnie, have a look at the Toronto Star, page 4, main paper, Sept 20th. UL.

winniethepooh said...

Chen, yumyum :) the cempedak flavour hehehe..

happy mooncake fest to you too! *hear chen singing, 'moon represent my heart'* :P

winniethepooh said...

hmm, Uncle Lee, we dont subscribe to Toronto Star, can you let me know what is the title of the article? Thanks