Over The Moon With Mooncakes
Some centuries-old customs and traditions live on. The Mid-Autumn Festival is one of them. Also known as Mooncake Festival, mooncakes are regarded as an indispensable delicacy – a custom that goes back to more than 2,000 years. Rituals dictate that to fully celebrate the festival, one must reunite with loved ones and eat mooncakes! Celebrated on the fifteenth day of the eighth month of the Chinese lunar calendar, on a full moon day, the festival starts on 21 September this year.
The traditionally baked round Chinese desserts are usually filled with salted duck egg yolks (one or more) with lotus seed paste or red bean paste draped around the yolks. They are bigger in size (generally 10 cm in diameter and 4-5 cm thick), oily to the touch and have thicker, darker crust largely due to the oil ingredients.
The time-honoured mooncake has come a long way. It now shares the spotlight with a medley of flavourful variations to tempt the palate and, perhaps, appeal more to the younger generation.
Mooncake variations span a hybrid of flavours. The range includes the exotic (truffles, whisky, XO, cempedak), the fruity (melon, raspberry, strawberry, durian, pomelo, banana, passion fruit, blueberry), the nutty (vanilla, macademia, almond, pistachio, walnut) and the sweet and spicy (chocolate infused with chilli flakes, wasabi and seaweed). The list expands every year that we are all spoilt for choice.
Weekly Sparks is over the moon with mooncakes. Here are some that are available in Singapore. Tip: best to pre-order before they get snapped up!
New flavours from this year consists of traditional baked chestnut paste with Hokkaido milk, apricot and melon seeds and the pandan coconut snowskin. Also available: tea-themed mooncakes fans can enjoy their BiluoChun green Tea with guava and chestnut snowskin, and a series of low-sugar mooncakes such as the low sugar silver lotus paste with 1 or 2 yolks and the lychee martini and chocolate truffle.
Handcrafted to perfection. Expect authenticity in every bite with perpetual favourites such as low sugar white lotus seed paste with double yolk baked mooncake, and the best-selling snowskin Peranakan durian mini snowskin mooncake. There's also two newly-crafted flavours: sea salt caramel praline mini snowskin mooncake and green tea paste with chrysanthemum praline mini snowskin mooncake.
Unique snowskin mooncake flavours inspired by each of Regent’s award-winning restaurants. Savour quintessentially Italian flavours by Basilico, delicate floral teas from Tea Lounge, Manhattan’s craft tipples weaved with fruity flavours and the much-anticipated classics from one Michelin-starred Summer Palace. The collection is housed in leatherette travel cases that transform to elegant carriers.
Highlights this year includes Limited Edition 50-year aged mandarin peel, rose and red bean paste mooncake to commemorate the golden anniversary of Shang Palace. Of course, there’s an array of indulgent baked and snowskin mooncakes to take home in Peranakan-inspired gift boxes.
The Clifford Pier Mooncake Tingkat is a nostalgic nod to the bustling hawker scene that once surrounded Clifford Pier in bygone eras past. Each tiffin carrier contains four baked mooncakes: the mixed nuts with satay sauce, the salted lotus with hae bee hiam, the assam lotus with mango and the milder aromas of the pandan coconut with chendol.
Janice Wong presents a thoughtful selection of baked, snow skin and signature chocolate mooncakes. Its signature drip painted chocolate mooncakes returns this year, offering a delectable range of new and familiar flavours for fans. Set on a base of chocolate sponge, flavours like coffee and chocolate with lashings of kopi ganache, caramelised sea salt pecan dark chocolate, and peanut butter snickers with peanut butter paste and salted caramel ganache, are spins on classics.
The signature champagne truffle snowskin mooncake swathed in smooth white lotus paste and lusciously fragrant is a perennial favourite. Best paired with a glass of the Raffles exclusive Billecart-Salmon Champagne Brut Réserve, a true toast to the festivities.
Debbie | ws