Embrace the Mid Autumn Festival 12 September

The Mid Autumn Festival falls on 12 September – two days’ time, when the moon is at its fullest and most beautiful. I think it’d be so fun to pull out the stops and get traditional and do as the ancestors did. Pull out some garden furniture, brew some really nice Chinese tea and lay out the mooncakes and just shoot the breeze and enjoy the lunar light with family and friends. Does this have to sound campy? Only to cynics who have forgotten how to have fun. After all, why be cynical when you can just embrace tradition and infuse it with your own kind of elegance? Tradition doesn’t have to be old fashioned, nor should it be poo-pooed….and anyway, I think it’s really refreshing to go back to old customs and embrace them just because. After all, if Singapore has begun to celebrate Halloween (why not our own Asian Ching Ming?) and Thanksgiving (when we don’t have pilgrim fathers or turkeys), why not our own Asian roots? SimplyFab will be proudly celebrating the Mid Autumn Festival this Monday, and we hope you will too.

While we have already run two stories on mooncakes, here’s a listing of more around town. If you haven’t already bought any, it’s time to get out there and buy yourself some! Do note that literally all mooncake purveyors do offer the traditional baked versions, and you usually cannot go wrong with them. But more interesting flavours? Here’s what caught our eye.

 

Marina Mandarin Singapore’s Peach Blossom restaurant has gone pretty bold this year with its Mini Kopi Luwak Snowskin ($208.80 for 8 pieces), delivered in a gold lacquer box decorated with floating crystals on the lid. This is for the serious coffee connoisseur, featuring white lotus seed paste infused with kopi luwak, the most expensive and exotic coffee in the world. If you have a stomach for coffee that had come through a civet cat’s digestive system and out through the usual channel at the back end, this might just be the thing for you! As for me, budget and palate wise, I am content to settle for something less lofty, but I am sure no less delectable. I’ll go for the really yummy Mini Nougat with Raisins and Mixed Nuts in snowskin, new this year and a unique combination of western style soft nougat candy in a soft snow skin with white lotus paste. The rather fragrant Mini Lavender with White Chocolate, featuring white lotus paste and a white chocolate ball in the centre, and a returning favourite, the Mini Mixed Berries with Whisky Chocolate  are also nice ($58.80 for 8 pieces). We tried the Mini Almond with Marshmallow and Gummy Bear mooncake, and I can’t say I like it. I’ve got problems with gummy bears in my mooncake. (Tel: 6845 1118)

 

Singapore Marriot’s got some choice pieces as well which are kinda adventurous: we like the idea of the chocolate brownie and brandy cherry snowskin mooncakes and the mao shan wang durian snowskin mooncake. You can imagine the flavours for both. I’m a little hesitant with the White Lotus Seed Paste with Chicken Bak-Kwah and Assorted Nuts but apparently it is quite a hit among bak kwa lovers. This came on the heels of their bak kwa cookies which apparently has cause a bit of a frenzy in the past! (tel: 6831 4708 available until 12 Sept at the hotel forecourt) 

 

Yan Ting, St Regis Singapore’s Chinese restaurant, has introduced a few new flavours which are fundamentally still traditional (and often, traditional is still best). The Passionfruit Snow Skin with Custard Paste and Yolk mooncake balances the delicately sweet tartness of passionfruit infused into its snow skin, and filled with  a light custard paste with a single yolk. Also made of snow skin are the Red Bean Paste with Lotus Seed mooncake which cannot go wrong, a yummy Teochew-inspired Yam Paste with Gingko Nuts mooncake, light and smooth and made from  Thai yams, and the aromatic Green Tea with Yolk, featuring white lotus paste filling infused with green tea. All $53.80 per box of 8. (Tel: 6506 6893)

 

 Mandarin Orchard Singapore’s Mandarin Court Restaurant is always good with their mooncakes. This year they are offering Mini Snow Skin Almond with Black Sesame Paste Mooncake ($48), combining classic Chinese flavours in a yin yang sort of way – lightly sweet almonds with the nutty, lower notes of sesame. Nice. They are usually good with green tea concoctions too, so my bet is that its Mini Snow Skin Green Tea with Melon Seeds ($48) is a good choice. I am not sure about its Snow Skin Purple Sweet Potato and Amaretto Truffle Mooncake ($52) though. I wish I had made it to the tasting to find out,….this is certainly be an intriguing combination. On sale at their deli counter until 12 Sept. (Tel: 6831 6320)

 

You can always trust Szechuan Court at Fairmont Singapore to walk the path less taken and be bold about things.  This year, they have rolled out The Divine Queen (Mini Snow-Skin Durian Mooncake $53), a  frozen morsel packed with durian pulp. Endless Night ($50) is a Mini Snow-Skin Dark Rocher Chocolate Mooncake, and for a healthy spin (as if there’s such a thing with mooncakes), the poetically named Garden of Eve ($50) is a baked Mooncake with Olive Kernel in White Lotus Paste). Their usual faves that return again and again are the Champagne Truffle & Chocolate Ganache, Baileys Chocolate and Rum & Raisin Chocolate Truffle. (Tel 6338 8785, avail until 12 Sept at Szechuan Court, Takashimaya, Chevron House and VivoCity)

 

Apart from the traditional mooncakes, The Paradise Group has rolled out a rather luxurious Dark Chocolate with Black Truffle, and White Chocolate with White Truffle Petite Snow Skin Mooncakes (8 pc per box, S$43). These are laced with the scent of black and white truffles, so hurray if you like them. The mooncakes are sprinkled with some gold dust which will no doubt delight moms in law or tau-kays in your midst! Then there’s the yummy Macadamia Kahlua Dark Chocolate Petite Snow Skin Mooncakes (8 pc per box, S$39) – nuts, chocs and coffee liqueur – just can’t go wrong! (available at all Paradise Group restaurants til 12 Sept.)