Mooncake season in Chinese restaurants and supermarkets in Singapore and Worldwide

Problem
It's moon cake season, so delicious, so diet-defiant, where can I get one? My favourite flavour is red bean. I've tried ice cream moon cakes, but ice cream is not a moon cake.

Through my email comes an offer for discounts on mooncakes from a certain bakery shop chain in Signapore, on the Passion card. Order now, for delivery in September. You can get mooncakes anywhere and everywhere in Singapore. Apparently moon cakes are cheaper in Taiwan. You can also order them online. But, let's go back to my memories of mooncakes in Singapore.

They even have pop up shops selling nothing but mooncakes. I was lured in by the advertised price but was disappointed. I found the prices misleading. The cheap special offer is the price per moon cake if you order a box of several.

Passion Card
What is a passion card? It is available when you join a Community Centre. You have to join the community centre when you attend many events, not as a visitor but as a member. For example, such as a course of lessons in Tai Chi. Sometimes a non-member can take a course but pay more. I joined an Advanced Speakers club, Braddell Heights. The Community Centres were offering a free zip up carry bag, if you joined. Seniors and students pay less. The fee is quite low, about 20 dollars, but varies from one place to another. It's no life membership, it lasts more than a year. You can get a card offering a discount on travel, or at a chain of pharmacies, and all sorts of things. The offers come and go.

They also do first aid classes, Mandarin classes, art classes, classes for juniors, adults, seniors.

Red bean mooncake. Photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.

What is a moon cake?

If you are Chinese you know already. If not you can research it and give a speech on it. I learn it every year then forget. Something to do with a moon Goddess and seeing a full moon or eclipsed moon on a certain day or month, which varies with a lunar calendar, with a myth about a moon goddess who brings good luck.

In the old days you simply make a few sweet cakes. Now the cakes are expensive. They are small heavy highly calorie cakes, with numerous ingredients, esoteric ingredients. The cakes need, a long preparation and baking time. Elaborate patterns on the top are designed and then imprinted, made from an expensive wooden mould.

I looked into buying moulds and baking cakes. In the end I bought a second hand wooden mould from a Chinese neighbour who was having a house sale before emigrating to the USA.

Moon cake decoration. Photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.

I went to a lot of Toastmasters meetings. At many of them somebody brought along moon cakes to share. Most Toastmasters clubs in Singapore charge members more than those in the UK for the six monthly or annual membership. They have a budget for food per meeting. it could be as small as five Singapore dollars, enough to buy a bunch of bananas and a large cheap pot of noodles. A company club will often be subsidised and run a buffet dinner.

Some suburban clubs supply food made at home by the President or the President's mother, a huge curry and a huge pot of rice. Maybe some clubs just run a rota. Maybe they secretly do a whip round, minimum a dollar a person, more if you like, and can then spend 20 to 40 dollars on four mooncakes, each of which can be cut into four or more portions. This is not being mean. That's how it was done from ancient times, everybody in the family or group received a slice of the shared mooncake.

It looks like you are getting only a teeny slice. But it's a bit like eating a flavoured lump of sugar. For most people one is enough.

You will find moon cakes in Singapore, Taiwan, China, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, North America and in Chinese areas in the USA, London and worldwide.

Tips
The wikipedia article is a useful guide to the history of the mid Autumn festival as well as the ingredients of the crust and fillings.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mooncake

Author, Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker.