Moon cake for the mid-autumn festival, with a delicious filling, usually sweet. The moon cake is round, like the shape of the full moon, and the small white boiled egg inside represents the moon.
Problem
When is it a good time to be in Singapore and other countries with large Chinese populations? I was vaguely wondering when the mid-Autumn festival would start. Like Christmas, it's a diet-breaking time of year. I love moon cakes.
Answer
Shangi-la Hotel in Singapore sent me news that they are selling moon cakes in advance of September 24th. Yes, that's the date of the Mid-Autumn festival this year, celebrated in China, Singapore and anywhere with a Chinese community.
Look out for moon cakes in restaurants, supermarkets, ice cream parlours, airport shops, and online from the big sellers such as eBay, Amazon and the Chinese internet sites.
Toastmasters Clubs Festival Talks
In Singapore, I am offered a teeny slice of mooncake in the refreshment break at Toastmasters International clubs. I've had mooncakes at two or three of the English-language clubs. I expect the Mandarin-speaking clubs are equally keen.
If you go to a club, expect to hear a speech about the mid-Autumn Festival. Do some reserach in case you are asked to speak about it, or say how it is celebrated in your country, or the country you have just travelled from.
Buying Cakes
The moon cakes are at varied prices. Some of the shops sell you four in a presentation box for about £24. Mooncakes are often given as gifts to valued business customers, which is why those expensive stiff boxes with drawers and red tassels are found in shops all round the financial district.
I even went to a pop-up shop which was devoted entirely to moon cakes for the moon cake festival season.
Others will sell one mooncake for about 36.
One visitor from Taiwan said that in Taiwan you can buy mooncakes cheaper. Out of curiosity, I shall check nearer the date.
Cutting
Moon cakes are muffin sized, cut in up to 4, 8 or16 bite-size pieces, like a full-size cake. It looks small, but it's very dense and full of sugar and, I suppose fats, so you soon feel you've had enough. Most people have one, or sometimes two slices. Although, I would not say no, if somebody insisted.
That reminds me. I must look out for mooncakes at airports. I must also ask friends and family overseas to bring me some back. If you are en route from America or Australia via Asia, or have a colleague who is, ask them to look out for mooncakes.
You could make your own, which is apparently time-consuming. You also need to invest in a mould to stamp the pattern on top. Many Chinese households will have one. I bought one from a lady who was leaving Singapore for the USA. She had had it lost at the back of her cupboard for many years, until she started to pack up to move house.
Now the mould is lost somewhere at the back of a cupboard in our place in Singapore. Frankly, I think I shall buy a mooncake ready-made. Maybe from Taiwan, a neighbourhood supermarket, or a market.
Moon cakes are an acquired taste. I managed to acquire the taste quite quickly and now I'm an addict.
Flavours
The cakes come in lots of flavours. My favourites are anything nutty. Or like bean curd paste.
Egg Centre
You pay more for a salted preserved egg in the centre. You pay even more for a double egg centre.
Double yolk and lotus seed.
At first I felt aggrieved that my sweet centre had been taken over, like a cuckoo's eggs, by a salted egg.
Later, I could see the point. The sugary centre is overwhelming. A salted boiled egg adds some nutrition and enables you to eat more without it seeming too sickly.
Savoury Centres
For those you aren't keen on sweets, you can find savoury centres.
Unusual Cakes
Ice Cream
You can also get ice cream mooncakes. Again pricey. I went to one shop which had had a sign in the window.
When I went back later, they said the ice cream mooncakes are made to order. Because the products are going to melt in the heat, they are not on display (except as plaster models), and you have to order them to be made and delivered or collected at a precise time.
I like nuts, and lotus seeds.
But not savouries. I feel I've been cheated.
Suzhou style meat mooncake.
If you see a free taste at any shop, make sure you take a couple of crumbs of different flavours.
Shangri La Hotel
The Shangri-La hotel is where Trump stayed (in the exclusive wing, away from the crowds at the breakfast buffet which I described earlier).
We bought items from the small but well-stocked shop. If you are passing, enquire about the mooncakes.
The website told me that the items were up to 30% or more off the usual price for bulk orders. percent price off what? I had to sign in, but wait until the date when items were on order. The website suggested I might like to buy a few hundred mooncakes. Presumably for somebody with Trump's budget. I wish.
I'll try Facebook next, or Amazon.
Shangri-La Hotel, Singapore.
For reservation and enquiries, please email dining.sls@shangri-la.com or call +65 6213 4473.
Expect celebrations and food in China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore, Korea, Vietnam, and Chinese restaurants worldwide.
Useful Websites
https://www.facebook.com/mooncakesonline/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mooncake
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mid-Autumn_Festival
Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer. See my previous posts on mooncakes. See next post for DIY mooncakes.
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