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Mooncakes
The Lowdown:
It's time of the year where mooncakes are
selling at every corner of Singapore. Though the Mooncake
Festival is on 24 September, many hotels, restaurants and
confectionery shops have started selling since late August.
Every year, the competition gets stiffer with newer and more
novel ideas of presenting mooncakes in every imaginable edible
form. There are so many adulterated forms of mooncakes out
in the market now and sometimes you just wonder which to try.
Some have become a perennial favourite that they may join
the stable of traditional mooncakes soon (like the flaky pastry
with yam filling) while the others are just simply experiments--they
come and go with no staying power.
With so many to choose from, where should
you buy your mooncakes from? To try and give makankakis
(food buddies) some good recommendations, Makansutra decides
to do a blind taste test with seven makanmatas (food
police) on 48 (so precise huh!) mooncakes from 12 establishments
all at one sitting. At the end of the 3-hour test, with a
bloated stomach from all the mooncakes and Chinese tea, the
exhausted makanmatas (believe us, eating can be hard
work!) present you with our recommendations.
Before we start, just to give an introduction--
mooncakes are usually perceived to be very sweet stuff. Surprisingly
in this blind test, we discover that generally, mooncakes
nowadays are just pleasantly sweet and not overloaded with
sugar. So, even if you don't have a sweet tooth, you can still
enjoy feasting on our recommendations.
Pine
Court |
The Chempedak with
Lotus Seed Paste is an interesting concoction with
a unique taste. Somehow, the chempedak manages to blend
in quite well with the taste of the lotus paste and
we rather like it. It gets an almost unanimous 2-chopstick
rating.
The Millenium Mooncake is another
favourite. We wonder why the name "millenium"
as it is just the usual lotus paste with egg yolk. Though
slightly oily, it gets a 2- chopstick for its smooth
texture. Fancy liquor in your mooncake? The Snow
Skin with Marnier has a subtle liquor taste and
is graded 1 ½ -chopstick.
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Shang Palace
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The most outstanding mooncake among
its selection is the Assorted Nuts with Kum Toy
(Chinese ham)-with a 2-chopstick rating. The pastry
is thin and filled with tasty nuts and Chinese ham bits.
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Empress Room
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The Mini Snow-Skin Mooncake
with Champagne Truffle & Ganache and Mini
Snow-Skin Mooncake with Cream Cheese and Gold Raisins
(2-chopstick each) are so delightful though they taste
nothing like Chinese mooncakes, more like Western desserts.
We wonder if these are induction mooncakes made for
the ang mohs (Westerners) to introduce their first taste
to mooncakes?
Now comes the "die, die must try" rating
of 3-chopstick! The Baked Mini Mooncake with Yolk
and Macadamia Nuts is wonderful with a thin pastry
covering very smooth filling. Moreover, because it's
a mini size, you don't feel too "jer-luck"
(sick of eating) eating the whole piece.
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Goodwood Park Hotel
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Generally, all the
mooncakes from Goodwood Park have great lotus seed paste
filling but not-so-great pastry which is dry and slightly
thick. The 100th Anniversary Mooncake ( Lotus
Seed Paste with Six Yolks) looks like a small cake with
the picture of Goodwood Park Hotel lightly engraved
on the top. We give a rating of 2-chopstick for all
the lotus seed paste filling but no marks for the pastry.
Hence, overall rating for the mooncakes with lotus seed
paste is 1-chopstick. But don't bother to try those
with durian paste. Though Goodwood Park is famous for
its durian cakes and puffs, eating its mooncake with
durian paste is like eating durian kueh (cake)
from Malaysia.
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| Xin Cuisine |
Not really popular for its mooncakes,
we are surprised at the quality of some of its mooncakes.
Touted as the bestseller from the restaurant, the Single
Yolk Mini Egg Custard Mooncake gets a 1 ½
-chopstick rating. The egg custard filling is quite
fragrant but the pastry is a little dry which tastes
almost biscuit-like. The Double Yolk Lotus Seed Paste
Golden Mooncake is also a favourite which gain a
2 ½ chopstick rating.
The Double Yolk Snow Skin Golden Mooncake gets
the thumbs-up from the makanmatas for its smooth filling
with a thin pastry of good texture. It has the best
snow skin texture among all the snow skins we have tried
with a slight aromatic taste of pandan leaves. So, if
you like snow skin, this is a "die, die must try"
3-chopstick mooncake for this coming festival.
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| Crown Prince Hotel |
According to sources from the food
& beverage (F & B) industry, the famous flaky
skin with yam paste mooncake from Crown Prince Hotel
is a number one seller in Singapore. Its annual turnover
for mooncakes in this one-month alone is huge enough
to make everyone in the F&B industry go green with
envy. That's why the Crown Prince Hotel's original flaky
skin is celebrating its 10th successful year this year.
Despite the efforts of others to try and introduce their
own versions of the flaky pastry, somehow Crown Prince
manages to keep its top spot. Besides the usual Teochew-style
Yam Paste and White Lotus Paste ( 2-chopstick rating
each), a new Pumpkin with Yam Paste is introduced
this year to celebrate its 10th year. Biting into this
mooncake is like eating Or Nee (famous Teochew dessert
of yam paste) itself. The pumpkin and yam paste is moist
enough for the dry and flaky pastry. It receives a 3-chopstick
rating for its delightful taste.
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| Marriott Hotel |
It offers the traditional
Lotus Seed Paste with Yolk and does it so well that
most makanmatas give it 2-chopstick for its good combination
of smooth paste and light pastry.
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| East Ocean Seafood Restaurant |
We just have to try its mooncakes
after many rave reviews last year. But sad to say, we
have to tell you to :"FORGET IT!" The filling
is so hard that all the mooncakes fail the test straightaway!
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Chinatown Tai Chong
Kok Confectionery at Banda St
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This is a household name in traditional
mooncakes but gauging from the various types that we
try, we suspect that the standard has dropped. The pastry
is generally thin but dry to the taste. The Red Bean
filling is so dry that it becomes powdery to the bite.
The Green Bean Paste gets 1-chopstick as it provides
a nice change for its salty filling. The usual mooncake
with Lotus Seed Paste (with or without yolks) gets an
acceptable 1-chopstick rating. The Assorted Nuts with
Chinese Ham fares better (2-chopstick) as the filling
has a good flavour and the nuts are so tightly packed
together in the mooncake.
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| Leung San Hong Kong
Pastry at Sago St |
Sells great Hong
Kong dim sum delicacies but fail miserably in mooncakes.
They are all dry and hard.
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Tai
Thong Cake Shop at Mosque St
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Another household name in traditional
mooncakes and most of its selection taste better than
Tai Chong Kok. The overall rating for its mooncakes
is 1 ½ -chopstick. The best is the Mooncake
with Lotus Seed Paste and Yolk (2 ½- chopstick).
The pastry is not dry, in fact, it is a little moist
and soft with smooth and slightly wet lotus seed paste.
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| Tong
Heng at South Bridge Road |
Its salty Mooncake with Green
Bean Paste (2- chopstick) is better than the one
from Tai Chong Kok as the texture of the paste is
better and tastier. If you like Mooncake with Assorted
Nuts and Chinese ham, then you "die, die
must try" this one. It is absolutely shiok (satisfying)
to the bite! Crunchy nuts with big pieces of Chinese
ham give a great sweet and salty taste combination.
Needless to say, it gets a 3-chopstick rating!
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Which
one will you try?
After reading all these lengthy recommendations,
have you made up your mind on what to buy for this coming
Mooncake Festival? Or are you feeling more blur (confused)
than before?
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Pine Court at the Mandarin Singapore
