A Mini Guide to the Mooncake Festival Fair @ MidValley Megamall, Kuala Lumpur (17 Aug - 12 Sep 2011)

Since we had some free time yesterday, we visited the Mooncake Festival Fair located in Centre Court of Midvalley Megamall at the Lower Ground Floor. Many hotels and bakeries have set up their booths there to showcase their mooncake products. All under one roof, you can sample and buy many different brands of mooncakes without having to drive all over KL city to get them. Here, I have produced a mini guide to highlight what brands are available here, prices, packaging and my take on the mooncakes. Hope that you guys will find it useful.

Chynna, Hilton KL

Click here to read my full review on the mooncakes from Hilton KL.

I was pleased to find Hilton KL's booth in this mooncake festival fair since their snow skin mooncakes were my favorite this year. Do not miss the Flower Drum, their signature snow skin mooncake of 2011. You will find samples of both baked and snow skin mooncakes here. This booth was the most generous in terms of sample size, which I feel allows customers to truly savour the taste of their mooncakes .

Total no. of flavours: 7 baked & 4 snow skin.

Price: All mooncakes are priced at RM18+.

!
< u>Lavender Bakery

Click here to read my full review.

Lavender's snow skin mooncakes were a big hit with us last year and our favorite non-hotel brand. Compared to other brands, their snow skin mooncakes are much bigger. The fillings are not too sweet either. They also have a wide range of flavours and most of them are available for sampling.

Total no. of flavours: 17 baked & 12 snow skin.

Price: RM14 and above for snow skin.

Recommended flavour: Bamboo Charcoal Snow Skin Mooncake with White Lotus Paste and Egg Yolk, Golden Jade Paste Pandan Snow Skin & Pine Seed Orange Paste Snow Skin

Haagen Dazs

You can even find Haagen Dazs ice cream mooncakes here. We can't comment on the taste since there is no sampling at their booth. There is a choice of 2 sets; Petite Gift Set (RM65 consisting of a choice of any 2 ice cream mooncakes) or Classic Gift Set (RM115 consisting of a preset selection of 4 ice cream mooncakes).

Petite Gift Set

Classic Gift Set

Dynasty Restaurant, Renaissance Hotel Kuala Lumpur

The chefs at Dynasty Restaurant have handcrafted fourteen varieties of mooncakes, with flavours such as baked custard mooncake with coconut paste (RM19) and mini almond mocha chocolate (RM13).

Total no. of flavours: 8 baked & 6 snow skin.

Price: RM19-26 for baked and RM13 for mini snow skin.

Bee Cheng Hiang

Not only will you find baked mooncakes (10 flavours) here, you will also find assorted cookies such as the cute Lotus Gold Pig (RM16), and Arowana (RM4.50).

Price: Starting from RM72 per box of 4 up to RM92.

Arowana/Kirin biscuits

InterContinental Hotel Kuala Lumpur

For this Mid Autumn Festival, Chef Lo Tian Sion of Toh Lee Chinese Restaurant has created 5 traditional baked and 7 snow skin mooncakes. What I liked most was the packaging for the mooncakes, a gorgeous looking box which resembles the Louis Vuitton Speedy bag. Guys, I think you should buy this for your girlfriend / wife since it is really pretty and can double as a jewellery box later. We quite liked the Teochew Pandan Paste with Egg Cream, the pandan filling was really creamy.

Price: RM18-23 for baked and RM15-27 for snow skin.

Teochew Pandan Paste with Egg Cream

Tai Thong

Tai Thong have come up with 4 new flavours this year, namely Wholesome Wheatgrass with Single Yolk, Golden Honey Grapefruit with Pineapple, Savoury Whi! te Lotus with Shrimp Sambal, and Snowy White Lotus & Sesame with Custard. Their mooncakes are certified Halal.

Have tried some other flavours prior to this fair and will blog about it later.

Total no of flavours: 13 baked & 9 snow skin.

Price: RM10 for red bean, RM14-16 for other baked flavours. RM15-16 for snow skin.

Westin Kuala Lumpur

Try the Hokkaido Butter with Fragrant Corn Custard (RM28), one of their bestsellers. Quite a few other interesting flavours such as Red Yeast Sweet Potato, Espresso Chestnut and Sassy Sweet Nutella Chocolate Crunch.

Total no. of flavours: 7 baked & 5 snow skin.

Price: RM24-28 for baked.RM19 for mini snowskin.

Bisgood

I have to admit, I chuckled when I saw these Doraemon inspired mooncakes with flavours such as Corn-tachio, Yummy Yammy 1 yolk, and Chocoreo Almond, all imprinted with cute characters off the carto! on serie s/comic. While stocks last, you can also get your hands on limited edition gift sets such as handmade submarine box and handmade 3D box. I didn't try any of the flavours so can't comment.

Other than the Doraemon series, there are also the traditional baked mooncakes. All certified Halal.

Price: Doraemon baked series RM16. Snow skin RM16.50.

Corn-tachio flavour with Doraemon's face

Limited edition gift sets

Shangri-la Hotel Kuala Lumpur

Click here to read the full review of the Shang Palace mooncakes.

I was hoping to try some of the chocolate snow skin mooncake flavours but unfortunately this booth only offered the baked variety samples. Do try their white lotus paste, one of the best baked ones we have tried this year.

Total no. of flavours: 8 baked and 6 mini snow skin.

Price: RM18-24 for baked. RM15-24 for snow skin.

Recommended flavours: Mini Ping Pei Durian, and White Lotus Seed Paste.

Baked mooncakes

Purple Cane

I quite enjoyed the green tea and white bean mooncakes. One of the most affordably priced mooncakes, starting at RM7. They've even got a herbal sounding mooncake here, Chinese Wolfberry and Dang Gui with Assorted Nuts.

Total no. of flavours: 16.

Price: RM7-10.90

Packaging - floral paper basket

Dragon-i

Dragon-i uses premium lotus seeds from Hunan, China and a top grade egg yolk which has been salt marinated for 20 days is used. A total of 9 flavours available here and their Dragon-i Signature mooncake sounds pretty unique, using a combination of dragon fruit and single yolk.

Price: RM13.50 - RM19.50.

Come try try try!

Other than mooncakes, you can also get lanterns for your kids to play with during Mid Autumn Festival which falls on 12 September this year.

So, if you're heading to MidValley Megamall during the next month, do visit the Mooncake Festival Fair located at the Lower Ground Floor of the mall. This fair will run until 12 September 2011.

Location: Centre Court, Lower Ground Floor, Mid Valley Megamall, Mid Valley City, Lingkaran Syed Putra, 59200 Kuala Lumpur.

Eat #2 Aunty Lan Homemade Noodles

For all those around Kota Damansara area, heres a treat!

#1 My personal favourite dry Mushroom and pork balls noodle topped with fried anchovies. Quick power lunch with meaty pork and springy noodles! yum. Available in soup version too!

Oh, WARNING! You will need to endure the infamous Kota damansara traffic to get yourself there!

Yum factor 4/5

#2 Sweet Soy sauce chicken noodle. RM9.90 Generous portion of juicy chicken thigh + drumstick on top of a homemade noodles to soak up all the yummy sauce. Such a treat, perfect for those hungry tummys

Aunty Lan Homemade Noodles
32-1, Jalan PJU 5/10,
PJU 5,Dataran Sunway,
Kota Damansara,
47810 Petaling Jaya,
Selangor.

Operating Hours:
11am 10pm
Thursday (Week 1 & Week 3) Rest Day

Credits to Melisa for photo and short description.

support

Scrambled Eggs With Shao Xing Wine

The salient thing about this dish is that the eggs must be soft, fluffy and tender. To be so, the eggs must be underdone and you can tell that they are if liquid seeps from the scrambled eggs upon cooling. The other important thing of course is that the eggs must have the aroma of that key Chinese ingredient, Shao Xing wine. Actually Shao Xing is the name of the region where the wine is made, such as Burgundy in France, and the type of wine is hua tiao jiubut I guess it's too confusing and choppy to say "Shao Xing hua tiao jiu". Shao Xing hua tiao wine and rice wine are the two most essential cooking wines for Chinese cooking, hua tiao being used mostly in mid-China (Shanghai, Nanjing etc) and rice wine in Southern China.

I caught the end of a Taiwanese cooking show on TV last week so this recipe is a guesstimate. Wey wouldn't stop eating the eggs I fried for dinner and then, later in the night, he cooked the same thing himself but omitted the prawns because he's not a seafood person.The next day, straight after school, he cooked it twice, each time using two eggs. Then the next day, he did it again, adjusting the amount of wine and the doneness of the eggs. I couldn't believe it when the next day, he cooked the same thing again, but this time only once. That's still less than the 4 dozen eggs that Gaston ate daily but I was concerned that Wey was turning into a barge since he's already large (I know, it's called plagarism, somebody just reminded me). Wey thinks that one teaspoon of wine to two eggs is just nice but I like the flavor more subtle. This is a humble home dish but it does take a bit of practice to get it right. The eggs, according to the chef, must be! beaten just before frying or they won't be as tender. Control of the heat is crucial. Cook with a very hot wok and stir the eggs for only a couple of seconds. Plate up when eggs are still underdone. There shouldn't be any brown bits. Be prepared to eat lots of eggs if you don't get it right.

Scrambled Eggs With Shao Xing Wine

3 medium-sized eggs

3 or 4 medium to large prawns

2 T spring onions/scallions, sliced finely

3/4 to 1 t Shao Xing hua tiao wine (to your liking)

salt & white pepper to taste

veg oil

1. Peel the prawns, remove dirt vein, slit into half lengthwise and season with a slight pinch of salt and some white pepper.

2. Put a drizzle of oil into a heated wok and fry the prawns for about 30 to 40 seconds, until just cooked. Remove onto plate.

3. Crack the eggs into a bowl, add the wine, a tiny pinch of salt and some white pepper and beat with a fork or pair of chopsticks (about 12 strokes; do not overbeat). Add 1 heaped spoonful of chopped scallions and the cooked prawns, stir.

4. Put 3 T oil (more if you dare) into a hot wok and when smoke begins to rise, pour all the egg mixture into the center of the wok. The sides of the egg will bubble and puff. Stir the eggs quickly in big circles around the wok and plate up before the eggs are fully set. The eggs should be in large pieces and underdone with no sign of brown! ing or b urning. Sprinkle remaining scallions over and serve immediately. Goes with rice.

'Tis the season for Mooncakes

Many people nowadays treat mooncake as a type of delicacy but mooncakes, are more than just a delicacy. It is an important constituent of one of the a significant Chinese festival, known as the Mid-Autumn Festival. I think most of us tend to forget that bit.

There are many myths surrounding Mid-Autumn Festival. One of them is about the origins of mooncake. According to this Chinese myth, the mooncake was used as a tool to start off a rebellion. The rebellion was scheduled to happen on the day of the Mid-Autumn Festival. To spread the message about the rebellion to others, the Chinese leaders ordered bake houses to prepare mooncakes embedded with messages about the rebellion. How clever is that? Since then, mooncakes are eaten to celebrate this event. Of course, if you are not aware of this story, you will probably think that mooncakes just because they are shaped like the moon.

Mooncakes are important for me. They always make me feel like I am with my family although I have been celebrating this festival without them for many years.I don't think I can live without having at least a slice of mooncake during Mid-Autumn Festival. It's really bad for my acne, considering the high sugar and lard content. Therefore, I always splurge on mooncakes. I only want to have the best because this way, I wouldn't eat so much and I wouldn't feel guilty after eating it because it tastes good.

Anyway, I got my sister, who was fortunate enough to drop by Kuala Lumpur, to get me some mooncakes from Shang Palace, Shangri-La KL, one of my favorite places to have dim sum. :) Shang Palace make really decent mooncakes. My favorite is their black sesame, red bean, and traditional five nuts.

The mooncakes are not products of mass production and have no preservatives. Therefore, they must be consumed within three days if left in room temperature and within 10 days if left in the fridge. I asked my sister to get me four types without yolk (the customs will confiscate the mooncakes if th! ey are y olks!). Therefore, she could only get the white lotus without yolk, red bean and five nuts. It took me a month to finish them and I was smart enough to pop them in the freezer. To defrost them, I just let them thaw in the fridge.

The white lotus is decent but could be better with a yolk in it. :( The red bean is very delicious as usual and the five nuts always leave me going oh-my-god. It has a distinct kaffir lime leaf flavor to it and I'm a sucker for that.

For many years, I've had mooncakes from Hilton KL, Mandarin Oriental, Thai Thong, Nikko (now Intercontinental) and Shang Palace. I think that when it comes to baked mooncakes, Shang Palace is still the best. Snowskin goes to Hilton KL.

White lotus
Pacman

Sigh, writing about moon cakes really makes me miss home...

-

Homesickness

People say the setting sun marks the edge of the sky,
I look towards the edge of the sky, but cannot see my home.
Now I hate the blue mountain which parts us from each other,
The blue mountain still is covered by evening cloud.

-Li Gou