2012 Mooncakes @ Lai Ching Yuen, Grand Millennium KL

Mid-Autumn Festival is traditionally celebrated on the fifteenth day of the eighth month in the Chinese calendar - this year it falls on 30 September.The festival is one of most important festivals to the Chinese, along with the Spring Festival and Winter Solstice.

To celebrate the Mid-Autumn Festival,Grand Millennium Kuala Lumpur has created an array of handmade traditional baked and mini snow skin moon cakes (pork-free). Dim Sum Chef Kong has created two new snowskin flavours this year - pure dates paste and passion fruit lotus paste.

Chef Kong demonstrated to us how to make the snow skin mooncakes with passion fruit lotus paste. The snowskin is made using charcoal powder along with the other ingredients. The passion fruit is blended wi! th lotus paste.

Measure out the dough (ratio 4:6; snowskin : filling)

Shape into ball and place in mould

All done! ;)

Video on how to make snowskin mooncakes

I made two snowskin mooncakes which I later shared with my friends :D

Even Hubby had a go (I told him it's just like PlayDoh LOL)

See - Chef Kong gives Hubby's mooncake a big thumbs up!

After the mooncak! e demo, we sat down to enjoy the mooncakes from Lai Ching Yuen. We managed to try all 8 of the snowskin flavours - red bean paste, pure dates paste, pandan lotus paste, white lotus paste, passion fruit lotus paste, durian paste, spirulina lotus paste, and green tea lotus paste. If I had to choose three of my favorites, it would be the passion fruit, durian and green tea.

Chef Kong uses D24 durian, which he mixes with custard to make a wonderfully creamy filling. I really liked it. This was definitely one of the best durian mooncakes I've tried so far in KL. The texture for the snow skin mooncakes here are also soft and thin, which I like. The passion fruit one is naturally sweet from the fruity filling and the green tea one has a hint of bitterness which goes well with the lotus paste.

There are also 5 types of traditional baked mooncakes, and we got to try 4 of them - assorted nuts, white lotus paste, white lotus paste with single yolk and red bean. My fav is the white lotus paste with single yolk, made from imported HK white lotus - very smooth.

White lotus paste with single yolk (RM27.80)

Durian mooncake - a big hit with the durian lovers

Full mooncake menu

Mini snow skin mooncakes are priced between RM12.80++ - RM14.80++. Traditional baked mooncakes are priced between RM23.80++ - RM29.80++, please see full list above for the pricing.Fortune Mooncake Gift Box is priced at RM 112.00 ++ per box of 4 items and Full Mooncake Gift Box is priced at RM 108.00 ++ per box of 8 items.



Opening times: Lunch; Monday to Friday 12.00pm - 2.30pm, Sat & Sun 11.00am - 2.30pm. Dinner; 6.30pm - 10.30pm daily.

Location: Lai Ching Yuen, Grand Millennium Hotel, 160 Jalan Bukit Bintang, 55100 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Tel: 03-2117 4180

GPS Coordinates: 3.147694, 101.712338