Mooncakes 2011

Mooncake festival is here again! This year we bought our mooncake from Vivo City, rather than the usual fair at Takashimaya. As usual, we tried out most of the mooncakes at the fair and finally decided on two brands. For my parents, Cobby bought from Huating, Orchard Hotel. This year, I bought a box from Mandarin for my mother-in-law. She doesn't like mooncakes, so I've never bought her a box before. But I just wanted to buy something for her. What the heck, we can all eat it after the dinner right?

Anyway, other than the taste, I think that the packaging makes a whole lot of difference when it comes to mooncake shopping. Afterall, the best mooncakes taste very similar. If, as a reputable hotel's restaurant, your mooncake does taste like crap, I think you can just jump off from the hotel itself. So, the deciding factor, after the taste, would be how pretty your packaging is. Afterall, everybody buys mooncakes for SOMEONE else, looks matters.

Orchard Hotel, Huating
Baked mooncake with macadamia nuts and white lotus paste S$42.00

My sister bought a box for my parents from Peninsula Hotel, baked mooncakes with red lotus paste.

There was quite a debate over who's mooncake tasted better, but as my dad had a sweeter tooth, he claimed that the red lotus paste tasted better. He said that their lotus paste is more oily, making it more smooth.

He claims the one on the left is more shiny... can you tell?

Hubby stuck with my choice and said that mine tasted better. As for my brother, well, it all tasted the same to him. -_- Me? I think both tasted great, but different. Hey, different type of lotus paste! Anyway, next year I'm buying red lotus paste mooncake for dad. -_-

For my mother in law, I bought this:
Mandarin Orchard
Baked mooncake with macadamia nut and low sugar white lotus paste, S$50.00

Like I said, I've never bought her mooncakes before, but turned out to be a good decision as the mooncake was delicious! We were blown away by the giant macadamia nuts inside the mooncake.

Usually they would chop it up into small bits, but Mandarin left it in quite big chunks. And it was toasted, so it was very fragrant! It was perfect with the mooncakes, in fact, it tasted like a nutty candy bar. Very different from a regular mooncake, so I really liked it.

All in all, a very satisfying mooncake festival. :)