No daily updates this week, so what have I been up to?
I was busy baking, selling my own mooncakes... !
... NOT!
I can't bake a mooncake!
That is why I decided to buy the mooncakes one week before the actual Mid-Autumn Festival.
Instead of buying expensive mooncakes baked from the ovens of prestigious hotel kitchens or famous restaurants, I decided to get mine from the traditional confectioneries. The only reason I will buy the expensive mooncakes, will be for their individual unique 'snow-skin' mooncakes (such as those with champagne, liquor, chocolate etc). My family and I are not big fans of 'snow-skin' mooncakes, so I decided to buy the traditional baked mooncakes. This year, the prices of traditional mooncakes had soared, due to the shortage of salted duck egg yolks. This shortage was attributed to the rejection of many imported salted duck eggs that were tested to have high Sudan Red content*. Hence, I have also decided to skip any traditional baked mooncakes with yolks, though they were my favourite. The best traditional baked mooncakes will have to come from reputable confectionaries with age-old recipe, such as "Tai Thong Confectionary" in Chinatown. Nevertheless, I have not gotten mine from Tai Thong Confectionary after trying it. That is because I decided to get mine from a nearby neighbourhood bakery, "Pine Garden".
Do not underestimate Pine Garden, for they are famous for their 'designer' cakes for all occasions. In particular, their 'real and edible' wedding cakes are very much adored by wedding couples in Singapore. Run a search on wedding cakes in any of the local wedding discussion forums, and you will find Pine Garden! Pine Garden is also reviewed too many times by the magazines and television programmes to prover their reputable status.
Pine Garden are definitely good in cakes, but what about mooncakes?
I can only tell you when I eat mine, after offering them for traditional prayers on the Lunar 15th day of the 8th month, or full moon, which is 5 days from today!
No need to pay extra money for marketing strategies such as fancy packaging. A regular paper-card collapsible box with traditional print of Chang'E. I bought a box of four and an additional of traditional baked mooncakes without yolk.
They all still look similar before cutting it. The only way to indentify each type is by the prints (usually Chinese characters) on the mooncakes. On the left reads 'Wu Ren Song Yuan', 'Song Yuan' is the Chinese name for Pine Garden. 'Wu Ren' mooncakes are packed with 5 different kinds of nuts together with some lotus paste. If Chinese ham is added to 'Wu Ren', it becomes the baked ham mooncake. The right reads 'Lian Rong Song Yuan'. 'Lian Rong' refers to lotus paste which is a sweet paste made from lotus seeds. In the same box, I also picked up new generation baked mooncakes such as Green Tea baked mooncake which contains green tea-flavoured lotus paste, and Yam baked mooncake which of course contains yam mixed with lotus paste. Other types available include red bean paste and green bean paste mooncakes.
The additional one which I had to pre-order is non other than the 'King of Fruits', Durian Mooncake! Of course, do not expect it to be stuffed with durian flesh. It is actually durian paste blended with lotus paste. It will still taste like lotus paste but of course with the 'power' taste of durian. No worries, it is not too strong to stench up the whole house. Those who dislike durian should be able to accept this.
Do watch updates on the tasting of the mooncakes next week!
technorati tags
Singapore Food Mooncake Mid-Autumn Festival Lantern Festival Pine Garden
I was busy baking, selling my own mooncakes... !
... NOT!
I can't bake a mooncake!
That is why I decided to buy the mooncakes one week before the actual Mid-Autumn Festival.
Instead of buying expensive mooncakes baked from the ovens of prestigious hotel kitchens or famous restaurants, I decided to get mine from the traditional confectioneries. The only reason I will buy the expensive mooncakes, will be for their individual unique 'snow-skin' mooncakes (such as those with champagne, liquor, chocolate etc). My family and I are not big fans of 'snow-skin' mooncakes, so I decided to buy the traditional baked mooncakes. This year, the prices of traditional mooncakes had soared, due to the shortage of salted duck egg yolks. This shortage was attributed to the rejection of many imported salted duck eggs that were tested to have high Sudan Red content*. Hence, I have also decided to skip any traditional baked mooncakes with yolks, though they were my favourite. The best traditional baked mooncakes will have to come from reputable confectionaries with age-old recipe, such as "Tai Thong Confectionary" in Chinatown. Nevertheless, I have not gotten mine from Tai Thong Confectionary after trying it. That is because I decided to get mine from a nearby neighbourhood bakery, "Pine Garden".
Do not underestimate Pine Garden, for they are famous for their 'designer' cakes for all occasions. In particular, their 'real and edible' wedding cakes are very much adored by wedding couples in Singapore. Run a search on wedding cakes in any of the local wedding discussion forums, and you will find Pine Garden! Pine Garden is also reviewed too many times by the magazines and television programmes to prover their reputable status.
Pine Garden are definitely good in cakes, but what about mooncakes?
I can only tell you when I eat mine, after offering them for traditional prayers on the Lunar 15th day of the 8th month, or full moon, which is 5 days from today!
Do watch updates on the tasting of the mooncakes next week!
technorati tags
Singapore Food Mooncake Mid-Autumn Festival Lantern Festival Pine Garden
* Sudan Red is a dye that was previously used in food to give a yellowish and brilliant red colour. However, Sudan Red has recently been declared as a carcinogenic (cancer-causing via genetic mutations).
Comments
did a search on stainsfile and found that sudan red is a stain for lipids in frozen sections
just imagine swallowing a yolk full of Sudan Red!
Laurens said...
ive been eating mooncakes in my coy for the past few days,given to the coy by the suppliers,heh heh
Not very healthy ah!