One could be forgiven for thinking that Cranberry Cheese is a cheesecake.Well, it isn't. It's a mooncake. So are these unusual and exotic flavours : Southern French Apple & Chestnut, Szechuan Seaspice, Malay Sunshine, Caramel Coconut and Green Tea Red Bean Milk.
These six mooncakes which came in individual tins were given by a Taiwanese business associate to my husband. He gave away four to his colleagues, so we only got to taste the Cranberry Cheese which tasted nothing like a mooncake and Southern French Apple & Chestnut. Both have a soft and crumbly texture. The former tasted like a cheesecake and the latter like pastry.
Locally made mooncakes are not lacking in unusual flavours either. Chocolate, mixed nuts, durian, mocha, green tea and of course pandan, have been around for some time.
After tasting a couple of innovative varieties, No. 1 said, "I want original mooncakes."
Lotus paste and red bean. Have we forgotten the old with the advent of the new? New experiences can be exciting but after a while the taste buds can get numbed by them and one starts to long for the good old, same old.
Old is vintage. Old is gold. Mooncakes, antiques, people, values, etc etc.
11 comments:
Lydia, I am the same. I prefer the original. Anyway, must tell one mooncake story.
My husband was walking in a park when he found a wallet. In the wallet was a afe thousand yuans and a student ID of a young Chinese boy who must have jst arrived from China. There's also a picture of a beautiful girl. Then, among the phone numbers - a number for the Chinese take-away. So, my husband ddecided to track him down, thinking he must be desperate - just arrived and lost money sumore! he phoned up Chinese take-away - none spoke very good english..boy must have come under pretext of being student but to work lah! but finally got him. He came to our house one night..and was so grateful to my husband. Offered money etc. But husband cheekily said: Can I have pix of your girlfriend..even that he was willing to part with. But since then, he kept coming to our house every year ...until last few years ...with mooncake!!! So sweet of him!
Kak Teh, That's a sweet story. Thanks for sharing. Here we also have halal mooncake so everybody can enjoy this delicacy (but getting very expensive oh).
hI also prefer the traditional lotus paste mooncake. If I want cranberry cheese, I'd head for Secret Recipe cheesecake instead. Hmm... this is making me crave for it. :P
Mayyinn, Good point. But all this innovation is great, isn't it? Who knows, maybe one day mooncakes will be made on the moon itself.
The bahulu (baulu??) has gone the same way - now you can find strawberry bahulu, chocolate-sprinkled bahulu etc etc. Still, I prefer the original. Anyway, I saw at Baker's Cottage some delicious-looking/tasting mooncakes with the new fillings .... hmmmm I am tempted to buy.
Queen, I didn't know about the bahulus. About Baker's Cottage, a couple of years back, I got some mooncakes at huge discounts AFTER the festival. I bought one, just for the wooden box, hehe.
Thanks for the tip! I just might go to BC AFTER the festival then. heheheh, KIASU or what????
Queen, it's already AFTER. Festival was 18/9. Better go quickly before they run out. BTW, there was one year when their forecasted sales was so good there wasn't any leftover to be discounted :(
Oh, DUHHH! I must have still been stuck in last week's time warp (malu!)
cqisig
Queen, I just went to Baker's Cottage. It's 20% off plus 1 free pure lotus for every four mooncakes bought. Quite a saving there, but not much variety left. They said the offer was on ONE WEEK before the actual festival. Now we know.
Hah! Maybe BC in Klang almost all sold out of mooncakes. Maybe the one near me still have a lot???? Will check out later after work :)
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