Written by: Purnima Balraju
What is Mid-Autumn Festival?
The Mid-Autumn Festival 2024 or known by the foodies, Mooncake festival, is a harvest festival. It is also the second largest celebrated festival after the Lunar New Year, of course.
When Is Moon Cake Festival?
Moon cake festival is being celebrated on 17 September 2024 in Singapore.
What is so special about the Mid-Autumn Festival?
The sights (little children with their lanterns), sounds (traditionally, gourd pipes will be played), smells (mooncakes) and tastes (mooncakes). Clearly the mooncakes are the star of this show so let’s get on with it!
Every year, the bakeries will try to out do each other with exotic mooncake flavours. Each more ridiculous-sounding than the other but the play on the tastes bring you on a gastronomic adventure like never before. Some more traditional and others that prove a happy marriage between Eastern and Western styles. Count down with me the top 5 best Singapore mooncakes not to be missed this mid-autumn festival!
5. Cranberry & Salted Egg Yolk
Image credit: Yan Ting, St. Regis Singapore
What is it: A cranberry paste that surrounds a salty egg yolk centre.
Why you should eat it: If you like the sweet-savoury taste, then you would appreciate the complementary flavours of the subtle tartness in the cranberry combined with the saltiness of the yolk. Fruity top notes combined with a buttery texture of the egg is sure to make you want more!
4. Dry Gin Yuzu
What is it: It is a chocolate ganache infused with dry gin and enveloped in a yuzu snowskin.
Why you should eat it: The alcoholic in you is just itching for a taste. Imagine this- the sharpness of the gin overpowered by a sweet after-taste of the Yuzu. Sounds absolutely tantalising to me!
Image credit: Shangri-la Hotel
3. Bird Nest with Custard
What is it: Bird’s saliva with thick creme. It definitely tastes better than it is described! Think strands of bird nest in thick milky undertones.
Why you should eat it: Once in a while, you need to know what expensive tastes like.
2. Pineapple, Lemongrass & Dark Cherry
Image credit: Goodwood Park Hotel
What is it: Lemongrass infused in a pineapple puree with a dark cherry ensconced within it.
Why you should eat it: This is truly a twist on an Asian dish with Asian, tropical flavours. Lemongrass is typically used in savoury dishes with a sweet after-taste. The cherry’s tartness will certainly be a good complement to the sweetness of the pineapple. Addition of the lemongrass does bring a complexity to the flavours of this unconventional mooncake. The experience of devouring this mooncake may surprise you.
1. Golden Corn Seaweed
Image credit: Hai Tien Lo, Pan Pacific Hotel
What is it: Like eating one of those corn chips laced with seaweed.
Why you should eat it: This is another sweet-savoury combination and it takes the top spot for the two opposite palates you would get from eating them separately. Curiously, these flavours work well and you might forget what you are eating are in fact, mooncakes.
Tried other out-of-this-world mooncake flavors? The Mooncake Festival in Singapore is just around the corner, so you’d better be prepared before you miss out.