Take-5: Mooncakes
If you think you can’t abide a mooncake it’s probably because you haven’t found the right Mid-Autumn Festival treat for you.
Mid-Autumn Festival this year (2023) is a wee late. Spanning a few days beginning on the 15th day of 8th Lunar month, MAF arrives on September 29 this year, so some businesses will get the 30th as well, making it a long weekend. The border’s open so that means Thailand/Taiwan/Macau for many of us, but for those who are sticking around town, here’s your chance to give away some cool mooncakes.
Mooncakes are easily the Christmas cake (that dry AF, dark brown abomination heavy enough to use as a doorstop) of the East: lots of us think they’re disgusting and take them with a smile simply to be polite. Difference is mooncakes are smaller and don’t last long enough to re-gift to some other sucker the next year. The stalwart pastry is traditionally a 10-odd centimetre beast, with a heavy lard-forward flaky crust around a lotus seed paste and salted egg yolk filling. They are not to every taste, but get one from the right bakery (cough, The Peninsula, cough) and they can be quite delicious. And really, we’re lucky: There are more variations on the mooncake in Hong Kong too, thanks to all those clueless foreigners tinkering with them. If you’re ready to try one of those “right” bakeries, you’re looking for an alternative, or you’re just in the giving spririt, we’ve rounded up five options for you.
les Lunes à Deux
| Location: Online |
What?: Sino-French patisserie
Les Lunes á Deux is that most Hong Kong of food things: a combination of culinary traditions that create something new. This one combines the French patissiers and traditional Chinese baking crafts. Good news? The puff pastry here is impeccable, the fillings are innovative, and the result feels like a mooncake. The bad news? Well, the French love butter (is that really bad?). A standard box of six gets you two each of silky lava custard, Earl Grey and apple and Ceylon cinnamon mooncakes. Les Lunes’ moons start at $388, and deluxe hampers that include wine, jam, chocolates and a bunch of other goodies go for $1,988.
Jouer
| Where: LG23 Lee Garden Two, Causeway Bay |
What?: Patisserie
If you’re looking to keep mixing it up pick up six or 12 of Jouer’s Mid-Autumn macarons, packed in giftable paper or glass boxes ($100 to $280). The sweet itself may be unconventional but the fillings are old favourites: white lotus, custard, and mung bean (all with salted egg yolk), as well as Wu-ren nuts, taro jam, and date jam. If you want to keep it old school with mooncakes, Jouer’s got you covered with creative miso caramel, tamarind & Sichuan peppercorn, and Lapsang Souchong longan chocolate fillings. A gift set that tosses in some mooncakes, madeleines and coffee along with the macarons runs $980.
Mercato Gourmet
| Location: 3-11 Wing Fung Street, Wan Chai |
What?: Italian deli
Call it a “Torta di luna” or maybe “Lunatorta”. Mercato’s spin on mooncakes is based on panettone, the Milanese cake spiced with dried fruit commonly served at Christmas. It’s kind of appropriate: lots of people lump it in with tolerated sweets rather than welcome ones. The standard Mid-Autumn Festival Panettone Gift Box includes four quintessentially Italian flavour fillings: pistacchio, hazelnut, limoncello (yes!) and chocorhum, made by 70-year-old Italian pasticceria De Vivo. Why not have panettone year-round? There are also hampers to choose from, and all the boxes range from $588 to $1,298.
Sl…owood
| Location: Kennedy Town; Central; Sha Tin |
What?: Sustainable grocer
Now, fans know that one of the things that makes mooncakes (all cakes?) delicious is their inherent badness. Lard, sugar, lard, egg yolks, lard… Yum, but murder on the arteries. And the landfill: nearly 5 million mooncakes were trashed in 2022. Though it’s a once-a-year thing, if you want to keep heart-healthy and do some good, head to Slowood for ethical, sustainabe, lard-free, organic, fair trade, ovo-lacto vegetarian minis you’ll probably eat, locally handmade by social enterprise AngelChild. The red bean paste with dried tangerine peel, pink salt and crispy custard, and white lotus seed mini-cakes are easier on the budget too: $248 to $258, sold in resusable glass jars.
New World Mart
| Where: G/F Harbour North,123 Java Road, North Point; 3B, 3D, 5 Kimberley Street, Tsim Sha Tsui |
What?: Korean grocer
Mid-Autumn is a lunar calendar holiday, so it’s not celebrated just in Hong Kong. Koreans do Chuseok and that means songpyeon (송편 / 松䭏). You know them: the shiny, smooth, coloured snacks in any Korean market shop. The half-moon shaped sweets are usually stuffed with fillings like red bean paste, toasted sesame seeds or chestnuts, and steamed over pine needles (the “song” part). Along the same lines is the familiar tteok (rice cake), and if you can find an everyday, chewy pat sirutteok topped with red bean, that could serve as an alternative too. Fingers crossed someone’s making them, but if not New World’s e-shop has pre-made songpyeon for $78 to $130.