Legend of Chang Er
Once upon a time, there were ten suns surrounded the earth which caused drought and suffering to human. One day the Queen of Heaven ordered Hou Yi a famous archery to save the earth. He managed to use his arrowed to shoot down nine of the suns. The Queen of Heaven rewarded Hou Yi the elixir of life for his heroic deed. However, Hou Yi turned to become very evil. Chang Er his wife drank the elixir of life in order to save the people from her husband's tyrannical rule. After drinking the elixir of life she felt her body was very light and flew to the moon. Hou Yi love his wife so much that he never shoot down the moon and Chang Er live at the moon forever.
Legend of Wu Kan
Wu Kang was a woodchopper. He wanted to be immortal but never tried his best to learn the theurgy. The Jade Emperor was very angry with him, he planted a Cherry Bay at the moon and ordered Wu Kang to chop the tree down before he would come back. Wu Kang would never complete his task because every time when he chopped the tree it will healed itself. Therefore till now at unclouded nights people can see some obvious shadow on the moon. They are make by the huge cherry bay.
Legend of the Jade Rabbit
Three fairy sages transformed themselves into pitiful old men begging for food. They begged from a fox, a monkey and a rabbit. The fox and monkey had food to give to them but the rabbit had nothing. The rabbit sacrifice himself and jump into the blazing fire to cook himself to offer to the beggar. The three fairy sages were very touched and let him live in the Moon Palace where he became the “Jade Rabbit”
Legend of Mooncake
Do you know why the Chinese eat moon cake to celebrate mooncake festival? There is a history behind the legend. China was once ruled by Mongolian during the Yuan dynasty at AD. 1280-1368. The Chinese were very unhappy to be rule by foreigner. The leaders of the preceding Sung dynasty decided to go underground to coordinate a rebelled again the Yuan government. The rebellion leaders ordered to baked moon cake and inside each moon cake insert an outline of the attack against the government. Because it is a Han cake, the Mongolians were not interested and therefore not able to discover the planned. The plan was very successful and managed to overthrown the Mongolian government and built the Ming dynasty. To commemorate this event, Chinese will bake and eat moon cake to celebrate the mooncake festival from passed till now.
InterContinental Singapore, Man Fu Yuan
We bought the snow skin mooncake for Intercontinental Hotel: Man Fu Yuan for a friend's birthday and given her surprise by replacing the cake with the mooncake.
I read ONLINE that Man Fu Yuan collaborated with the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts (NAFA) to launch a competition for the design of its mooncake packaging. I like the inner packaging with the purple based box but pityingly I was too excited to transform it into the cake and I forget to take any picture of it. I only manage to get the design of the box for the outer layer. You can see the Chinese calligraphy-inspired (书法) design, based on their own interpretation of the Chinese character ‘满’ at the right of the box. Very nice design!
You can get their mooncake at most of the roadshow, or Tea Hut(Entrance to the Intercontinental Singapore) or you can order via their Facebook Page.
You can get their mooncake at most of the roadshow, or Tea Hut(Entrance to the Intercontinental Singapore) or you can order via their Facebook Page.
I got the Snowskin Mooncake Combination冰皮四喜月饼($53.80), thanks to the company road show, I managed to get 30% discount on it, so it was $40.30 for me. Top Left: Green Tea Paste with Dragonball Jasmine白龙珠绿茶, Sesame Paste with White Sesame Seeds黑白芝麻. Bottom Left: White Lotus with Macadamia Nuts夏果莲蓉, Pulot Hitam黑糯米. The pulot hitam is the new invention for this year. I personally prefer the sesame paste and the green tea paste, while most of my friend preferred sesame paste too. Non of us appreciate the pulot hitam, it could be due to the filling was too hard for us.
Poh Guan宝源
Mooncake from Poh Guan is much cheaper if compare with some of the hotel and restaurant. The design of the box looks simple with a meaningful Chinese proverbs.
For the traditional Lotus Paste for 4pcs (after 12% discount) is from $30+(from $26.40+). I tried their baked mooncake, not my cup of tea.
The snow skin combo, I can't recall the colour for its taste. They have Mango: taste a bit artificial as mango flavour like too strong, Passion Fruits: I cannot really taste the passion fruits flavour, Rum Raisin: not bad, Tiramisu: quite good, Green Tea with Lychee(Martini Truffle): I like this.
I saw the black Angju Kueh and I got 2 boxes for the team. Black Angku kueh's skin is made with a special Chinese herb, giving a unique color and taste to this traditional kueh.
The Fullerton Hotel
1st attracted by the box, looks grand. Next, I was thinking I seems never try the Fullerton one before so I tasted it. The traditional mooncake tasted average. Should try their snowskin if there are samples.
香港美心
Mooncake brand all the way from Hong Kong and I think it is famous as the celebrity singer, Kelly Chan is the acting for it. I tasted the traditional one, quite good but too sweet for me.
Shereton Tower
I saw the interesting snow skin mooncake, so I tried but I dun really like it. Their mooncake boxes are nice.
Goodwood Park Hotel良木园
When talk about Goodwood Park, I always think of it famous durian mooncake. It tasted good, they have new flavour this year, the pink guava but I cannot appreciate it. Their traditional mooncake is the best I tried so far, with a special smell which I like it a lot.
Peony Jade玉河畔
It is famous for the Teochew Yam("orh ni") Mooncake. There is no sampling for you to try, so I tried their snowskin. My friend said they have the best snowskin that she tasted among all brands. I got the Peony Jade's 4 Heavenly Flavours($64+) which includes 100% premium Pure Mao Shan Wang Durian in Oragnic Pandan, Premium Mango Cheese, Premium POWER Berries which had 5 types of berries and Premium Chempedak. All tasted good especially the berries is a surprise for me, not too sure why chempedak a bit bitter .
The signature Flaky Teochew "Orh Ni" Mooncake with Premium Fragrant Golden Pumpkin and Single Egg Yolk($33+ 2 pcs, $59+ 4 pcs), this is really quite expensive for me. I got only 2 pieces as I wonder my colleagues like it and apparently they all love it. It is really good and I love it too. The staff told me that there are No 1 Orh Ni in Singapore, the original ex-crown price flaky teochew 'orh ni"
You can view the order form with full selection of mooncakes HERE.
Home's Favourite
A very famous brand for durian mooncake and my taiwanese friend felt this is the best. She bought this back to Taiwan as a gift for her family. They have series of durian mooncake, the famous is the Snow-skin Top Grade Black Gold Mao Shang Wang and Snow-skin Top Grade Golden Pheonix with both costed $74 for 4 pcs. You may check out their website for other varieties of traditional and durian mooncake.
The Baker's Cottage麦可思
Malaysia made mooncake, I like the baker's cottage bread, it tastes good. This is the 1st time I took their mooncake, partly because I found the packaging is nice and the mooncake is special. They are halal certified, so Malay friend can feel safe to have it. I got the black dragonball and gold dragonball, tasted nice and are sugar-free. although sugar free, it doesn't means it is not sweet at all, it is still sweet, just they replaced the sugar with other types that diabetes people also can enjoy. You may check out their website for more variety.
Holiday Inn
Interesting packing with wine holder boxes and they paired the mooncake with wine. traditionally it should go with the tea but wine, i wonder how it really taste for that. Their snowskin mooncake is colourful, I tried but don't really like it.
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