Sweet Decadenze

If you haven’t already realised by now, I have a HUGE fetish and obsession for mooncakes.  I apologise if you are no mooncake fan, for much of my posts revolve around them in the recent weeks.  Please skip this post if you belong to the group who is nonchalant towards mooncakes.

For the rest of you who are as obsessed as I am, please read on.  I am going to share what I feel about 2 types of commercial mooncakes I have been fortunate enough to taste recently.

Eater Palace’s Teochew Yam Mooncakes

I have been on the lookout for these mooncakes ever since rumours of Crown Prince Hotel not selling them this year emerged.  Fortunately for me (and rather unfortunately for The Hubby who has to foot the bill), I found a near replacement.  It is not exactly like the authentic one, but it’s close.  And I’m satisfied with settling for this replacement while hoping that the chefs from the now-defunct restaurant which makes the authentic ones will emerge again next year to sell them.

If you have eaten the original flaky skin by Crown Prince, you would be able to tell that Eater Palace’s similiar mooncake (above) looks somewhat different from the former.  The flaky skin tastes quite different essentially, so even if the yam paste inside is fantastic, I would be able to tell ‘coz I would have been too busy comparing the difference in the skins.

Not that the yam paste is fantastic.  Passable, but not fabulously delectable.

Shang Palace’s Bird’s Nest with Custard in Snow Skin

OK, this box of 6 medium-sized mooncakes burnt a hole in The Hubby’s pockets, but he didn’t really have a choice ‘coz I asked for it last year and he didn’t manage to get them for me.

I must admit that I wanted to try this mooncake out of novelty and curiousity.  I love bird’s nest, but since getting married and moving out, I haven’t had the chance to taste my mum’s double-boiled bird’s nest.  I was hoping this mooncake will be a real treat for me.

Before buying, I have been forewarned by many that the bird’s nest is really that little it can be easily missed.  So I was really expecting very few strands of bird’s nest.  It wasn’t that bad!  I could see quite a bit of it after taking one bite into the mooncake.  What I couldn’t do though, was taste the bird’s nest.

I am serious.  I tried 2 and I still couldn’t really taste the bird’s nest.  I can’t decide if there’s too little bird’s nest, too much custard covering the taste, or essentially bird’s nest does not have much of a taste unless double-boiled with rock sugar.

So… that’s it.  The Hubby will be glad to know that it is not necessary to get the bird’s nest mooncakes from Shang Palace for me next year.