Mooncakes 2022

Another year of spending Mid-Autumn in Hong Kong, without the ability to reunite with the Parental Units and bringing them mooncakes. This year I just about stuck to my guns and bought a very limited selection of mooncakes, while trying to get people not to send me any gifts. The last thing I want is to consume a ton of unwanted calories, especially if I'm not sure the mooncakes are actually any good!

I still managed to taste through a decent variety over the last 2 weeks, and for the first time in a while, I even tasted savory versions.

Someone sent us a box from the Rosewood Hong Kong, which included 3 different types of mini mooncakes.

Red bean paste with mandarin peel mooncake (陳皮紅豆沙月餅), from Rosewood Hong Kong - I can taste the mandarin peel which left a nice fragrance in the mouth.

Lapsang Souchong tea white lotus seed paste mooncake (正山小種茶白蓮蓉月餅), from Rosewood Hong Kong - I could taste the tea, but not sure it worked well with the lotus seed paste.

Jasmine tea-infused egg custard mooncake (茉莉奶黃月餅), from Rosewood Hong Kong - there was some jasmine fragrance, but this wasn't that special.

A colleague in the office bought these Minion mooncakes, which were made by Hong Kong MX Mooncakes (香港美心月餅). I think people buy them for the packaging...

Lace lotus seed paste (拔絲蓮蓉月餅).

The yolk did produce "strings" when cut. Flavors were OK, but I never expected anything special.

I stopped by Lao San Yang (老三陽) to buy some Jiangsu-style mooncakes . Not having had savory ones in a while, I picked up this minced pork mooncake (鮮肉月餅). Pretty juicy when heated up in the oven.

I also got some salt and pepper mooncakes (椒鹽月餅), which were made by Siu Ning Bo (小寧波).

What I didn't realize is that "salt and pepper" was how people in Ningbo (寧波) refer to the black sesame paste and walnut filling. Not only did I not get what I wanted in a savory mooncake, the paste actually tasted green and foul. Yuck!

I also got these jujube paste mooncakes (棗泥月餅) from Siu Ning Bo.

These were pretty tasty. Love the texture of the filling.

I always buy mooncakes from Dashijie (大師姐), and these were 20-year vintage tangerine peel and red bean paste mooncakes (廿年陳皮紅豆沙月餅).

I loved this. Not only did I bite into tiny bits of the aged tangerine peel, the smoky, fermented flavors permeated through the whole bloc of filling.

I also buy the old style lard yellow lotus paste mooncake with olive seeds and triple egg yolk (古法豬油三黃欖仁黃蓮蓉月餅) from Dashijie every year.

Always my favorite among the "traditional" Cantonese mooncakes. The oil oozed out from the yolk after heating and added to the complexity of flavors of the lotus seed paste. Also loved the black olive kernels.

Black Thorn durian mooncake (黑刺榴槤月餅), from Yong Fu (甬府) - this had softened considerably when it was served at the restaurant. The filling, though, was pretty intense.

For the second year in a row, our friend gave me some Musang King durian snowy mooncake (貓山王榴槤冰皮月餅) from Dking (帝一榴).

Very, very happy with this. Of course, CC also enjoyed this one very much, just as she did last year!