IPOH, Sept 7 — The Mid-Autumn Festival, also known as Mooncake Festival, may not be celebrated as lavishly and extravagantly here as it is in countries like China or Taiwan but it is still something to look forward to.
The season actually kicks off a month or so before the actual day which is the 15th day of the 8th month in the Chinese lunar calendar.
Flip through the newspapers, turn on your television or just take a stroll around the shopping malls. There seems to be an overkill of advertisements and temporary stalls set up in the centre of the malls selling mooncakes, leading to an overwhelming scramble for the customers’ attention.
Nowadays, mooncakes have evolved from the simpler days where it was just either lotus or red bean paste with an additional option of the inclusion of a salted egg yolk.
And eating moon cakes used to be something enjoyed by the older folks — to be paired with Chinese tea and accompanied by friendly banter with family and relatives while admiring the beautiful full moon (what the Chinese call seong yuet).
The younger generation were content to be running around with their lanterns and lighting sparklers.
Well, things have changed significantly from the days of seong yuet. No longer do we only see lotus and red bean paste moon cakes for sale, but there are all sorts of fillings like chocolate, durian, ice-cream, dragonfruit, lychee, jelly, and some even enhanced with floral elements.
The commercial brands are neck to neck in this annual race to win the hearts of the younger generation of mooncake lovers, throwing in fancy premium packaging and even charging up to RM20 per piece for the more refined flavours.
The window of opportunity is limited to a month or less, hence, most stalwarts in the business will go all out by introducing new flavours, new campaigns and slashing prices at the last lap of the sprint.
Call us loyalists. Old-fashioned. Or even stagnant rocks. But our family still puts our faith in traditional, old school mooncakes made by hand from the few old-timers in Ipoh city.
The recent years have seen a resurgence in interest in the traditional confectioneries in Ipoh. People no longer flock to the shopping malls in hopes of grabbing the best deals from brands like Tai Thong, Oversea or Foh San.
But the queue is seen at previously unheard of establishments like Ming Yue Confectionery in Pasir Pinji, right opposite Tuck Kee Restaurant and a stone’s throw from the Ipoh trademark Big Tree Foot fishball noodle stall.
Just last weekend, I was stunned to see a crowd of at least 30 people lining up for the mooncakes from Ming Yue; even before they were opened for business for the day!
Partially, we have the media to thank for creating this hype, and the various blog reviews for compounding this phenomenon. A decades-old confectionery related to Sin Eng Heong, the kaya puff specialist in town, Ming Yue bakes their mooncakes fresh on the spot, and sells them to eager buyers.
What is interesting is that despite having to queue for almost an hour during peak season (weekends especially), they impose a strict two mooncakes per person rule sometimes. And you have to be contented with what’s coming up next from the oven, as sometimes you don’t even get to choose your flavours!
But the reassuring point is that they don’t bake a dozen varieties for sale. Their most popular flavours include the 5 Kernels (Ng Yan) mooncake with mixed nuts, the one with Chinese Ham (Foh Tui) or the white lotus version with an abundance of kuaci which is not so sweet and has this pleasant, cleaner flavour compared to the darker lotus paste mooncakes in the market.
The catch is that, either you call in advance and hope that they take your order, OR you come at the right time for your preferred mooncakes. And be prepared to line up if you happen to come before the batch is ready.
If you have no patience and wish to taste something traditional yet not the same old lotus paste mooncakes, then you cannot go wrong with Ching Han Guan in town.
This Teochew mooncake and biscuits specialist has been around since 1949, painstakingly crafting every single piece from scratch, and using only the best available ingredients to create masterpieces from recipes passed down for generations.
During this peak Mid-Autumn season, Ching Han Guan stops producing their signature meat floss biscuits to make way for an onslaught of interesting Teochew mooncakes.
The most bizarre yet perfectly addictive one is the BBQ Meat mooncake, with the fillings created by combining lotus paste with chopped BBQ meat or bak kwa, resulting in a slightly savoury and sweet combustion of flavours; accentuated by the chewy texture of the meat stuffed into the beautiful mahogany brown skin.
And for a more authentic taste of mooncakes that your parents or grandparents probably grew up loving, the La Bia comes in a thinner size with crumbling crust unlike conventional mooncakes. The filling is made up of winter melon with crunchy bits of kuaci. Or the Teochew Walnut Mooncake that has crunchy kuaci stuck on the crust, and a walnut paste within that’s utterly delicious.
Last but not least, if you still hanker for a touch of fusion to your mooncakes, try Hoong Tho’s Cempedak Mooncake that comes with real cempedak flesh mixed with red bean paste. Absolutely divine; you can smell the fragrance of cempedak fruit from afar.
The selection of quality mooncakes this season has no doubt expanded beyond the realm of predictable offerings. Year after year we see the renowned brands trying to up the ante by conjuring images of premium mooncakes, exclusivity and even gradually increase the price per piece.
Won’t you consider some old school moon cakes this year?
MING YUE CONFECTIONERY
50 Jalan Peh Kee Koh, Taman Kampar, Ipoh, Perak
Tel: 05-255 4128, 012-463 1862, 017-553 3665
CHING HAN GUAN
145, Hugh Low Street (Jalan Sultan Iskandar), Ipoh, Perak
Open Mon-Sat 9am–6.30pm, Sun 9am-12.30pm
Tel: 05-254 5126
HOONG THO RESTAURANT
20, Jalan Bandar Timah, Ipoh, Perak
Tel: 05-254 9673 or 016-555 8858
James Tan loves good food and blogs at Motormouth From Ipoh (www.j2kfm.com)
