Takashimaya Mooncake Festival 2012 Review

It's time for mooncakes again!!! :) I look forward to the Takashimaya Fair every year 'cos I'd wanna try all the new creations that hotels/restaurants/overseas restaurants/bakeries come up w. In this post, I'll feature some of the more interesting and unique flavours that I've yet to come across and was seen at the fair! So not so much on the traditional mooncakes, but I'll definitely cover a bit of that + flakey yam mooncakes and stuff!

To me, this year's one has more umm non-traditional-mooncake places coming to join the mooncake pie as well. Places like dessertcup, Obolo, Fruit Paradise etc. Then the fair also sells many Jap related foodstuff on the "outskirts" or the "diameter" haha like basically surrounding it la. Stuff like dried food, nuts (those that you keep seeing at Isetan!! The aunties here DAMN enthu abt letting you try everything, super cute), seaweed, etc. 

Oh yes, there are many more mooncake places making their mooncakes on the spot this year!

Fruit paradise counter to your right!

Amenthyst Pastry

Huge-ass mooncake from Lao something and made on the spot! 

Random shop selling mini egg tarts, etc chi food. There was also a stall selling MEGA BIG paus.

Swatou

We tried the red date paste one and it wasn't v good 'cos a little dry

Home's Favourite

Always the hot favourite for durian mooncakes!!!! They only let y'all try their black skin mao shan wang and the D24 one and the mao shan wang is totally enough to win you over! This year they have this new Gang Hai (top grade durian) one thats $72/box for 4 pieces!! So you've gotta ask the sales ppl themselves what kind of durian filling it is, the sweeter kind or wtv your preference is!

I forgot which place this is but think its near Home's Fav? Anw they had this Oreo Cream Cheese one and A said its not too good!

Peony Jade

They were v proud of their angry bird snowskin and the guy says you've gotta put it in the freezer then defrost before you wanna eat lol. So much colouring omg. Oh we tried the champagne truffle snowskin and it was q good! Q strong champagne taste then truffle wasnt too sweet either!!

JuzBread

Last year I had a good experience w this bakery so I was looking forward to theirs again this year but this year they totally revamped their offerings! We tried their Violet Almond or sth like that and it kinda tastes a little artificial? They have coffee w white sesame then red bean w pumpkin seeds I think? Yea but not that great this year :/

Zhen Wei Mooncake

On the spot mooncakes as well! We tried the flakey yam mooncake and this was not bad! Not too sweet fillings which I like and kinda flakey skin too. If I'm not wrong, their black sesame mooncake is not bad!!

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The mooncakes below are from this place called Tai Thong (Da Tong) and apparently its made by Sam Leong's Dad? The promoter was telling us this and v proud of this fact haha. Their creations are v interesting and most of them work q well!!

Low Sugar Wasabi Lotus w Wakame Seaweed: Okay cant really taste the seaweed but the wasabi taste is certainly there though it doesnt choke you/isnt v strong!

Low Sugar Black Sesame White Lotus Single Yolk: indeed it wasnt too sweet though I'd like more black sesame!

Didnt see these ones on display but I'd certainly have liked to try them!!

Low Sugar Fuji Apple & Violet Lotus w Pumpkin Seeds: this one tasted like a sweet called HiChew! Not that its sweet but it feels like you're eating candy! Mainly cos of the apple.

Charcoal infused Mocha Milk Tea: this was good, nice coffee taste, q strong and then afterwards you taste the milky part of it.

KooriMo

This store's mooncakes are all filled w Jap chestnut paste (kuri) and the only one that's not is filled w adzuki beans (Red beans) from Japan as well, according to the lady. When I tried the red bean one, it was kinda bitter at first then it gets less bitter but it was good 'cos not sweet!! The brown kuri just tasted like normal lotus paste

Eater Palace

This place seem to specialise in teochew flakey skin mooncakes! This was the yam and pumpkin one and it was "fresh" out of the oven! The paste is good, very orh nee (Yam paste) like but the crust is too hard for me, not flakey soft like how I like 'em to be. 

Dont rmb where this was frm but I think beside Eater Palace. Not very interesting flavours.

Obolo

Salted Caramel Chocolate Macaron w White Lotus Snowskin Mooncake: A says she couldnt taste any salted caramel, just a little sweet.

Purple Sweet Potato Paste w Water Chestnut & Melon Seeds: this was uh mediocre, couldnt taste purple sweet potato at all 

Black Sesame Paste w Roasted Melon Seeds: the black sesame taste wasnt strong enough

The snowskin here is q good tho, not too thick and kinda "melts" in the mouth

Shang Palace

Baked Yuan Yang Chestnut Paste w Dried Longan Paste: the taste of this mooncake clashed in our mouths, we didnt know what was going on. And it was too bitter, kinda like those chi herbal medicine?

Didnt manage to try the snowskin but think they're q interesting!!! Maybe will go back to try then update this post :)

 

TungLok

The one at the bottom left front corner is Oreo Choc w Rice Crispies and Pistachios which A said was q nice. I tried the Green Tea Lotus w Chesnut, there wasnt any chestnut taste and green tea taste was q faint for me too. Roasted Sweet Potato w Yam wasn't good, couldnt detect anything that I was eating.

Kwong Cheong Tai Mooncake

They have a big variety of snowskin and this is just part of the variety! We tried the red wine and it tasted horribly like bubblegum so we didnt try anymore.

Unique flavour from Goodwood Park but we didnt try it

Pandan w Gula Melaka from Fullerton! Singaporean style~

Fullerton Hotel

White Truffle Snowskin Mooncake

This tastes reallyyyyyy like truffle cos they use truffle oil to make it! First taste, mmm you can taste the truffle but after that the taste is gone. Nice savory tinge to it!

Fullerton as well! This wasn't v memorable

Quite pretty display of mooncakes from Fullerton!

TWG Snowskin Series

On the brochure, this is the last one featured for the snowskin series and they have a whole lotta things going on in this mooncake. I remember rice pudding, raspberry, pistachio and many other things!!! This just mainly tasted like rice pudding. 

Also tried their baked mooncake, the one w the mango filling, umm didnt taste like mango, v normal in fact.

Crystal Jade

They sold this cute pig ones!! But we didnt try this. The woman recommended us the mocha one and we tried but the Tai Thong's one was still better!

Long Jiang

This has nice flakey skin yam mooncakes!

Grand Hyatt

Sesame Lotus Single Yolk w Bamboo Ash: ok this tastes like a normal mooncake, no sesame/bamboo ash taste or wtv. Good thing was, it wasnt too sweet! Not v memorable though.

Grand Hyatt

Black Sesame Yuzu Truffle: a little bit of milk choc-ish taste towards the end but you cant taste any black sesame or yuzu!!! 

Mei-Xin Mooncakes

I think they have very interesting flavours but pity they werent available for taste testing!! (I wanted to try tiramisu & sesame w macadamia nuts but wasnt available for trying)

The Regent

I was most impressed w their snowskin 'cos I think the flavours shone really well and it was done well!! The following are all snowskin mooncakes!

Signature Black Sesame Paste w Melon Seeds: one of the few w a strong sesame taste!!

Saint-Tropez Vanilla Cream: dont expect strong vanilla taste, this is more like a cream/custard kinda taste. No vanilla taste actually.

Italian-Spicy Chocolate: this is so deceptive!!! First bite - all you feel and taste is the smooth chocolate and then towards the end the spicyness suddenly hits you and it was really quite spicy!

Vanilla Rooibos w Passion Fruit Paste: okay this wasn't v nice either, not strong taste of passionfruit or vanilla.

Wasabi and Seaweed: now this was good! The wasabi was strong, and reminiscent of eating actual wasabi w/o the texture but instead in the snowskin mooncake texture!

Durian: This wasnt the super pungent durian but it was passable!

Green tea w Melon Seeds: we both agreed that their green tea was done really really well!! Super strong green tea flavour! NICE

The guy says you can mix the flavours for the 8 pieces so have fun! :)

Li Bai (Sheraton Hotel)

We didnt manage to try this mooncake but we tried their Mini White Lotus Seed Paste w Red Wine and Cranberry Truffle and this one wasn't good (like the previous red wine one tho this was marginally better) 'cos we couldnt tell what we were eating and the red wine taste was just v artificial!

The Cookie Museum 

Golden Bunny

Mango Snowskin w white lotus paste, Philadelphia Cheese & Mango Truffle

This had a v faint mango taste only, average to us.

The Cookie Museum

Drunken Durian

Baileys Irish Cream Snowskin with 100% Premium Durian & Baileys Liqeur

We didnt really like this cos there was like this bitter taste once you try it and the durian taste is kinda overpowered but then you cant really taste the baileys either so yea just a mishmash of stuff!

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I also tried this lycheetini snowskin at one of the stalls, I cant rmb which one and it tasted v artificial as well so I didnt like it!

My fav baked mooncake will always and forever go to St Regis, Yan Ting. Theirs is uncomparable. The smoothness of the paste and the fragrance!! You'll definitely love it!! Bakerzin ones are q good too but idk if standards have changed so no comments but I know St Regis will definitely still be good :)

If y'all have any mooncake recommendations, please dont hesitate to post comments! :)