Takashimaya Mooncake Festival 2013

Once again, the yearly Mid-Autumn Festival is here again! And the myriad of mooncakes available makes the decision about which to buy so much harder! So here's my take on some of the mooncakes this year offered at the Takashimaya Mooncake fair! It will largely be biased towards black sesame mooncakes as I've been trying to find good ones but my search has turned up futile in the past few years.

Kwong Cheong Thye Snowskin Mooncake

• Corn Seaweed (white yellow colour) -> this was really interesting!! You can really taste the seaweed flavour and bits of corn! Quite ingenious.
• Their snowskin comes in 2 sizes and what's good is that you can buy indiv pieces! 
• Kwong Cheong Thye is very popular with homebakers who want to make mooncakes at home as they sell the mooncake filling! They also sell many other items which you can from their website

Tung Lok Mooncake

Photo credits: Tunglok

• Tung Lok Bite-sized Mooncakes - 16pieces/box $55.64 (pandan lotus, red lotus, black sesame, red bean almond, chrysanthemum, grains w brown sugar, white lotus & green tea lotus) -> only some of the flavours are available for trying but from what I've tried - pandan lotus & white lotus, I feel that their mooncakes are of rather good quality and this box of mixed small bite-sized mooncakes in so many different flavours is something I would want to buy to share with my family & friends!
• Durian with Chestnut - I think their durian isnt very pungent nor fragrant and in the tester that I had, there wasnt any chestnut
• Catalogue/brochure

Regent Hotel - Summer Palace (All round best snowskin during the fair!)

• Mini Snowskin mooncakes - $59++/box of 8 (mixed flavour - the promoter said that we can mix/match our own flavours which is good!!) lemme give you a breakdown of the flavours
• Signature black sesame paste -> was the best black sesame snow skin mooncake I had that day at the fair!
• Granny smith w lemongrass chocolate -> cant really taste the lemongrass here
• Very berry -> very bubble-gummy taste
• Il Dolcetto -> coffee! Quite nice and strong
• Pearl Milk Tea Crunch -> was good! 
• Durian -> not bad
• Green tea w melon seeds -> rather strong green tea aroma! :)
• White lotus paste with yolk & melon seeds -> can't really rmb how this tastes sorry!
• In all, I was most satisfied with their snowskin moon cakes that day at the fair!

Long Jiang

• Black sesame paste w Single Yolk - felt that the black sesame taste wasn't strong at all! Sadly :( Also, we came to the booth once again wanting to try their "Pearl Harmony" (black sesame paste w passion fruit chocolate truffle & pumpkin seed snowskin moon cake) but the guy was busy talking on the phone and did not entertain us so we left. If anyone knows if its good, please tell me alright! Thank you! :)
• Update: I tried the Pearl Harmony today and the black sesame taste isnt really discernible at all!

Hua Ting

Photo credits: OCBC Facebook page

• Mini snow skin purple sweet potato paste: barely any sweet potato taste I feel :( which is a pity cos the idea is good!
• This year Hua Ting markets itself as "nutritious mooncakes" and I asked the lady why it is nutritious and she said they use vegetable oil instead of lard to make the traditional baked mooncake and use less sugar too!
• White lotus paste w Single Yolk & Macadamia Nuts - honestly you cant tell that its not made w pork lard, its still fragrant and good 

Lao Zi Hao

•  Snowskin Black Sesame w Melon Seeds - once again, their black sesame flavour is not strong nor fragrant
• What caught my attention was that big mooncake there! Its their "Signature Scallop & Nuts Big Mooncake", didnt try it though!

D'Bun

• Mini Jap Azuki Bean & White Lotus Snowskin - felt that the red bean taste wasnt strong enough for my liking!

Kok Kei

• Portugese Style Custard Mooncake - felt that the custard was quite good! Like eating the good salted egg yolk custard :)
• Kok Kei is a bakery from Macau!

Lavender 

• Custard Mooncake - felt that theirs was on par w Kok Kei's as described above! 
• Snowskin Mooncake - I remember trying their snowskin and it was not bad!

Man Fu Yuan

• Pulot Hitam - really really tastes like pulot hitam! Yummy!
• Sesame paste w White Sesame Seeds - not strong enough sesame fragrance for me!

TWG

pic credits: TWG Facebook

• Longevity Tea Snowskin Mooncake: gold-leafed one pictured above with red skin! I feel that this tastes exactly like a dessert, cant really taste the tea, reminds me a little of cream cheese! There are some crunchy pieces of idk what inside also haha
• Black tea with citrus orange: not sure what its called but its the one w the black skin! Similarly, it tastes v much like dessert but slightly less sweet imo & less creamy