The Mid-Autumn Festival is celebrated among both the mainland and the Chinese diaspora. Traditionally, it is an occasion spent with family members, similar to Thanksgiving. We went to capture these timeless fond traditions surrounding the festival by heading to Chinatown, the vibrant hub of the Chinese community, to soak in the upbeat mood. The beautiful giant lantern displays, mini-stalls selling paper lanterns in various shapes and sizes and striking variations of the traditional mooncake delicacy were sure EVERYWHERE!! Lenny, being the culinary adventurous one sampled scrumptious mooncakes (a rectangular box or circle shape thick pastry dough filled with yummy ingredients) in traditional flavors like lotus and egg yolk and in exotic varieties like durian, chocolate, coffee and ice-cream. Here was our "view" of this beautiful festival:
Entrance into the festival at Ngee Ann City:
Havoc that ensues when you can only get this delicacy once a year:
What the boxes of these cakes look like:
Close up of the cake itself:
Just in case you were wondering - YES I did try it but didn't like it....but probably would have gone for more of this if they had had samples - ice cream mooncakes!!
They also have these fruit that look like a combination of an orange and a grapefruit during this time of year. They are called pomelo and are really good. This is what they look like:
