It’s that time of the year again! The Mooncake Festival, also known as the Mid-Autumn Festival or the Lantern Festival in this part of the world, falls on Monday, the 24th of September this year and yes, the mooncakes have made their appearance at the local shops and supermarkets.
Recently, I saw some very nice-looking ones from China, selling for less than RM10.00 each, even cheaper than our pretty good made-in-Sibu ones. Even the packaging looked impressive. I guess it can’t possibly get any more authentic than those but no, I did not buy any. These days, I am kind of wary when it comes to anything imported from there.
I have not been buying any for some years now with the exception of those “branded” ones that I would buy – one box each – for my parents and also my mother-in-law to enjoy, never mind the price but now that they had passed away, I would not need to do that anymore.
Over the years, I have had some very nice ones sent to me by my kind and generous friends in the peninsula to enjoy and for one thing, I always loved the packaging and I would keep them to this day. This one from The Baker’s Cottage…
…for instance, comes in handy every year, come Chinese New Year, for keeping my stack of ang paos (red packets containing gift money) but not this year as I was not celebrating nor next year too. I saw those from the aforementioned bakery being sold at a bakery here the other day but even the cheapest was over RM20.00 EACH so of course, I just walked away…quietly. LOL!!!
Well, the other day, I happened to see these made-in-Johore ones, Yong Sheng…
…at a supermarket here and you can get the coin-box if you buy two of them and being a sucker for these freebies, I grabbed one and took it home. Sigh!!!
I probably would not have done that if they had cost a bomb but these lotus paste ones were only RM15.50 each…
…and RM16.00 for the lotus paste, white but RM22.00, no sugar. Usually, people would say sugar free or low sugar and I’ve always wondered why it is so much more expensive when there is one ingredient less. Perhaps they use those artificial sweeteners that are a lot more expensive, I wouldn’t know.
Incidentally, I just came to know about the significance of those little white rabbits on the packaging when I read about the Moon Rabbit in my blogger-friend’s post the other day. It seems that it symbolises loyalty and thanksgiving. Gee! I guess one is never too old to learn and one certainly gets to learn new things every day.
The ones that I bought…
…were good, smooth…and fine…
…and the skin was not too thick (I do love the skin, actually!) though for me, they were a tad too sweet so I could only nibble, nibble, a wedge at a time…
…but what the heck, it comes only once a year and even though, these are not as shockingly astronomically priced, I sure would not be rushing out to buy some more – maybe next year.
The coin box sure comes in handy for if I would drop in all my coins every day…
…by this time next year, I would have quite a lot to buy more mooncakes to enjoy and most likely, I would be able to afford those more expensive ones even, I think!
...STILL CRAZY AFTER ALL THESE YEARS! 
The coin box looks so pretty, I would be tempted to buy two just for the coin box too. I like the box from Baker’s Cottage too.
I am blessed with a box of mooncakes bought from Malaysia from my youngest sis.
I like snow skin durian mooncake and yam mooncake, not so much of a fan of those lotus paste ones.
I guess old folks like me are more into the traditional flavours, not into those fancy new ones…nor snow skin mooncakes. I don’t mind the old school black bean paste but my missus gets giddy eating anything with that. Some kind of allergy, I think…so I can’t buy those.
These days, I am also wary of those goodies imported from there. I do have few collections of those beautiful tins, tissue box and coins box that comes with the mooncakes. I have many of those nice tins from CNY goodies from Yong Sheng too. I like those pure white lotus mooncakes from Cosway, not too sweet.
Oh? My missus is a member but I don’t think she ever bought any. Mildura brand, I think…and they have cakes too, if I am not wrong.
That’s a beautiful tin box with the nonya lady on it. Never knew about the white rabbits, too.
Yes, never too old to learn, eh? The both of us! LOL!!!
Not yet buy any for own consumption. Not so crazy about it except maybe to buy one in keeping with the tradition.
Yes, same here…especially when they are so very sweet. Best to keep to the minimal…and they sure do not come cheap at all.
Nowadays, the packaging for the mooncake are very attractive…
At times, it is pretty obvious that we are actually paying for the nice packaging.