Ever since the modern lifestyles took over everything traditional, festive delicacies degrade in their quality, especially those packed in beautiful boxes.
Relatives and friends like to buy such festive delicacies (in presentable packaging) as hand gifts when they visit each other.
Mooncakes that come in a lot of fancy/prestigious-looking boxes captured a large following, maybe the buyer feels a lot more 'higher status' when they present these as gifts to the receiver.
Mooncake, to me is something to be eaten, not for status enhancement. So I am more concern with how the thing tastes like inside my mouth when I consume it, more than just admiring the box and not wanting to touch the contents inside.
Nowadays, when the usual lotus paste is no more authentic, I seldom eat any of those flavours. I prefer the 5 nuts with preserved ham version. Even that, I have to purchase from a small/ old coffee shop which only makes a minimum quantity for sale in the festive month.
Many of the other bigger brands have diverted away from the traditional flavours, introducing a wide variety of other fillings inside the mooncake.
For 20 years, I haven't tasted any mooncake other than those made by my wife, and those purchased from the small coffeeshop, hence I cannot comment on the quality of the other brands by merely comparing the price tags.
BUT, I can tell you one trick, to distinguish between a good and a bad one.
If you look at the shape of a mooncake, focus on the patterns outside. Those that were baked with patterns not exactly distinctively detail/sharp would be considerably better than one which has a sharper appearance.
Why, you would ask. The reason is that, a mooncake filling has to be enveloped with an outer dough skin, that's as thin as possible, yet not pressed too hard against the inside crevices of the mould, in order to taste good. If you press the dough hard against the mould (to get a sharper emboss effect), the filling may puncture the skin, and cracks can appear in the mooncake onced it is baked.
On the other hand, if you see a mooncake with a sharper outer appearance, it means the outer skin is very thick. Less filling inside.
Of course, some may say, they like the skin more. If that is the case, there is no need to buy an expensive mooncake, there are many figurine biscuits made from the same dough as the mooncake skin.
Relatives and friends like to buy such festive delicacies (in presentable packaging) as hand gifts when they visit each other.
Mooncakes that come in a lot of fancy/prestigious-looking boxes captured a large following, maybe the buyer feels a lot more 'higher status' when they present these as gifts to the receiver.
Mooncake, to me is something to be eaten, not for status enhancement. So I am more concern with how the thing tastes like inside my mouth when I consume it, more than just admiring the box and not wanting to touch the contents inside.
Nowadays, when the usual lotus paste is no more authentic, I seldom eat any of those flavours. I prefer the 5 nuts with preserved ham version. Even that, I have to purchase from a small/ old coffee shop which only makes a minimum quantity for sale in the festive month.
Many of the other bigger brands have diverted away from the traditional flavours, introducing a wide variety of other fillings inside the mooncake.
For 20 years, I haven't tasted any mooncake other than those made by my wife, and those purchased from the small coffeeshop, hence I cannot comment on the quality of the other brands by merely comparing the price tags.
BUT, I can tell you one trick, to distinguish between a good and a bad one.
If you look at the shape of a mooncake, focus on the patterns outside. Those that were baked with patterns not exactly distinctively detail/sharp would be considerably better than one which has a sharper appearance.
Why, you would ask. The reason is that, a mooncake filling has to be enveloped with an outer dough skin, that's as thin as possible, yet not pressed too hard against the inside crevices of the mould, in order to taste good. If you press the dough hard against the mould (to get a sharper emboss effect), the filling may puncture the skin, and cracks can appear in the mooncake onced it is baked.
On the other hand, if you see a mooncake with a sharper outer appearance, it means the outer skin is very thick. Less filling inside.
Of course, some may say, they like the skin more. If that is the case, there is no need to buy an expensive mooncake, there are many figurine biscuits made from the same dough as the mooncake skin.
How many pcs you make? Any spare for testing?..
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