[Singapore Cafe] Mooncakes from Metta Cafe

More traditional baked mooncake choices from Metta Cafe which offers vegetarian and non-vegetarian selection.

The Milk Tea Mixed Nuts, Osmanthus Seaweed King Melon Seeds and Green Tea Pistachio Nuts flavours sound interesting.  Shall check them out soon!

 

 

 

 

Metta Cafe

32 Simei Street 1, Singapore 529950
Email: mettacafe@metta.org.sg
Tel: 6580 4624
Website: www.metta.org.sg 

Pu Jue Vegetarian Mooncakes (普觉素月饼)

Mid-autumn festival is approaching again!  What mooncakes are you planning to get?  Baked vs snow-skin mooncakes?  For the past many years, my preference have always been to go for baked mooncakes.  But recently, I discovered the yummilicious vegetarian snow-skin mooncakes from Kong Meng San Phor Kark See Monastery, the largest Buddhist Monastery in Singapore.  The prices are really reasonable too.

Prices for baked mooncakes range between $32 to $45 per box of 4 while for snow skin, the prices range from $38 to $40 per box of 4 or $30 per box of 8.  This is probably one of the most pocket-friendly mooncakes that you can find in town these days.  If box of 4 is too much, you can get them in single pieces, also at very reasonable prices.

The choice of mooncakes include:

- White Lotus Paste
- Red Lotus Paste
- Hawaii Nut White Lotus Paste
- Olive Seed Red Lotus Paste
- Green Tea Paste with Melon Seed*
- Coffee Paste with Melon Seed
- Mixed Nuts Paste
- Durian Snow Skin*
- Pandan Snow Skin
- Mint Paste Snow Skin*

* Recommended Flavours

(Durian Snowskin Mooncake)

 



The packaging boxes are nice and elegant-looking. 

Sale of these vegetarian mooncakes are available from now until 8 September 2014 at the monastery's dining hall, between 9.30am to 3pm daily.  For enquiries about the mooncakes, please call 6849 5300.


Kong Meng San Phor Kark See Monastery
88 Bright Hill Road Singapore 574117
Website: http://www.kmspks.org/about/visiting/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/kmspks?fref=ts

Getting there: Take the MRT to Bishan MRT station.  Walk to Bishan Bus Interchange and transfer to bus 410W.  Alight at the monastery gate's bus-stop .

[Mooncake 2013] Peach Garden Mooncake

The mid-autumn festival is around the corner again.  What can't be missed out be the traditional baked-skin monncakes with yolks!  My preference is 2-yolk mooncakes.  1-yolk seems not too little and will not be satisfying while 4-yolk seems to be an overkill. 

This year's preference goes to Peach Garden.  Bought this directly from the Peach Garden Restaurant at Orchid Country which was offering 15% discount for most credit cards.  What's interesting is that each card offers a different combination of mooncakes.  The upside is that for those that holds a string of credit cards, you have a wide selection and of course, on the flip side, you need to hold that particular credit card to be eligible to that that combination of your choice.

However, the restaurant does exercise flexibility for swapping of flavour, and try to meet your choice as far as they can.  Here's what I got for myself which costs $41+.

2 pieces of premium lotus paste (white) with 2 yolks, 1 piece of premium lotus paste (white) with macadamia nuts and 1 piece of premium lotus paste with black & white sesame seeds.  I am so excited to try it!  Can't wait for the mid-autumn festival actual day to arrive!

Peach Garden is located at:
1. Miramar Hotel
2. OCBC Centre
3. Orchid Country Club
4. Thomson Plaza
5. Novena Gardens
6. Chinatown Point

Tong Heng Confectionery

Tong Heng Confectionery

285 South Bridge Road

Tong Heng is one of the traditional oriental pasty shops located at Chinatown.  Apparently, this is the only remaining outlet in Singapore.

They are famous for egg tarts, but I personally love their walnut cookies.  It is a must-try.

Was attracted to the unresistable looking mooncakes that were freshly baked at the shop.  The white lotus paste is smooth and easy to eat.  Like other mooncakes, the white lotus paste is less sweet than the regular lotus paste.

Cross section of the mooncake.  The thickness of the baked skin is just nice.  The golden brown skin looks simply so yummy.

Each mooncake costs $8 if purchased individually.

Garden Pastry & Cake

Garden Pastry & Cake is another shop which I have eyeing on their crispy skin mooncakes.  The crispy skin teochew mooncakes comes in the following flavours:

- Yam

- Yam with 1 yolk

- Durian

- Vegetarian Yam

Each box of crispy skin mooncake comes in either 4 regular size mooncakes or 8 mini mooncakes.  Mini mooncakes are only available in yam and durian at $4.50 each.

The crispy skin is unlike Eater Palace which has very distinct layers.  Garden's crispy skin appears to be layers that wrap round the mooncake.  The durian mini crispy has a yellow dot on it to differentiate from the normal yam crispy.

Whole mini crispy yam.

Cross-section of the mini crispy yam mooncake.  The yam paste was pretty decent, not too soft or too dry.  It would have tasted good if it is warmed before eating.

Whole min crispy durian.

Cross-section of the durian mooncake.  The filling is supposed made from D24 durain.  However, it tasted like lotus paste has been added to the durian. 

Generally, I like this mini crispy yam because of its small portion and reasonable price.  Quality of food is also quite decent.

Swensen's - Durian Supreme Mooncake

I've always been a faithful follower of Marriott's durian mooncake but this year, I've decided to venture out.

I've decided to try a new adventure - durian ice cream mooncake from Swensen's.

The durian ice cream was good - thick durian taste.  But the skin is rather thick.  Probably because, to prevent the skin from breaking and ice cream leaking out. Not only was it thick, it was also a bit overly sweet.

Other flavours worth a try includes hazelnut and sticky chewy chocolate.  Each box of 4 costs $25.90.  There is 15% discount for selected credit cards.

Eater Palace Yam & Pumpkin Mooncake

Eater Palace

available at Takashimaya and Vivocity from now until early October 09

Tis' is the season for mooncakes.  Me loves the traditional baked lotus paste mooncake and teochew flaky skin yam mooncakes most.  Teochew moonies are only available from selected bakers and hence, I will normally seek out the teochew ones more than the traditional ones.  It isn't difficult to find reasonably tasty traditional ones and really, we are spoilt for choices.

For the Teochew Yam moonies, many would remember the famous Crown Prince Yam mooncakes, that sold like hot cakes.  Ever since the closure of Crown Prince Hotel, I have been looking for alternatives.

At the recent Vivocity fair, I was rather impressed by the ones from Eater Palace.  They actually microwaved the yam mooncakes for 40 secs before presenting the mooncakes for tasting. It really tasted good.  Furthermore, the mooncake chef was making and frying the mooncakes on the spot.

There are 2 mooncakes in each box.  It comes in these flavours:

- Yam

- Yam & Pumpkin

- Yam with single yolk

- Vegetarian yam

Check out the multi-layer flaky skin.  It takes good skill to make the skin.

This is the yam and pumpkin flavour.  The filling has turned soft after heating in the microwve and it became a little difficult to cut.  Because the mooncake was bought a few days ago, the flaky skin wasn't crispy anymore.  And I discovered that the mooncake was quite oily (see the oil on the plates) from the fried skin.

$18 for 2 mooncakes.

6-yolk moon cake!

I was fascinated by this obsese mooncake, which has 6 yolks in it. But fascination does not equate fancy. In fact, the sure yolkiness turns me off.

The price is also obsese - $34.25!

Mooncakes from Pine Garden's Cakes

Read ST Posh Nosh's review on mooncakes from Pine Garden's Cake and decided to check it out. Something different, as normally mooncakes from hotels will get onto the list.

Address: Blk 529 Ang Mo Kio Ave 10

It looks like a normal traditional HDB estate cake shop. There was also a string of crowd surrounding the mooncake area.

The mooncakes are kept in these wooden showcases. There is a wide selection of mooncakes on the list, unfortunately, a lot were already sold out. I had wanted to buy the Crispy Skin Yam Paste mooncake....

In the end, I decided to give their '5-nuts' ($5.50) and single yolk ($6) a try. '5-nuts' typically include walnuts, pumpkin seeds, watermelon seeds, almonds and peanuts. Jujube paste or red bean is used to make the fillings.

Also bought something different, which I initially thought that this is a Teochew type of mooncake but after reading up, it seems that this is a Hakka mooncake ($2.50). I will need to read up more to confirm...

The filling is also made up of some nuts, winter melons and probably cinnamon or maybe pepper. Interesting piece of cake...

Single Yolk White Lotus Mooncake from Raffles The Plaza

Another delicious mooncake. The lotus paste is smooth and not dry. Yolk is also fresh.

A little on the sweet side but bearable.

The one I had comes in a longevity peach shape. I am not sure if this is the standard mooncake shape for Raffles The Plaza mooncake.

Durian Mooncake from Marriott Hotel

Just like its hotel - Marriot Hotel, this is a 5-star durian mooncake. The fillings are made of fresh durian. The sales staff would advise that your mooncake must go into the freezer if not consumed within 3 hours.

$42 for a box of 8 mini mooncakes.