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‘It’s quite dry. Nothing interesting’: chef Vicky Lau, of two-Michelin-star Tate Dining Room, blind tastes 14 Hong Kong mooncakes

  • The chef of two-Michelin-star restaurant Tate Dining Room did a blind tasting of 14 mooncake brands available in Hong Kong, from high-end to mass market
  • There were some surprises – including a scathing review of a long-time favourite and a high score for one of the cheapest varieties

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Mooncake challenge: Vicky Lau, chef of two-Michelin-star Tate Dining Room, blind tasted 14 mooncake brands, and the results were surprising.  Photo: Shutterstock

Mooncake season is in full swing with the fast-approaching Mid-Autumn Festival on 29 September.

The calorie-packed cakes (a small one can run to almost 1,000 calories) are very popular, with more extravagant (and extravagantly packaged) versions from luxury hotels and top restaurants selling out early – even with boxes costing US$170 or more.

Traditional recipes use moulded pastry filled with dense sweetened lotus seed paste and a salted duck egg yolk (or two) to symbolise the full moon.

More modern iterations have updated the 3,000-year-old delicacies with an ever-widening range of fillings and flavourings – chocolate, all manner of fruits, nuts, gooey “lava” centres, even ice cream and caviar. Snowy mooncakes dispense with the baked crust altogether, using instead a bouncy mochi-like rice flour wrapper.
Chef Vicky Lau from Tate Dining Room. Photo: Mora
Chef Vicky Lau from Tate Dining Room. Photo: Mora

Chef Vicky Lau of Hong Kong’s two-Michelin-star Tate Dining Room tested 14 luxury and mass-market brands – some still available for last-minute shoppers. Most of the mooncakes chosen were egg-custard style, a local favourite.

The custard mooncake was created in 1986 at the Peninsula Hong Kong hotel, and quickly become loced for its buttery, rich flavours. Fans tend to be divided between classic and custard-style mooncakes.

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