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I was having the popular pork noodles at Restoran Weng Hing at Jalan Imbi after my meeting when I smelled the freshly baked aroma of egg tarts. I decided to pack some back for tea at the office. The stall at the front entrance here sell a loads of stuff like siew pau, all sort of biscuits, etc. but the best known is their mini egg tarts.

The difference with the egg tarts is that the pastry is puffy, thin and crispy type and as the name suggest it, its mini in size, almost half the usual. Its now 60 cents for each tart, but since its almost bite size, so its 1 bite 60 cents for me, hehehe.

But the egg tarts is superb, especially when they packed it warm for you. Its not too sweet, that’s the most important thing to me and the pastry is puffy and nice. Its almost like once you bite, you can’t stop.

Don’t believe me? That’s what happened to my colleague John, I offered him some, he took the first one, can’t stop took the second, then he asked how much is one. I told him and he started counting the balance of tarts I have. Next thing you know, he put money or my table and ran off with the egg tarts! That is how much he love it, we can call him Egg Tart John from now on, hehe .

So if you are in the area, do give it a try… yummy!

GPS: N3 08.812 E101 42.949

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Its time for department lunch and this time, my department decided to join with the design team and Elaine had helped us arranged for lunch at Zakuro for Japanese at Plaza Mont Kiara. The place is not very big, we got a room at the back, so its quite private but I wish they had come in more to refill our tea.

The price is ok here, sets are affordable, but a-la-carte a bit costly I feel but food quality is good and very tasty . Each of us ordered a set and some side dishes to share. One of the unique thing we ordered is toasted ginko with salt, looks interesting… but taste wise… ermm… bitter and salty, hehe. I ordered some grilled garlic, just simple garlic grilled. I thought the taste would be crazly overwhelming for the garlic but its was really ok and not too strong.

Some of the things I like here are their grilled squid with sweet sauce, very fresh and tender. The shake sashimi is not bad also, very cut and fresh but a little costly, well, you pay for good food I guess. Overall, we spent about RM444.40 for 9 persons, not too bad for the way we were ordering food .

GPS: N3 09.940 E101 39.124

Mooncake is getting more commercial than ever, even before the ghost festival month is over, I already got a box of mooncake from one of our partner. Its Tai Thong‘s single yolk white lotus. The mooncake is not bad, not too sweet, not too oily… but end of the day, its just mooncake la. But nowadays, there are just so much varieties as businesses is trying to be innovative and take mooncake beyond just a mid autumn festival day cake.

The packaging is very impressive and modern, I must say, its very nice and attractive. In fact, I kept the box .

Well, if you think the above is fancy, check out Yong Sheng Confectionary‘s mooncake gift basket, its RM60 and it comes in a very nice basket, with fake flowers on top and mooncake (very modern choices and flavours) are packed in metal boxes with retro 60′s chinese design. The flavours are unique too, yogurt mooncake, sambal curry mooncake, etc. I tell you, a visit to Yong Sheng and just tasting all these new age mooncakes flavours will make you stone . Although service is great there, they even serve you tea while tasting, but I still feel the old fashion flavours are better .

I remembered when I was a young kid, mooncake wasn’t so fancy and my mum reminded me that mooncake used to so much so simple. We were in a confectionary and we saw good old traditional mooncake, just plain simple mooncake stacked up in 4 and only cost RM7.50! That was how mooncake was for my mum growing up and that was how it was when I was a young kid. But somehow, mooncake have evolved into something expensive and not worth eating anymore, at RM45-50 per box on average. In the same shop, I also found a mini mooncake, which is about 1/2 the size of the normal mooncake at only 70 cents for plain lotus or RM1.00 for lotus with egg yolk.

So, what is the fundamental needs of mooncake? Basically its about the Mid Autumn Festival but for me, these are Chinese festival food stuff. There is only one purpose and it’s basically a unity food for the family. The whole purpose is for family to gather on mid autumn night, sit together, admiring the moon over a cup a tea with mooncake .

Nowadays, even before the Chinese seventh month have start, mooncake promotions have already started to give more lead time for confectioneries to market their mooncake and more time for the market to enjoy mooncake longer. But will these make the mooncake no longer special one day and losing it’s identity? Will mooncake be an everyday pastry one fine day?

As Chinese likes to practice the culture of giving especially during festive season, mooncake have now become a must give for most Chinese businessman and also for relatives and friends. This have encouraged confectioneries to be creative with their packaging to compete against the competitor. Probably this is one of the factor why mooncakes are getting more expensive, for the packaging!

So, why can’t mooncake be simple? Should mooncake stay simple? Are we losing our traditional roots by modifing mooncake to something different from what our previous generations enjoyed?

End of the day, I think it doesn’t matter as long as it serve as the reason for the family to sit down and enjoy together. Let it be the good old lotus or the popular green tea, chocolate or the weird sambal curry, as long its a mooncake, its still mid autumn.

Happy Mid Autumn festival everyone .