Concorde Hotel mooncake box

Though I’m not a big fan of mooncakes, I look forward to seeing new flavors of mooncakes every year. It’s amazing how the hotels, restaurants, and bakeries manage to come up with so many creative inventions year after year.

One of the more interesting selections I tried this year came from Concorde Hotel, Singapore. The mooncake box looks like an imperial treasure chest. Very regal-looking, indeed!

Individually boxed mooncakes

The interior holds 4 golden boxes, resembling gold ingots. Each box holds a mooncake that’s sealed in plastic wrap to maintain freshness.

Traditional baked mooncakes

I was given two traditional flavors to sample — Low Sugar White Lotus Single Yolk and Mixed Nuts.

Low Sugar White Lotus Paste with Double Yolk & Mixed Nuts

Both hubby and I liked the white lotus paste for its smooth texture and low sugar content. However, we’re not fans of Mixed Nuts mooncake, so we didn’t go nuts over this one.

Contemporary baked mooncakes

For contemporary-style mooncakes, they often come in snowskin. Hence, it was a refreshing change to see baked mooncakes without the traditional crust for once.

Charcoal Baked Yam

This Charcoal Baked Yam was our unanimous favorite! We both like yam paste, so this combo of lotus paste (mixed with edible charcoal) and yam paste (center) was the best of both worlds. The sweetness was also just right. In fact, it was less sweet than the Low Sugar White Lotus Paste.

The white crust was soft and not as rich as the traditional crust, so on the whole, this was a very light-tasting mooncake.

Chocolate Omochi

Rick didn’t like the Chocolate Omochi because of its sticky texture. That’s good news, cos I got to eat all of it! Hee!

I didn’t mind the mochi centre at all. In fact, I enjoyed the plain chewy mochi paired with the sticky, bittersweet chocolate. The chocolate flavor was really rich. I like!

The best thing about Concorde Hotel’s mooncakes is they are halal-certified, so they can be enjoyed by Muslim friends as well.

If you’re interested, do call Concorde Hotel’s mooncake hotline: 6739 8370 to check if they still have stocks. Prices are listed on their website here.

Here’s wishing everyone a joyous Mid-Autumn Festival! 祝大家中秋节快乐！:)

Many thanks to Evelyn and Vivien of Concorde Hotel, Singapore for the delicious mooncakes.

Traditional Cantonese-style baked mooncakes

I knew that Kia Hiang has a long history, but never knew that they were the first to introduce durian mooncake. Or so they claim. They also claim to be the innovator of bak-kwa 肉干 (barbequed pork jerky) mooncake, which I’ve reviewed for inSing.com as one of 5 innovative mooncakes of 2009. This post will explore the rest of the Kia Hiang’s mooncake offerings for 2009.

Baked mini mooncakes

There’s a wide variety of baked mooncakes to choose from. For the traditional Cantonese-style mooncakes, they are available in both large (plain, single yolk, or double yolk) and mini sizes. The walnut mooncakes (those with shortcrust pastry) are available only mini sized.

Low sugar white lotus with single yolk (large) - S$22 for 2pcs; $41 for 4pcs.

Alright, I’m not going to post a pic of each kind of lotus paste mooncake, since they look the same, mini or large. But they all share the same traits — super thin skin, fresh salted egg yolk, crunchy melon seeds, and lotus paste that’s not too sweet.

Orange lotus paste with walnut & yolk - S$24 for 6pcs; $34 for 9pcs.

To be honest, I’ve never been a fan of the Cantonese-style mooncake with its rich, chewy crust. Maybe that’s why I prefer the shortcrust pastry mooncake. Its lighter, crisp crust makes it a nice change. The citrus fragrance in the lotus paste is a lovely touch, and gives a refreshing edge to the otherwise sweet and heavy lotus paste.

For snowskin mooncakes, there are four flavors this year.

Green tea lotus paste in snowskin - S$24 for 6pcs; S$34 for 9pcs.

Now, I don’t usually like green tea in mooncakes, but fortunately, there’s no overpowering taste of matcha here. In fact, there’s a very delicate scent of jasmine in the paste. It’s also not too sweet, and the melon seeds provide a nice crunch. I’m a convert!

Blueberry and cheese in snowskin - S$25 for 6pcs; S$36 for 9pcs.

This was creamy, slightly sweet and tangy. Taste-wise, it was ok, but didn’t exactly make me go crazy.

Chocolate with rum & raisin - S$28 for 6pcs; S$40 for 9pcs.

But I did go gaga over the chocolate with rum and raisin! The bittersweet, dark chocolate filling is to die for! The only thing I didn’t like as much is the snowskin.

Fresh durian in snowskin - S$28 for 6pcs; S$40 for 9 pcs.

Sorry, this pic doesn’t really do justice to the snowskin. The durian mooncake had to be frozen, and after defrosting, the skin got limp and soggy. But durian lovers will love the pure durian pulp filling! Hubby and I were fighting over the last durian mooncake. It truly is divine! Like the chocolate, we enjoyed the filling more than the skin.

Click here for the full listing and prices of Kia Hiang’s mooncakes 2009.

If you haven’t bought your mooncakes this year, do hurry as Mid-Autumn Festival is just a week away! This year, it falls on Sunday, October 3 (15th day of the 8th lunar month).

Check out Camemberu and Sparklette‘s reviews on Kia Hiang mooncakes.

Thank you to Kia Hiang Restaurant and Pearlyn for the generous mooncake samples.

Kia Hiang Restaurant
201 Kim Tian Road
#01-400 (junction of Jalan Bukit Merah and Kim Tian Road)
Singapore 160201
Tel: (65) 6273 7353, 6272 008
URL: www.kiahiang.com.sg

Kia Hiang mooncakes are also available at these locations:
- Century Square, level 1 main lobby
- Takashimaya Square, B2
- Bugis Junction
- Raffles City, level 3
- VivoCity, facing Tangs
- Chevron House (Change Alley)
- Raffles XChange