Friday, September 10, 2010

Mini Egg Custard Mooncakes from The Peninsula, Hong Kong

Having tried a custard mooncake purchased from 華麗園, Hong Kong (courtesy of my colleague), Yuan and I were quite surprised how different that was from the mooncakes available in Singapore. As I am not very familiar with the products in Hong Kong, it appears to me that this is one of the signature mooncake creations available in Hong Kong during this festive period.

As I have mentioned in my previous posts, I was addicted visiting the Mid Autumn fair at Takashimaya and having visited the fair for 4 days, Yuan end up with a slight burn in his pocket. This is the 3rd box of mooncakes purchased from the fair and I have 3 boxes pending for collection.

Given our liking for cakes and desserts, we were told to visit The Peninsula (香港半岛酒店) for their pastries but due to our weird itinerary planned for the 4 days trip, we didn't manage to grab a single piece of dessert from this place. Naturally, 5 months later, I couldn't resist getting a box of custard mooncakes from The Peninsula when they made their appearance in Singapore.

Peninsula's Mini Egg Custard Mooncakes

A box of 8 Mini Egg Custard Mooncakes cost $35 at the fair and I really like the way they packed their mooncakes, in an elegant compact gift box.

From my understanding through internet searches, The Peninsula (香港半岛酒店) seems to pioneer and create a unique formula of custard filling to replace the traditional lotus paste and egg yolk. With the use of salted egg yolks, custard powder, coconut milk, malt sugar and many other ingredients listed at the back of the packaging, the resulting effect is a buttery thin pastry with rich, smooth custard filling that has a melt-in-your-mouth effect. Note that each tiny mooncake is worth about 489 calories, so to a certain extent it does have a similar effect of eating pineapple tarts.

Peninsula's Mini Egg Custard Mooncakes

Egg Custard Mooncakes seem to be very popular in Hong Kong and China but somehow or rather, our family members felt that this is way too different from the traditional baked mooncake. Comparing with the custard snowskin available in Singapore (e.g. Shangri-la and East Ocean), the filling is alot richer and milkier so somehow or rather, most in our families prefers the milder custard filling with the light, delicate snowskin.

The Peninsula

Correct me if I am wrong, the hotel behind these popular custard mooncakes is said to be Hong Kong's most historical hotel (opened since December 1928). In fact, they are also known to be the top 10 (well-known) hotels in the world who has housed former American president Richard Nixon, American film actor, Clark Gable, NBA basketball player, Michael Jordan, Queen Elizabeth II, etc.

Raffles Hotel

Come to think about it, this hotel left a very deep impression during our short trip to Hong Kong. Since the facade of the hotel building was preserved, it does remind us of Singapore's very own Raffles Hotel. However, the interior of The Peninsula further imprint stunning memories of the hotel's tall columns, gilt cornices and neo-classical archways, displaying a classic colonial architecture, somewhat like a grand old mansion.

"It's always nice to flashback a good holiday."

Anyway, these mooncakes can be purchased from the Mid-Autumn Fair at Takashimaya Square from now to 22 Sept 2010.

The Peninsula Connoisseur
Peninsula Merchandising Limited
5/F, The Peninsula Office Tower
18 MIddle Road
Tsim Sha Tsui, Kowloon, Hong Kong

Website for Peninula Boutique
Website for The Peninsula, Hong Kong

3 comments:

Daniel said...

ah yes, The Peninsula HK's high tea is highly sought after. I had their Japanese semi-buffet dinner before and it was wow.

And I'm quite sure it has nothing to do with the hotel of the same name in Singapore. lolx

foodaholic said...

if u do go to hk, please go try peninsula's high tea...i mega looooove it! the queueing time sucks though. ;p

adore their mooncakes, actually pre-ordered them for pickup when i was in hk last yr. ;p

Fen said...

Although I heard a fair bit about their pastries and is a must-try among the sweet-tooth, end up too bloated eating along the streets of HK...

Daniel, that is a huge difference between the 2 hotels... >.<

Phoebe, if my memory didn't fail me, I recall reading your post on their high tea. In fact, I was reading through your HK posts after we met up at Marriott... =)

Their mooncakes seems to be very sought after, according to their online boutique website, most of their mooncakes are sold out and that was about 3 weeks away from Mid Autumn...

But then again, Wing Wah, Kee Wah and other HK brands seems to be highly recommended too...

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