As a child, during mooncake festival, there was nothing more I loved than the Lotus Mooncake with two yellow yolks. I despised the nut version, which I found lacking in nuts, and full of winter melon. It was too sweet and too rich.
Somewhere between then and about 8 years or so ago, when I had almost completely stopped eating mooncake, both lotus and nut version, I decided to taste a nut mooncake again.
That was the turning point. Not only did I start to eat mooncake again whenever mooncake festival came, I switched from my preference of lotus mooncakes to nut mooncakes.
During this time, of course, snow skin mooncakes had come up in popularity and they seem to be going strong still, judging from the new flavours coming out every year. But it never won me over. It’s the initial taste of flour that hits the tongue that I can’t get over. And some snow skin mooncakes have an overwhelming stench of artificial flavouring, much like the smell of cheap perfumed cards, that’s such a turn off.
Even though Mooncake Festival has come and gone, it’s only today that I managed to sit down with the nut versions of the mooncake from the popular Hong Kong bakeries of Wing Wah and Kee Wah.
On the left, is Wing Wah, which again, can be identified by the sloppy glazing of the mooncake. You can see how much more even and attractive Kee Wah’s is on the right. Furthermore, Wing Wah’s shows evidence of a dirty brush, with remnants of mooncake ingredients stuck in the two Chinese characters on the right.
(Man, I need new patternless plates to take my photos.)
Is beauty only skin deep? On the top, is Kee Wah’s and the bottom is Wing Wah’s nut mooncake.
It is immediately apparent that the skin of Kee Wah’s is well and truly much thinner than Wing Wah’s. I’m surprised by this, because from the first photo of the mooncakes above, you can see nuts right next to the skin on the left hand side of Wing Wah’s mooncake. Again, this means Wing Wah’s skin is not just thicker, but less even overall.
Kee Wah needs to pay their bakers more. Their products come out looking so much better than Wing Wah’s.
From the cross section, we see that Wing Wah’s nut mooncake also has a lot more almonds. Kee Wah’s is primarily composed of lotus seeds and sesame seeds. It also has significantly more walnuts than Wing Wah. From this, I’m starting to assume that Wing Wah’s should be more crunchy than Kee Wah’s.
Unfortunately, this doesn’t hold true.
Wing Wah’s (lower photo) is strangely mushy, not at all crunchy. Kee Wah’s is crunchy and drier. Rubbing the filling between my fingers, Wing Wah’s is hard to clean off the finger.
Examining the filling, you can see that the lotus seeds of Wing Wah’s mooncake has lost the whiteness of the lotus seed. Instead it is less opaque, filled with moisture. Basically Wing Wah’s is a wetter filling, with more moisture that has been absorbed by the nuts and has made them less crunchy. How disappointing.
Looking at the cross section photos again shows that the almonds in the Wing Wah specimen have lost that opaque white that is seen in a fresh almond.
In terms of mouthfeel, Kee Wah wins.
Unfortunately for Wing Wah, I don’t like the way the mooncake feels in my mouth. That’s enough to turn me away from the product the next time. However, texture is not always the most important aspect for other food lovers.
So, fans of Wing Wah, you will be happy to learn that I think the nut mooncake tastes better than that of Kee Wah.
Wing Wah’s nut mooncake is sweeter than Kee Wah’s. I don’t like this aspect. Wing Wah’s contains more winter melon. But because of the high moisture content in the mooncake, the crusty sugary coating of the winter melon has melted and the winter melon only adds to the mushy mouthfeel of the mooncake.
So why does the point go to Wing Wah when it comes to taste?
Now, these aren’t plain nut mooncakes. These are nut mooncakes with meat – ie pork floss. And I’m a fan of pork floss. Curiously, I see zero evidence of pork floss in the Kee Wah mooncake I have. I don’t see it, I don’t taste it.
When it comes to the nut mooncake, I find that the addition of dried pork gives the mooncake a bit of a kick. It’s like a trail mix of nuts. It’s great, but when you find a cranberry in the mix, that addition of sweet and sour, causes a rush of flavour that gets the salivary glands going. Now we’re having a party!
That’s what the dried pork does to the nut mooncake. And this is what Wing Wah has that Kee Wah doesn’t.
Now, the question is, is the flavour of Wing Wah’s nut mooncake so great that it compensates for its poorer texture, compared to Kee Wah’s? I’m leaning to a “no”.
When it comes to a nut mooncake, I find it needs to play host to a lotus mooncake with yolk. So it needs to give the mooncake-eater a break – in texture, in flavour, in sweetness.
If this is a dance, the lotus mooncake with yolk is a guy. The nut, the woman. He’s leading, she’s playing along. She might be better than he is, but she’s there to say, hey we’re good for another number.
My two main requirements of a nut mooncake are that it is crunchy, less sweet with decent flavour, which is what Kee Wah gives. This creates a change in texture and flavour, so you can say, hey, I can do with another piece of lotus mooncake with yolk.
However, given the choice, I’d turn to Malaysia, where the nut mooncakes, have limau perut leaves in them. That’s a very local flavour that many are disturbed by. But in my book, that gives the nut mooncake a real good twist in taste and smell. The best thing it does, is it cuts the richness of the mooncake, so you don’t feel so jelak and are ready for another piece.