Moony Moony Moony, Makes Me Happy, It's A Rich Man's World

The Chinese are never one to let go a valuable commercial opportunity. These days, a month before Chinese New Year, Yee Sang is available. In the days of yore, it only became available on the 7th Day, and lasted till chap gourmet. Now, Mooncakes are making an appearance at least two lunar months before the actual festival.

And not only do they appear, but they appear in all sorts of myriad flavours. Gone are the days where the only choices were lotus paste with variable number of egg yolks, red bean or nuts. Almost every conceivable edible substance, except meat, seems to have found its way into the mooncakes.

We were privileged enough to be invited by William of FEEDMELAH, to sample these morsels of lunartic goodness at the Equatorial Hotel, in the Golden Phoenix restaurant no less.

Red Bean and Green Tea. Once in a green moon, you see these things.


The traditional, but low sugar lotus paste with single yolk. By the way, to the uninformed, the egg yolks are from salted DUCK's eggs, not chicken's. This, despite the large variety, was my favourite.


Lotus paste with double yolk. It's no yolk I tell ya, all these calories piling up.


A nice crunchy alternative to the pastes. Nutty mooncake.


Espresso Chestnut. Rather innovative.


Blackforest. Basically, dense chocolate, almost like a flourless chocolate cake, with a cherry in the middle. This is a western cake masquerading as a chinese mooncake. Like Peter Sellers playing the role of Dr Fu Manchu. Nevertheless, it was quite a favourite.


Red Yeast Sweet Potato. I wonder if this Red Yeast is the same as the one prescribed for lowering cholesterol. If it is, wow, what a breakthrough.


Charcoal Baked Yam. I Yam what I Yam. Yam offers a nice alternative paste as well.


Gold ingots, which are their house specialty. Fluffy margariney pastry with lotus filling.


William of Feedmelah giving his keynote address.

Having sampled most of the mooncake, I could feel myself getting full, and with all that mooncake in the system, I could hear my insides singing,
MOON LIVER, wider than a mile....


Ginseng Chicken Soup.... a hearty wholesome full of goodness soup, really fills your stomach and soul. Highly recommended. Politically correct as well, it does not contain parts of endangered animals.


Their Futt Lou (Generous) Chow Fan. (Fried Rice). LOVELY fluffy grains of rice, fried with dried scallops, scallops, and crab meat. What a luxury. Simply delicious. I could eat a whole plate of this on its own. Without the mooncakes, of course.


A new creation by the Chef, scallops and mango. Plump juicy scallops, seared to perfection, complemented by crunchy beans, lily bulbs and tangy mango.


Crispy Beancurd Skin With Prawn Filling. One of their best sellers in the dim sum kitchen. Understandably so. The prawns are crunchy, without the usual bicarbonate aftertaste that so many chinese kitchens use to plumpify their prawns.


Amidst all that, the PR Manager, Tam Poh Poh, had arranged a Lai Mien (pulled noodles) demonstration, followed by a Lai Mien competition between some of our foodies.


The Chef demonstrates how its done. By the way, he is the apparently the ONLY Malaysian chef who has achieved this magna cum laude level of pulling Lai Mien. The others you see in restaurants are usually from China.


Our Lil Fat Monkey was contestant number two. It wasn't as easy as it looks. Strands of noodle kept breaking off. The winner in the end was that sole chick contestant.


The finished product. Very delicious, actually, fried like this, with chilli, brinjals, minced meat. The noodle is nice and springy.


And for dessert, the durian pancakes.... skin thin crepes wrapped around chunks of durian and whipped cream. Durian lovers dream, but to the anti durian squad, a nightmare.


Honey Sea Coconut with Black Jelly. Lovely refreshing way to end the meal.


Ciki posing with the three kings of the orient.


The golden phoenix restaurant.

Equatorial Hotel seems to have stood still in time. The sights, smells all scream RETRO. There's a certain comfort in that, not like the cold soulless marbled floored and walls of some hotels. The Golden Phoenix has always been known for their good chinese cuisine, and have against all odds, remained NOT HALAL.

Thanks William for the invite, and Ciki too, for first asking me to attend as her plus one. My Huckleberry friend, Moon Liver, and me....