Mid Autumn Festival In Saujana Hotel

Well, since technically, we don't HAVE autumn in Malaysia, I'd probably refer to it as our "pre monsoon festival", basically the 15th day of the 8th month of the Chinese Lunar Calendar.  Every year, these cylindroids (I've been combing the net to find the name of the geometrical shape of a mooncake, or cake, for that matter...CYLINDERS always seem long, and since a low cube is a cuboid, I thought I'd take the liberty of calling the geometrical shape of a mooncake, Cylindroids) goodies packed with all sorts of assorted goodies flood the market, earlier and earlier in the year.  Back in the day, when life was all so simple then, we had a choice of lotus paste, red bean paste, or nuts, with any possible combination of egg yolks. perhaps giving it a total of 8 permutations.

These days, if you don't come up with some new fandangled flavour, woe betide !!!

Ah, but we learn in Saujana that not all mooncakes are round, for in Chinese folklore, there are 3 symbolic shapes, the "heart mooncake" representing the OLD MAN OF THE MOON (no, not Michael Jackson), who keeps a book of records of all new borns and their future partners.  It would save a whole lot of heartbreak if he accidentally let slip this almanac on earth...

The Oval mooncake denotes the legend of the Lady of the Moon, who stole and consumed an immortality pill (as opposed to a birth control one) from her husband, the Great General Hou Yi, which begs the question, what was he doing peddling immortality pills?  Were they blue?  Depending on which version of the legend you read, another one says that the General's wifey drank it (it was an elixir, not a pill..) because some blardy recalcritant soldier was going to steal it (the pill or elixir is only good for one dose, ie one person). so in order to prevent the villain from becoming immortal, she telan-ed the whole thing herself, and floated up to the moon.

The round mooncake, which actually is all I've seen so far, symbolizes China's revolt against Mongolian rule by sending hidden messages of conspiracy.  No, there were no such messages hidden in the yellow musang king mooncake, although the media review was held on a day when yellow was the color du jour.

The packaging for the mooncakes are in these red and brown boxes, which can double up as a wine case after you've whacked all your mooncakes.

The brown box which can contain 8 mooncakes, can also carry 2 wine bottles.

The snow skin ones. priced from RM25-RM30, are DURIAN CUSTARD (Musang King), BANANA CHOCOLATE, GREEN TEA WITH RED BEAN PASTE, and RED VELVET WITH MOCHA & CHEESE.

The Baked Skin Mooncakes come in the following variety:

• Pure Lotus
• Low Sugar White Lotus & Single Yolk
• Diced Chicken Ham & Mixed Nut
• Pandan Lotus Paste & Single Yolk
• Sweet Corn Lotus with Single Yolk
• Red Bean
• Creamy Milk Tea
• Black Sesame Lotus with Single Egg Yolk

To pre-line our stomachs before the sugar rush, we were treated to some lovely dim sum, created by their new Ti Chen Executive  Chinese Chef, Chef Sam Lu,.

Pan-fried Yam Cake.  Absolutely Yammy, Ooops, I mean yummy.  Crispy on the outside, soft and moist on the inside.

Deep-fried Beancurd Skin Rolls with Sweet and Sour Sauce - I always like beancurd skin rolls in dim sum, but I can't say I liked the sauce which I felt overpowered the roll itself.  But then again, that's me, I barely ever dip my dim sum into the brown dipping sauce.

Back to more traditional fare, Steamed Fish Balls which were nice and springy.  It's not easy to get nice springy fish balls.

Steamed Signature Chicken Dumplings "Siew Mai" - I have to say that pork free version is rather good, so much so I doubt I can actually tell the difference.

Stewed shredded duck with rice vermicelli (by which the shredded duck meat is stewed for approximately 4hours with shiitake and dried shrimp).  This was indeed a pleasant surprise, because it really is quite unique.  Usually not a mee hoon fan, I loved this dish, the flavours of whatever stock it was permeated and was absorbed into the meehoon.

And finally, dessert, ..... A picture speaks a thousand words, and many mooncakes speak even more.

Chef Sam Lu and Chef Yau Kim Yew with their masterpieces.


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