Over the moon with Mandarin Oriental mooncakes

MANILA, Philippines - Just one bite into the velvety, chewy, dewy-fresh fillings and I was over the moon. This is what you will feel 10 times over when you try any or all of the 16 homemade mooncake variants at Mandarin Oriental, Manila’s Mid-Autumn Moon Festival, Aug. 19 to Sept. 19. But before you bite into your mooncake, here’s a slice of legend. According to Chinese mythology, many moons ago, there lived an excellent archer named Houyi and his wife Chang’e. Houyi was such an excellent archer that he saved the world from a great disaster caused by 10 suns by shooting down with his arrow nine of the suns, leaving just one to provide light. For this, Houyi was rewarded with an elixir of immortality in the form of a pill. But when Houyi was away, Chang’e accidentally — or was it purposely? — swallowed the pill. Soon after swallowing the pill, Chang’e flew out the window into the sky until she landed on the moon. (You can say she was the first woman on the moon.) When Houyi returned home, he didn’t see his wife. Instead, when he looked up into the night sky, he saw a moon that was exceptionally bright with a shadow resembling Chang’e. As a tribute to his wife, he set up a table in the garden with an incense burner burning and offered Chang’e’s favorite cakes and fresh fruits. Since then, it’s been a cherished custom to offer mooncakes in honor of the moon goddess Chang’e on the 15th day of the eighth month in the lunar calendar, when the moon shines at its brightest. Since then, mooncakes have become symbols of longevity and harmony.

Chang’e will surely be delighted to know that Mandarin Oriental, Manila has cooked up 16 delicious ways to honor her. Mandarin Oriental’s signature gourmet mooncakes are done two ways: prime oven baked and prime snow skin.

On a sunny afternoon, at a mooncake testing at Tin Hau of Mandarin Oriental, Manila, I try the prime oven-baked mooncake first and am moonstruck to find these eight varieties: mixed assorted nuts, white lotus seed paste with Osmanthus flower, white lotus seed paste with double salted egg yolk, green tea flavor lotus paste with salted egg yolk, imported chestnut paste with pine nuts, prime red bean paste with melon seed, homemade milk custard paste with salted egg yolk, and black sesame seed paste with sunflower seed. I love them all, but especially the really nutty mixed assorted nuts, the melt-in-your-mouth homemade milk custard paste with salted egg yolk, and the fruity prime red bean paste with melon seed.

As if I hadn’t had enough mooncakes to last me a lifetime, I try the prime snow skin mooncakes this time. There are also eight variants of this type of mooncake. Let me name ’em: chestnut paste with pine nuts, white lotus paste and Grand Marnier chocolate, imported white lotus seed paste with salted egg yolk, imported white lotus seed paste with Osmanthus flower, milk custard paste with raisin, lotus seed paste with rum wine, black sesame seed paste with sunflower seed, and imported green tea flavor lotus paste with salted egg yolk. I particularly love the chestnut paste with pine nuts, which I’m sure you’ll go nuts over, too; the white lotus paste and Grand Marnier chocolate oozing dreamy chocolate decadence; and the black sesame seed paste with sunflower seed, which has a rich aroma and flavor. I’m not much of a tea drinker, but the snow skin imported green tea flavor lotus paste with salted egg yolk is quite tea-tillating!

Mandarin Oriental, Manila’s executive Chinese chef Hann Furn Chen probably looked up into the sky to find inspiration for his simply divine mooncakes that are bound to sweeten up this year’s celebration of the Mid-Autumn Festival at Mandarin Oriental.

“Some 80 percent of the ingredients for our mooncakes are imported and we came up with 16 options this year,” says Peter Pysk, Mandarin Oriental, Manila director of food and beverage, with a sweet smile. “Our mooncakes are made of only natural ingredients with no preservatives or artificial coloring, and we don’t lie about the time they were made. The baked variety can keep for two weeks while the snow skin is good for four days at room temperature.”

A bit of mooncake tip: Peter says you can’t eat oven-baked mooncake on the day it’s baked because it’s very, very hot. You have to wait three to four days for it to cool. It’s okay to store your mooncake in the ref and just heat it before eating.

Peter is especially proud of Mandarin Oriental’s mooncake boxes, which took months to design and are works of our own fine craftsmen.  “We could have ordered the containers from China, but we wanted to support local design. Choose what mooncakes you want and we can customize a box for you.”

These custom-designed MO mooncake boxes are made of elegant Shantung silk finish with compartments and come in red and gold colors. I swear these out-of-the-box boxes are so lovely you would want to buy the mooncakes if only for the boxes, which can be reused as jewelry boxes. “My daughter will love to put her little jewelry in it,” says the doting dad Peter.

The collectible gift boxes that are perfect for giving away to family and assorted friends (but I wouldn’t mind giving one to myself, too) include:

• Oriental Luxurious. Four large mooncakes in a opulent box with an accompanying tasting pouch each of the traditional Chinese Dragonwell Green Tea and Springtip Jasmine, found in the bottom drawer; priced at P1,888.

•  Mandarin Deluxe.  Eight mini mooncakes in an exquisite box with a tasting pouch each of the traditional Chinese Dragonwell Green Tea and Springtip Jasmine; available at P1,488.

• Tin Hau Happiness. Four mini mooncakes in an elegant red and black box, at P788.

• Tin Hau Festival. One large mooncake in a lovely red and black box, priced at P588.

You don’t have to ask for the moon to get your hands on these exquisite delights. These signature MO mooncakes are on sale at the mooncake booth, MO Lounge, Mandarin Oriental, Manila, Aug. 19 to Sept. 19, 10 a.m. to 9 p.m.; Power Plant Mall, Rockwell Center, bridgeway (first level), Sept. 1 to 19, mall hours; Tin Hau, Tuesday to Saturday, 11:30 a.m.-2:30 p.m., 6:30 p.m.-10 p.m.

A fitting ending to the month-long festival is the Sheung Yeung night (read: welcoming the moon) on Sept. 18 featuring lucky rituals by renowned geomancer Master Joseph Chau, an auspicious lauriat dinner at Tin Hau, and an entertaining game of Pua Tiong Chiu (a mooncake mahjong dice game with prizes at stake).

Certainly, at Mandarin Oriental, Manila, you don’t have to reach for the stars to taste the most delicious mooncakes on earth.

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Advance orders of mooncakes are now accepted, for pick-up at Mandarin Oriental, Manila’s MO Lounge beginning Aug. 19. For orders of 30 or more Oriental Luxurious and Mandarin Deluxe boxes, a special discount of 20 percent will be given. For inquiries or orders, call 09178353663 or 750-8888 local 2633.