As I walked along a mooncake fair there were many weird and wonderful mooncake flavours - Parma ham and pork floss mooncake, anyone? Even new flavours like XO scallop, which is a baked mooncake filled with dried scallop, XO sauce and cashew nut paste. The concoction was paired well with a blend of sweet and salty flavours.
Chinese medicinal herbs have also become the muse of mooncake pastry chefs who want to cater to the health conscious consumers.
Since I bought the snowskin mooncake from Fairmont, I decided to give their new baked mooncake a shot. They offer a new twist to their traditional baked mooncake which is filled with wolfberry, fig, and chuan xiong, also known as Chinese lovage.
Chaun Xiong is used in traditional chinese medicine to promote blood flow and qi, or energy flow in the body. Wolfberry helps improve our vision and has antioxidant properties. On top of that, figs has the highest source of fiber and calcium.
With these medicinal benefit, I got a box for my mum since she is fond of baked mooncakes. When she ate a slice of it, she was surprised by the chef 's twist to the tradition baked mooncake. The lotus paste blends well with the herbs. The taste of it was not medicinal and in fact it taste like a bowl of Chinese snow fungus longan dessert you have at a dessert stall. The fig and wolfberry blended well with the lotus paste, giving a natural sweetness of the herb. It was not too overpowering as I would thought the herb would be.
On top of that, this pastry has its medicinal benefit of promoting our blood flow and the lotus paste is not too sweet. This is a perfect after meal dessert. You may pair this mooncake with a hot cup of Chinese Oolong tea. The tea fragrance blends well with the Chinese herb in the mooncake. Oolong tea will also assist with our digestion if you are afraid of the oil content from the mooncake. Rest assure, you can eat this without guilt as its has many health benefits. Go ahead and try one.
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