LIST: Where to get delicious mooncakes for your 2022 Mid-Autumn Festival celebration
‘Tis the season… for mooncakes.
While the celebration is not as widespread as Christmas, it’s easy to tell that the mid-autumn festival is just around the corner when you come across mooncake offerings packed in aluminum tins and stunning boxes in red or blue, usually in eye-catching packaging with Chinese elements.
Set on Sept. 10 this year, the traditional event is held annually to offer gratitude to the moon and wish for more good luck in life. It’s commemorated not only by the Chinese culture but also by other Asian communities—including Japan, Korea, Vietnam, and the Philippines—with mooncakes as the indispensable dessert on the table or a gift pack for friends and families.
Looking for delectable options to mark the occasion? Mooncakes come in a variety of shapes and forms. Whether you’re looking for something sweet or savory, regular, keto, or vegan, there’s something on this list that you’d be happy to try. Read on.
Let’s start with a mooncake OG, why don’t we? Shangri-La’s mooncakes are available in Pineapple & Walnuts, Mixed Nuts, White Lotus & Salted Egg Yolk, Flaky Red Beans & Pine Nuts, Chestnuts with Salted Egg, and Jasmine Tea & Pistachio for P488 (mini) and P688 per piece. These flavors are also being offered in treasure boxes starting at P1,588 as well as hampers starting at P5,888.
Raffles Makati’s homemade mooncakes are created by its executive chef and culinary team with premium flavors like red bean with salted egg yolk, lotus with salted egg yolk, lotus and red bean, and ube and lotus priced at P488 per piece. They can also be served in a “specially designed, limited edition, hand-crafted” box of four for P2,988, which could be the perfect present for your loved ones.
"Light, smooth, and subtly sweet," Solaire Resort has baked mooncakes in the form of mini flaky puffs, which you may opt to enjoy with ube paste and egg yolk or taro paste and egg yolk. It's available in beautifully crafted boxes of two (P2,888), four (P3,888), and eight (P4,888).
New World Makati Hotel is back this mooncake season with four classic variants such as Red Bean, Red Lotus, White Lotus, and Five Kernel. You may get your hands on a box of two for P1,488 or a box of four for P2,488.
Looking for affordable pastries that don’t compromise on taste and quality? Check out The Hungry Chef’s homemade and handmade mooncakes, which have been on the market since July due to high demand in the past year. Among its variants are Lotus that costs P190 for plain, P195 for single yolk, and P200 for double yolk; the Empress Mooncake with XO sauce that costs P230 for single yolk; Ube Mooncake that costs P210 for single yolk; and the Black Bean that costs P185 for plain, P190 for single yolk, and P195 for double yolk.
For those who are part of the vegan movement, you’d be happy to learn that there are vegan mooncakes now available in the country (we know what you’re thinking—finally!). The Vegan Grocer’s offering features four pieces of these much-loved delights “made from pure lotus seeds with minimum sweetness.” It costs P1,550 for every box of four with two plain lotus, one lotus with watermelon seeds, and one lotus with mixed nuts.
Keto mooncakes, anyone? Keto Crumbs is now accepting orders for their keto mooncakes available in Ube Cheese (P218), Black Sesame & Monggo (P228), Black Sesame & Monggo with Yolk (P228), White Lotus (P208), and White Lotus with Yolk (P228). Aside from being keto-friendly, these goodies are also low carb, sugar-free (diabetic-friendly), and gluten-free.
Also a go-to for mid-autumn celebrations in the Philippines, Eng Bee Tin has introduced the Triple Chocolate Lava Mooncake featuring three different chocolate textures like cocoa-infused mooncake skin, chocolate bean paste, and oozing dark chocolate center that promise not to overwhelm. These mooncakes that come in a lovely can are available for P235 per piece.
