Chinese New Year 2017 – Goodies Galore

Now that the Christmas feasting is out of the way, it is time to indulge in Chinese New Year (CNY) goodies. There were a few stalls at Takashimaya this year that I do not recall seeing previously such as Frenzies, Kele and Nature's Krafters. The latter is a Singapore company that harvest Bentong ginger from the foothills of Malaysia's Bukit Tinggi where the air is crisp and the water pure, into different forms – powder (also available with molasses sugar), fermented slices (with honey or honey and lemongrass) and mixed with other natural ingredients. Probably the beverage we would need to aid digestion after over-eating. Tried Kele's golden pineapple balls, supposedly the best in Singapore, for the first time and was surprised I did not find them earlier. Now, it ranks among my favourites.

Mid-Autumn 2016

Mid-Autumn Festival falls on 15 Sep this year. While the Takashimaya Mooncake Fair usually starts during the Hungry Ghost Festival, the light-up ceremony and fireworks displays for Chinatown only take place after. Was looking for above-average mooncakes in beautiful packaging and settled for Man Fu Yuan by Intercontinental Singapore – two doors with knobs open to reveal two drawers that contained two mooncakes each. I would prefer two baked mooncakes each of white lotus paste with single yolk, and low sugar white lotus paste with macadamia nuts. However, flavours could not be mixed so bought the latter. At 25% off, it was reasonably priced. Grand Hyatt stood out from the rest in that there are 9 snowskin and 4 baked flavours for you to choose from. 8 mini snowskin or 4 traditional mooncakes fit into an exquisite box and flavours include snowskin black sesame, Buddha's hand truffle mooncake and traditional baked sesame lotus double yolk with bamboo ash mooncake.