Mid-Autumn Festival

We did not not do anything fancy on the Mid-Autumn Festival last Monday. Parents in law just came back after a week of shopping trip to Thailand (Haadyai and Samui Island). MIL fried beehoon and we ate the 'steamed salted chicken with Chinese herbs wrapped in paper' that they bought on the way back from Ipoh. (I do not know that actual name for that dish)

The weather here was quite hazy and luckily I had already let the kids play with lantern a few days ago.

The girls playing lanterns with neighbours' kids last Saturday

On the actual Mid-Autumn night, we just brought out some kids tables and chairs and had some moon cakes and Chinese tea. The girls carried their lanterns around but they got bored after a while and would rather eat.

About moon cakes, we did not buy fancy and over-priced moon cakes with weird ingredients from those advertised famous bakeries and franchises. However, we did have some friends who gave us moon cakes.

'White butter skin pandan sweet corn paste' moon cake given by MIL's friend. It was exchanged through some points for going to Sentosa's Casino in Singapore. It was nice, fragrant and not too sweet.

However, we were used to traditional flavoured moon cake like red bean paste and lotus paste with egg yolk. Therefore, we bought from a bakery in Kluang. The moon cakes there were so popular that people from far would go there and buy in boxes, not to mention they were cheap too. No gimmicks, no advertisements and simples boxes that consumers were just paying for the moon cakes. There was also no preservatives added and we had to put the cakes in refrigerator after 3 days if not consumed.

Red bean paste moon cake that cost only RM13.00 for 4 in a box

Lotus paste Shanghai moon cake with double salted egg yolk that cost RM24 for 3 in a box

Too much durians....

Hubby grew up in kampung with plenty of fresh durians to eat. Even now he has an uncle (FIL's brother) and an aunt (MIL's sister) who have durian plantations nearby. So what does that mean? He has become a durian gourmet (snob). He only eats durians within 24 hours after they dropped from trees. He does not even want to taste durians with ends that are split (the flesh would not be dry) and he certainly would not touch durians packed in polystyrene packs at hawker stalls or durians that has been kept in fridge as that would be too inferior for his taste buds.

During this durian season, we had relatives and family friends who would give us durians but they always gave too much and due to hubby's expectations of durians, we ended up having A LOT of leftover durians that I would pack in freezer to eat after durian season ends. This year, due to pregnancy, I had to control myself from indulging too much (I normally could have about 20 plus seeds of durians at one sitting) because I was worried about effects of heatiness so I had only about 6-10 seeds each time.

Freshly dropped durians given by relatives.

This is the best type of durian I have ever eaten, called 'Shen Xien' in Mandarin and translation in English would be deity. I prefer this than those 'Mao Shan Wang' (Musang King) sold around JB.

The durian supply kept on coming and our consumption could not keep up with it and our freezers were full with durians. Coincidentally, we watched a program about a visit to Thailand and it showed how durian cakes were made. Simple. Just scrape the flesh off the seeds, stir in the wok over low heat and add sugar.

Durian and sugar in the wok.



After left to cool for a while, I wrapped the sticky dough into plastic cut lengthwise and tied the ends with rubber bands. Tadaa! Homemade durian cake with natural ingredients and without preservatives and chemicals.