Mooncake-inspired teatime treats
Make room for season’s favourites alongside savoury bites for Mid-autumn Festival
DELECTABLE mooncakes are back to tantalise taste buds but as usual, there is only a small window of time to get in a bite.
With the Mid-autumn Festival around the corner, the variety of mooncakes to choose from seems endless with traditional favourites and newer flavours making it a season of all things sweet.
Over at The Living Room in The Westin Kuala Lumpur is a Mid-autumn themed afternoon tea featuring moon cake inspired desserts alongside a wide range of Malaysian teatime treats.
Leaning on popular mooncakes, the pastry chef cleverly incorporates lotus as a filling for its praline, packs mixed nuts in pastry and encases crunchy chocolate in sweet mochi confection to resemble the snow skin variety.
Take the buttery mixed nut tart for example.
Greeting the senses on first bite is the aroma of caramelised egg with crumbly tart and rich nut texture combination presenting
a delightful marriage of flavours.
In this tart, the generous use of crunchy almonds adds creaminess to the sweet nut mixture.
A tinge of bitterness peeks through when nibbling on the Crunchy Chocolate Mochi but this is balanced out with just the right amount of sweetness.
The nutty flavour of melon seeds in the mochi mix provides added texture.
The oblong-shaped orange
hued praline has smooth white lotus paste within for a novel taste.
Other indulging finds here are Fruity Jackfruit Cupcake, Steamed Fruit Cake, Creamy
nd
Green Tea Sable and Pandan Choux.
For those who prefer savoury treats, Malaysian favourites of Satay Percik, Chicken Rendang Sandwich and Sardine Paratha Roll await.
Served in transparent tumblers, the slightly spicy, sweet and sour percik sauce is lovely with tender chicken satay.
The Chicken Rendang Sandwich, on the other hand, reveals the richness of coconut milk.
Cut into cubes, the mildly spicy chicken rendang is appetising with fluffy white bread.
The paratha roll definitely gets the thumbs up for its combination of flavours.
Here, flaky roti canai is stuffed with savoury sardine
mixture and rolled tight to prevent the filling from spilling out.
For more carbohydrates, nasi lemak bungkus and Sambal Bilis Bun are other local favourites.
Diners can choose to have pu erh or jasmine tea with the meal, but those in a celebratory mood can opt for the “Midautumn Breeze” selection, which offers gin and tea-based cocktails.
The Mid-autumn afternoon tea is priced at RM98 for two. Cocktails are RM48 for two glasses.
The promotion is available from Sept 1 to Sept 30.
From now until Sept 17, the hotel’s Moonlit Melody music box with four mooncake flavours – White Lotus with Yolk, Pearl of Prosperity (pandan lotus and mung bean paste), mixed nuts and Chocolate Cookies and Cream are on sale.
Customers can play the preset music or connect the box to their electronic devices via
Bluetooth to dive into their own playlists.
The Westin Kuala Lumpur sales and marketing director Denise Mah said the box design would make purchasers “think back to those days”.
“You can also play the music anywhere, be it in the shower or in your bedroom,” she said.
The music mooncake box is priced RM258.
The mooncakes will also be available at The Exchange TRX Mid-autumn Festival booths from Aug 19 to Sept 22 at the concourse level.
THE LIVING ROOM, Level UG, The Westin Kuala Lumpur, 199, Jalan Bukit Bintang, Bukit Bintang, Kuala Lumpur. (Tel: 012-3052973, 03-2773 8015, 03-2773 8495) Business hours: 6am to 10pm, daily.
This is the writer’s observation and not an endorsement by Starmetro.