2025 mooncake roundup

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We had just celebrated Mid-Autumn Festival (中秋節) earlier this week, and that meant I'd been munching my way through a few mooncakes. As was the case in the last few years, I mostly chomp on mooncakes I buy for myself - and for mom - and I'm actually grateful that I don't receive the flood of mooncakes that I see my friends getting. The reality is that I'm the only one in our household who consumes them - well, other than the occasional bits for CC Dogcow - so the only ones I want around the house are ones that I actually want to eat.

This year mom has requested that I bring her some Suzhou-style mooncakes (蘇式月餅) with flaky pastry, specifically with jujube paste (棗泥) filling. This isn't something I buy often, and I don't even have a regular supplier for this... so I figured I would try some and buy them for mom if they passed my taste test.

Jujube paste mooncakes (棗泥月餅) from Siu Ning Bo (小寧波) - I remember buying these a few years ago and they were pretty decent, so I bought them again.

These were OK. The jujube flavors were there, but the texture was a little on the firm side. The pastry was also kinda hard and not as flaky as I would want. Not knowing what other brands I could find in Hong Kong, I bought two more of these as an insurance policy.

Algae mooncakes (苔菜月餅) from Siu Ning Bo (小寧波) - I was curious about these so I tried them out.

While I enjoyed the flavors from the algae, and the mix of sweet and savory was interesting, there was just something a little off about these that I didn't care for. Won't be buying them again.

My friend Mamo's family has made the difficult decision to close Metropol Restaurant (名都酒樓) after 35 years, so for the first time I have decided to buy a box of the mooncakes from the Heichinrou (聘珍樓) group.

Double yolks red bean paste with dried mandarin peel mooncakes (雙黃陳皮豆沙月餅) - I'm ashamed to say that I've never support my friend in terms of mooncakes before, but after this year I should be buying this year after year. Not only does the red bean paste come with the lovely fragrance of dried mandarin peel (陳皮), I still find oil (or was it lard?) oozing out of the yolks. I still prefer not having yolks in my mooncakes, but if I had to eat ones would yolks, these would be on my list thanks to the soft and moist yolks.

After the surprising success last year, I decided to stop by Pak Po Vegetarian Kitchen (百寶齋廚) after my haircut to buy another one of their mooncakes. The lady wanted me to buy a box of four, but I only needed one. She reluctantly took a single out of a box and sold it to me...

Jujube and walnut mooncake (棗泥核桃月餅) - this was pretty good. Plenty of jujube flavor, and we've got a little bit of walnut for a bit more fragrance. So happy I bought it again.

I was very surprised when the nice people at Yong Fu (甬府) offered me a box of their delicious durian mooncakes. These were made by Durian Power (榴力量). Very surprised at the kind gesture, and grateful for the wonderful gift.

Musang King durian mooncake (貓山王榴槤月餅)

This was always going to be pretty good, and CC Dogcow got to have a tiny slice of it. Of course she enjoyed it! However, when tasted against the one made with Black Thorn, this suddenly felt kinda bland...

Black Thorn durian mooncake (黑刺榴槤月餅)

Lemme do an Austin Power "YEAH, BABY, YEAH!" because this is REALLY good. The flavors are much more intense, and I love finding little bits of durian in the filling.

Not happy with the ones I bought from Siu Ning Bo, Foursheets helped me to get a box of jujube mooncakes from China. I have no idea who makes good ones, so I ended up just picking something by looking at pictures on Taobao (淘宝)...

Jujube mooncake (酥皮棗泥月餅) from 徐维珍蛋糕店

This was EXACTLY what mom wanted. The flaky pastry was thin and delicate, which meant it fell apart easily. The filling was much more moist, and much softer in terms of texture. For mom this meant that the jujube paste is much more pure, and there is less of any "fillers" meant to make the filling more firm and able to hold up inside the pastry shell. I'm so happy we bought this, and I'd be buying it next year for sure.