Autumn and Spongebob...

Ah, yes...autumn - one of my favourite seasons. Football, apple picking, pumpkins, and crisp cool air. Well, that's what it used to mean...now it means durian and mooncakes and continued heat and humidity. (I'm going to save the durian topic for another day...you can start Googling it now if you are unfamiliar.)

Mooncakes on the other hand are rather interesting. They started popping up in grocery stores or at little standalone kiosks a few weeks ago. The eating of mooncakes goes along with the Chinese Mid-Autumn Festival (which has something to do with lunar worship and the moon and is one of the four main Chinese festivals...blah, blah, blah). They are these pretty little bakery treats that come in all different flavors - ranging from red bean or lotus seed paste to triple chocolate or mango cream.

 

These are all different mooncake kiosks at the local mall

 

So the kids have been seeing them all over the place and this weekend begged us to buy one. No problem - I'm in! My kids want to try something new, something related to the new culture we're living in - yup, let me pony up some ringgits and let's do this!

 



This is B.I.G. all decorated for Chinese Mid-Autumn Festival and these are some of the many mooncakes that can be purchased. Some of them are extremely ornate and look like little pieces of art.

 

So I was really looking forward to this...maybe not the red bean flavour, but how about mango or passion fruit - I think I even saw a cappuccino cream one! And, I wanted to get one of the really pretty ones...maybe even a box of four.

 

Instead, this is what we ended up with:



 

 

 

Yes, that is SpongeBob on a mooncake - along with his good friend, Hello Kitty.

 

My kids wanted to try the SpongeBob mooncake. No pretty little lavender mooncake for me, SpongeBob it was. So RM$24 later, I was the proud owner of a mooncake depicting a character that continues to follow me halfway around the globe. (I will give the kids a little credit...they picked a chocolate one at least!)

We waited until after dinner on Saturday night to try it...my kids anxiously waiting to cut Bob into quarters so we could see what all the hype was about. Thankfully, I quickly scanned the ingredients...peanuts. That put Grayson out...no SpongeBob mooncake for him. He was disappointed...until he saw our face after we took a bite. It was horrible! Dry, awful tasting chocolate cake...(cake may be overstating it). Blech! No more mooncake for me! (Give me the mini Magnum bar stashed in the freezer.) So not worth the calories!

 

Now, I don't know if all the mooncakes taste that way. How could they?! They are too damn pretty and have all of these exotic flavors - along with some more traditional flavors that just sound scrumptious. I might have to give it another shot before this festival is over.

 

For now, I'm blaming my initial mooncake experience on SpongeBob...