But made by my Aunty, ie my 'Tua Ah Kor'
She makes the best-est mooncakes in the world. She makes everything from scratch, soaking the brown lotus seeds, removing the skin, cooking syrup for mooncake dough and etc. A throroughly laborious task, if you ask me and I don't think I'll ever embark on it.
A couple of years ago she was staying in a big bungalow with a decent sized kitchen, she made thousands of mooncakes for sale. I love going to her house and see all her 'kar -chang' stretching from the kitchen to dining, to patio and also guest room. My Ah Kor has the largest collection of cooking paraphanelias and browsing through her collection is like walking along a maze of many kitchen departments.
3 years ago she moved to a condo and stopped all her cooking frenzy but this time around, she made some mooncakes. My father likes her Shanghai Mooncakes and I was lucky to catch Ah Kor in action when I was at her place to collect the mooncakes I've ordered for my father.
Amber calls her "Big Koh Mah". Koh Mah is grandaunt and since she is the eldest, she is known as "bigggest". Amber also likes her muruku very much, Big Koh Mah asked us to come back during Deepavali to collect the murukus :)
Big Koh Mah gave Amber a pack of Reese chocolates..
Amber and Big Koh Mah
We took some photos if her in action and I promised to develop these photos for her :
Balls of lotus paste with kuaci..
Wrapping with skin. This part is tedious, have to be careful not to break the 'thin' skin.
Dough for the skin.. also used to make 'chue chai peang' - I likeee..
Part of her 'kar-chang'
Moulds. She has dozens of them
Waiting to be moulded. See how overfilling it is ? I told Ah Kor not to make so big,, over the mould size. It'll be too big and her cost will be higher. She said "Never mind lah.. bigger means more to eat" :)
Mooncakes waiting to be baked. You can't see the imprints clearly as she has overstuffed the moulds.
Her giant mooncakes
These are our favourite : SHANGHAI MOONCAKE. Lotus filling wrapped with pastry skin :
She uses standard mooncake boxes. Can you see how gigantic the mooncakes are ? Clearly overstuffing the box !
This is how it's like.. White lotus filling, single yolk.
Her mooncakes are really the best and we're counting down to our last mooncakes from her. We may not get to taste any next year or ever as my Ah Kor is migrating to the US very soon.
We'll miss her and also her muruku, ribbon muruku, curry chicken, rendang chicken, mutton curry, nasi briyani, spiral curry puffs, char yoke, almond cookies, chocolate cookies, butter cakes, chiffon cakes, butter cup cakes, ang koo, fatt koe, peanut cookies, indian muruku, kuih talam, kuih lapis, jelly, sirap ros, soya bean, kuih bangkit, kuih kapit, loong peang...
and so many many more.
She's the best cook and we're the lucky relatives who get to savour her cooking !!!
