A trip to Kluang District, in the state of Johor, is incomplete without stopping at one of its traditional bakeries that specialises in making great mooncakes. Yu Kong Moon Cake (游港上海月饼), located in Taman Kluang Baru, is one of those well-known bakeries that makes Shanghai mooncakes.
Yu Kong bakes Shanghai mooncakes for Mid-Autumn Festivals, which is on the 15th day of the 8th month on the lunar calendar. Yu Kong will "fire up" its ovens to make mooncakes for the festive season about 4 months before Mid-Autumn annually. Outside of the festive season, they bake cookies. Yu Kong makes some really special cookies for Chinese Lunar New Year too.
Yu Kong has 4 flavours of Shanghai mooncakes: lotus (莲蓉), white lotus (白莲蓉), red bean (豆沙) and green tea (绿茶). Closer to Mid-Autumn, other than yolkless versions, single salted egg yolks are also available for all flavours. Apart from self-consumption, these mooncakes are great as gifts too — something different from traditional mooncakes.
Unlike traditional mooncakes that are round in shape, Shanghai mooncakes are shaped like a "ball" and made using shortcrust pastry (similar to the base crust of egg tarts). Yu Kong's mooncakes are identifiable by the white and/or black sesame seeds on the crusts. Mooncakes with salted yolks have air outlets (holes) to prevent the crusts from breaking up during baking.
All the mooncakes have buttery crumbly crust and the fillings are not too sweet. The salted egg yolk is also not too dry nor salty. Mooncake with no sesame seeds has lotus filling (莲蓉); white sesame seeds only is red bean (豆沙); a mix of white and black seeds is white lotus (白莲蓉) and black sesame seeds only is green tea (绿茶).
Outside of the Mid-Autumn season, all 4 flavours of Yu Kong's mooncakes are without salted egg yolks. Yu Kong's green tea mooncake, with a distinctive green tea flavour, has always been my favourite.
Note that Yu Kong's mooncakes contain no preservatives. It will be best to consume them within 5 days at room temperature or put in the fridge for up to 2 weeks. After retrieving from the fridge, it will be best to let them cool to room temperature, or warm it up in an oven, before eating.
Address:
91, Jalan Lim Swee Sim, Kluang Baru, 86000 Kluang, Johor, Malaysia
Opening Hours:
10:30am to 5:30pm | Daily
Comments