Bay area mooncake showdown

Writing this blog often has given me many excuses to eat more sweets than I should. Case in point: my mooncake tastings for the Mid Autumn Festival.

As I mentioned in my last post, I am pretty impressed by the caliber of Asian bakeries in Oakland. I had been waiting in earnest for their mooncakes to come out because mooncakes, of all Chinese baked goods, often showcase the best of a baker's skills. I know little about how mooncakes are made, but the vast majority of mooncakes I had before tasted flatly sweet or had too much oil in them, and it's really hard to run into a really good one. (Note: I am referring to Cantonese-style mooncakes that are round-shaped, have a thin, golden-brown baked shell, and usually filled with sweet lotus seed paste, but there are many other variations.)

For my test, I tasted mooncakes from 5 bakeries in the Bay area: Sheng Kee in San Mateo, Napoleon Super Bakery, Big Dish (actually more like a restaurant than bakery), Ruby King, and Delicieuse Princesse in Oakland's Chinatown. I don't like the egg yolk that is traditionally part of the mooncake filling, so the ones I picked were all egg yolk-free. Partly because of this, they were cheaper ranging from $2 for a mini mooncake to $4.5 for a regular-sized one. Each mooncake had a different flavor - the fillings range from lotus seed paste, red (adzuki) bean paste, purple yam, coconut, to black sesame paste.

Here's the verdict:

BEST - Delicieuse Princesse's coconut mooncake ($4.5). Although it is also the most expensive, you get your money's worth because you can SEE the shredded coconut filling and actually TASTE it. The filling has texture and is not blended with disproportionate amounts of sugar and oil. I may be partial to anything that contains coconut, but Delicieuse Princesse's pastries rarely miss the mark. My only complaint: the shell was a bit dry.

Ruby King's red bean paste mooncake and Delicieuse Princesse's coconut mooncake

SECOND PLACE - Ruby King's red bean paste ($3.25) and lotus seed paste ($3.75) mooncakes. With their moist, shiny outer shell and sweet, dense filling, they are what you expect from a decent mooncake. Bonus point to Ruby King for incorporating walnut pieces into the filling to provide some contrast.

Ruby King Bakery in Oakland's Chinatown

ABOVE AVERAGE - Big Dish's black sesame paste mooncake ($3.25) and Sheng Kee's date paste and tea-infused chestnut paste mooncakes ($2 each for a mini version). Both bakeries should be applauded for their unconventional flavors. But Big Dish's is too greasy, while Sheng Kee's don't taste fresh enough. Given Sheng Kee is one of the largest Asian bakery chains in the Bay area, it probably mass produced its mooncake months before. You can't hide this from a discerning palate though. When you think about it, $2 for a mini-mooncake is quite pricey too.

(Clockwise from top left) Sheng Kee's date paste mooncake, tea-infused chestnut paste mooncake, and two bonus treats: slice of Swiss roll and sponge cake sandwich

LOSER - Napoleon Super Bakery's purple yam mooncake ($3). This is surprising because its pastries are normally quite good. The problem with this mooncake is that the filling hardly tastes of yam; instead I feel like I am putting a lump of sugar and grease into my mouth. I hope it didn't add coloring to the filling! Other than purple yam, Napoleon has many other interesting flavors including kumquat and mango, but I didn't get to try them.

Big Dish's black sesame paste mooncake and Napoleon Super Bakery's purple yam mooncake, and a fish-shaped pastry to symbolize abundance

Well, now you know how many mooncakes I ate during this Mid Autumn Festival...