I was pleasantly surprised to find an invitation to a Mooncake cooking class and dinner from the nice people at JW Marriott Jakarta (Kuningan) last week. It’s that time of the year again – the Mid-Autumn Festival or Mooncake time! Did the JW Marriot manage make a mooncake convert out of me?
I’ll be honest and say that I was not a fan of mooncake, however I was intrigued to see how it was made so I went. And boy am glad I did! The mooncakes at JW Marriot’s Pearl restaurant were really GOOD! I guess all this time, I’ve just had not-so-great-versions of this delicacy.
*Warning: this is a long post with lots of photos that I couldn’t NOT post. I can’t help it if there were so many interesting/lovely things to capture! =P (Click images to enlarge)
We were served refreshments and appetizers during the demo. My drink of choice: the delicious and refreshing Lunar Punch, made of mango, pineapple and lychee. (How cute is that miniature Chinese lantern?!)
JW Marriott’s yummy appetizers: Peking duck wrap (inset) and minced chicken sate
Mooncake-making Demo
Some ingredients
The special mould
Left to right) 1) After flattening the skin, place the filling and shape till the skin evenly surrounds the ball 2) dust flour into mould and pack the ball in tight 3) whack the mould hard a few times until the mooncake comes off (It’s not as easy as it looks! I never realized how thin the skin is! And how tricky it would be to make sure that it’s even on all sides!)
Ta-DAAAAAA! Perfect mooncakes!
Chef John gamely teaches a volunteer. Good job!
Mooncake Praline-making Demo
This is a great modern take on mooncakes – and my absolute favorite variation! JW Marriott pralines are made with melted luscious LINDT chocolates. OoOoOoOoooooh…. They had me at chocolate!
JW Marriott mooncake praline demo. Roll filling and slap on some white chocolate!
This is how the filling looks once they are cut
Chef then dips these into the melted Lindt milk or white chocolate…
…then places the edible art on top and allows them to dry.
We were so caught up in the interesting demo that we didn’t even realize that people were eating already. Some shots of the cocktail dinner. Everything was delicious and we went back for seconds (or maybe even thirds – blush!). My mouth is watering just remembering the food.
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Prawn in szechuan sauce
Egg noodles tossed in sauce with minced meat and chicken feet
During dinner we were serenaded by authentic chinese music
We devoured a LOT of mooncake for dessert – my favorite fillings were the Red Bean and chocolate!
Lovely giveaways for the guests. Yes, you guessed it! Mooncake and mooncake pralines!
Let’s take a closer look at these gorgeous designs! Don’t they look like gorgeous little pieces of art?
They are all dipped in luscious Lindt chocolate. YUMMMMM…. 3 different kinds of choco-filling combinations.
I am now officially a Mooncake convert! If any of you are interested in trying em out, details below. I also took the time to scan the prices for you! Enjoy and if you get to try it, do drop me a line and tell me what you think!
* Event c/o JW Marriott Jakarta
Pearl Restaurant – JW Marriott Jakarta
- JL. Lingkar Mega Kuningan Kav E 1.2 No 1&2, Jakarta, 12950 Indonesia
- Phone: +62 21 57988888
- Click images to enlarge
JW Marriott Mooncakes come in gorgeous boxes with free gold-plated lucky golden tiger
JW Marriott Mooncake prices
JW Marriott Mooncake order form, pick up location and time
kind of makes you feel bad about eating such great works of art. But the food looks really good.
Hahaha I know what you mean! That’s why I had to take close up shots of each one of the pralines! The hubby got really impatient waiting so he could start eating them hehe. That’s his one complaint about my blog – that he has to wait for me to finish taking photos of the food before he can devour em!
thanks for sharing..
has link to our page.. 🙂
You’re welcome! Hope you can place a link to my post on your FB too! Thanks as well!
JW Marriott really has the best mooncakes I’ve ever had and their event celebrating mooncakes was a great one!