Mid-Autumn Festivities at Gran Melia Jakarta

Are you familiar with the term “Harvest Moon”? I don’t blame you if your mind immediately turns to the Playstation game that went famous over a decade ago. In fact, there is a common theme between the game and the real harvest moon: the harvest season. Traditionally, the harvest moon falls on the 15th day of the 8th month of the Chinese lunar calendar, sometime in the middle of autumn—that is when rice is supposed to be mature, ready for harvest. Thus, the Mid-Autumn Festival was born.

To put it simply, Mid-Autumn Festival is how the Chinese people appreciate the harvest season and thank the moon for it. Hundreds of years later, the festival is still going strong every year, and more people than ever—all over the world—are celebrating it. How? Mooncake. Mooncake has become the icon of the Mid-Autumn Festival, thanks to its round form that represents the shape of the harvest moon, togetherness, and family reunion. To honour this eventful festival, Gran Melia Jakarta is offering a variety of exclusive mooncakes from 15 August to 23 September 2015.

This year’s Mooncake Festival is particularly momentous for Gran Melia because it also marks the welcoming of a Penang-born Chef Eric Lau to their line up of experienced cooks at Tien Chao, the hotel’s Cantonese and Szechuan restaurant. He also plays a hand in creating the various flavours of the mooncakes: lotus, red bean, green tea, pandan, sweet corn, durian, and many more. There is also a choice between the traditional baked mooncake and the modern no-bake snow skin mooncake.

While traditionalists might favour the traditional baked mooncake with lotus paste filling, we’re especially drawn to the colourful rainbow snow skin mooncake. It’s impossible not to! With its bright pink, green, and yellow skin, this mooncake offers a layer of pandan, green tea, and sweet corn paste in one bite. In addition to that, the snow skin mooncake is also less heavy in texture compared to the baked mooncake. For those of you who have always thought that mooncakes are too oily and fatty, the snow skin mooncake might change your mind.

At Gran Melia, the mooncakes are available à la carte at Tien Chao, as a part of high tea menu at Lobby Lounge, and on the go at El Bombon. Perfect for every occasion!

Credits:
Photo © Bob Soerjodipoero / www.bobsoerjodipoero.com
Text by Alexandra Karman