Sunny
Last year, Bakerzin rocked the tampines town with its midnight sesame truffle with charcoal. Bamboo charcoal; the doted newer science on black food, after squid ink. And if you do see any charcoal bread, it is so stark and odd that it is a point of no return, having to stop and stare even if hurrying through a photopool.
This year, Peony Jade is the beloved daughter with Black Sesame Truffles in Bamboo Charcoal Powder. Yet when one thinks that all species of the family has been found, we have forgotten about the original stand of buying and eating mooncakes. Hong Kong, or Mainland, where they have been eating it for centuries.
So besides the Singapore names, there are more black snowskin mooncakes in bamboo charcoal powder, and more traditional black mooncakes in bamboo charcoal powder. Each one making the promoters beam like a computerised sensor; "the bamboo charcoal 'flavour''', when you stand still for a moment.
Black Diamond Mooncake (Bamboo Charcoal) (SGD 7.75)
This is black for snowskin and traditional mooncakes! No more misunderstandings on black sesame snowskin mooncake, where they are mini and 'light black' made up of tiny black shrapnels. Or the rum & raisin flavour mooncakes, where they look black, but stave off an allure from wizened red grapes/wine. And the most heinous, sesame mooncake. Where they are made from black sesame, but has retained a genetic off-colour on its skin- grey due to unforeseen causes.
When it is black, we have to look into its origins to see if it's really black. The charcoal, or leftover of a bamboo, it could be black, like opaque and threateningly hueless here; or raw and wet and indeterminate, but black still from the courtesy of charcoal.
Bamboo charcoal on the skin, and it glowers blue from the intensity of the midnight sun,
not red from the sun kiss of red beans, or brown from the dark robes of chocolate. Unwittingly, it is blue which sets it apart as real black. When you get into the colour not to find reds and browns inside, but lighter black- blue.
Taking it apart and you get lotus seed paste and an egg yolk! Traditional black mooncake this one is.
The crust is sandy and foamy, like styrofoam, not moist or lacquered with glaze like the traditional mooncake skin. Probably the bamboo charcoal acted as a dehydrating agent. Inside the paste is rich with flavours, a very succulent bite and satiating, but not sinful at all and balanced by the charcoal.
P.S. SEASON mooncake. Est. 1975. Less threatening when sectioned into triangles.
