While the Mid-Autumn Festival may be more than six weeks away, we’re already beckoning plans to gather as a family to share a meal, light glowing lanterns, and gaze at the full moon.
If you are opening your home as the destination of the night, here’s how you can make it exciting for your family, without going nuts and heck. No stress, no fuss and no – we’re not addressing the after-party clean-up we all dread.
But first, mooncakes
Let’s be honest now: mooncakes are our favourite tradition of the festival. No Mid-Autumn celebration is complete without these pastries, symbolising familial love and harmony. While there are contemporary variations in the market, one can never go wrong with the classics like white lotus and mixed nuts.
If you’re seeking to impress your guests, JEN Singapore Orchardgateway’s set comes with a medley of handcrafted mooncakes in three flavours. The Maple Nut & Black Sesame with Truffle, for instance, sees a sweet-savoury combination of maple-coated nuts and white sesame seeds punctuated by winter melon strips and truffle oil for a refined zing. Lovers of conventional flavours need not panic, as the Reduced Sugar White Lotus Salted Egg Yolk features a bright orange “full moon” salted egg yolk at the core of white lotus seed paste. For the perfect sweet-ender, the Red Dates & Goji Berries draws on the saccharine flavours of the dried fruits, candied with a burst of caramel.
Elevating the craft of mooncake-making to new heights, JEN Singapore Orchardgateway packages the pastries in a celestial box that comes with a Galaxy Projector and customised Spotify playlist. Designed to complement the night-in, the projector makes a great collector’s piece that doubles up as a mood lighting. It can be both battery operated or plugged in with the complimentary USB cable provided in the gift set.
“Sip Tea” and Catch Up
A good Chinese meal is never complete without some notable tea selections of course, so wrap up the feasting with PRYCE Tea’s Custom Blended Honeyed Hojicha Tea that comes with JEN Singapore Orchardgateway’s mooncake set. Serve these warm cuppas in the Doubled-walled Glasses, also included in the set, for fuss-free convenience and to retain the optimal temperature of the tea all throughout your catching up.
Host a Potluck
All it takes is taking out your fine china, and that’s it. Watch the party take its shape before everyone’s eyes as families bring in their dishes to make for a spread. Spice things up and sync your food, with customary menus like pomelo, which denotes blessings for the descendants; roasted duck, which means to suppress the oppressor; and crabs, an age-old Mid-Autumn delicacy due to its seasonal availability that coincides with the festival.
Game Night
Some entertainment, maybe? Spark some friendly – or fiery – competition within the fam’ and bring out the board games. Think: Cluedo, Pictionary, Monopoly, Uno cards. After all, some of the best inside jokes happen in the heat of the moment. There are also plenty of other games to come up with, such as a trivia night that might prove common sense is not always common.
Movie Marathons
The pandemic gave birth to an unofficial love language that revolved around watch parties and soppy film recommendations. For those looking for the next fitting title to catch, we recommend Netflix’s Over the Moon, a tear-jerker which revels in Chinese culture, the Mid-Autumn Festival, and the traditions surrounding it.
JEN Singapore Orchardgateway by Shangri-La’s Mooncake Gift Set is now available for early pre-orders, at SGD 83.30 per box. The pre-order will last until 15 August 2022, and will be available for pick-up at the hotel from 8 August onwards. After the pre-order date, the gift set will be regularly priced at SGD 98 per box. Orders can be made online here 24 hours in advance.
For more information about the Mooncake Gift Set, visit JEN Singapore Orchardgateway’s webpage here. Clearly, the bundle is bound to make families forget about the world for a moment and bask in each other’s company this Mid-Autumn 2022.
This article first appeared on epicure.
