THIS year's Mid-Autumn Festival was special for it was no ordinary moon that lit up the night sky but a super moon, quite a fitting highlight for an important annual Chinese festival of moon worship.
The moon gazing and adoration though wasn't constrained to the night sky but on the banquet, as well with the mooncakes as the high point of the meal. The feast is, after all, referred to as the Mooncake Festival, too.
As a tradition, the festival calls for making and sharing mooncakes. A round shape symbolizes unity and completeness in the Chinese culture, hence the sharing of round mooncakes among family to keep the members united and whole.
At the Marco Polo Hotel, the Lotus Court one-night only Mid-Autumn Festival celebration presented an array of sumptuous all time Oriental favorites. The guests feasted on the scrumptious Peking Duck and Roasted Pig, the flavorful 8 Treasure Chicken and Pork Knuckle in Brown Sauce, and many more, while enjoying the Chinese performances of the students of Colegio de San Ignacio.
The buffet may have been delectable and the show entertaining but it was the mooncakes that attracted attention. Going super moon on the traditional festival desserts, Executive Sous Chef Victor Barangan dressed up a variety of mooncake flavors in three attractive colors of chocolate-red, white and brown, that leveled up the temptation factor of the confection. "My inspiration for that is God, family and wife. White for God, chocolate for the family and red for my wife," shared the chef of his mooncakes.
A visit at this restaurant is never complete without partaking of its best house offering-the buchi. The full moon and the buchi, chocolate and red bean-filled, took me to the verge of saccharine lunacy, in a good way. A bite into this delicacy is already a celebration, and you can have it every day at Lotus Court.
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