The Mid-Autumn or Mooncake Festival is just around the corner. It is one of the most celebrated Chinese festivals & is held each year on the 15th day of the 8th lunar month. It is a time of celebration with family, prayers, mooncakes & lantern parades.
For me, I cared little for the lanterns & prayers. It’s the time of the year for me to gorge on mooncakes!! 
Not a very traditionalist at heart, this year is a very good year for me as there are so so many funky combinations of mooncakes flavours available!
Below: Li Yen’s mooncakes @ The Ritz-Carlton, Kuala Lumpur.
Green Tea with Custard and Salted Egg Mini Ping Pei and Wasabi with Lotus Paste.
This is in addition to the popular Moët & Chandon Champagne Mini Ping Pei and the pink Rosé mooncakes – Moët & Chandon Champagne Rosé Imperial Mini Ping Pei.
Other varieties of mooncake on offer are: White Lotus Paste with Double Egg Yolk, Lotus Paste with Single Egg Yolk, Red Bean Paste and more. These scrumptious delights are available from August 1 until September 12.
As expected, I loved the Snow Skin Wasabi mooncake. The wasabi flavour was in the skin; & left a notable burn on my tongue after a bite. The low sugar lotus paste filling remained pure, without any hint of wasabi.
I had my doubts at first of how one could incorporate champagne into mooncakes as champagne are much milder in taste compared to other liquors.
But I definitely did detect a faint whiff of champagne in the snow skin of both the Moët & Chandon Champagne Mini Ping Pei and the pink Rosé mooncakes – Moët & Chandon Champagne Rosé Imperial Mini Ping Pei. Again the lotus fillings remained pure, and thankfully not too sweet.
The last one I sampled for the day was Green Tea with Custard and Salted Egg Mini Ping Pei.
This is probably one that I’ll recommend for those who wants something out of ordinary. On the skin, the fragrant tea flavour was pleasingly strong enough, and its savoury fillings has a slightly salty sweet taste, with a grainy texture reminiscent of salted eggs.
Li Yen mooncakes are served throughout the day and are available individually, priced between RM9.00nett and RM20.50nett or in boxes of four or eight, priced from RM60.00nett to RM128.00nett depending on size and type – the ideal gift for friends and family.
Li Yen is located on Level Two of The Ritz-Carlton, Kuala Lumpur.
Lunch – 12.00pm – 2.30pm, Mon to Sat
10.30am – 2.30pm, Sun & Public Holidays.
Dinner – 6.30pm – 10.30pm daily.
Reservations: kindly call The Ritz-Carlton, Kuala Lumpur at (603) 2142 8000.
Li Yen is also notable for their repertoire of non-halal dim sums, one of the few hotels that specialise in old tradition porky-goodness dim sums.
Since mooncakes are certainly insufficient to fill us up, we were treated to some of the famous delectable Li Yen dim sum.
This was awesome! Baked custard buns with pineapple topping . RM9.00.
Perfect balance of sweet & rich custard with fluffy buns.
Baked Pork Char Siew Buns. RM9.00. Seriously, if the Chef is willing to organise a baking session for his buns, I will the first to sign up. Absolutely admirable soft & fluffy texture for both buns I sampled as above.
Li Yen’s signature fried noodles. RM25 (small) RM35 (large).
Other items includes:
Steamed bamboo shoot ‘har gao’
Steamed ‘siew mai’ with crab roe
Crispy deep-fried prawn and fresh mango rolls RM10.00
Deep-fried crispy spring rolls
Steamed Chee Cheong Fun with scallop RM11.50
Washed all that down with my favourite; Li Yen special double almond tea. RM11+ which was aromatic & thick. Lovely!
All the pretty mooncakes on a plate.
Entrance to Li Yen, The Ritz Carlton.
All pictures are:
i haven’t managed to try any li yen mooncakes! the only one i had this year was a banana-flavored that someone else bought for me, from lavender bakery. definitely not as decadent as champagne mooncakes, heheh 😀
Well, You did say you’re trying to go mooncake-less this year ;p
Looks like you ALMOST succeeded!
Hi rebeccasaw,
Kindly be informed that this post has been reprinted on JoinMe.com.my, thanks. ^^
P/S: We have put your name and link credit back to this article.
The green tea with custard and salted egg mini ping pei was also my favorite. Hubby liked their Baked Lotus Paste one.
That green tea one is good huh? 🙂
I hardly had any baked ones this year, got distracted with all new funky flavours!