Rich pastries filled with sweet or savoury fillings, mooncakes are the culinary star of the Mid-Autumn Festival, the Chinese festival held on the 15th day of the eighth lunar month to mark the end of the autumn harvest.
This year, the festival, which dates back more than 3,000 years, will fall on October 6.
Mooncakes – named for their shape, reminiscent of a full moon – symbolise prosperity and gratitude and are best sliced and shared among family members and friends.
As usual, this year Hong Kong hotels are offering a delicious variety of mooncakes, with early-bird discounts and special gift sets available. Here is a look at what is on offer.1. Shang Palace at Kowloon Shangri-La
Shang Palace’s Halal Moonlight Treasures gift box (HK$478) features mooncakes made with halal ingredients.
There is a vegetarian mooncake set too, including four mini red date paste and pine nut mooncakes and four mini assorted nuts and dried fig mooncakes (HK$438).