Mau Wei and I went to Aeon, a shopping mall in Kamunting just the other day after watching the movie, Alpha in Taiping Mall. It's the eight month of the lunar calendar and Chinese all over the world are celebrating Mooncake festival. At the two shopping malls, special booths selling mooncakes have been set up but strangely, Mau Wei chose to browse the ones in Aeon; first being attracted by the mooncake boxes and then by the mooncake fillings. Competition has been stiff these days. Not only are mooncakes being sold early, long before the actual festival begins; but the packaging and fillings are now also wide and varied. Long ago, boxes were not as elaborate and beautiful. I only remember mooncakes wrapped in white paper with red paper stickers. Mooncakes traditionally have fillings made from lotus seed , red bean, jujube or other nuts and seeds like walnuts, peanuts; but these days there are coffee, green tea, chocolate and other types of mooncakes imaginable, even durian mooncakes as in Malaysia. Mau Wei bought the five kernels mooncakes which have 5 types of nuts and seeds, coarsely chopped, and held together with maltose syrup. It is common to give mooncakes as gifts to friends and relatives on this festive season and Mau Wei had asked if I would like to have some. Of course, I declined. There was already an abundance of mooncakes at home, even during the last week's of the Hungry Ghost Festival!
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