Home » ‘Mooncake With Dates’ To Be Introduced For Lantern Festival And Hari Raya

‘Mooncake With Dates’ To Be Introduced For Lantern Festival And Hari Raya

News From : DagangHalal.com (22 Sep 2009)

KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 22 (Bernama) — Mooncake fillings which traditionally contain paste from lotus seeds, beans or egg yolk, broke away from tradition with the introduction of mooncakes with paste from dates to inject an innovative idea to encourage use of the Chinese pastry for the lantern festival and Hari Raya Puasa.

Kong Tong Wah, a local mooncake producer who has a confectionery in Kampong Attap here, said he came up with the idea to encourage other races, especially the Malays, to enjoy mooncakes during festivals.

He added that it was also in conjunction with the concept of the 1Malaysia initiative from Prime Minister Datuk Seri Mohd Najib Tun Razak.

“We live in a multi-racial country and need to share the culture and tradition. I believe using paste from dates will encourage our Muslim friends to accept mooncakes as another delicacy,” he told Bernama.

Kong said most of the mooncakes available in the market were halal.

“Confectioneries nowadays use vegetable oil instead of animal fat and most of them have replaced ham paste with chicken paste,” he said.

Since Muslims break fast with dates, mooncakes with paste from dates can become an alternative for such purposes, he said.

He added that his confectionery had already introduced mooncakes with paste from dates and received good response from the public.

“I have not started it a large commercial scale production. So far, I have introduced it to friends and my customers,” he said.

Kong who is 70-years-old now had started making mooncakes since he was 12, and every year, tries to make something new and two of his innovations had been entered in the Guinness Book of Records for being the biggest and highest mooncakes.

He had also used other local ingredients to make mooncakes to give a local touch, with the use of durian, tapioca, cempedak and other local fruits and his creations have drawn customers from as far as Hong Kong.

— BERNAMA

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