A Mid-Autumn Update
Last Friday (Oct. 6) was the Mid-Autumn Festival. During the daytime I went to apm (a huge mall at the Kwun Tong MTR station) to do some shopping. The mall is called "apm" because the stores are open until midnight, the restaurants are open til 2 am, and some shops are open 24 hours. I suppose it's "apm" because "ampm" is already taken.
I must say apm is one of my favorite malls here. It has a good variety of stores, and many stores had very good sale prices that day. There are also a lot of gift stores. I ended up buying gifts for several people.
I was supposed to meet my friends at the Shatin mall to have dinner and buy mooncake, but I realized I should drop off my bags at my hostel (my hands were so full with bags that I got many looks, and one woman on the crowded MTR even made a comment to her kids). I was able to drop off my things and head back to the University Station and meet up with my friends at Shatin on time.
We ate at an Indonesian restaurant for dinner. By the time we got out, the mooncake stand was closed. Maxim's Bakery was still open, so we bought a mooncake that the salesperson described as tiramisu. (We all weren't sure whether it was really tiramisu or if that's just what the girl said.) We found another bakery (Wing Wah) with traditional mooncakes, but one mooncake was very expensive, so we decided not to buy any.
We decided we would eat the mooncake at my hall. When we entered the building, the woman at the front desk offered us pieces of mooncake! I ran upstairs quickly to grab a knife to cut the tiramisu mooncake. When I got to my room, my roommate was there and she gave me a mooncake, as well as pieces of mooncake from the Xuesi Hall staff.
My friends and I went to the back of the hall where there were tables. Though we couldn't see the moon, we decided to eat the mooncake there. I cut my mooncake first, then my friend, Kim, cut the tiramisu mooncake. We ate my mooncake first (and I remembered why I didn't like mooncake as a kid). Then we tried the tiramisu mooncake, which turned out to be really good!
I've never seen so many types of mooncake in my life! There's the traditional mooncake made out of lotus seed paste and egg yolk, and then there's tiramisu mooncake, snowy mooncake with redbean, passion fruit mooncake, chocolate mooncake (Mrs. Fields), and even gelato mooncake (Pappagallo) and ice cream mooncake (Haagen-Dazs).
After we finished the mooncake, we walked outside and saw a family playing with a ball made out of glow-in-the-dark sticks. We spotted other families lighting lanterns and decided to walk to the Reflection Pool. There were several people chatting near the pool, and one family was lighting up a very cute lantern in the shape of a lamb.
I found out later from my local neighbor across the hall that the park at Shatin always has lanterns hung up for the Mid-Autumn Festival. It's too bad we missed it!
It's funny how back at home we didn't really celebrate the Mid-Autumn Festival. Now that I'm in Hong Kong away from family, I'm celebrating a holiday that's traditionally spent with family.
I must say apm is one of my favorite malls here. It has a good variety of stores, and many stores had very good sale prices that day. There are also a lot of gift stores. I ended up buying gifts for several people.
I was supposed to meet my friends at the Shatin mall to have dinner and buy mooncake, but I realized I should drop off my bags at my hostel (my hands were so full with bags that I got many looks, and one woman on the crowded MTR even made a comment to her kids). I was able to drop off my things and head back to the University Station and meet up with my friends at Shatin on time.
We ate at an Indonesian restaurant for dinner. By the time we got out, the mooncake stand was closed. Maxim's Bakery was still open, so we bought a mooncake that the salesperson described as tiramisu. (We all weren't sure whether it was really tiramisu or if that's just what the girl said.) We found another bakery (Wing Wah) with traditional mooncakes, but one mooncake was very expensive, so we decided not to buy any.
We decided we would eat the mooncake at my hall. When we entered the building, the woman at the front desk offered us pieces of mooncake! I ran upstairs quickly to grab a knife to cut the tiramisu mooncake. When I got to my room, my roommate was there and she gave me a mooncake, as well as pieces of mooncake from the Xuesi Hall staff.
My friends and I went to the back of the hall where there were tables. Though we couldn't see the moon, we decided to eat the mooncake there. I cut my mooncake first, then my friend, Kim, cut the tiramisu mooncake. We ate my mooncake first (and I remembered why I didn't like mooncake as a kid). Then we tried the tiramisu mooncake, which turned out to be really good!
I've never seen so many types of mooncake in my life! There's the traditional mooncake made out of lotus seed paste and egg yolk, and then there's tiramisu mooncake, snowy mooncake with redbean, passion fruit mooncake, chocolate mooncake (Mrs. Fields), and even gelato mooncake (Pappagallo) and ice cream mooncake (Haagen-Dazs).
After we finished the mooncake, we walked outside and saw a family playing with a ball made out of glow-in-the-dark sticks. We spotted other families lighting lanterns and decided to walk to the Reflection Pool. There were several people chatting near the pool, and one family was lighting up a very cute lantern in the shape of a lamb.
I found out later from my local neighbor across the hall that the park at Shatin always has lanterns hung up for the Mid-Autumn Festival. It's too bad we missed it!
It's funny how back at home we didn't really celebrate the Mid-Autumn Festival. Now that I'm in Hong Kong away from family, I'm celebrating a holiday that's traditionally spent with family.
posted by Michelle at
7:50 AM
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