A trip to Kluang, in the state of Johor, is incomplete without stopping at one of its traditional bakeries that specialise in making great Shanghai mooncakes. Yu Kong Moon Cake, located in Taman Kluang Baru, is one of those well-known bakeries.
Yu Kong bakes Shanghai mooncakes for Mid-Autumn Festivals annually. Outside of the festive seasons, they bake different cookies. Yu Kong do make some really special cookies for Chinese Lunar New Year.
Mid-Autumn Festival for 2023 is round the corner and Yu Kong has already "fired up" its oven to make mooncakes for the festive season since May 2023. Yu Kong has 4 flavours of Shanghai mooncakes: lotus (莲蓉), white lotus (百莲蓉), red bean (红豆) and green tea (绿茶). Variants with single salted egg yolks are also available for all flavours — during the festive season only.
I bought a box of 4 mooncakes with all the 4 different flavours with single salted egg yolks — I wanted another box with mixed flavours without salted eggs but they were already sold out for the day. The packaging of the box for 2023 looks really "traditional" and elegant.
Unlike traditional mooncakes that are cylindrical in shape, Shanghai mooncakes are usually shaped like a "ball" and made using shortcrust pastry (same as the base crust of egg tart). Yu Kong's mooncakes are identified by the white and/or black sesame seeds on them. Mooncakes with salted eggs have air outlets (holes) on them to prevent the crusts from breaking up during baking.
A mooncake with lotus filling and single salted egg yolk. It has a buttery crumbly crust and the filling is not too sweet. The egg yolk is also not too dry nor salty. It tastes really great.
Green tea mooncake is marked with black sesame seeds. The yolkless original version does not have an air outlet on it — I bought this to try in June.
The green tea flavoured filling has a nice aroma and not too sweet too. Personally, I like the green tea mooncake more!
Note that Yu Kong's mooncakes has no preservatives. It will be best to consume them within 3~5 days or put in the fridge for up to 2 weeks.
Will my next visit to Yu Kong Moon Cake be in September 2024? Nope, probably before Chinese Lunar New Year.
Address:
Yu Kong Moon Cake (游港上海月饼)
91, Jalan Lim Swee Sim, Kluang Baru, 86000 Kluang, Johor, Malaysia
Opening Hours:
10:30am to 5:30pm | Daily