GEORGE TOWN: Some want it firm, others like it soft and crumbly, but whatever the preference, almost everyone wants a mooncake biscuit this Mid-Autumn Festival.
The simple pastry often comes without a filling and tastes much like a plain mooncake. It is popular among children, prompting mooncake makers to shape the biscuits into fish, chickens, rabbits and other animals.
Known in Cantonese as “kung chai peng”, or figurine biscuits, they are commonly sold in traditional little baskets.
Fourth-generation baker Esther Loh, 28, said Penang’s version tended to be softer because of local preferences.
“Penang people tend to like a softer texture, so our figurine biscuits are slightly different from those made elsewhere,” she said.
Her father, Loh Mun Loong, 59, said both the mooncake’s crust and the figurine biscuits were made mainly from golden syrup, oil and flour.
Their proportions differ, he said, adding that the mooncake’s outer layer contains less flour, producing a thinner, softer crust, while the figurine biscuits contain more flour to hold their shapes.
Mun Loong said the freshly baked biscuits were left to “rest” for two to three days to allow their flavour and texture to develop.
Not all figurine biscuits are shaped like animals or without fillings, as the bakery also makes round versions filled with coconut, red bean and melon seeds.
The family bakery in Lebuh Cintra dates back to the early 1900s and began selling its pastries from the first day of the seventh lunar month this year.
A few shops down the road is a 76-year-old dim sum restaurant known for its elaborate decorations to usher in the festival.
This year, the restaurant hung more than 2,000 traditional cellophane lanterns, creating the annual splash of colour that has become a fixture here.
Restaurant manager Darren Ho said the lanterns, priced from RM14 to RM35 each, were from Teluk Intan, Kuala Lumpur and Ipoh.
The Mid-Autumn Festival falls on Sept 25 this year, which is the 15th day of the eighth month of the Chinese lunar calendar.
