Singapore Food Blog - Mini Snowskin Mooncakes of Park Palace

Location: City Hall, Central Business District (CBD), Singapore

Mooncakes - what started originally as a way to defeat the Mongols by the Chinese evolved into the colorful and flavorful varieties we now see in the market. The traditional conservatives would choose the lotus paste mooncake with their distinctive baked brown skin, but snowskins had been our favorite for a long while. Those attractive colorful skins attracted our attentions, a lure to the younger generations.

With Park Palace promoting their snowskin mooncakes in our company near the end of the Mooncake Festival, we bought a box of 8 assorted mini snowskins, allowing us to mix and match between the 4 flavors they were offering. This article may come late past the festival, but for those who missed the mooncakes that they had devoured, here are some photos to rekindle your passion and appetite while waiting for the festival to arrive next year.

A box of 8 assorted mini snowskin mooncakes (SGD50.00) with 4 flavor variants, allowing customers to mix and match between the flavors. The empty spot there was due to a greedy and hungry photographer...

Nowadays mooncakes only resemble the traditional ones in geometry, and sometimes not even so. Each purchase comes in an artistically designed box, and Park Palace is one of those to top it up with another larger carry bag with thermal reflective lining within, trapping the snowskins in low temperature when they were removed from the fridge so that it was kept cold on your way home from a purchase. I still kept both box and bag since they are obviously still useful.

Such additions to the mooncakes I bought meant that I was not paying for the purchase of the mooncakes only, pushing the price to a staggering SGD50 for only 8 pieces of mini snowskins. Presenting the mooncakes in this way does attract a far larger crowd than an ugly plastic wrappings around the mooncake piece as was usually done back in the days, but it unfortunately pushed a traditionally affordable food to the range of luxury.

An ornate box and a thermal reflective lined bag for every purchase of mini snowskin mooncakes. The box was a really nice one, with intricately carved flowers surrounding a floating transparent plastic. The voluminous bag would be useful for picnics if you need to maintain the heat or cold of whatever food you are bringing with you.

The snowskins were rather delicious, and in some of them, really sweet. The novelty of their offerings is undeniable though. Of the four flavors, my favorite has to be Baileys Truffle and Mint in Snowskin. With a bright green outer skin and mint infused paste wrapping over a chocolate truffle core, each bite is a refreshingly cool sensation. Traditionally the snowskin piece should be eaten when it is still cold, with the paste still in its solid texture. However if you try to eat this piece when it has warmed up, you will be awarded with a surprisingly cooler sensation, and a chocolate core that is partially melted and fused slightly with the minty paste, offering a bite that is simply out of this world.

Coming in as new choices for the market are the pink Sakura Truffle and White Lotus Seed Paste, and Black Sesame and White Lotus Seed Paste with Mochi. Also not to be missed is their signature snowskin - Lychee and Lychee, although it definitely will not be a favorite for those sugar adverse health conscious customers. Fortunately I am not one of them. Even so, I preferred the Black Sesame with its mushy Mochi interior over the very sweet Lychee.

Baileys Truffle and Mint in Snowskin (冰皮薄荷百利巧克力) is undeniably the best of the lot, with a minty paste and a solid chocolate truffle core.

Black Sesame and White Lotus Seed Paste with Mochi in Snowskin (冰皮黑芝麻麻薯白莲蓉) was quite tasty, with a semi solid core that is made from thick black sesame paste. Its milder flavor formed a contrast to the white Lychee and Lychee Snowskin (冰皮荔枝). The latter has a very sweet paste with no separate inner core. Its sweetness borders on being cloy, so avoid choosing this if you are not a fan of sugary stuff.

Sakura Truffle and White Lotus Seed Paste in Snowskin (冰皮樱花松露巧克力白莲蓉) attracts potential biter with its pinkish exterior and a white chocolate truffle core. Another sweet entry in the series of snowskin, its flavor is more agreeable than the Lychee variant. 

If I were to purchase from Park Palace again next year, I think I will choose a box made out of only the Mint variant and the Black Sesame variant. Too much sweet stuff is not good for me anyway...

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Suitable for:            for family or friends

Cost:                             A really luxurious price...

Website:                    Official homepage

Email:                        mooncake@parkhotelgroup.com

Contact:                     +65 - 6432 5555 (phone)/+65 - 6333 1574 (fax)

Address:                     10 Coleman Street, Singapore 179809.

Directions:                Disembark at City Hall MRT and exit at North Bridge Road. Walk along the flow of traffic and past the cathedral (that's St Andrew Cathedral), and turn right into Coleman Street. Park Palace is at Grand Plaza Parkroyal.