Harvest Moon
The Mid-Autumn Festival is a time for feasting – and special deals. Ivia Tang picks the cream of the crop.
“The moon back home is always brighter,” slurred Chinese poet Li Po nostalgically before he drowned in a lake after inviting the moon to join his reflection for a drink. It may not have worked out too well for poor old Li Po, but he was on to something. Every year, hundreds of thousands of us get together with families and friends to toast the moon at the Mid-Autumn Festival. It’s a time for reunions, and uncomfortable picnics in the dark. But if you don’t fancy numbing your bum on a bamboo mat in Victoria Park, there are plenty of restaurants offering special Mid-Autumn menus. After all, the festival falls at a time of abundance - in the West, it’s celebrated as the Harvest Festival - and the markets are bursting with produce. Much of it makes its way onto restaurant menus. Pomelo, a Chinese citrus fruit with a pointed top and rounded bottom that tastes like honey, really gets chefs’ creative juices flowing. Also briefly in season are white peaches, which are so popular that the Mandarin Oriental Café has designed an entire three-course menu around them. If that doesn’t light your candle, try one of the other restaurants celebrating the September 18 festival.
Raise a Red Lantern
Providing the entertainment at Water Margin on Mid-Autumn Festival weekend is a craftsman who will be producing handmade lanterns from 7pm-9pm nightly. By Sunday night, there should be about 100 on display in the beautiful old-style surrounds of the restaurant. The food is equally authentic northern Chinese cuisine: Try the extravagant seafood soup, which comes in hand-stitched lotus leaves, or crispy duck infused with Chinese tea. After your meal, pick up a lantern for free on your way out. Shop 1205, Food Forum, Times Square, 1 Matheson St., Causeway Bay, 3102-0088.
Lunar View
French Cuisine in Tsing Yi may not be in the most fashionable location in town, but it has one of the best views. As a nod to the season, it’s made a few (modest) changes to its classic French dishes: a star fruit garnish on the foie gras, and pomelo sauce drizzled on duck breast. The set menu for two is $698 (indoors), but if you pay extra for a bottle of house sparkling wine you can sit outdoors and watch the promenade of excited children up way past bedtime swinging lanterns on sticks. G/F, Shop 2, Maritime Square, 33 Tsing King Rd., Tsing Yi, 3150-8118.
Heart of the Action
For a slap-up dinner close to the action in Victoria Park, Avenue Joffre is offering a six-course, Chinese-inspired menu, with four complimentary glasses of wine on Sep 18. The menu includes shark’s fin, frogs’ legs and duck leg – and that’s just for starters. They carry the oriental theme all the way through to dessert: custard moon cake with star fruit. September 18 only, $580 a person. 9-11 Kingston St., Causeway Bay, 2882-6001.