Mooncakes & Gourmet Chocolate

What better way to engage students and get them in the mood for the Autumn Festival than DIY mooncakes in Home Econs Class??? Justin came home on Monday with blotchy red dye on his hands that wouldn't wash off and proudly declared he made his first batch of lotus paste mooncakes at school. But when I saw a plate of gooey-looking blobs on the dining table some time later.. my immediate thought was 'Oh, is that the Filipino coconut-desert-thingy?'. After closer scrutiny, they seemed to vaguely resembled 'soon kueh' or 'ang ku kueh'... It really didn't occur to me that THOSE were Justin's masterpieces until I asked!!! Apparently he had heated 6 small mooncakes in the microwave.. of which only 2 pieces were his. But during the minute in there.. 4 pieces slowly melted and sank down into mushy pancakes. NO points for guessing WHY his friends didn't want to bring them home in the first place?!

Then this evening, our Care-Group had a mini welcome party for the Chia family.. who recently relocated back to Singapore after their stint in USA. Besides the mooncakes galore, Alvin also brought a box of expensive gourmet Swiss chocolate.. apparently all the way from Europe. There were 3 tiers.. marzipan top layer.. green jelly in the middle and a biscuit base.. coated in chocolate. But unfortunately, the delicacy fell on 'deaf tongues'.. it smelt like moth balls and tasted like the fruit-flavoured medicine.. maybe we were just too 'cheeeenah' to appreciate it or perhaps it's an acquire taste???