Doubling the Heat - Durian + Chestnut

Another interesting mooncake offering by Tung Lok: durian snow skin mooncake with chestnut. I quite like their baked mooncakes because of its soft, smooth and thin skin. Their fillings are also very smooth without coming across as oily. So this is my first time trying their snow skin offerings. 

It was similar to the normal durian mooncake with rich durian cream inside. But while the cream was rich and smooth, I felt that the durian flavour was a bit on the acidic or sour side... I normally prefer durians that are more on the milky, sweet and vanilla-like side. I wasn't sure if it was because it wasn't fresh, or something went wrong with the manufacturing and transport process... because the Four Seasons durian mooncake doesn't have that acidic taste at all. Perhaps it's an issue of preference.

The chestnuts were bits of chopped candied chestnuts mixed in with the cream, as you can see a dark yellow fragment of it in the picture where the arrow is pointing. It was interesting because they were discrete, hard pieces in the middle of the smooth durian cream (not to mention, the snow skin was also very soft). Like candied chestnuts, they crumble into a powdery and pastey texture when you chew on them. I personally didn't really like that combination of textures though...felt like they didn't complement each other very nicely.

Also, I couldn't taste the chestnut in the overpowering durian cream... so it was perhaps a fancy name for mooncake that's supposed to be exquisite, without adding very much gastronomical value to the experience.

Well... I suppose one way in which I could see them as a matching combination is that in Chinese medicine, both are thought of as heaty foods? But I thought water chestnut as a cooling food should balance the durian out, which is known as a very heaty food, rather than have chestnut add to the heatiness of the durian...

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Want to see other interesting mooncake flavours? Check out other unusual mooncakes here!