Yes, for me, mooncake fall into this category alongside rice dumpling, pineapple tart that I will only remember them once a year, and stay dormant for rest of the year. These are type of festive food that I don’t really have a craving, as compared to say bah kwa, that I will eat it all year round just because I simply love it!
Speaking of mooncake, I know that mooncake are getting more creative these days, when I can see fusion of mooncake and cookie, tart, ice-cream, fruits, custard, with a mix of cheese, chocolate or truffles. Add in a western or hotel brand, slick packaging, and here we are: 4 pieces of small cakes, which can easily sell more than $40 per box. BTW, check out the wide range here for latest, most trendy 2014 selections.
But something more innovation I would like to talk about here, the act of giving mooncake, without giving actual mooncake! Instead, mooncake will be given in form of mooncake vouchers, made by many mooncake manufacturers, and only available in China.
Say if you are a recipient of mooncake voucher, there are 2 ways you can do about it: Redeem the voucher for mooncake if you happen to really want to eat a slice of mooncake, or, if you like me, are not mooncake lover, you will probably want to sell the voucher to black market and get some cash.
And yes, in China, there is a black market that willing to accept your gift voucher at a lower face value. And this turn out to be a pretty good economical and environmental sense.
There was a weibo post circulating around for quite a while that best describe the scenario:
Mooncake manufacturer print $100 worth of mooncake voucher and sell to retailer for $65.
Retailer in turn sell the voucher to A for $80.
A give the Mooncake voucher to B.
B resell the voucher to black market buyer at $40.
Mooncake manufacturer finally buy the voucher back from black market buyer at $50.
In this process, mooncake manufacturer earns $15, retailer earns $15, A earns a favour from B by giving mooncake, B earns $40, black market buyer earns $10. Mooncake manufacturer just print vouchers and nothing else. And we called this? Securitization of mooncake. Reduce food and material wastage and thus environmental friendly.
Of course in reality, mooncake will still going to be around for quite a while. What else can beat that moment of family and friends gathering, admiring the moon, children playing lanterns, while the adults figuring out the taste of fusion of mooncake and cookie, tart, ice-cream, fruits, custard, with a mix of cheese, chocolate or truffles.
Since the world pour with love and stories for Robin Williams, I think I should too to get certain attention, and possibly traffic to my humble blog.
First, let me start with a moment of silence for Robin Williams (BTW, if you happened to live in cave and happened to read my blog the first thing you are able to connect to wifi, he passed away yesterday. And please close this blog and get a life if you don’t know who he is.. though you seriously need to get a life anyway if you live in cave and happened to read my blog the first thing you able to connect to wifi)… Ok. moment of silence starts…
Thanks. Hope you still around.. I mean you, the reader, not Robin Williams, but wait, that’s not what I mean, I mean I hope he is around too. Ok. Whatever.
Please close this blog (again, I mean not again since you can’t close the blog twice) if you expecting any story on close encounter with him as a person, as I’m really just one of his fans (I live in Singapore and he is in US and the possibility of us meeting and have some meaningful life changing, heart melting, world celebrating conversation is almost zero) , but he is one of my favourite comedian actor, he really is. The other two of my favourites are Jake Black and Bill Murray.
And talking about Bill Murray, I have to admit that when I was a kid, I can’t really tell the difference between Robin Williams and Bill Murray, not that they look the same, but they do have similar face structure and both are Ang Mo (Caucacius in Singlish) comedian. Imagine my conversation as a kid would be “Isn’t Robin Williams the one of the guys in Ghost Buster? I love him!” The enlightenment that make me realise that they are different person is the GroundHog Day movie, cause that’s the movie that has the repeat until loop scenes that the image of Bill would forever implant on me. And yes, GroundHog Day is indeed my favourite movie of Robin Williams.
Quick search on the Internet and seems I’m not the only one having the same childhood problem.
But at least I’m much better than the kids nowadays who thought the guy who gone was Robbie Williams (and probably this will kick start his career once again).. Seriously?
And talking about death. Ain’t it strange as we, human being, react to death, as if death will never fall upon us, that only on death, we remember all the good deeds, wonderful things that the person did in his life, and only upon death, we start to google search the best quote he has quoted, and watch on youtube the best movie scenes he has acted on. It’s happening to Michael Jackson, Whitney Houston, Leslie Cheung, Heath Ledger.. the list goes on.
So I have an idea.. my instruction for you now is to pre-emptive the death (like how Bush pre-emptive the war), and by quoting and tweeting and show your appreciation to celebrities, starting with Bob Dylan, Paul Simon, Morgan Freeman, Clint Eastwood, Mike Jagger, Dalai Lama and Ray Charles, few I can think of who the probability of them leaving us within the next 10 years are much higher than say, Justin Bieber (Which blog will be completed without mention of him). FACE THE FACTS, you need to face Justin Bieber for the next 60 years! He will continue to be everywhere. Tabloid, social media, TV, unless you hide in the cave. He is only god damn 20. (Are you still there? I hope you will not sink into depression after hearing this. Call American Association of Suicidology · Call 1-800-273-TALK (8255) if you need to talk to someone NOW.
Ok. Enough of Justin, back to the pre-emptive the death that I mention, so if you start seeing me quoting “Get busy living, or get busy dying.- Morgan Freeman”, I’m doing the pre-emptive the death. And sorry to break the news, Morgan Freeman is already 76 and Lee Kuan Yew is already 90 (Did I mention him?) ! NO!
But still I must, finally, pay tribute to the man, Robin Williams. The world has lost a great actor, who touch many hearts through his movie. We don’t have much heroes to celebrate or mourn in this generation (Ah yes, Steve Job was the last I can remember), and the void is well replace by celebrities who we touch, see, smell every other days. I know that I will not blog about death of hundreds in Gaza, Iraq, Ukraine, Syria, or the death of those due to Ebola outbreak, they are too complicated for me..
Ok, back to Robin again, here are some of favourites tweets on him:
One of the sick children in the movie “Patch Adams” reflects on what it was like to work with Robin Williams. http://t.co/IeePNeCN3o
And last before I end the blog, please remember to do the most important pre-emptive the death, to our parents, loved ones, families and friends, one day they too will be gone. So please switch off the computer screen, tablets or iphone, and give your loved ones a big hug of love, appreciation and everything.
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