I WISH to highlight how ridiculous the concocting of new tastes
for seasonal traditional delicacies, such as mooncakes and rice
dumplings, has become, and the waste in unnecessary packaging for
mooncakes.
It gets wackier with each passing year, concocted with a view to
charging exorbitant prices. Rice dumplings now even come with foie
gras filling.
Hotels and restaurants compete to create new and strange-tasting
stuff; the more ludicrous, it seems, the better - and pricier.
Seasonal delicacies, which are an integral part of tradition,
should remain traditional.
The Mid-Autumn and rice dumpling festivals are traditional
Chinese celebrations. One should savour them accordingly by
offering traditional food, instead of using them as a fig leaf to
promote pricey, new fare with little or no bearing on the
celebrations.
Christmas cakes and puddings, for instance, rightly retain their
traditional flavour. Do hotels and restaurants here market new,
wacky flavours for such important Western seasonal fare? I am
certain Westerners would be horrified to find durian or pandan
flavoured Christmas cakes and puddings.
Packaging has also got out of hand.
Mooncakes used to be packaged in simple paper boxes. Now, they
are packed in expensive cardboard or metal boxes, and even
baskets.
It is not only a waste of money, but also environmentally
unfriendly.
Even if the mooncakes are bought as gifts, it is absurd to
package them as though they must survive a harrowing journey.
Shouldn't a modest box using recycled paper tied with a ribbon
suffice, especially when almost all of them are discarded
immediately upon receipt?
If I buy mooncakes for personal consumption, I usually refuse
the boxes. For those I receive as gifts, I try to recycle the boxes
as containers. Even so, there is a limit to the number I can keep,
especially when they are so durable.
We should remain true to tradition while remaining
environmentally conscious.
Sin Chey Cheng (Ms)
