It’s that time of the year again when we play the dice game and eat mooncakes in honor and in celebration of the Mid-autumn Harvest or Mooncake Festival (中秋节). In the Philippines, this is popular among Filipino-Chinese communities. Many years back, we used have to hopia and mooncakes (月饼) as prizes in the mooncake dice game (pua tiong chiu). Now we have plenty of variety of prizes ranging from food, fancy pen and paper, to just about everything the event hosts and organizers can think of! It’s good to have more options than grow tired of eating the same traditional mooncake every time.

 
Last week, I was invited by Richie to join the KTG Mooncake Festival + Dice Game in Astoria Plaza, Escriva Drive, Pasig. KTG means Kain Tulog Gang (Eat Sleep Gang)a. k. a. “many of the country’s top food bloggers.” I’m not sure if they mean it in the literal sense. 😛 At least for myself, I’d like to think that there’s more WORK happening in between. Haha! Anyway, I knew it was going to be fun so I came. ☆完美的一天!☆

Anatomy of KTG Mooncake Festival + Dice Game 2014

September 6, 2014—Everyone was excited to play the mooncake dice game. More than playing though, I felt that everyone was excited to eat. Why not? There’s lots of food to indulge in, thanks to our loving sponsors:

Packed dinner of Beef Pot Roast with Buttered Vegetables from GraceY’.s Gourmet Kitchen c/o Grace Yambao-Go

15 boxes of Chewy Buns and Beef Pastry Puff Canape from Orange Whisk Restaurant and Patisserie c/o Korinne Lirio

2 special boxes of Mooncakes from Makati Shangri-La, Manila

2 special boxes of Mooncakes and 40 mini pieces snow skin for dessert from Spring by Ha Yuan PLUS GCs totaling PhP 6,000

15 packs of assorted Jam Foods Angus Tapa worth over PhP 2000 each from Michelle Navarro Cu-Unjieng

15 packs of Chorizo De Cebu Philippines from Kevin Vitug

15 boxes of Kat’s Café cupcakes from Katrece Gamo

Dessert buffet from My Pink Wasabi c/o Anna Chua

Lechon Degustacion at Pepita’s Kitchen with SUPER SUMAN from Dedet Dela Fuente

Pork Belly by Diplahan Lechon from Benjamin Abelarde

After dinner, Ahia Richard asked us to pick a number to indicate our grouping and order in the dice game. We were over 30 people in one room so we divided ourselves into two tables. For the benefit of first-timers, he also explained the rules on how to play (you may read it here). Basically, each player gets to roll six dice. The different combinations will result in different prizes.

I picked 15A (table A number 15)—which happened to be a really unfortunate number! I think I took home the least number of prizes. Yes, I couldn’t believe it myself. 😆

The dice game gets repetitive but the thrill of winning loads of prizes in every round by luck keeps the fun and excitement going. From rolling winning dice combinations, Sumi and Kathi won as “chong-guan” in our table, while Chef Anna won as the grand prize winner in theirs. 🙂

With good company, good food and fun prizes, everyone had a great time and went home feeling like a winner. Congratulations to all! 祝大家中秋节快乐。 但愿人长久,千里共婵娟!

About 

Health and technology freak. Food and lifestyle blogger with a large appetite for food and travel.

59 Responses

  1. mindy

    Wow, good (and plenty of them!) food, great companies and fun games? I would say that is the epitome of having a great time!

    Reply
  2. Pal Raine

    What a FUN GAME you have here. First time to hear about a dice game, this is cool especially that Christmas is fast approaching, this will be a great game for Christmas party.

    Reply
    • Rochkirstin Santos

      Haha I’ve never encountered a family playing the dice game for a Christmas party because this is only for the Mid-autum festival. In any case, that would be fine as well, I guess. 😀

      Reply
  3. Fernando Lachica

    You experienced this mooncake from KTG, and it seems you enjoyed with the dice game..ha..ha..ha..maybe, I think, the dice knows that you have mmoncake at home. Glad it’s fun to be with other food bloggers.

    Reply
    • Rochkirstin Santos

      Yeah, being with them was especially fun since I’ve tasted and tried sumptuous food I’ve never tried before. Also, the partner sponsors delivered unique offerings all bringing us to smile. 🙂

      Reply
  4. Margot

    I’m not aware of Mid-autumn Harvest, but I know Mooncake Festival because the godfather of my son is a Chinese. He always bring hopia to his “inaanak” or godchild.

    btw, are you a photographer? you’ve got a nice set of shots here in your post. Keep it up!

    Reply
    • Rochkirstin Santos

      Haha thanks, Margot. I’m not a professional photographer. I just happen to have a good DSLR and lens on hand and am actively practicing taking shots of food in these events. 😀

      Reply
  5. Michelle de Guzman

    The Food all looks amazing. I am a particular fan of Lechon. YUM! But the Hopia and moon cakes are always in abundance at family functions. Thanks for sharing the dice game. I had not seen that before.

    Reply
    • Rochkirstin Santos

      It was my first time actually to try the lechon with truffle rice. OMG it’s so yummy! Super glad I’ve tried even a small chunk of it. You’re welcome. Hey, why not join one next time? For sure you will have lots of fun as well. 😛

      Reply
  6. XmasDolly

    Wow, great food, fun games and good friends you can’t ask for a better day! Thanks for sharing and what fun pictures also. I have a recipe linky tomorrow and if you have any recipes you’d like to share I surely hope you stop by. THANKS!

    Reply
    • Rochkirstin Santos

      Sure, you’re welcome! 🙂 Here we received a bunch of goodies to send us home with. The event was a great time to connect with brands and other bloggers. I got to see old friends and make new ones.

      Reply
  7. mr_jeng

    awwwts sorry about that roch ^_^ next time pramise babawi tayo!!! makukuha din matin ang 1st place hehehehehe it was awesome playing dice with you next time ulit >_<

    Reply
    • Rochkirstin Santos

      Haha oo next time talaga sana. Grabe nahakot mo na nga halos all major prizes ah! 😛 It was a great turn out during the evening, and as the night went on, we ended with this fun group of bloggers just hanging out making memories.

      Reply
  8. Jonas Labagala

    I miss attending Mooncake Festival which was way back 2008. I also miss eating them. Good thing you had fun with other bloggers who were present that day. I was looking forward for this festival though but there were no promotions around. I dunno why.

    Reply
    • Rochkirstin Santos

      Awww 2008 is quite a long time na. Tag along with the Fil-Chi community and for sure there’s one or maybe a couple of events celebrating the Mooncake Festival. 😀

      Reply
    • Rochkirstin Santos

      Thanks, Grace! The dice game is a game by luck. I’ve had good times in the past years. This year, as evident in the two other dice games I have participated in, marked one of my most unfortunate haha. My consolation is that I’ve bonded with the nicest group of people, the best food and great sponsors. 😀

      Reply
  9. Bonnie @ wemake7

    Looks like a really fun time. Would have loved to win some prizes. The food looks good too.

    Reply
    • Rochkirstin Santos

      The Mooncake Festival is mostly celebrated in countries like China (of course), Singapore, Malaysia, Taiwan and the Philippines. We continuously support this kind of event every year.

      Reply
  10. Nolie

    This sounds like an awesome time! Great treats, fun games and face time with friends and plenty of opportunity to make new friends 🙂 Gotta love it!

    Reply
    • Rochkirstin Santos

      I absolutely love seeing my friends and meeting new ones. The ability to do this on a personal and professional level is crucial to me and it is really something I love about any blogging event I attend. 😀

      Reply
  11. Ann Bacciaglia

    The selection of food looks amazing. I would love to go to an event like that as it sound like so much fun,

    Reply
  12. Rebecca Swenor

    This looks like an awesome event indeed. All the food looks amazing and I wish I had been there. Thanks for sharing.

    Reply
    • Rochkirstin Santos

      I’m glad to share this experience. 🙂 The dessert buffet was my favorite. If I weren’t just too conscious of my figure, I would have devoured more of those mini pieces of sweet treats (and take home some too). 😛

      Reply
    • Rochkirstin Santos

      For many Asians, this is the season to celebrate with mooncakes. If you’ve been around any Chinatown neighborhood recently, you will have noticed boxes of Cantonese-style mooncakes at the grocery stores, supermarkets, and bakeries. Come grab and taste one. 🙂

      Reply
  13. Risa

    There were so many different types of food! Those cupcakes look delicious and it looks like you had a great time!

    Reply
    • Rochkirstin Santos

      I hoped to get myself a box of cupcakes! Unfortunately, I didn’t win any. 🙁 There’s always a chance to buy them from Kat’s Cafe anyway so anytime I feel like eating one, it’s simple to order.

      Reply
    • Rochkirstin Santos

      Every year the Chinese Mid-Autumn Festival is celebrated in our community. The actual experience is never the same as those you read on paper. 😉 You should join the dice game next time!

      Reply
  14. Vanessa

    This looks like a super fun event! The cupcakes really caught my eye, I really wish we had these types of parties here in the states. 🙂

    Reply
    • Rochkirstin Santos

      Haha. It’s hard not to fall in love with the pastries. I look forward to them each year! This time, I got the chance to taste those flavored mooncakes by Spring by Ha Yuan and liked them. If you can send me your address, then I can do that. 🙂

      Reply
    • Rochkirstin Santos

      My sampling and knowledge on mooncakes are far from comprehensive. There are many different variants of this pastry, but I’ve liked each of ones I’ve tasted so far. It was truly a fun and memorable event! 🙂

      Reply
  15. Nile Flores

    Oh my goodness, I’m so hungry at looking at the pics. I’m a fan of cute little finger food. It looks like a fun event. I think I said in another post, but I will repeat… wish people did this kind of stuff here.

    Reply

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