My Chinatown mooncake festival walk began outside Charing Cross on a warm Thursday evening. It was 15 September 2016, and I had a simple mission: head into Chinatown, find some mooncakes and bring a share home. Naturally, dinner and bubble tea soon became part of the plan.

Filmed on 15 September 2016 and first published on YouTube on 17 September 2016. This is an archive of that evening; prices and businesses mentioned reflect the visit.

Lanterns for the Chinatown mooncake festival

I walked up Charing Cross Road towards Leicester Square, wondering how much of the festival I would find. The answer came overhead: rows of red lanterns stretched between the buildings, catching the last blue light of the evening.

This was an evening food walk rather than a parade. People moved between the restaurants, bakery windows and takeaway counters while I tried to decide what to eat first. The lanterns made familiar streets feel different, and I kept stopping to look back along them.

Five spicy skewers at Baozi Inn

Before the cakes, I stopped at Baozi Inn. The takeaway kitchen sat beside the restaurant, with menus outside and very little room indoors. I ordered five skewers, watched them cook in the pot and waited outside for my tub of dinner.

My choices were beef tripe, pig tripe, fish tofu, black ear fungus and broccoli. The five-skewer offer cost £5 on this visit. I took them to a stone table beneath the nearby pavilion to try them.

Spice was the first thing I noticed. One piece of tripe was softer and the other chewier, although I could not confidently tell which was which. The fish flavour came through after the initial texture and heat of the fish tofu. The broccoli still had some bite, and the fungus was soft and chewy.

I had considered the steamed buns too, but there were mooncakes ahead. For a separate visit devoted to those, see my Baozi Inn pork bun film. This time I saved the space and carried on towards the bakeries.

Mooncakes from Kowloon bakery

Kowloon was the chosen bakery, partly because it was my girlfriend’s favourite for cream cakes. Tonight the order was different. I wanted two red bean mooncakes and two lotus paste mooncakes, one of each for both of us.

Inside, I looked over the bakery shelves before ordering. The system was straightforward: tell the cake counter what you wanted, take the price ticket to the cashier, then collect the boxed cakes. It was cash only during this visit.

The four cakes cost £19. That felt expensive to me at the time, but I had come specifically for the festival treat. With the box safely bagged, I still needed something to drink after those spicy skewers.

Roasted milk tea at Chatime

At Chatime, choosing the drink became a small project of its own. There was the tea, the size, hot or cold, the toppings, the ice and the sweetness. A queue at least gave me time to look at the menu.

I settled on regular cold roasted milk tea with pearls, aloe vera and coconut jelly, plus regular ice and sugar. The cup was sealed at the counter and came with a wide straw for the pieces at the bottom.

The pearls were soft and chewy, and the jelly made it feel like a drink and dessert together. It was also more filling than it looked, which mattered once I finally opened the cake box.

Trying the mooncakes

I found a spot outside Golden Gate to taste my Kowloon cakes, mostly because the lighting looked useful. Almost on cue, the lights went off. Filming a cake tasting on a busy Chinatown pavement had its challenges.

Both cakes had patterned tops, plenty of filling and a pastry shell. I liked that they were not overly sweet. I tried to compare the red bean and lotus fillings, but in the poor light I was no longer certain which one I was holding. The honest verdict was that I enjoyed both, ate half of each and closed the box.

After a final walk through the streets, I had ticked off the mooncakes, dinner and tea. Taiyaki had been another possibility at the start of the evening, but I was too full to add anything else.

A Thames walk in search of the moon

The Chinatown mooncake festival outing ended with a detour onto the Thames. Between the narrow streets I had not managed to see the moon, so I tried the open view from the bridge instead.

The London Eye and riverside lights were clear enough, but cloud covered much of the sky. I could only point to a bright patch where I thought the moon might be. There was no perfect moon photograph to finish with, just a night-time London view and a box of cakes to take home.