Takashimaya’s CNY Festive Celebration 2023 is back with 70+ brands till 20 Jan
With much anticipation, Takashimaya’s well-loved Lunar New Year Festive Celebration is back again this year from now till 20 Jan 2023! Trust me when I say you’re going to want to make a trip down to Orchard for this one— if not to buy your CNY snacks, then to soak in the buzzing festivities that’ll get you going “huat ah”!
With close to over 70 brands selling all sorts of Chinese New Year snacks, goodies and other essentials, Takashimaya’s Lunar New Year Festive Celebration is your one-stop shop for all things CNY-related.
Not to mention, this marks the first time since Covid-19 that Takashimaya is bringing back its Lunar New Year festivities at Takashimaya Square, B2, as previous years’ were spread across B1 and B2 due to safe distancing and crowd control measures.
Officially termed the Lunar New Year Festive Celebration 2023, this year’s festivities started with great fanfare. Takashimaya even invited 财神爷 (Cai Shen Ye, the God of Fortune) and a lion dance troupe to kick off the auspicious celebrations!
What I tried at Takashimaya’s Lunar New Year Festive Celebration 2023
Angie’s Tempeh (Available at Takashimaya Square, B2)
Specially created for every single Lunar New Year is Angie’s Tempeh Bak Kwa, a completely vegan and vegetarian-friendly alternative to everyone’s favourite bak kwa.
Each piece of tempeh bak kwa is handmade, and the amount of work that goes into a single piece is astounding. Slow-cultured soybeans are turned into tempeh and marinated with an in-house vegan bak kwa sauce. Then, each piece of tempeh is blow-torched by hand to create the addictive “bak kwa”.
Angie Tempeh’s Tempeh Bak Kwa is available in two flavours: Original (S$68 per box) and Truffle (S$78 per box).
If you’re looking to grab more than one box, look out for Angie Tempeh’s bundle deals, which give you a fabulous 23% off. For example, 3 Original boxes are priced at S$160 (UP $204)!
Bread & Butter (Available online and at Takashimaya Food Hall, B2)
Bread & Butter is a local bakery that only opened in Jan 2022 specialising in handcrafted pastries. It even has a small cafe in Kensington Square in Hougang!
Apart from freshly baked bread, pastries and puffs, Bread & Butter also offers Lunar New Year goodies such as newly-launched Lychee Cookies (S$23), which are baked with natural sun-dried lychees, and the perennial favourite, Juicy Pineapple Pillows (S$33).
You can also go for Bread & Butter’s signature Almond Pillow (S$33). Made with zero butter and eggs, these silky cookies are melt-in-your-mouth worthy thanks to the star ingredient: finely crushed almond nuts.
HK Imperial Patisserie (Available online and at Takashimaya Square, B2)
Looking for Chinese New Year gift boxes for relatives or colleagues? Check out HK Imperial Patisserie, an award-winning Hong Kong brand that offers stellar Chinese pastries. You might know it from its exceptional mooncakes, which was the first of its kind to win the Grand Gold in Monde Selection award in 59 years!
This Lunar New Year, HK Imperial Patisserie offers 4 types of gift boxes, each of which includes a variety of cookies, puffs, palmiers and egg rolls.
Our recommendation would be the CNY Premium Combo (S$89.90) which comes with 49 pieces of pastry, such as its Original Eggrolls, Earl Grey Palmiers and Butter Crispy Cookies. Alternatively, you can grab single boxes of each pastry, such as the Original Eggrolls (S$48.80 for 24pcs) or Original Palmier (S$59.80 for 32pcs).
More importantly, buy any 3 boxes and get 15% off!
King of Melon Seeds (Available online and at Takashimaya Square, B2)
Founded in 1946, King of Melon Seeds is a homegrown brand that currently has over 100 varieties of melon seeds, nuts, dried fruits and signature snacks, making it possibly the best place to head to for all your CNY snacking needs!
Despite having a stunning range of snacks that makes it impossible to know where to begin, their staff pointed out its number one best-selling item: Cashew Nuts (2 for S$45), which comes in two flavours: BBQ and Sour Cream.
This is the first time since the pandemic began that King of Melon Seeds is bringing back this well-loved snack. Each cashew nut has a crunchy exterior and is tossed in an addictive blend of seasoning, making it impossible to stop at just one.
Mdm Ling Bakery (Available online and at Takashimaya Square, B2)
Situated conveniently at the front of the festivities is Mdm Ling Bakery, a rapidly growing Singaporean brand that’s known for its cookies, kueh lapis and innovative mooncake collections.
Ideal for gifting or for impressing guests at home is the Steps to Prosperity (S$148), a gorgeous 3-tier set that comes with 12 bottles of Mdm Ling’s best-selling cookies.
Decked in artful blooms and a pretty primrose pink, the Steps to Prosperity contains time-honoured cookies and snacks like Premium Pineapple Balls, Kopi Siew Dai Cookies, Anchor Butter Cookies, Purple Sweet Potato Cookies and Green Peas Cookies.
What’s even better is that this 3-tier collection can be reused after CNY to store your valuables!
Peony Jade (Available online and at Takashimaya Square, B2)
A must-visit is Peony Jade, a MICHELIN restaurant brand with multi-award winning culinary festive classics, and available for sale at its booth at Takashimaya’s Lunar New Year Festive Celebration are handcrafted Nyonya cookies and goodies such as Nyonya Makmur Peanut Cookies (S$30.50) and Orh-Ni Tarts (S$62).
Apart from cookies and snacks, Peony Jade will also be offering pen cai and yusheng sets, as well as adorable bunny-themed cakes and pastries! Be sure to check out its Baked Rabbit-shaped Pineapple Yuzu Pastry Gift Set (S$88.88)— each rabbit is stuffed with pineapples from Sarawak and premium Kochi yuzu.
Peony Jade’s Mahjong Tile Black Gold MSW Durian Cake is back as well by popular demand. Premium bitter-sweet black gold mao shan wang durian is spread between layers of fluffy chiffon cake, creating an utterly indulgent cake that’ll definitely impress your mahjong kakis.
Pryce Tea (Available online and at Takashimaya Square, B2)
Pryce Tea is an award-winning Singapore tea brand founded by Lim Tian Peng, heir to historic homegrown tea company Lim Lam Thye and brother of the founder of Gryphon Tea.
Pryce Tea offers a fresh interpretation of Chinese tea. Every year, it also creates Singapore-inspired teas that are often presented as gifts during high-level ministerial visits!
Other than selling sparkling cold brew tea on tap in flavours such as Hakuto Pop and Kyoho Pop (1 for S$10, 2 for S$18), Pryce Tea sells everything from gourmet Chinese tea such as Tai-Cha Li Shan Oolong (S$162) to all-encompassing gift sets like the Golden Prosperity Gift Set (S$300).
It even has a Pryce x Rasa Sayang Limited-Edition Gift Set (S$166) which comes with your choice of tea pot set, kueh lapis from Rasa Sayang, on-site engraved gold tag, and your choice of tea!
Rasa Sayang (Available online and at Takashimaya Square, B2)
I couldn’t take my eyes away from Rasa Sayang’s dazzling spread of Chinese New Year goodies. Everything was stacked in tall containers, making it impossible to miss.
This brand specialises in premium Indonesian cakes and snacks, so you can also grab your lapis cakes here.
One snack I absolutely loved was the Garlic Sweet Emping (S$26). Emping is a type of Indonesian chip made of melinjo or belinjo nuts which are slightly bitter. Made with no MSG, each delectable piece of Garlic Sweet Emping had a great balance of salty and savoury flavours, which only made it more addictive given the aromatic garlic seasoning.
Another must-try is the Prawn Sticks (S$26), which were airy and crunchy. What I really appreciated was how crisp it was, and it had little to no oily residue unlike other prawn crackers I’ve had. Give me a bottle of this and I might just wipe it all clean in one sitting!
So Good K (Available at Takashimaya Square, B2)
A tradition that my family has during Chinese New Year is to give fruits to family and friends, and to cater exactly to that need is So Good K, an e-commerce brand that imports fruits and delicacies directly from Korea.
There are two things you should look out for when you’re at So Good K’s booth: premium seafood and fruits, both of which are ideal for gifting.
Try its Abalone Gift Set (S$188) which comes with 3 different sizes of juicy abalone, Premium Red Hyang Mandarins (S$89 for 2kg) or succulent Premium Korean Strawberries (1 pack for S$29.90, 2 for S$50). Looking to impress the in-laws? You can’t go wrong with So Good K’s Premium Korean Fresh Ginseng (S$210) and Dried Sea Cucumber (S$288).
Yan’s Dining (Available at Takashimaya Square, B2)
Opened by Wang Yanqing, former Channel 8 newscaster and TV presenter, is Yan’s Dining, a fine dining Shanghai restaurant in Mandarin Gallery. Yanqing is from Shanghai and came to Singapore to work in MediaCorp when she was just 21.
Similar to the classic Shanghainese cuisine sold at Yanqing’s fine dining restaurant, you can expect authentic Shanghai items at its booth at Takashimaya’s Lunar New Year Festive Celebration.
Our pick would be its Shanghai Traditional Sweet Fermented Rice Wine (S$28.80 for 800g, S$18.80 for 250ml). Also known as 酒酿 (jiu niang), this traditional item can be served as a dessert or beverage. Unique to Yan’s Dining is a luggage-shaped gift bag— the Lunar New Year Lucky Mini Luggage Hamper (S$98)— which comes with 9 items such as fish maw, rice cake, Shanghai scallion oil noodles and even various rice puddings!
Final thoughts
It’s been years since I was able to soak in the festivities at Takashimaya’s Lunar New Year Festive Celebration, and trust me, it feels good that it’s finally back.
Spread out across Takashimaya Square in B2 were close to 60 physical booths offering everything you could possibly need for Chinese New Year: gifts, cookies, snacks, decorations, drinks, home decor, and even dine-in items for your reunion dinner.
Takashimaya LNY Festive Celebration 2023 (In-store)
Date: From now till 20 Jan 2023 (Fri)
Venue: Takashimaya Square & Food Hall, B2
Visit here for the full list of brands and event site map.
Takashimaya LNY Festive Celebration 2023 (Online)
Date: From now till 14 Jan 2023 (Sat)
Online store here: https://bit.ly/3iaovfZ
Enjoy FREE delivery with a min. spend of $150 online. Self-collection is also available for all orders at Takashimaya Square, B2.
Use promo code LNY20 to get $20 OFF with a min. spend of $200 on LNY categories (limited to first 100 customers!)
I know Chinese New Year is pretty early this year, but I seriously can’t wait. Who’s ready to start the auspicious festivities?
* This article was brought to you in partnership with Takashimaya.
Other articles you might like:
Chinese New Year 2023: Hop to these 25 places for the best reunion dinners & deliveries in Singapore
Far Ocean CNY warehouse sale features $1 premium abalones and items with prices up to 70% off
The post Takashimaya’s CNY Festive Celebration 2023 is back with 70+ brands till 20 Jan appeared first on SETHLUI.com.
