Sweet, Intricate Mooncakes Get Their Annual Spotlight

Welcome back to Insta Stories, a column examining the London restaurant scene through the often-problematic medium of Instagram. This week’s filter is terrifying.

News of the week

Harvest Festival was last Sunday, which feels a tad unfortunate given most of the country was being assailed by Storm Alex and not, therefore, in much of a mood to think about a successful harvest. But Chinese mooncakes care not for storms. These pastries, often stuffed with red bean paste and hiding a salted duck egg yolk, are the delicious symbolic food of 中秋節, the Chinese mid-Autumn festival, and Instagram absolutely loves them. They’re also the emoji that your favourite London restaurant misuses when trying to represent a tart. Twin with a viewing of the pagan rom-com Midsommar, which, based on this trailer, looks like exactly the sort of sun-dappled escapist fare that could offset the grim weather outside.

Trompe l’oeil of the week

Emphatically not raspberry ripple.

Bantz of the week

Better than 95 percent of Kinder Egg fillings, to be fair.

Good point of the week

After centuries of resisting any kind of external scrutiny, the wine world is finally coming to terms with its deep-rooted structural inequalities and attendant environmental impact — although it will undeniably take a long time to change a culture in which the estates producing some of the most prized bottles are named after literal castles. Perhaps this is just another of many small steps in the right direction.

Tote of the week

The original bag for life.

Dish of the week

A big mood.

Shot of the week

Surely enough for even Sir Mix-A-Lot’s notoriously exacting anaconda.