COMMENT | My friend Andrew is really a sweet person. Every time he travels to any part of the world, he will get a nice souvenir for his friends.

Similarly, every Christmas, he will come up with a long list of people who are close to him, and go up and down shopping malls, looking for the perfect gift for them.

And because Andrew is such a sweet and thoughtful person, when he rang me up a few days ago and asked if he could visit me at home, I expected him to bring over some mooncakes.

Now, before you assume that I am some nasty friend who takes advantage of the kindness of others, let me explain.

Every year since I’ve known Andrew, he would always bring me mooncakes during the Chinese Mid-Autumn Festival. And being someone with exquisite taste in food - he cooks and bakes wonderfully, especially French cuisine - Andrew always picks something extraordinary to tickle one’s taste buds. As a cheapskate who only consumes the ordinary mooncakes you would find at normal stores, I always look forward to Andrew’s little surprise.

On the night he was supposed to visit, I prepared some char koey teow (with extra chilli flakes, his favourite) and peppermint tea (also his favourite). However, when Andrew showed up at my doorstep, his hands were empty – with no sign of mooncakes upon him.

Feeling curious, I took out some Shanghai-style mooncakes I had in the fridge for dessert after dinner. I was intrigued to find out why there were no mooncakes from Andrew this year.

“Ah, Shanghai mooncake! Looks nice,” said Andrew as he carefully cut it into four pieces.

“Yes, Kent brought it over the other day. It tastes like tau sar peah, except with a lotus filling,” I replied, hoping it would trigger his memory about the mooncake he forgot to get me this year.

After indulging in a piece of mooncake, Andrew looked at me with a sad face....