As a frequent visitor of the Asian supermarkets in my area - I am happy enough to have at a distance of less than one hour two gorgeous places where I realize I need a life and a little bit more to try and understand everything - in the last months I noticed some fancy square or round cakes, mostly packed in glamorous boxes. Labelled as 'mooncakes' and sold for an average of around 4 Euro the piece, those delicious cakes are part of the Asian Mid-Autumn Festival celebrations.
A fix during the celebrations in mainland China, Taiwan, Vietnam, Malaysia, Singapore and all over the world where Asian communities are living, the mooncakes are usually filled with a lotus, red bean, jasmin, durian, green tea or peanut cream, and eaten in the company of a cup of tea, eventually while admiring the moon. Shared with friends and business partners, they are glazed with yolks from salted duck eggs on the top, usually with the name of the bakery they are produced stamped on the top. The average cake has around 10 cm. diameter and a 3-4 cm. high. As a meal, they are fulfilling enough for a couple of hours, the time spent outside under the moonlight.
The mid-autumn festival is one of the most important Chinese festivals, celebrated late September, beginning of October, according to the Gregorian calender.
I personally tried in the last weeks several variants of cakes, my favorite so far being the red beans. I loved the perfect match between the mild pastry flavor and the heavy consistency of the filling.
Will I be ever able to prepare one? Wishful thinking, but until then I do my careful research getting the last bites of the left-over mooncakes from the time of the festival.
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