Mid-Autumn Festival Mooncakes
Labels: 100% sugar, asian food
Sunday, September 14, 2008
The Mid-Autumn Festival, also known as the Harvest Festival, is a rather big noise in China. Big enough to garner its very own public holiday. For a country rather stingy on national holidays, this, I reiterate, is a big noise. As such, we are enjoying a long weekend.
Now, a celebration wouldn't be complete without her accompanying foods and the Mid-Autumn Festival is no different. Mooncakes are eaten. And again, because it is a big noise here, the array of mooncakes are mind-boggling. Not just the flavours but the packaging itself. I've never seen mooncakes so fabulously presented. Prices are fabulous too but that's to be expected considering the lovely crafted metal tins and wooden boxes they are placed in. The most expensive box (of ten) I've seen so far goes for 1260RMB (126 euros). I couldn't for the life of me phantom why mooncakes would cost so much here. Were they filled with twenty-four carat gold ingots? My bubble burst when I realised they were bought to be given away as gifts.
Having seen a six year drought where mooncakes were concerned, I was determined not to miss out this time. I bought several loose pieces of lotus paste and salty yolk filled ones - my favourite. As an extra, I also purchased one of those fancy pants box sets.
Fancy pants box set. You can't see it from the photo but the picture is set into one these plastic 3D thingamajiggy. I love the scene which depicts a group of Tang women in their leisurely pursuits.
Contents of fancy pants box set. It comes complete with knife and fork for your convenience.
I'm embarrassed to say I made my choice based solely on how fetching the box looked. If the mooncakes actually tasted good, it would be an extra bonus. You see, I want to recycle the box into a needlework basket.
Elegant gold and red boxes, fit for a dutchess.
This particular box of mooncake contains five flavours: lotus, coconut, black sesame, red bean and assorted nuts and seeds.
Savoury and sweet, this had melon seeds, pumpkin seeds, walnuts, almonds with teeny, tiny bits of lemon rind.
back ground l-r: coconut; black sesame paste
foreground: red bean paste.
I cut one of each flavour earlier this afternoon for the three of us to share. Hubs had his with red wine, Sonny-boy with apple juice and me, with jasmine tea in my new tea mug. Not photographed is the lotus bean paste mooncake. They were gone in flash, courtesy of Sonny-boy.
Mooncake and tea time.
Starbucks China has made a range of commemorative mugs and I just fell in love with this rabbit peering one, the rabbit alluding to the Jade Rabbit which lives on the moon.
When not grinding powder for the elixir of life on the moon, Rabbit reads tea leaves on the side for fun.
For those who observe the occasion, I hope you had as yummy a time as we did in Cookalot.
The Dutchess of Cookalot whipped this up at 10:36 pm
