Mooncakes for the Mid-Autumn Festival

[ahojunk]

I have created a new thread for moon cakes. The other thread is for Mid-Autumn festival wishes.

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Mad for mooncakes, one of the world's most calorific festival traditions
By Chieu Luu, CNN

Updated 0428 GMT (1228 HKT) September 15, 2016

Story highlights

• Mid-Autumn Festival celebrated on 15th day of eighth month of lunar calendar
• Mooncakes as important to festivities as turkey is to Thanksgiving
• The average small cake contains about 975 calories

(CNN) Delicately designed, overwhelmingly dense and often an acquired taste for many in the West, mooncakes are one of the most famous foods found in Chinese communities around the world this time of year.

Every year on the 15th day of the eighth month of the lunar calendar, Chinese and other Asian cultures celebrate the Mid-Autumn Festival.

Mooncakes are as important to festivities as turkey is to Thanksgiving and latkes are to Hanukah. While Thanksgiving celebrations were first recorded in the US as far back as 1607, historians say the Chinese have been celebrating the harvest and worshiping the moon for centuries before Christ.

The Mid-Autumn Festival -- when the moon is at its fullest and brightest -- became an official celebration in China during the Tang Dynasty (618-907 AD).

The term "mooncake" was first found in 1274 AD in author Wu Zimu's "Book of Dreams," and the first cookbook on how to prepare mooncakes was published in 1792.

'Round like the moon'

While there are many variations of mooncakes, the most famous is the classic Cantonese version: a soft pastry filled with sweet lotus seed paste and savory salted duck egg yolk.

"They are round like the moon," celebrity cook Maria Cordero tells CNN.

Affectionately known as "Fei Ma" -- translated as "Fat Mama" -- Cordero was a singer who found a second career as host of a series of home cooking shows that are hugely popular in Hong Kong and among much of the Chinese diaspora.

Cordero has a big family -- six children and 13 grandchildren. She says the mooncake represents the family reuniting and sharing the treat that will put a smile on everyone's face.

You could -- but really shouldn't eat an entire mooncake on your own. One small cake contains about 975 calories.

"You cut it into small pieces so the whole family can share," she says.

"When you cut it you'll get some pieces that have a lot of egg yolk and some that have little or none at all.

To show respect, you give the piece with the most egg yolk to the eldest and keep the piece with the least egg yolk for yourself."

Like many Westerners, there are Chinese who will admit the lotus paste and salted duck egg dessert just isn't their thing.

Luckily, there are many other varieties of mooncakes to try.

Those wanting a savorier filling can try the Yunnan-style mooncake that contains honey and ham.

Those with a sweet tooth can sample mooncakes filled with egg custard or ice cream (Haagen-Dazs has several versions).

And those feeling more adventurous -- and who are willing to spend the cash -- can try the exotic and expensive durian mooncake.

Hong Kong's Peninsula hotel sells them for $115 a box.

CNN intern Christy Leung contributed to this feature.


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[ahojunk]

Believe it or not, Starbucks is selling mooncakes in selected countries.
They are very pretty and colorful.

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Starbucks Mooncakes: a beautiful and delicious take on a traditional product
Oona McGee, about an hour ago

Only available in certain countries for a limited time, these regional cakes come with a number of gorgeous details.

One of the key ingredients to Starbucks’ success as a global coffee house chain is their ability to adapt to different markets and devise menus that cater to local tastes. In China, there’s one fantastic edible on everyone’s minds in autumn, the delicious mooncake, and Starbucks is now delivering their own take on the traditional specialty to customers in the region.

Mooncakes are traditionally eaten during the Mid-Autumn Festival, which is centred around lunar worship and moon watching. Celebrated on 15 September this year, the cakes are often given as gifts and shared between family and friends during the important Chinese festival.

Starbucks is selling their version of the Chinese confectionery in China, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Singapore, with different designs and flavours available in each country.

Our Japanese reporter Meg picked up a box from the Chinese mainland and was keen to try all three varieties of mooncake inside.

The box was huge and featured stunning decorative elements that made it look like a picture book, with a 3-D Starbucks mermaid raising a cup of Joe to the moon with its fabled inhabitant, a rabbit, jumping through the sky.

The mooncakes featured the Starbucks mermaid, in red, green and brown varieties.

While Chinese mooncakes usually appear with a crusted coating, these Starbucks cakes looked very different to the traditional varieties.

 

[ahojunk]

Continued ........

The red cake was a “Cheese Cranberry” flavour.

Inside, resembling the round moon, was a pulp filling that contained whole cranberries, which, when combined with the cheese-flavoured paste around it, made it taste like a western confectionary.

The South American Coffee Hazelnut was filled with flavourful aromas.

The taste was like a milky cafe latte, with crunchy pieces of hazelnuts giving it a great textured mouthfeel.

The Brown Rice Powdered Green Tea was Meg’s favourite.

Filled with delicious aromas, the fragrant green tea combined beautifully with the sweet flavours of the brown rice paste.

Meg’s box, which cost 328 yuan (5,020 yen/US$49.17), was just one of three varieties available. The most gorgeous box in the middle was so popular it had sold out, despite its expensive price tag.

Meg absolutely loved the Starbucks mooncakes, with their large size, beautiful packaging and limited availability making them one of the best souvenirs she’s ever bought for herself. She’s already counting down the days until she can buy the 2017 versions next year!

Photos © RocketNews24

 

[ahojunk]

Moon cake

Moon cake (月饼) is a Chinese bakery product traditionally eaten during the Mid-autumn Festival which usually falls in mid or late September according to Gregorian calendar.

The origin of moon cake

Moon cake comes from the Yuan Dynasty. During that time, people would not stand the cruel domination taking place, so many people staged uprisings to fight against the Yuan Dynasty rulers. Zhu Yuanzhang, the most prominent one, united all the people to start the uprisings. Unfortunately, government soldiers checked correspondences so strictly that it was hard for him to deliver messages to his fellow rebels. Soon the leader had a good idea: to hide messages in cake to inform his people. Finally the uprising succeeded, and Zhu Yuanzhang designated the "message cake" as the main food in the upcoming Mid-Autumn Festival. From then on, moon cake has always played an important role in the festival's celebrations.

Meaning of moon cake

Everyone will eat moon cakes during the Mid-Autumn Festival. Moon cake is the most traditional and important food in this holiday. It is round in shape, signifying family reunions and best wishes. That's why people in China buy and send moon cakes on Mid-Autumn Festival. There are all kinds of moon cakes to choose from, and those hailing from Beijing, Suzhou, and Guangdong tend to be most popular. What's especially important in moon cakes is the filling. The traditional fillings are sweetened bean paste, sesame, sugar and others. But now there are new fillings being invented all the time.

Modern style moon cake

The concept of moon cake has been updated to incorporate better into people's lives today. The following are some new styles of moon cake:

Ice cream moon cake: Ice cream moon cake is made completely of ice cream, and made to look just like moon cake. Although the festival happens in mid-autumn, the weather often stays fairly warm, so many people enjoy eating ice cream moon cake - especially kids.

Health food moon cake: Healthy food moon cake is a style of cake that is meant to benefit people's health. It is made of many healthy ingredients such as ginseng, calcium, medicated food and other things that are good for health.

Moon cake of enjoying the cool: This is the latest creation of moon cake. Its fillings are made with lily, green bean or tea. All of them have a cooling effect on the body.

 

[ahojunk]

10 delicious mooncakes
Chinahighlights.Com
Thursday, September 15, 2016

MOONCAKES are traditional snacks/desserts of Mid-Autumn Festival, the second most important festival in China. It is said that there is a moon goddess who makes these cakes, so people call them mooncakes.

People often give mooncakes as gifts when visiting friends and family around Mid-Autumn. There are many flavours of mooncakes on the market. So how do you choose?

Here we introduce the top 10 flavours of mooncakes that you should consider trying to help you choose. The first four flavours are very common, but the last three flavours are quite new, and only a few shops are selling them.

1. Five kernel and roast pork

Five kernel and roast pork (wuren chashao /woo-ren chaa-shaou/) mooncakes are the most traditional classic flavour. Compared to other common flavours, five kernel and roast pork mooncakes are much more expensive. They are filled with mixed nuts and seeds (almonds, walnuts, and dried winter melon, sesame, and pumpkin seeds) and roast pork. You will get a different taste with each bite. Most Chinese, especially seniors, love this flavour.

2. Red bean paste

Red bean paste (hongdousha /hong-doh-shaa/) mooncakes are filled with a rich, thick, red bean paste, and taste sweet and smooth. The red bean paste gives a lingering flavour, and the scent fills your mouth after each bite. Some people don't like such a sweet taste, but a cup of tea is a good choice to go with them.

3. Lotus seed paste

Lotus seed paste (lianrong /lyen-rong/) mooncakes are a famous Mid-Autumn Festival dessert of Cantonese origin, which have become popular all over China and even overseas. Lotus seed paste is considered the most luxurious mooncake filling.

Due to the high price of lotus paste, white kidney bean paste is sometimes used as filler, sometimes with duck eggs, so make sure you don't go too cheap and get a real lotus paste mooncake.

4. Snow skin

Snow skin (xuepi /shwair-pee/) mooncakes are non-baked mooncakes, which originated in Hong Kong, and have become fashionable in China. The crust is made of frozen glutinous rice, and looks snow white. Now some people add juice to the crust to make it look more colourful. The fillings can be sweet or savoury, or both, such as fruit and duck egg yolks. It tastes more wonderful chilled.

5. Vegetable and fruit

Fruit and vegetable (guoshu /gwor-shoo/) mooncakes are filled with fresh vegetables and fruits, and taste soft and smooth. Fillings including honeydew, litchi, and pineapple make this traditional dessert healthier.

6. Chocolate

Chocolate (qiaokeli /chyaou-ker-lee/) mooncakes make Mid-Autumn Festival more romantic. The attractive mooncake appearance and the thick scent of chocolate mix traditional Chinese culture and Western romantic culture together. The crust is made from chocolate and the filling can be oats, berries, Oreo flavour, etc.

7. Green tea

Both tea and mooncakes are among the most traditional of Chinese foods, and together they create a new mooncake variety: green tea (lvcha /lyoo-chaa/) mooncakes. They are mainly filled with tea leaves and other ingredients, like lotus paste. With the taste of fresh tea leaves, the usually greasy taste of mooncake is well balanced.

8. Ice cream

Ice cream (bingqilin /bing-chee-lin/) mooncake is a new look for traditional Chinese mooncakes. Cooling instead of warming, the refreshing taste makes it popular among young people. The crust is often made from chocolate and the fillings can be any flavour of ice cream you like.

9. Cream cheese

The main feature of cream cheese (naiyoupi /nigh-yo-pee/) mooncakes is the golden and crispy crust with a thick milky flavour. It is not as sweet as other mooncakes. There are many fillings, mostly pastes and jams, to meet different customers' tastes.

10. Seafood

Seafood (haiwei /high-way/) mooncakes are more expensive than other types of traditional mooncakes. As their name suggests, they are filled with seafood like abalone and seaweed. They taste fresh and salty. If you don't like sweet mooncakes, and like seafood, seafood mooncake is a good idea.

 

[ahojunk]

Two centuries of handmade mooncakes
Reporter: Ning Hong 丨 CCTV.com
09-15-2016 12:54 BJT

Mooncakes are a must-have during the Mid-Autumn festival. Few workshops today still make these pastries by hand. CCTV's Ning Hong visited one mooncake shop in Xuanhua, Hebei province, where mooncakes have been made the same way for centuries.

In the old town of Xuanhua, workers in Xin Fuyuan Pastry are busy churning out the last batch of mooncakes – just in time for the Mid-Autumn Festival.

From the selection of fillings to the final decorations, these pastries are all painstakingly handmade. And this tradition has been passed down from generation to generation for two hundred years.

83-year-old Wang Jiuzhou learnt the art of mooncake making from his grandfather when he was twelve. At that time, his family had already been in the business for six generations.

"There are twelve steps to make a mooncake. For example, the peanuts need to be picked, baked, peeled and so on -- that’s already five steps," said Wang Jiuzhou, mooncake chef.

In China, most mooncakes contain a filling of peanuts, sesame seeds and Chinese dates. But Wang uses siritch, a type of oil which has a long history among the Muslim Chinese living in Northern China.

During Mid Autumn Festival, a family reunion is most important. People have been trying to find meaningful ways to spend the festival. And there is always the option of sharing a moon-cake with your family.

Wang has his own mooncake-making process, and he calls the process the traditional methods. And this one and a half kilo mooncake is his creation.

"Since I was ten, I have been making mooncakes this small. The process has been changed six times. Now, this mooncake is unique and easy to make. And it looks better. I say, why not? You need to be creative," Wang said.

This creation is named “Reunion”, and is only available for sale a few days before the Mid-Autumn Day. Many locals line up just to get their hands on one.

Wang’s mooncake has become a shared memory for many people who live in the old town of Xuanhua. Now his grandson has taken up the mantle, and has become his apprentice.

"I want to go on making good mooncakes for people living in the old town. And we will never sell it at high prices," Wang said.

There are nearly a hundred different types of mooncakes here. Over a thousand are sold before the festival. And no doubt, in this town, it is the handmade mooncakes that pull a family together.

 

[ahojunk]

What do you know about the five-kernel mooncake?
CCTV News

Published on 14 Sep 2016

Eating mooncakes while enjoying the glorious full moon on the night of the Mid-Autumn Festival is a traditional custom for Chinese people. Among the huge variety of mooncakes available for the festival, the five-kernel mooncake is surely the most traditional and classic example.

The shape of the five-kernel mooncake is like a Chinese drum, with slightly bulging edges and clear patterns or writing on the surface. The filling, consisting of five kinds of coarsely chopped nuts and kernels, is held together with maltose syrup, which lends the mooncake a brownish red tint.

Do you know what the five kernels are?

According to new official standards on mooncakes revealed in December last year, for Cantonese-style mooncakes the five kernels are walnuts, almonds, olive kernels, sunflower seeds and sesame seeds.

“Five kernels” or“五仁”in Chinese is a pun – it is a play on words of the five moral standards of traditional Chinese teachings: benevolence, righteousness, courtesy, wisdom and trust.

Additionally, five-kernel mooncakes also have certain health effects on the human body due to the raw vegetable seeds in the filling.

Plant seeds contain high levels of unsaturated fatty acids, oleic acid, and linoleic acid. They are beneficial to the blood vessels, preventing hardening of the arteries. Plant seeds also contain minerals, which are conducive to boosting the immune system, and preventing zinc and iron deficiencies in children.

In recent years, the five-kernel mooncake has courted controversy, with some netizens even trying to banish them from the mooncake world itself. Five-kernel haters say that the mixture of nuts in the mooncake creates both a salty and sweet flavor, which is uncomfortable to the palate and even a “torture” for the taste buds.

However, the five-kernel mooncake has still won over consumers’ hearts in the market for mooncakes. According to statistics from CCTV, five-kernel mooncakes in recent years are one of the top three most popular mooncake varieties, following snow-skin mooncakes and lotus seed paste flavored mooncakes as they fly off the shelves.

So what do you think? Will you have a five-kernel mooncake to spend your Mid-Autumn Festival?


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[jkroo]

Very informative thread.

To be frank, I laughed after I saw Starbucks mooncake.