Bloggers Wil and Igorot Blogger asked what a mooncake is. The occassion for mooncakes, the Moon Festival, is already over, but to satisfy curiosity, allow me to still blog about it.
According to this site, which also explains the origins/legends of the Moon Festival, "While baked goods are a common feature at most Chinese celebrations, mooncakes are inextricably linked with the Moon festival. One type of traditional mooncake is filled with lotus seed paste. Roughly the size of a human palm, these mooncakes are quite filling, meant to be cut diagonally in quarters and passed around. A word of caution: the salty yolk in the middle, representing the full moon, is an acquired taste.
More elaborate versions of mooncakes contain four egg yolks (representing the four phases of the moon). Besides lotus seed paste, other traditional fillings include red bean paste and black bean paste. Unfortunately for dieters, mooncakes are rather high in calories.While in the past mooncakes took up to four weeks to make, automation has speeded up the process considerably. Today, mooncakes may be filled with everything from dates, nuts, and fruit to Chinese sausages.
More exotic creations include green tea mooncakes, and ping pei or snowskin mooncakes, a Southeast Asian variation made with cooked glutinous rice flour. Haagen-Daz has even gotten into the act by introducing a line of ice cream mooncakes in Asian markets."
With that introduction, here are some different kinds, but I'm sure there are a lot more interesting ones.
According to this site, which also explains the origins/legends of the Moon Festival, "While baked goods are a common feature at most Chinese celebrations, mooncakes are inextricably linked with the Moon festival. One type of traditional mooncake is filled with lotus seed paste. Roughly the size of a human palm, these mooncakes are quite filling, meant to be cut diagonally in quarters and passed around. A word of caution: the salty yolk in the middle, representing the full moon, is an acquired taste.
More elaborate versions of mooncakes contain four egg yolks (representing the four phases of the moon). Besides lotus seed paste, other traditional fillings include red bean paste and black bean paste. Unfortunately for dieters, mooncakes are rather high in calories.While in the past mooncakes took up to four weeks to make, automation has speeded up the process considerably. Today, mooncakes may be filled with everything from dates, nuts, and fruit to Chinese sausages.
More exotic creations include green tea mooncakes, and ping pei or snowskin mooncakes, a Southeast Asian variation made with cooked glutinous rice flour. Haagen-Daz has even gotten into the act by introducing a line of ice cream mooncakes in Asian markets."
With that introduction, here are some different kinds, but I'm sure there are a lot more interesting ones.
The Traditional Mooncake
The Chinese characters probably tell you what the flavor is.
The Chinese characters probably tell you what the flavor is.
The Mini Mooncake
This one is pandan flavor, I guess.
The Proudly Indonesian 'Kue Bulan' (mooncake)
This one has chocolate filling.
The Oink Mooncake?
This is the most unusual mooncake I have seen so far.
So now you know what a mooncake is! =) You should check out the site above for the origins/legends of the Moon Festival. I heard the historical version from a member of my family group, but the romantic version adds another dimension to it.
