Mooncakes are a traditional pastry eaten during the Mid-Autumn Festival in China and parts of Asia to celebrate friendship, fertility, and togetherness. They are dense, rich, and heavy, and are typically filled with lotus seed paste or sweet red bean paste, with a preserved salted egg yolk representing the full moon. Mooncakes can also be encased in jelly or glutinous rice and have a range of fillings, from exotic to mundane. They are often exchanged as gifts and eaten with family and friends during the festival.
A mooncake is a special pastry eaten during the Mid-Autumn Festival in China and parts of Asia. This festival is meant to celebrate friendship, fertility and togetherness and a number of traditions are associated with the celebration of the festival. Mooncakes are an important part of this tradition, acknowledging the bright autumn moon that is present during the Mid-Autumn Festival. This festival is sometimes called the Moon Festival in reference to the central role played by the moon and always falls on the 15th day of the eighth lunar month.
Traditionally, people buy mooncakes from bakeries and specialty stores, because they take a long time to make at home. Each mooncake is stamped with a Chinese character for harmony or a similar sentiment, along with the name of the bakery and a description of the mooncake filling. Mooncakes can be quite expensive, making them expensive treats.
Unlike desserts in many other regions of the world, mooncakes are very dense, rich and heavy. Most people can’t eat a whole mooncake on their own, with families cutting their mooncakes into wedges and eating them together. Some mooncakes are round in shape, referencing the full moon, while others are shaped into squares or rectangles.
The classic filling for mooncakes is lotus seed paste, although sweet red bean paste and jujube paste are not uncommon. Many bakeries encase the yolk of a preserved salted egg, representing the full moon, by wrapping the filling in a thin pastry shell that can be tender, chewy, or flaky, depending on the pastry and regional tastes. Many mooncakes are made with lard, which gives them a slightly oily, greasy taste.
In the 20th century, mooncake recipes began to diverge dramatically from their ancient roots. Today, mooncakes can be found encased in jelly or glutinous rice, and the filling can range from the exotic to the mundane. Green tea paste, pineapple, durian, ginseng, peanuts, cream cheese, tiramisu and ice cream can all be found lurking beneath the outer layers of a mooncake. Some bakeries even make health-conscious versions with alternatives to lard, for people who don’t like the slightly oily taste of traditional mooncakes.
If you happen to be in Asia during the Mid-Autumn Festival, it is very likely that you will be offered a mooncake or piece of one as a gesture of friendship and goodwill, and you may be encouraged to offer mooncakes as gifts to guests and associates in business. Mooncakes are often exchanged between friends and families, as well as eaten at home, and courtesy rules dictate that you accept them with a smile whether or not you want to eat them.
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