China and Personal11 Sep 2008 04:02 pm

Mooncake (月饼)

Told you there’d be no escaping the mooncakes … as part of the celebrations of ‘teachers’ day’ yesterday, we all got given mooncakes. I should probably provide you with a ‘cutting a long story short’ explanation of teachers’ day: to commemorate and celebrate Confucius’ contributions to Chinese culture and society, the Ministry of Education set his birth date (28th Sept.) to be national teachers’ day; fortunately it doesn’t just involve the big man, but symbolises a pat on the back for all teachers and educators in China. The date was recently changed to the 10th Sept.

Now, as I reported before, mooncakes don’t seem very popular among the Chinese when it comes to consumption, yet are very popular in terms of guanxi and accumulating kudos with friends and family. This could have to do with the rather odd fillings which some of them reveal when you cut them open: some sport slated egg yolks or various types of meat mixed in with black bean paste, others are just extremely greasy. The salty egg yolk is traditionally used to represent the moon, though how that works with sweet black bean paste is beyond me.

Nevertheless, in a ‘you must try everything once‘ moment, I couldn’t resist cutting open and trying one of each in the packet and I have to report: they are actually really yum. But … we must have been given the Yunnan style mooncakes, because they were entirely sweet, no salty egg in sight. Some had nuts – I guess to act as a replacement for the egg, and so as not to lose the symbolism of the moon.

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The outside consisted of rice flour, so they were quite soft and floury, texture wise. The top row had a chocolaty filling with lotus seed paste, which is considered to be the most luxurious filing found in any type of mooncake. The second row was the (more bland-ish) ‘vanilla’ option and the bottom row was coffee flavoured. Note how I am reporting this in the past tense: good job I took a picture before the taste test … they were so good, that they are now all gone (I did have help mind!!!).
In typical Chinese style, the packaging was extremely kitsch and even the motives on the cakes themselves suggested that they should have been handed out at a children’s’ party. Am also not sure how bunnies represent longevity (… well that maybe) or harmony and what they’ve got to do with the moon, but then there’s probably no need to over analyse these things. In any case, bottom line: contrary to common perception, mooncakes (the sweet ones anyway) are actually very nice and so there hasn’t been much of a ‘mooncake merry-go-round’ on my part I’m afraid – it has been the ‘end of the line’ so far …

3 Responses to “Mooncake (月饼)”

  1. on 12 Sep 2008 at 8:17 pm   mama

    yum yum

  2. on 21 Sep 2008 at 9:34 am   Sheena

    OK, here comes the story:

    Once there suddenly appreared 10 suns in the sky making the people on the earth suffered a lot. A man named Houyi shot down 9 suns, however, later his wife Chang’e mistakenly took his mysterious medicine and flew to the moon with the effect of that medicin. She could never return to the earth and stay on the cold moon, and that little bunnie is the pet that accompanies her all the lonely time…

  3. on 28 Sep 2008 at 5:38 pm   Niclas

    Hello there and greetings from 8 timezones away…

    On the bunny in the moon thing it is also said that if you tilt your head and squint your eyes you can see a shape of a bunny in the moon (A bit like we see the man in the moon).
    I can’t attach pictures here, but i’ll try and send you one to illustrate.
    Happy belated Teachers Day 🙂

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