Mid-Autumn Festival
We celebrate by gorging ourselves on moon cakes, both the commercial and the homemade (though not by us) varieties.
The homemade ones, on the left (of which we had another entire take-out box full of) contain such drool-worthy fillings as pork, black sesame paste, red bean paste, coconut, and five-nut paste. The ones on the right are lotus seed and red bean paste, and also contain the yolk of a salty duck egg. Don't let the usage of the word "paste" or the surprise of a baked salty duck egg yolk throw you off. These are a special treat that we usually get just once a year (unless we drive up to Chicago and hope a Chinatown bakery has a few on hand). My favorite has traditionally been the red bean paste with egg yolk (double yolk if we're feeling extravagent), but the homemade coconut ones blew me away this year.
If you ever manage to get your hands on one, have them with a cup of coffee (or green tea, if you want to be authentic, says Leo). The sweet ones are soooooo rich they will knock your socks off. The salty duck egg makes it even richer (you know, the salty sweet thing).
As we say around here, zhong qui jie kuai le! (Happy Mid-Autumn Festival!)
The homemade ones, on the left (of which we had another entire take-out box full of) contain such drool-worthy fillings as pork, black sesame paste, red bean paste, coconut, and five-nut paste. The ones on the right are lotus seed and red bean paste, and also contain the yolk of a salty duck egg. Don't let the usage of the word "paste" or the surprise of a baked salty duck egg yolk throw you off. These are a special treat that we usually get just once a year (unless we drive up to Chicago and hope a Chinatown bakery has a few on hand). My favorite has traditionally been the red bean paste with egg yolk (double yolk if we're feeling extravagent), but the homemade coconut ones blew me away this year.
If you ever manage to get your hands on one, have them with a cup of coffee (or green tea, if you want to be authentic, says Leo). The sweet ones are soooooo rich they will knock your socks off. The salty duck egg makes it even richer (you know, the salty sweet thing).
As we say around here, zhong qui jie kuai le! (Happy Mid-Autumn Festival!)
posted by Andrea | 9:51 PM
3 Comments:
When you first said moon pies I was thinking something donut-like. Sounds interesting. Might be worth a try with such a great review.
I don't understand why people are so afraid of Asian food.
"...lotus seed and red bean paste, and also contain the yolk of a salty duck egg."
Oh.
Well it tastes good!
You're a brave woman, Andre
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