Foods to Eat in China - Mid-Autumn Festival

- 月饼 (Moon Cakes) -

For most people, the 15th day of the 8th lunar month as according to the Chinese calendar doesn't really ring any bells but for some, it's a day much to be celebrated, as it's the famous Mid-Autumn Festival and this year, it happens to fall on the 15th of September, or in other words, today!

People in China will typically try to spend the day together with families and loved ones as reunion is important on this day and the full moon being both the roundest and brightest signifies this. In addition, families will eat 月饼 (moon cakes) while gazing at the full moon. Ironically, the weather forecast (in Shanghai at least) for this week is cloudy skies so people are unlikely to see the full moon. But, as this blog is dedicated to everything food, onward to moon cakes.

Top: Red Bean Paste and Salted Egg Yolk
Bottom: Lotus Paste and Salted Egg Yolk

Moon cakes are a type of round pastry about 9 cm in diameter with a soft, chewy outer crust and filled with a sweet paste (however there are also savoury variations). The most common and popular fillings are red bean paste, lotus paste, jujube paste and ground five nuts. Traditionally, moon cakes also contain a salted egg yolk which represents the full moon. This may sound odd, but much like salted caramel (what? you ask, how does that have any relation to red bean and salted egg yolk), a pinch of salt really elevates the flavours and gives a bit of balance to an otherwise wholly sweet pastry.

So, on my trip to Shanghai, I couldn't help but buy a variety of moon cakes (especially since there were 'in season' per say) and whilst the ones I bought were all air sealed to last longer, during the months of August and September, freshly baked moon cakes will be in every food store and even supermarkets will dedicate a whole aisle for them. They are bought and eaten as both a snack and part of a meal, think of them as a seasonal doughnut or Cornish pasty in the UK, an eclair in France or well, you get the idea.

Both freshly baked and air sealed moon cakes on sale

There are also a few other fillings which whilst aren't wholly historic are now pseudo-traditional from pineapple, green tea, red bean paste with rose, mung (green) bean paste to coconut. This doesn't mean that there aren't other flavours available, on the contrary, nowadays with every company trying to cash in on the moon cake business, there is constant innovation. There are fillings based on fruits such as strawberry, blueberry and mango, fillings based on vegetables like sweet potato, fillings that contain meat such as five spice beef, chicken floss, Chinese sausage or ham. Even 'Western' flavours are making their way into moon cakes with fillings such as cappuccino, chocolate, tiramisu and peanut butter being widely appreciated.

There are even ice cream filled moon cakes (said to be pioneered by Häagen-Dazs) which are increasingly popular as the Mid-Autumn festival comes in on the back of a sweltering Chinese summer. Interestingly, they are now also making their way into restaurant menus as on my trip, I was served a lovely Bailey's ice-cream moon cake that had a Bailey's ice cream center that was covered in a chocolate shell (and one might argue if it really was a moon cake but anyhow it tasted good so I'm not complaining).
On a side note, I read an article that was about how one Chinese university canteen served stir-fried moon cake with tomatoes (similar to the popular scrambled eggs and tomatoes). I can't say it sounded too appetising but apparently all 200 or so portions were sold out....so each to their own. All in all, if you can think of a reasonable flavour, chances are it's sold somewhere.

With the large amount of choices to buy moon cakes from, you might be asking 'who does it the best?' While this may be wholly subjective, the three most celebrated bakeries (in Shanghai at least) are 杏花楼 (Xing Hua Lou), 老大房 (Lao Da Fang) and 新雅 (Sunya). So If you want to try the most traditional flavours, then these do them the best. There was even one moon cake where the traditional recipe was found just this summer after it was lost for over 100 years which was red bean paste with lard and whilst this may not sound that appetising (or healthy), historically, times were tough and diets were lacking in sugars and fats so it was these small luxuries that made things seem special.

'Suzhou' Style Moon Cakes are look so soft before they're baked (left)
and after, they're flaky and delicious (right)

With variation of the filling, there is also variation of the pastry such as the 'Suzhou' style pastry which is made using a deliciously soft and flaky pastry akin to filo and often contains savoury fillings such as salt and pepper, pork floss or black sesame. These are then often stamped in lieu of the engravings seen typically on 'Cantonese' style moon cakes.

Left to Right: Durian, Cantonese Egg Yolk and Tomato Paste Ice-Skin Moon Cakes

 Another variation that became popular in the 1980s is called 'Ice Skin' moon cakes which has a perhaps misleading name as the outer pastry is not made of ice/ ice-cream or served cold (which was a mistake I made when I was young and had my first ever ice-skin moon cake and I thought you froze it first, what a mistake that was..). Instead, it is made using a glutinous pastry which leads to a much more soft, chewy and mochi-like pastry compared to the traditional 'Cantonese Style' Pastry. This type of moon cake is normally filled with sweet fruity flavours such as strawberry, jujube or pineapple. 

Other than the few savoury flavours mentioned above, the most common form of savoury moon cakes by far are 鲜肉月饼 or fresh meat moon cakes  These utilise the soft and flaky 'Suzhou' style pastry, filled with mince meat and is eaten piping hot and is perhaps more popular than all other types of moon cakes (except on the day of the Mid-Autumn Festival itself) as the others are normally too sweet so are more normally bought as a gift. In contrast, fresh meat moon cakes are savoury, meaty and filling which serves as a good lunchtime snack and families will often buy a box of 8, fresh on the day as accompaniment to dinner in the evening. Indeed, in the weeks leading up to the mid autumn festival there will be huge queues daily coming out of the most famous bakeries, all for some fresh meat moon cakes.

Believe it or not, this queue stretch's all the way around the
building, all for some moon cakes!

So whether you prefer sweet or savoury, hot or cold, you can probably find a moon cake you'll love (and somehow I dedicated a whole post to just this one food) and there is no better time to try it than the Mid-Autumn Festival!