Mid-Autumn Moon Festival

Since arriving in China a bit over a month ago, people everywhere have been carrying around boxes of moon cakes and giving them as presents for mid-autumn moon festival, which took place tonight (we did see the full moon, but it was a cloudy night, so the moon was mostly obscured). It’s a day you’re supposed to spend at home with the family but I was on the road for work in Yunnan Province (not that I have family here). The whole ritual is one that I find rather wasteful since the moon cakes all come in elaborate boxes and packaging that is thrown out afterwards and I swear no one actually eats all the moon cakes that they receive. How can you when you get boxes and boxes of that stuff?

I’m generally not a fan of moon cakes (except for the ones made from mochi and ice cream called “snow cakes” in Taiwan – those are delicious). I find them way too heavy and sweet, and really dislike the egg yolks in the middle of the pastry. However, the interesting thing about moon cakes in China is the sheer variety you can find. In the U.S., there is basically one kind – there’s some kind of sweet paste (like lotus paste or red bean paste) and egg yolks (sometimes as many as 4 per moon cake). But here, it seems like every province has a specialty. In Guangxi, the moon cakes are filled with spicy beef (did not actually try them). In Beijing, I sampled a type of moon cake that sort of just looked like a huge pie without filling (rather bland and tasteless but supposedly the earliest type of moon cake), as well as a bunch of moon cakes with different flavors more closely resembling the American kind, but less sweet and without egg yolk. In Pingyao, I tried the local “hand-made moon cake” which is flat and hollow, with just a bit of sweet paste inside. In Yunnan Province, the moon cakes are filled with a local ham mixed with egg yolk and sugar (didn’t really taste like ham). It’s been interesting trying all the varieties, but still not a huge fan.

There’s a box of moon cakes waiting for me in Beijing – a gift from the office. It was really sweet of them, but I doubt I’ll be able to finish them. Oh well. It's just all part of the cultural experience.