Today is special! For the entire Chinese community Mid-autumn Festival happened this weekend! The festival represents the essence of Chinese culture, and the ideology of a family should always support and stand up for each other. With the festival, we would always reunite with families and friends to celebrate and enjoy the full moon at night. And there is always a key character – the mooncake.
Mooncakes acted as a symbol of the Mid-autumn Festival or even a traditional Chinese dessert for thousands of years, with all the times passed by, they never failed us even once. Because of that, I decided to purchase a mooncake from CSSA (Chinese Student Scholar Association) to celebrate this mid-autumn festival.
Mooncakes evolved, and now own many forms. Today I will introduce you to two types! We start with the classics, which are the ones presented in the picture. Classic mooncakes are usually the size of a rose flower, with a thin skin and full of fillings inside. The choice of fillings can influence the overall taste, most common choices combine black sesame seeds and powdered sugar, giving the whole thing a sweet texture, and of course, you may add ingredients such as terminalia seed and other nuts to enrich the taste. The one I purchased from CSSA, it’s a more modern type of classic mooncake.
As shown here, it is a small desert compared to others, but the most special part is its taste. The taste was a mix of heavy cream and milk followed up by a light eggy aroma, creating a soft landing of the overall taste. But as you taste it again, all the sugar the mooncake contains starts to rush into your throat and mouth, minimizing the appetite. I don’t recommend anyone to buy them just because their taste doesn’t match the price, one box (4 mooncakes) is priced at 25 dollars. If I have to rate it, 6/10. Definably worth trying when it’s cheaper.
And now my personal favorite – ice cream mooncakes. I had a debate with my dad about whether it belonged to Mooncake or Ice Cream before, and I won that for sure. The reason why it can cater to ice cream is simple, it has a similar taste to ice cream. All Ice cream mooncakes replaced their skin with sticky rice flour, which provides an extremely soft and chewy feeling. Fillings can be a mix of sugar and red beans, green beans, sesame, or even ice creams. The magic of ice cream mooncakes doesn’t stop there; the most important part is the temperature of it. They won’t be as cold as ice creams but the second your lips touch them you can feel a breeze inviting you for a dance, and when you reach the fillings, the feeling of a snowflake kissing you on the cheek and melted spread out in your mouth. That’s not the end. Soon enough, all the ingredients start to fill your mouth with their fragrance, sweets mixing with chewy rice flour, it’s the feeling of love.
Mooncakes are always for the Mid-Autumn festival, but the Mid-Autumn festival isn’t just for mooncakes. With all these fun activities and more delicious food, I hope y’all have a happy mid-autumn festival!
Hey Robert, I really liked learning about the Mid-Autumn festival and its importance to Chinese Culture. I’ve actually never heard of it until reading your article. As for mooncakes, they sound delicious! I’ve definitely never had one of those, but the way you described them made me really interested to check them out sometime. It’s cool that you celebrate the Mid-Autumn Festival with other students on campus, I think that’s really neat.
As someone who is not familiar with the holiday you mentioned, or the treat you discussed, I found this post extremely enlightening. Moon pies sounds like something so many people would enjoy if they were familiar with them, but many who are not familiar with the culture would have never tried them. I definitely am more interested in the significance behind the desert, and the perspective of older members of the culture when people try to put modern twists on the classic. I look forward to trying one for the first time, and relying on your review!
I’ve always wanted to try mooncakes! They are beautiful and sound delicious. If I wasn’t sure, the way you described them would’ve changed my mind. You did an amazing job at using imagery, I was convinced that I was eating one. I never knew there were multiple types of mooncakes! They all sound delicious, although, I think the ice cream one would be my favorite. What is the history behind mooncakes? Why them? (I had to ask, I’m a sucker for history!)
Hi Robert! These mooncakes look just absolutely delicious. The way you describe them makes them seem worth the hefty pricetag. I don’t think I have ever tried a mooncake or an ice cream mooncake before, so I will be sure to be on the lookout for the from here on out because they look and sound absolutely wonderful.
These sound really good. I’m temped to try some especially the ice cream mooncakes because I love ice cream. What kind of flavors of ice cream is usually used in these mooncakes? Also, I went outside on the night of the full moon and got absolutely entranced by it. It was a really beautiful full moon that night and I hope you were able to enjoy it as well!