Mooncake

Mooncake

Mooncake1.jpg
Traditional Chinese: 月餅
Simplified Chinese: 月饼
Hanyu Pinyin: yuèbĭng
Literal meaning: Moon biscuit

Mooncakes are Chinese pastry traditionally eaten during the Mid-Autumn Festival. Typical mooncakes are round or rectangular pastries, measuring about 10 cm in diameter and 4-5 cm thick. A thick filling usually made from lotus seed paste is surrounded by a relatively thin (2-3 mm) crust and may contain yolks from salted duck eggs. Mooncakes are rich, heavy, and dense compared with most Western cakes and pastries. They are usually eaten in small wedges accompanied by Chinese tea.

Contents

Traditional

Most mooncakes consist of a thin tender skin enveloping a sweet, dense filling. The mooncake may contain one or more whole salted egg yolks in its center to symbolize the full moon. Very rarely, mooncakes are also served steamed or fried.

Traditional mooncakes have an imprint on top consisting of the Chinese characters for "longevity" or "harmony" as well as the name of the bakery and filling in the moon cake. Imprints of a moon, a woman on the moon, flowers, vines, or a rabbit may surround the characters for additional decoration.

Mooncakes are considered a delicacy; production is labor-intensive and few people make them at home. Most mooncakes are bought at Asian markets and bakeries. The price of mooncakes range from $10 to $50 (in US dollars).

Fillings

Cut mooncake showing lotus seed paste filling around the (crumbled) egg yolk "moon"

Many types of fillings can be found in traditional mooncakes according to the region's culture:

Crusts

Traditional mooncake vary widely depending on the region where the mooncake is produced. While most regions produce traditional mooncakes with many types of fillings, they usually only make their mooncake from one type of crust or another. Although vegetarian mooncakes may use vegetable oil, many mooncakes use lard in their recipes for a better taste. There are three types of mooncake crust used in Chinese cuisine:

Regional variations

There are many regional variants of the mooncake. Types of traditional mooncakes include:

Modern

Jelly mooncake with yam-paste filling

Modern mooncakes differ mainly from traditional types most vividly in the type of fillings that are offered. For instance, mooncakes containing taro paste and pineapple, which were considered novelty items at their time of invention have in recent years become commonplace items. In addition, ingredients such as coffee, chocolate, nuts (walnuts, mixed nuts, etc), fruits (prunes, pineapples, melons, etc), vegetables (sweet potatoes, etc), ham, and even lychees have been added to give a modern twist to the traditional recipes.

Fillings

Snowy mooncakes first appeared on the market in the early 1980s. These non-baked, chilled mooncakes were initially filled with traditional fillings such as lotus seed, red bean, or mung bean paste. However, the launch of a champagne truffle snow-skin mooncake in 1994 by Raffles Hotel in Singapore, triggered a wave of modern mooncakes. Häagen-Dazs quickly followed on from this innovation, and were one of the first to create an ice-cream mooncake, with a choice of either the "traditional," snow-skin, or Belgian white, milk, and dark chocolate crusts. Moon Cakes have lately become Americanized very much in the United States. Instead of a filling of egg yolk, you can have them filled with marshmallows or chocolate.

Following this bit of lateral thinking, it was obvious these non-baked mooncakes could be filled with pretty much anything that could be made into a paste. An explosion of new flavours appeared and spanned the range from:

White kidney bean paste or plain ice-cream are usually used as a base of flavours such as green tea, coffee, or ginseng, which are not thick enough or cannot be usually in large enough quantities to be a filling on their own.

Crusts

Pink jelly mooncake with red-bean paste filling

Modern varieties of mooncakes are also different from their traditional counterparts in that their crusts typically do not require baking. However, they require refrigerating. There are two main varieties of modern mooncake crusts:

Healthy mooncakes

To adapt to today’s health-conscious lifestyle, many bakeries offer miniature mooncakes and fat-free mooncakes. Some are made of yogurt, jelly, and fat-free ice-cream. Even high-fibre low-sugar mooncakes have made their appearance. To be competitive, bakers boast about how little sugar and oil they use in their mooncakes. Customers can pick and choose the size and filling that suits their taste and diet. For added hygiene, each cake is often wrapped in airtight plastic, accompanied by a tiny food preserver packet. The new version is well-accepted among young people in China.

Use in other countries or regions

Vietnamese mooncakes fresh out of the oven. The Sino-Vietnamese characters on the cakes say "Nguyễn Family."

Taiwan

The most traditional mooncake from Taiwan is filled with yam. Today, Taiwanese mooncakes have been influenced heavily by Japanese and European pastries, many mooncakes are made with finer and healthier ingredients. As a result, Taiwanese moon cakes are wide in variety that include low fat, lard free and ice cream versions. Popular modern flavors include green tea, chocolate and many others.

Indonesia

In Indonesia, local mooncakes are different from other varieties. They are circular like a moon, white, and rather thin. Fillings may include chocolate, cheese, milk, durian, and jackfruit. It is called "kue bulan".

Japan

In Japan, mooncakes are sold year-round, mainly in Japan's Chinatowns, pronounced in Japanese as "geppei". Azuki (Red Bean) paste is the most popular filling for these mooncakes, but other sorts of beans as well as chestnut are also used. Unlike some types of Chinese mooncakes, mooncakes in Japan almost never contain an egg yolk in the centre.

Vietnam

In Vietnam, mooncakes are known as bánh trung thu (literally "Mid-Autumn cake") and may contain a variety of fillings, such as savory roasted chicken, shark fins, mung beans, coconut or durian.

Cultural role

Mid-Autumn Festival

The festival is intricately linked to the legends of Chang E, the mythical Moon Goddess of Immortality. There is also a folk tale about the overthrow of Mongol rule facilitated by messages smuggled in moon cakes.

Because of its central role in the Mid-Autumn festival, mooncakes remain popular even in recent years; although with certain modifications. Part of the reason is that people are becoming more health-conscious. Traditional mooncakes are made with lard, and a lot of sugar. Another reason for its popularity is that the traditional mooncake has undergone much successful diversification. In fact, it has become so popular that many mooncakes are bought by businessmen who give them to their clients as presents[1]. For many, mooncakes form a central part of the Mid-Autumn festival experience such that it is now commonly known as 'Mooncake Festival'.

Ming revolution

Mooncakes were used as a medium by the Ming revolutionaries in their espionage effort to secretly distribute letters in order to overthrow the Mongolian rulers of China in the Yuan dynasty. The idea is said to be conceived by Zhu Yuanzhang (朱元璋) and his advisor Liu Bowen (劉伯溫), who circulated a rumor that a deadly plague was spreading and the only way to prevent it was to eat the special mooncakes. This prompted the quick distribution of the mooncakes, which were used to hide a secret message coordinating the Han Chinese revolt on the 15th day of the eighth lunar month.[2]

Another method of hiding the message was printed in the surface of mooncakes as a simple puzzle or mosaic. In order to read the encrypted message, each of the 4 mooncakes packaged together must be cut into 4 parts each. The 16 pieces of mooncake, must then be pieced together in such a fashion that the secret messages can be read. The pieces of mooncake are then eaten to destroy the message.[3][4]

See also

References

  1. ↑ Asianweek
  2. ↑ Taipeitimes news
  3. ↑ Family culture
  4. ↑ China inc

External links