still life with moon cake and blue plate
Today, September 22nd, is the autumnal equinox in the Northern hemisphere, aka the First Day of Fall. Mother Nature has chosen to celebrate with a rainy day here in Montreal, but after a busy weekend I’m not so bothered by that. It’s a good excuse to curl up with a cup of tea and a book. And a moon cake!
We spent this weekend in Ithaca, NY. The weather was amazing, and we spent Sunday afternoon hiking two different gorges called Lucifer Falls and Watkin’s Glen. I can’t get over how incredible the topography is in New York state. There are the Adirondacks, of course, but there are also these magnificent gorges everywhere with waterfalls, deep pools, forests, etc. We also saw about fifteen deer on Sunday while driving back to Ithaca just before dusk.
'ms. edible library' at Lucifer Falls
Now, back to moon cakes. We are planning on having a little moon-watching affair with a few friends around the time of the Harvest Moon (October 3rd this year, I believe) and moon cakes are on the menu, as well as other refreshments. I am not so industrious that I’m planning to make my own moon cakes, but I have been dutifully trying the many varieties on offer at our local Asian grocery stores. For those of you who aren’t familiar with moon cakes, they are a sweet and often sticky confection made of a thin pastry on the outside and filled with lotus seed paste, sweet bean paste, or another densely sweet filling. Often they also contain one (or more) salted egg yolk, which are supposed to look like the golden Harvest Moon. The saltiness of the egg yolk also provides a contrast to the sticky sweetness of the moon cake’s filling. These are served at the Mid-Autumn festival in China and Taiwan primarily, but are also popular in other Asian countries such as Vietnam and Indonesia (more info on moon cakes can be found here). In Korea song pyun is the treat of choice during Chuseok, the harvest festival.
a flattened moon yolk
These moon cakes are called King’s Moon Cake and are made by a company called ‘Hong Kong Sovereign Emperor’. They are pretty run of the mill–better than many I’ve had, but not the best, either. These have one salted yolk, and are filled with lotus seed paste. The other ingredients are: sugar, peanut oil, vegetable oil, flour, and water. They are very sweet, sticky and chewy inside, and I can’t imagine wanting to eat a whole one. Eating a quarter of a cake with a cup of strong tea (to offset the sweetness) is just about right for me.
detail of moon cake box
Do you eat moon cakes? What kind do you like? I’m a sucker for cute things, so am drawn to these largely because of the pretty stamped details on them, and the nice boxes/tins that they come in. What is your favorite fall snack?
Welcome, back Autumn!
Love,
Meg xo
Favorite fall snack? う〜ん, moon cakes are tough to beat. I haven’t had them much but once in China this time of year I bought a lot for souvenirs and they were a real treat.
Salted egg yolk sounds great. There is a new condiment (I think it is new, at least) soy sauce or miso paste cured egg yolk in Japan. That is not really a fall snack, but it is excellent!
Thanks for commenting on KyotoFoodie, I have a pepper recommendation for you.
[...] this bowl of tea I enjoyed two small pieces of mooncake; one filled with lotus seed paste as in this post, and one filled with red bean paste, and a kaki or fuyu persimmon, another great autumn [...]