Moon Festival, also known as Mid-Autumn Festival is one of the most important occasions in the Asian calendar. It marks the end of the harvest season, a time of celebration and plenty. It falls on the 15th day of the eighth month of the lunar calendar when the moon is full and bright. This year, Moon Festival falls on 12th September, 2011.
During this time it’s traditional to give and enjoy moon cakes. They usually come in a colourful tin containing four moon cakes. These cakes are round for Chinese and square for Vietnamese. The outside is cakey, especially ornate and a woody brown, the inside is made up of lotus paste with egg yolks, fancier versions contain mixed nuts or even abalone.
They are especially sweet and I’d recommend slicing off small pieces washed down with tea.
These days, the cakes come in much more contemporary packaging, like the Casahana brand above. The modern take also includes the flavours as well, including red yeast Japanese sweet potato (below), charcoal bake yam, Jade custard, green tea, just to name a few. The other modern thing about these cakes is that they’re less sweet, while you can’t claim they’re healthy, they’re certainly a lot healthier than the more traditional versions.
In 2011, celebrate Moon Festival in Cabramatta on Sunday 4th September from 10am – 8pm.
These moon cakes were supplied by our friends at Amyson, for more information on their range of moon cakes, click here.
I loveeee moon cakes!! I definitely like trying the new types of moon cakes that are coming out nowadays. My favourites are the snow skin ones and the ice cream ones!! ^^ I’ve never heard of abalone ones O_O Gotta get my hands on those!
They’re expensive the abalone ones.. I think more for show than taste so I wouldn’t waste my money!
I haven’t put a moon cake anywhere near my mouth since the Traumatic Moon Cake Incident of 1986.
I was really small and the taste wasn’t what I expected. I should get the courage to try one again this year.
LOL