Moon Cakes. Really?

(photo via Flickr by miss karen)

The timing of Chinese Mid Autumn festival has always felt odd to me. Especially when I lived in Hong Kong, suffering through mid-30’s heat with 110% humidity – the cooling promise of “Mid-Autumn” seemed more like a cruel taunt, than an actual celebration.

Adding credence to the idea that the whole Chinese Mid Autumn festival was some sort of cultural insider joke is the annual appearance of traditional moon cakes (almost as funny as the time my mother turned a decade’s worth of my lucky envelop money into 1983 Volvo for the family – surprise!).

Chinese moon cakes sound like they may be some sort of Asian version of a whoopie pie, but of course they are not. Dense, rich, and strongly flavoured – the closest Western equivalent to a traditional moon cake is perhaps a real English fruit cake – equally reviled (misunderstood?) by North American palates.

Like a fruit cake, Chinese moon cakes are intrinsically meant to be shared with family and friends. Packed full of auspicious ingredients (nuts, sweetened lentils and lotus seeds, salted duck eggs), the moon cakes are cut into small wedges and enjoyed with happy conversation and high quality tea (jasmine from would be an excellent choice).

Where to purchase a good traditional moon cake? Restaurants like Kirin carry house branded mooncakes that are made to exacting standards and specification from bakeries in Hong Kong. Kirin flies a team over to taste test at a number of suppliers before selecting a producer. Locally, Maxim’s bakery makes countless boxes of traditional moon cakes this time of year. My own personal favourite is the ham with nuts and duck yolk moon cake (pictured above) which definitely leans towards the savory rather than sweet.

Fortunately, for those not enamoured of nut pastes and mashed lentils, new players have entered the market to tap into demand for more approachable flavours. In Asia, Haagen-Dazs does a killer business in ice cream moon cakes, creating a new status symbol in the process. The most popular “modern” moon cakes use “iced” exteriors – usually made from mochi – and fruit based fillings. You can find many of these at stores like T&T, but most are mass produced and have all the flavour of a stale jelly bean.

Better yet, get yourself over to La Patisserie, a bakery specializing Japanese style western cakes in Richmond.

The made in house iced mooncakes include chocolate with rice crispies (pictured above), durian (for masochists), strawberry, and green matcha. The flavours are remarkably pure and deep – with the added bonus of not being too sweet. Lovely!

Moon cakes are big business in Vancouver, and there is a palpable excitement in the air as people load up on them for gifts and sharing with visitors. I long for the day that Thomas Haas decides to make a moon cake – but until then, there are plenty of other choices to keep us all happy. It all ends in mid September, so get out there and try a few yourself.

~ Canucklehead