Mid Autumn Festival and Moon Cakes, Part I

Flaky outer crust with sweet bean paste inside, these moon cakes are best served while fresh. This style was considered very old fashioned but now considered a renewed variety.






Flaky outer crust with sesames, the fillings may be sweet bean paste or minced meat with salt and soy sauce. These moon cakes are usually served hot and fresh, known as the "Shanghai Style" moon cakes.

These are gift packed moon cakes with two distinctive styles. The left side are the Shanghai style and the right Canton style.

These are the "Canton" style moon cakes, the kind that is more well known and considered as the "traditional moon cake". The outer shell is soft and chewy, the fillings are sweet. The middle usually carries an egg yoke. Most of them have very long shelf life probably due to added preservatives.

A gift packed Canton style moon cakes in different sizes.

Mid Autumn Festival, the 15th day of the 8th month on the Lunar calendar, is coming on Sept. 14.


Found on the net are pictures of some old style moon cakes.

Moon cakes are the signature food of Mid Autumn Festival, also known as the Moon Festival. Though it is considered as a festival must, most of them are very high in sugar and fat. It's better to consume in very small pieces. Over the years, the bakers played with recipes and there are less fattening and less sweet varieties of moon cakes on the market. Pictures of the new style moon cakes will be posted tomorrow.