Moon Cakes

[Gastro888]

Cripes. Hmm. I've eaten about 4 mooncakes (white lotus paste, double yolk Wing Wah brand and a gum tuei (golden ham) verison...wonder if they make that with a yolk or two?...) over the course of the past month that means I've consumed an extra 4000 calories?! Holy moly.

But that is one good 1000 calorie bomb. Better than eating a Cheesecake Factory original cheesecake which is the same amount of calories!

[gfron1]

I am thinking ahead to next fall and was looking for some molds. I found something called a wood cake mold - is this the same thing? It looks too shallow to be a moon cake mold.

[sheetz]

I bought mine from wokshop.com

http://www.wokshop.com/HTML/products/hard_...d_mooncake.html

[Dejah]

Bought my box of 4 mooncakes last week. There were 4 varieties: Lotus paste with double yolk, green tea lotus paste and egg yolk, sea coconut, and 5-nuts egg yolk!

This last one is my favourite. I wish I could just buy this variety as I could do without the others. It's nutty, chewy, yummy carbs and cholesterol!

[SuzySushi]

Bought my box of 4 mooncakes last week. There were 4 varieties: Lotus paste with double yolk, green tea lotus paste and egg yolk, sea coconut, and 5-nuts egg yolk! 

This last one is my favourite. I wish I could just buy this variety as I could do without the others. It's nutty, chewy, yummy carbs and cholesterol!

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Hey, Dejah, when's the Moon Festival this year? Our favorite Chinese bakery went out of business a few months ago. (The 80+ year old owners retired and their kids are all professionals & didn't want that business.) I'll have to seek out another source! Two of the Chinese restaurants around here bake moon cakes for the Festival. I hope they've doubled their production this year or they're going to be in short supply on Oahu!!!

[Dejah]

Bought my box of 4 mooncakes last week. There were 4 varieties: Lotus paste with double yolk, green tea lotus paste and egg yolk, sea coconut, and 5-nuts egg yolk! 

This last one is my favourite. I wish I could just buy this variety as I could do without the others. It's nutty, chewy, yummy carbs and cholesterol!

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Hey, Dejah, when's the Moon Festival this year?

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It's September 25th (lunar calendar 15th day of the eighth month).

[sheetz]

Glad you brought this up because I've been meaning to whip up a batch this year. Still have some time.

Edited September 12, 2007 by sheetz (log)

[aprilmei]

Here's some interesting info in case anybody was planning a visit Hong Kong (or China) during mid-autumn, and considered bringing mooncakes back to the States. Last year I went to the US and had two boxes of mooncakes for my mother. I was in the "nothing to declare" line and was singled out and told to go to the line where they inspect your baggage. I was asked, "do you have any mooncakes?" I said yes - and that I brought them in before with no problems. He said, "do they have egg in them?" I replied, "of course they have egg!" The man told me I"d have to throw them out and when I asked why, he said, "because they have egg in them and there's a threat of avian flu!" I thought that any virus that could survive being completely saturated with salt and then baked is a very strong virus indeed - and it's highly unlikely. Of course, I didn't say anything - customs inspection is unpleasant enough without antagonising the agents.

[Dejah]

Glad you brought this up because I've been meaning to whip up a batch this year. Still have some time.

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Great! Hope you'll do a pictorial, of course.

[Gastro888]

Here's some interesting info in case anybody was planning a visit Hong Kong (or China) during mid-autumn, and considered bringing mooncakes back to the States. Last year I went to the US and had two boxes of mooncakes for my mother. I was in the "nothing to declare" line and was singled out and told to go to the line where they inspect your baggage. I was asked, "do you have any mooncakes?" I said yes - and that I brought them in before with no problems. He said, "do they have egg in them?" I replied, "of course they have egg!" The man told me I"d have to throw them out and when I asked why, he said, "because they have egg in them and there's a threat of avian flu!" I thought that any virus that could survive being completely saturated with salt and then baked is a very strong virus indeed - and it's highly unlikely. Of course, I didn't say anything - customs inspection is unpleasant enough without antagonising the agents.

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Oh, are you KIDDING ME? Those idiot agents made you do that? Nice. Knives slip through our security but they won't let you bring back mooncakes.

I would've parked my butt on the floor and just started eating them one by one.

aprilmei, where did you fly into? LAX? SFO? JFK? I find that Dulles airport in VA has very reasonable customs agents.

[aprilmei]

I flew into LAX. I hate that airport - the customs people are so rude - and they focus on the Chinese passengers. Whenever I'm in the line where they inspect the luggage I look around and almost all of the other people they've forced into that line are also Chinese. Last year was the first time they found something I had to throw away.

[Gastro888]

Aw, I'm sorry that happened to you aprilmei. =(

Yes, our mooncakes are the WMDs that they have been looking for, they're just that deadly to our national security that they must be thrown out. Blargh, don't they have anything better to do?

Speaking of mooncakes, I'm eating my last Tai Wing Wah double yolk white lotus mooncake today. Saving 1/2 for my +1, though. Gotta be fair.

[hzrt8w]

Does that mean all the mooncakes sold in the USA are made in the USA and not imported from Hong Kong or else where in China?

Edited September 13, 2007 by hzrt8w (log)

[Ben Hong]

Saving 1/2 for my +1, though.  Gotta be fair.

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Hmmm...GastroGirl, there is a new +1 ???

[Gastro888]

Nah. That's just how I refer to myself.

[Gastro888]

Does that mean all the mooncakes sold in the USA are made in the USA and not imported from Hong Kong or else where in China?

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I don't know. I have had mooncakes from my local bakery and I bought this tin of mooncakes ($31!!!! ) from the local Chinese grocery store. It says imported from HK. I hope, given the price that I paid, that it's all white lotus root and real egg yolks. I'd be mighty pissed if it's fake.

One time I bought a 4-yolk mooncake last year from a local bakery and it turned out to be 50% fake yolk! I was ticked!

[sheetz]

I don't think I've ever had fake yolks before. Anyone know how to make it? Since I can't get raw salted duck eggs anymore I can't use them in the mooncakes.

Edited September 13, 2007 by sheetz (log)

[aprilmei]

I don't think I've ever had fake yolks before. Anyone know how to make it? Since I can't get raw salted duck eggs anymore I can't use them in the mooncakes.

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Why can't you get salted duck eggs where you are? Can you get regular duck eggs? If so, you can make them yourself by soaking them in a heavy brine - they're ready when they sink to the bottom of the jar. My mother used to do that.

[sheetz]

Why can't you get salted duck eggs where you are? Can you get regular duck eggs? If so, you can make them yourself by soaking them in a heavy brine - they're ready when they sink to the bottom of the jar. My mother used to do that.

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They seemed to have disappeared off the shelves in the USA. I don't know if they've been banned or what. Even when I was in California last winter there weren't any. I don't know if that's changed recently, but not in the small town where I live. Fresh duck eggs are even harder for me to find!

Still, I wonder where the bakeries get theirs from.

[Dejah]

I've never heard of "fake egg yolks"

When I was making joongzi this summer, I couldn't find any fresh salted duck eggs. They are usually readily available at our Superstore, but I got there too late - sold out!. The local Chinese grocery had packaged cooked salted duck eggs, and said fresh ones were no longer available. That turned out to be wrong.

So, I bought dozens of the cooked eggs, carefully split the shell and painstakingly dug out the yolk for my joongzi. I had 3 dozen cooked salted egg white - returned them to the store owner as he and his family loves them.

The following week, Superstore got a supply of fresh ones, and have them in stock all the time now!

You don't HAVE to use duck eggs. If you can get double yolk hen eggs, they can also be salted. They won't have that "richness and favour" of the duck eggs, but once inside all that sweetness, carbs, and lard, they will still taste good.

You won't be in time for Harvest Moon Festival, but hey! anytime is moon cake time, especially if you are making them yourself!

[Gastro888]

Hell, it's the Chinatowns in NYC. We've got fake EVERYTHING here.

Well, I think the bakeries here in NYC use hen eggs instead of duck eggs. I would like to think they use duck eggs but fat chance.

Fake egg yolks are quite common, from what my parents tell me. My father warns me to be on the watch for it. Take your (room temperature) mooncake, cut it and look at the yolk. It should have a uniform appearance & color and be somewhat oily. Taste the yolk alone and try to identify any off flavors. When I brought home my 4-yolk mooncake, he saw that TWO of the @#$! yolks were fake. The colors were off and it was like a crumbly paste instead of a smooth and oily, well, YOLK!

[hzrt8w]

...Taste the yolk alone and try to identify any off flavors.  When I brought home my 4-yolk mooncake, he saw that TWO of the @#$! yolks were fake.  The colors were off and it was like a crumbly paste instead of a smooth and oily, well, YOLK!

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What is a fake yolk? What is it made of?

[Dejah]

Bought a box of 4 moon cakes in Winnipeg today. The tin was labelled "Macau Specialty", mixed nuts with double yolk.

The cakes were filled with nuts, and real yolk, but it must have come on a slow boat from China because they were a bit dried out compare to another brand we tried last week. The hint of chun pei turned out to be kumquat - kinda nice, but I was disappointed - $21.99 down the drain.

They had tins of abalone and egg yolk for $40.99. I wasn't tempted. Wesza sent me some 2 years ago?, and I tried the shark fin, durian, green tea ones. They were nice and fresh. The first tin I bought was Riwei brand from Kowloon, HK.

I wonder if the Macau tin was last year's!

[DylanK]

I really ain't feeling them. Sorta the same deal as bakeries in China: looks great, tastes terrible. I like the really sweet joints with egg yolks inside, I guess.

I was sort of bummed out about not being able to eat them, though, since I moved outside of China. Then, today, my wife was looking thru fliers and said, "Hey, Superstore's got mooncakes!" Twenty bucks or so, Golden Happiness brand, not sure what sort.

[His Nibs]

Seeing as the mooncake festival is fast approaching, I was wondering about making some ping pei mooncake myself. Anyway, I was thinking about flavors to incorporate into the skin and was hoping that maybe... just maybe I can add coffee to it.

Now my question would be whether to make the coffee and add to the flour mixture as the liquid component or use instant coffee powder as a flavor additive ala matcha powder.