Moon Cakes

[Gary Soup]

It's gettin to be that time of year again, kids, so here's the mooncake thread.

Lets KICK IT UP ANOTHER NOTCH!

[Hest88]

Thanks Gary.

Last year, here in SF, I was too lazy to stand in the Golden Gate Bakery line so picked up mooncakes at Dick Lee. My parents and aunt was NOT impressed and my aunt took me aside and told me that this year I should get their mooncakes at Great Eastern.

I'm still not eating more than a sliver, though.

[Ben Hong]

I LOVE all types of mooncakes, but I eat them in moderation, like one at a time

Edited August 20, 2004 by Ben Hong (log)

[Big Bunny]

I like fruitcake and I like moon cakes.

Even the "bad" ones are kinda good.

BB

[spelling]

Edited August 20, 2004 by Big Bunny (log)

[browniebaker]

Ooh, it's almost that time of year again! What day is mid-autumn this year?

On July 3 my husband came home from a business trip to S.F. with a terrific surprise for me: a box of four mooncakes from Eastern Bakery!!! To die for! Two mixed-nut, and two double-yoke- lotus-seed. I snarfed two in the wee a.m. hours, all by myself, while everyone else slept, then shared the remaining two with the kids and the husband for dessert that day, after dinner. I am so selfish and greedy when it comes to mooncakes!

Oh, how I wished Eastern Bakery did mail-orders!

[herbacidal]

snarfed two in the wee a.m. hours, all by myself, while everyone else slept, then shared the remaining two with the kids and the husband for dessert that day, after dinner. I am so selfish and greedy when it comes to mooncakes!

You ate 2 in one sitting, and didn't lay down the rest of the day?

And on top of that, you had room for about half of another one later?

Whoa.

[Dejah]

Love moon cakes, and in my family, I get all the yolks!

Guess I'll have to save acouple for Ben Hong, along with the joong.

[Laksa]

Have you guys ever tried the non-baked mooncakes? That's the top picture on the left. They look like they're made in Chernobyl. I guess the green one is "pandan" flavor. The link is to a Malaysian mooncake company.

[browniebaker]

snarfed two in the wee a.m. hours, all by myself, while everyone else slept, then shared the remaining two with the kids and the husband for dessert that day, after dinner. I am so selfish and greedy when it comes to mooncakes!

You ate 2 in one sitting, and didn't lay down the rest of the day?

And on top of that, you had room for about half of another one later?

Whoa.

Yep. "Sandwiched" between the dawn snack of two mooncakes and the evening dessert of about half a mooncake was my town's annual July 4th picnic of pulled pork barbecue, burgers, hot dogs, potato salad, corn on the cob, slaw, chips, and Ben & Jerry's ice cream bars, of all of which I partook liberally. Mooncakes and BBQ -- what a perfect Fourth of July it was!

But, goodness, this revived mooncake thread is just killing me! I haven't been able to stop thinking about mooncakes for the past two hours!

Need a mooncake, now.

[chengb02]

I'm not a fan of moon cakes, but I recently received an order form in the mail from Shengkee Bakery in San Francisco (I ordered moon cakes from them last year for friends and they turned out alright and they do have a website). I typically will only eat moon cakes during Mid Autumn Festival and then a maximum of 1 but usually more like a half for tradition's sake. I also don't really like the yolk ones and typically only eat the ones with paste. Starbucks in Beijing began offering moon cakes 2 years ago I think and around this time they usually have a special brochure where you can order some of their very untraditional moon cakes. I also rememeber seeing moon cake ads at one of the ice cream chains before I left Beijing, but can't remember which one (I think it was TCBY). Since KFC's sales of their "Macau" egg tarts seems to be doing pretty well, I wonder if they'll come out with moon cakes this year as well.

[browniebaker]

I'm not a fan of moon cakes, but I recently received an order form in the mail from Shengkee Bakery in San Francisco (I ordered moon cakes from them last year for friends and they turned out alright and they do have a website). I typically will only eat moon cakes during Mid Autumn Festival and then a maximum of 1 but usually more like a half for tradition's sake. I also don't really like the yolk ones and typically only eat the ones with paste. Starbucks in Beijing began offering moon cakes 2 years ago I think and around this time they usually have a special brochure where you can order some of their very untraditional moon cakes. I also rememeber seeing moon cake ads at one of the ice cream chains before I left Beijing, but can't remember which one (I think it was TCBY). Since KFC's sales of their "Macau" egg tarts seems to be doing pretty well, I wonder if they'll come out with moon cakes this year as well.

Last mid-autumn moon festival (for lack of a business trip to S.F.), I bought a box of four Shengkee mooncakes from my local Chinese grocery, and they were delicious. There were two egg-yolk-lotus-seed and two red-bean-with-pine-nuts.

However, I found no mixed-nut mooncakes of the Shengkee brand or any other brand at the grocery, so I picked up two mixed-nut at Maria's, a chain Chinese bakery just outside D.C. in Rockville, Maryland. Did I regret this purchase or what?! The mixed-nut filling was syrupy and cloyingly sweet, with no subtlety of flavors at all. The pastry around the filling was blah. I could barely choke it down. Terrible. I'm spoiled by Eastern Bakery's mixed-nut mooncakes, which are peerless in my book.

But I am going to try to mail-order mixed-nut mooncakes this year from Shengkee. Thanks, Chengb02, for putting the idea in my head!

[Gary Soup]

On July 3 my husband came home from a business trip to S.F. with a terrific surprise for me: a box of four mooncakes from Eastern Bakery!!!

Yeah, right, BB. I'm guessing it was one of those "I-don't-dare-come-back-without-it" kinds of "surprise."

[browniebaker]

On July 3 my husband came home from a business trip to S.F. with a terrific surprise for me: a box of four mooncakes from Eastern Bakery!!!

Yeah, right, BB. I'm guessing it was one of those "I-don't-dare-come-back-without-it" kinds of "surprise."

Gary, you must be my kind of husband!

[hzrt8w]

Have you guys ever tried the non-baked mooncakes? That's the top picture on the left. They look like they're made in Chernobyl.

The pictures on this website looked like those hand-painted ones made in the 40-50's. I am not sure what the green filling is.

[hzrt8w]

Ooh, it's almost that time of year again! What day is mid-autumn this year?

.....

Oh, how I wished Eastern Bakery did mail-orders!

It is September 28, 2004 Tuesday.

Since I heard "Eastern Bakery" mentioned a few times... can anybody tell me the street it's on (and the cross street)? I will be in SF again tomorrow and would like to drop by and pick up a few to try. Anybody knows the Chinese name? (In China Town, Chinese business names are much more prominent than their English ones)

[Gary Soup]

Ooh, it's almost that time of year again! What day is mid-autumn this year?

.....

Oh, how I wished Eastern Bakery did mail-orders!

It is September 28, 2004 Tuesday.

Since I heard "Eastern Bakery" mentioned a few times... can anybody tell me the street it's on (and the cross street)? I will be in SF again tomorrow and would like to drop by and pick up a few to try. Anybody knows the Chinese name? (In China Town, Chinese business names are much more prominent than their English ones)

720 Grant Avenue at Commercial St. (That's between Sacramento and Clay St.) You can't miss it, it's got pictures of Bill Clinton shopping there in the window. (He stopped by for a photo opportunity).

[Transparent]

I absolutely love the lotus paste mooncakes, and the yolks are awesome. I always look foward to the autumn festival every year. My family always gets tins and tins of the mooncakes. I think the nut ones taste terrible. They look putrid as well... That's why I never take a bite out of a whole mooncake - I cut it open to see the filling first. :D

[browniebaker]

I absolutely love the lotus paste mooncakes, and the yolks are awesome. I always look foward to the autumn festival every year. My family always gets tins and tins of the mooncakes. I think the nut ones taste terrible. They look putrid as well... That's why I never take a bite out of a whole mooncake - I cut it open to see the filling first. :D

Egad, does ANYONE ever take a bite out of a whole mooncake? Just doesn't seem right. Like buttering a whole slice of bread and biting off it. Even I go through the motions of cutting the mooncake in quarters before inhaling the whole thing!

[Susan G]

Yes, I eat them. I eat them incorrectly: I have rarely ever sliced one before biting into it...........I eat them in private (also incorrect form!).

Red bean paste ones are my favorites, followed by nut-and-fruit ones.

One is supposed to drink tea while eating them?? This is a revelation! I was always outside, freezing my hands and nose, admiring the roundness of the moon while popping them down!

[hzrt8w]

Oh, how I wished Eastern Bakery did mail-orders!

Kee Wah, which is a very famous restaurant making Moon Cake in Hong Kong, has established their US presence and has a website. I had been to their bakeries in Monterey Park, California and was always impressed with their bakery items. They offer mail order for Moon Cakes.

These Moon Cakes look more traditional.

Kee Wah Bakery

The prices seem a bit high though. But then again I don't eat Moon Cakes that much and haven't bought any in years (always got them from the in-laws), I am not familiar with the going price.

The mini Moon Cakes are very popular in recent years. With the minis, you never have to share. You can garble up the whole cake in one shot. But the traditional size and shape of Moon Cake is still the best on my book.

I haven't tried the ones in Eastern Bakery, but I think Kee Wah's should be comparable.

Edited August 21, 2004 by hzrt8w (log)

[chengb02]

One is supposed to drink tea while eating them??  This is a revelation!  I was always outside, freezing my hands and nose, admiring the roundness of the moon while popping them down!

Haha, this post reminds me of my first year at college, far away from my parents and even farther from my girlfirend. I, stupidly, bought my own from a local store (in small town Indiana that meant they were originally from Chicago, who knows how many days they had been sitting there)and forced myself to eat at least one while freezing outside, sitting on the porch, looking at the moon and making myself incredibly sad, how pitiful i was, hehe!

as to the tea, in my opinion the only way mooncakes can be rendered edible is by having a good cup of tea at hand.

Edited August 21, 2004 by chengb02 (log)

[hzrt8w]

as to the tea, in my opinion the only way mooncakes can be rendered edible is by having a good cup of tea at hand.

Or a sniffer-ful of cognac... no, make that VSOP... no no no, make that XO. (Where is Laksa's virtual drink when you need it?)

A bright full moon is mysteriously mesmerizing to lead us to think about our loved ones especially those whom we cannot be with. [or should it be "with whom we cannot be"? Sounds weird.]

Edited August 21, 2004 by hzrt8w (log)

[browniebaker]

Yes, I eat them.  I eat them incorrectly: I have rarely ever sliced one before biting into it...........I eat them in private (also incorrect form!).

Red bean paste ones are my favorites, followed by nut-and-fruit ones.

One is supposed to drink tea while eating them??  This is a revelation!  I was always outside, freezing my hands and nose, admiring the roundness of the moon while popping them down!

Yes, I know that my eating mooncakes alone is totally incorrect. It's a bad thing, like drinking alone. Mooncakes are meant for eating with family and friends while gazing at the moon, which I also do (in addition to my private feast!).

As for the tea: I wouldn't dream of having mooncakes without the accompaniment of a delicate, flowery China tea. The night of the festival, we find the room in the house that has the best view of the moon through a window, and we set up an indoor picnic before that window. My kids think it's a lark and love it. I really look forward to the this annual event, about as much as Thanksgiving (United States holiday) and Christmas.

Thanks, hzrt8w, for the Kee Wah Bakery link. Sheng Kee (Taiwanese, and my (Taiwanese) parents' choice as the gold standard in mooncakes) or Kee Wah (Hong-Kong-based)? Wow, this is going to be fun, just researching the issue and deciding! Maybe both? I'm thinking a side-by-side taste-test is in order -- all in the name of scientific research, of course!

Edited August 21, 2004 by browniebaker (log)

[jo-mel]

Here's another closet mooncake-eater! I don't even need a moon - just tea. (Chinese restaurant tea will do)

[Dejah]

Ok, Cantonese speakers:

Let's see if I can get some semblance to pronunciation and getting this on here!

I remember learning this many mooncakes ago.

Chong tseen ming yuet gong,

Yee see dai sheung sheung.

Gueh tow mong ming yeut

Dye tow see goo hueung.

If someone can post the Chinese characters for this, it would be great! I can print it out for my Chinese students when the new term starts. We usually have an autumn BBQ with the new students and mooncakes and wotow go are my contributuions.

I pay about $25.00 for a tin of 4 lotus paste / double yolk regular size cakes. These come from Vancouver and have been fresh when they are brought in by Superstore. The shelves are bare within a couple days.

I find the mini-ones drier. One of my sons will snatch a couple right away and hide them in his room. He and I enjoy them the most.