Moon Cakes

[Kapuliperson]

I LOVE mooncakes!

I always make it a point to go visit my Chinese friends and teachers when it's around the mid-autumn festival. While the ice cream ones are good, the best ones I've had were the ones filled with sweetened, mashed beans

[herbacidal]

What operating system and browser are you using?  With the latest versions of Windows and IE, it's all pretty much automatic. If you try to view a page with encoded fonts from another language, it will ask you if you want to download the fonts.

Windows 2000, but I don't have the CD, which it asks you for if you click on "install" in the dialog box.

I guess I need to get the CD.

[Gary Soup]

Windows 2000, but I don't have the CD, which it asks you for if you click on "install" in the dialog box.

I guess I need to get the CD.

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You can probably download the fonts from the Microsoft Web Site.

[herbacidal]

You can probably download the fonts from the Microsoft Web Site.

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Any idea where? I'm going through the site now, and while I've found a reference to both simplified and traditional Chinese text display and input support, there is no link given nor is there additional information on how to download/acquire them.

As it is, I'm just poring through the Microsoft website using various methods in hopes of getting what I need.

[Laksa]

Any idea where?  I'm going through the site now, and while I've found a reference to both simplified and traditional Chinese text display and input support, there is no link given nor is there additional information on how to download/acquire them.

As it is, I'm just poring through the Microsoft website using various methods in hopes of getting what I need.

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I PM'd a bunch of links to another egulleter but for some reason, PMs are not automatically saved now after the upgrade.

Here's one link I managed to find again:

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/ie/downlo...me/default.mspx

It probably does more than you need, but you may find it useful.

[hzrt8w]

The moon is getting rounder and rounder every night. I am counting the hours until middle autumn. "...looking up, I see the moon; in reflection, I really miss home..."

Moon cake, some grapes, and a sip of XO. Life couldn't be better than this.

Edited September 24, 2004 by hzrt8w (log)

[Hest88]

Did any of you eat "pig in a poke" jui jie bang cakes as a kid? My Po-Po always made sure I received one. Usually it just hangs in my room.

Oh yeah, I loved those baskets but I never ate the pastry. I was picking up mooncakes at Eastern Bakery a few hours ago, saw those baskets, and *almost* thought about buying one. I don't know what I'd do with it though!

We're actually having our Autumn Moon Festival dinner tonight, because we can't do it next Tuesday. Not ideal, I know, but it's really just another excuse to eat anyway!

[Laksa]

I picked up a box of 6 assorted mini mooncakes from Sheng Kee at the grocery store. I'm eating them as I type. This is the first time I've ever seen mini mooncakes. The box has 3 different flavors: lotus paste, date paste and regular bean paste. The date paste kind has nuts in it (looks like walnut and pine nuts from the list of ingredients. Is pine nut traditionally used in moon cakes?

I don't usually like moon cakes, and only eat them during the festival for tradition's sakes, and also so I can tell my mum that yes, I did buy moon cakes and I did eat them. But I like these mini ones. For a change, I'm able to finish one whole one by myself.

[jo-mel]

I picked up a box of 6 assorted mini mooncakes from Sheng Kee at the grocery store.  I'm eating them as I type.  This is the first time I've ever seen mini mooncakes.  The box has 3 different flavors: lotus paste, date paste and regular bean paste.  The date paste kind has nuts in it (looks like walnut and pine nuts from the list of ingredients.  Is pine nut traditionally used in moon cakes?

I don't usually like moon cakes, and only eat them during the festival for tradition's sakes, and also so I can tell my mum that yes, I did buy moon cakes and I did eat them.  But I like these mini ones.  For a change, I'm able to finish one whole one by myself.

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I have the same box and absolutely love them! I've been nibbling them for about a week, and plan to get more. I like the small size and the variety.

[Dejah]

I just got some white lotus paste/double yolk moon cakes from keefers in Vancouver.

Opened one, and the bottom was pretty oily. I cut a wedge for taste test. The cake wasn't oily, so I guess all the oil settled. The pastry was light, and the yolk was moist, not hard like the other brand I bought a couple weeks ago.

Laksa, I wonder if the nuts are actually the meat from black melon seeds? That's what I remember them to be. However, there are so many variations now. . . I mean, if there's ice cream moon cakes, there would be pine nuts!

Wait...you did say pine nuts were listed in the ingredients...

Edited September 27, 2004 by Dejah (log)

[Transparent]

Mini-mooncakes are neat; you can split them with a friends and try all the different varieties. That's what my mom and I did in Flushing, NY today. Yi Mei Bakery is great. :D

[hzrt8w]

Opened one, and the bottom was pretty oily. I cut a wedge for taste test.

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Yeah. You need to continue to taste test it a dozen times to make sure the taste is consistent through out, right?

[Laksa]

Dejah, melon seeds just seem a lot more traditional, but I quite like the taste of pine nuts and walnuts.

The date paste mooncake reminds me a lot of a Chinese fruit candy that's got nuts in it. It's not so much candy as just minced dried fruit in candy shapes, individually wrapped in transparent and colorful cellophane wrappers, dark blue, dark green, maroon etc.

I only bought one box of the mini mooncakes and I fear they may not last till tomorrow.

[chengb02]

is everybody enjoying their moon cakes? Happy mid-autumn festival to all! I was in Chicago over the weekend and regret not buying any, no moon cakes for me, so I'm living through all of your experiences, hehe!

[Susan G]

I had the friends, the family, and the feast, but no visible moon.............

[jokhm]

Well.. I mooncaked for the first time these past few days. I won't eat another for quite a while hopefully.

Not that I didn't enjoy them... well a few I really didn't..!! But a number of them were fantastic.

The first one was given to me three days ago simply out of amazement that I had yet to eat one. It was green tea flavoured with an egg yolk inside. Very good, but not sure I understand what is behind the egg yolk, flavourwise. Didn't appear to offer much of any kind of complementary taste to the cake.

Two nights ago I had dinner with a group of well-settled Canadian expats here in Beijing and amidst the shuffling of business cards I came away as a winner of a large box of expensive-looking MCs. I ate one, and it indeed was delicious, not grainy in any way, just one solid multi-pound mini cake. There were also some large ones in the box.. and following the traditions here I made sure to get them sent out to all the people that I have contact with day to day here at the hotel. Security, clerks.. but especially the two girls who have spent the last month teaching me bits of chinese.

I must say.. I am very impressed with the density of these cakes. Not a gram of air anywhere inside them. Solid cake through and through...

Now If I could just find a second cake with identical filling. Until now every single one has been entirely different. Had a date one, I think. Another with nuts, or seeds, or I don't know what. Another with yellow fruity filling..... on and on.. Fun.

Each one's a surprise for me.

[Transparent]

Sigh. It was raining here the entire time in New York, so there was no moon. Most of my family members went to work today, so there was no big family dinner either. I got my fill of mooncakes, boiled taro, and dai choy goh though.

[Dejah]

We had a beautiful full moon here last night. The night was clear and the moon just floated above our house.

In the morning, I took 4 white lotus paste/double egg yolk moon cakes to share with

the international students and our staff. In class, we talked about the tradition, the stories, the activities involved during this festival.

They were all too cheap to buy some themselves, altho' most of them come from well off families. They are planning a getogether this weekend. I didn't have time to make taro cake this year. Maybe one of them will make some to share.

[Ben Hong]

The Harvest Moon was big and round on the eastern horizon last evening, the colour of a salted duck egg yolk. I was coming out of the woods after a couple hours of woodcock hunting with my dogs and I had to stop to grab a stump and do some serious moongazing.

It made me very nostalgic, as the whole scenario always brings forth a childhood memory of stting with my YenYen on the edge of our village pond watching the moon rise as she told the story about all the stories of the moon. Moon cakes are more than just pastry to me.

[Gary Soup]

It was so foggy here in SF the moon wasn't visible at all. Nor were mooncakes visible on our table, though my wife flashed one given to her by one of her clients. We had our baby taro and duck, of course, though prepared separately (I prefer them mingling in soup, as the traditional baby taro is too bland by itself). To complicate our celebration, it happened to be our wedding anniversary, and we were also looking ahead to National Day in three days and Ju Ju's birthday four days after that.

Edited September 29, 2004 by Gary Soup (log)

[hshiau]

Anyone see this take on moon cakes?

Keeping up with the modern mooncake

Here's an excerpt:

Modernizing the moon cake to bridge the palate between East and West, several hotels and restaurants offer moon cakes with Western characteristics: The J.C. Mandarin is known for its ice-cold moon cake, Haagen-Dazs serves up ice-cream moon cakes, and Starbucks offers a box of six coffee flavored cakes for Y128.

[trillium]

The moon was beautiful in pdx last night and we stood in the middle of the road eating our mooncake and gazing. Sadly for us we'd already eaten the box we bought two weeks ago (Sheng Kee) and when we took the bus to the store to get more yesterday, there was only a sad mashed box of mini mooncakes from Sheng Kee and a bunch of scary looking coconut ones from a bakery in Canada. We did without the egg, and took home the mini-pack. Maybe next year I will make the pandan scented lotus filled ones again (with LARD!). They're not as pretty as the pros, but very tasty. My favorite from the box this year is the red date with nuts.

regards,

trillium

[Dejah]

It made me very nostalgic, as the whole scenario always brings forth a childhood memory of stting with my YenYen on the edge of our village pond watching the moon rise as she told the story about all the stories of the moon. Moon cakes are more than just pastry to me.

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Did any of you, as a child, have a special lantern for this festival? I best remember one, made of thin gauze material, shaped like a rabbit. My Yen Yen hung it on a stick, and it glowed with a small candle inside.

I was reminiscing with my students this morning. They say that most now have a battery operated light inside. I would miss the flicker of the candle, but I am sure the battery light would be safer now.

Transparent mentioned dai choy goh. Most of my students didn't know what this was. They just asked if I had any more mooncake!

My wonderful s-i-l brought over a wutaw goh late last night. I am going to have some now, for an after school snack!

[Transparent]

It must be great to have fond memories of memories the festival. I've enjoyed some past years even living here in Brooklyn, but nothing as romatic as even a paper lantern. The whole affair was mostly great food, and a whole lot of laughing and merriment. Yesterday, it was a lonely night, where the mooncake was just an after dinner snack. Dinner was just rice and steamed ribs. No pomello either. It seems like I'm the only one who cares.

Growing up jook sing is no fun at all...

Edited September 29, 2004 by Transparent (log)

[Squeat Mungry]

It was so foggy here in SF the moon wasn't visible at all.

Gary, you must be out in the fogbelt -- the moon was big and beautiful from my place in the Mission! Inspired by this thread, I even remembered to walk into Chinatown at lunch yesterday and buy a mooncake. It was my first one ever. I was very excited about it, but I'm sorry to report I was underwhelmed. I probably should have gone to Golden Gate Bakery, but I just ducked into the first bakery I saw.

Cheers,

Squeat