Moon Cakes

[hzrt8w]

Growing up in LA decades ago we got shipments of mooncakes from Eastern Bakery in SF. Yeah, they were dry and stale, but at the time I didn't know any better so they seemed fine to me. Now that I'm used to eating higher quality brands I can never go back.

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I am wondering why... Kee Wah Bakery had set up shop about 20 years ago in Monterey Park (Atlantic and Garvey) and they have great mooncakes (famous Hong Kong brand name). Why a need to mail order from a so-so bakery in San Francisco?

I have a picture of Eastern's display taken a couple of years ago.

[sheetz]

I am wondering why...  Kee Wah Bakery had set up shop about 20 years ago in Monterey Park (Atlantic and Garvey) and they have great mooncakes (famous Hong Kong brand name).  Why a need to mail order from a so-so bakery in San Francisco?

Ha, I'm dating myself, but I'm talking about WAY before Kee Wah and other bakeries opened up in Monterey Park, like in the 70s. And I should clarify, we didn't mail order, but in fact all the Chinese supermarkets in LA carried baked goods from Eastern Bakery that were shipped down from SF. Many probably still do.

I have a picture of Eastern's display taken a couple of years ago. 

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I have fond memories of those hockey puck-like winter melon cakes shown in the photo just beneath the box of mooncakes, even though the ones I make at home now are certainly better by any objective measure.

Edited August 21, 2008 by sheetz (log)

[Mary Elizabeth]

sheetz--I moved to SF in '78 and lived on Filbert 2 blocks from Grant, and I thought the red bean cakes at Eastern Bakery then were delicious. They are the "remembered ideal" cakes I tried to recreate above.

hzrt8w--I will definately try AA Bakery next time.

[Mary Elizabeth]

I went to the AA Bakery in San Francisco and took these photos.

Tepee inspired me to get some small molds:

And here's where I got the molds:

[Dejah]

Bought my tin of 4 mooncakes last week: 5 nut and single yolk. It's from a company called Riwie - through Toronto (Wish we had a source like Mary Elizabeth's photo).

I love all the seeds, and I can taste maybe tangerine peel as well although it is not listed in the ingredients.

We've eaten one cake and it's still 2 weeks to the festival!

[Ben Hong]

We've eaten one cake and it's still 2 weeks to the festival!

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Izzat so? Who knows, there might be a wandering lo wah kieu from the east coming by to help you "dispose" of those horrible things.

Edited September 2, 2008 by Ben Hong (log)

[Ce'nedra]

Anyone ever had the Teochew-style moon cakes? Like it?

[sheetz]

Finally got around to making some mooncakes this week, but the local Chinese grocery didn't have any lotus seeds so for the filling I made green tea flavored mung bean paste instead. Mung bean paste doesn't seem to have the same structure as lotus seed paste, so the mooncakes didn't hold their shape quite as well as those made with lotus seed paste.

Edited September 13, 2008 by sheetz (log)

[Dejah]

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Those look gorgeous! I love seeds in my mooncakes. Wonder if I have to wait until Ben gets here to enjoy the last one...

[maggiethecat]

I make them, I eat them, I love them. I have an ancient Taylor and Ng mold and a contemporaneous recipe. To this WASP, mooncakes seem like a relative of my ancestor's mincemeat tarts, but prettier.

[aprilmei]

There's a company here in HK called GOD (goods of desire) which has a slogan of "Delay No More" (Cantonese speakers will know another meaning to this - it's extremely rude). Anyway, they've put an alternative meaning on "moon cakes" - theirs are in the shape of "the full monty", "t-back", "spread my cheeks" and "mind the gap". It's hard to describe them; you'll have to use your imagination.

The filling of the mooncake, surprisingly, is "normal".

[liuzhou]

I just got back from a big Mid Autumn family dinner - 30 people over two tables. Around 20 dishes. Great food.

Towards the end we were offered mooncakes cut into quarters. Every single person said "No. Hate the things!"

[Kouign Aman]

Its good to know we werent alone on not being able to eat them.

We were hoping its just we got lousy ones (we probably did).

We got a box of 4 from Huy KY bakery, at the local grocery.

I dont remember what the filling was described as in English.

The label says "BANH DEO DAU XANH".

The whole thing tasted like white sugar and nothing else.

We each managed one quarter of one cake.

They were pretty tho.

Since we'll probably be doing this annually for another 10 years,

what to look for to get the highest edibility?

[nakji]

Sounds like you got a Vietnamese version with mung beans. I always feel bad, because I quite like mooncakes, so I think I must have too sweet a tooth. I like the ones with an egg yolk inside. And the lotus seed ones. Those are good, too. Actually, I've never met a mooncake I didn't like, although it helps to eat only a quarter, and to eat that bit with tea so strong it feels like you're stripping the enamel from your teeth. When I lived in Vietnam, Highland coffee used to run a special set of them in the mid-autumn festival with trendy flavours like green tea and dark chocolate.

[liuzhou]

Wah! We've got ten clear months to NOT think about the foulness of mooncakes.

Let's have a moratorium till.. well, forever would be good!

[Kouign Aman]

Moratorium on hold for one week, then it can slip back in place for another year.

I hope our local market has the lotus seed or eggyolk ones when we go shopping this year.

I wish I could buy a single cake instead of a box of four.

There will be four of us this year, so one cake would be perfect.

You know they are sweet when a 5 yr old says 'no more, thank you' after 2 bites.

[hzrt8w]

I wish I could buy a single cake instead of a box of four.

There will be four of us this year, so one cake would be perfect.

They do sell singles now. I just saw it. Somebody finally came to some marketing sense. I hope you can find them among the grocers at Convey.

[nakji]

I got a box of Starbucks mooncakes this year from a student for Teacher's Day. Three flavours: plain, with espresso red-bean filling and a nugget of dark chocolate ganache in the centre; green tea, with tea-flavoured white bean paste and an espresso red bean centre, and chocolate, with more espresso red bean and a nugget of crunchy hazelnut chocolate ganache in the middle. I only have one left - I'm going to be as big as a moon by the time the festival hits.

Last year we got a big bag of meat mooncakes from our principal- a local specialty. They had a lard-flaky crust and a puck of beautifully spiced pork in the middle, and they were made in one of those big dumpling makers that comes down and sears the cakes on either side. I ate half a bag of them before I could stop and couldn't eat again for the rest of the day.

[hzrt8w]

Just passed by "Kee Wah Bakery" in Milpitas, CA. Famous Hong Kong brand name.

They sell mooncakes in all kinds of packages now. The traditional ones are tin of four. (About USD $34 each). They now sell single, traditional size. Plastic bag wrapped and in a plastic tray. About $9 each. They sell "minis" - each is about 1/4 of the size of the traditional one. Really tiny. About $2 each. And boxes of minis, about $10 - $16. Really... all kinds of packagings.

The ones carried by 99 Ranch are more traditional sized. Less choices than going to specialty shops like Kee Wah.

[sheetz]

Just passed by "Kee Wah Bakery" in Milpitas, CA. Famous Hong Kong brand name.

They sell mooncakes in all kinds of packages now. The traditional ones are tin of four. (About USD $34 each). They now sell single, traditional size. Plastic bag wrapped and in a plastic tray. About $9 each. They sell "minis" - each is about 1/4 of the size of the traditional one. Really tiny. About $2 each. And boxes of minis, about $10 - $16. Really... all kinds of packagings.

I was going to ask others about their local prices for mooncakes. The prices just seem too high to me. $9 for one mooncake? No thanks. Or maybe Chinese people wait till after the moon festival is over and buy the mooncakes at half price like my parents do.

[Kouign Aman]

I suspect, having waited this late, I'm gonna get whatever is leftover.

Maybe we'll go on a Convoy-crawl tomorrow evening, and hope to find a happy single.

The prices are indeed daunting.

[gfron1]

I almost missed it!  Monday is Mid-Autumn festival (Mooncake Festival).  

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10152688310859845&l=13b45aeb12

[gfron1]

Here's the image I tried to post in previous post.  

[liuzhou]

The mooncake is being targeted by the Chinese Communist Party's anti-corruption drive. 

 

See here.

[huiray]

I almost missed it!  Monday is Mid-Autumn festival (Mooncake Festival).  

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10152688310859845&l=13b45aeb12

 

I just hauled out a never-opened-and-still-tape-sealed metal presentation box of mooncakes (lotus seed paste, double yolks) in the Cantonese-style from when I bought them LAST year - from Maxim's, a well-known bakery chain in Hong Kong and imported from there.  Opened it etc and had one of the cakes (individually sealed in stout but attractive cellophane packages).  It was entirely edible, still quite moist, unctuous, smooth, "creamy" and suitably oily in the lotus seed paste.  The yolks were not perfect anymore (if they ever were) but still moist and exuded a little golden yellow oil when they were cut through and were satisfactory in taste, color and texture.  I am impressed with its keeping power.