Mooncakes

Not only was it Thanksgiving in Canada last week, but the Chinese celebrated the Lunar Festival over the weekend. One of the special desserts that are made for the Moon Festival are mooncakes, round pastries, shaped like the moon, filled with a variety of special stuffings, things like dates or sesame seeds or vegetables. These two varieties were given to me by a Chinese lady at work, I was pleased to receive them, seeing as how expensive they were in the various Chinese markets I had gone to. Apparently, people have special "mooncakes" made, that are really filled with gold or other expensive items, and are used as bribes. I've also seen ones that were not round, rather shaped like tiny animals. And there are rather elaborate boxed mooncakes, with other gifts inside, not gold, to be given as presents during the Lunar Festival.

The tiny mooncake with the red box in the picture is a Su style recipe that was filled with red bean paste. It was the one I far preferred of the two, being already a fan of sweet red bean paste. The other in the blue box was from a Cantonese recipe, and was filled with some sort of vegetables and nuts. I did not really go for that one. My sister told me that she liked mooncakes with dates in them, and ones that they make with salted eggs. She also had tried several Cantonese style ones, some of which she did not like, especially the ones that contain candied orange peel, though a friend of hers loves them. I would agree with my sister. To each their own taste, I guess.