I experienced another first today…mooncake! No its not that freezed dried stuff that astronauts eat and you get on your school trips to the Smithsonian. These delicious little cakes come around once a year to celebrate the Mid-Autumn festival here in Asia. All I can say is yum and thank god they only come around once a year.
There are two versions, the traditional and the non-traditional and both come in many different flavors. I had the non-traditional version snow-skin (pastel almost translucent sugary skin) filled with champagne truffle and chocolate ganache (I gained 5 lbs just typing that). The traditional version (pictured) is a pastry outside and have egg yokes as the center…(the truffle acted as the egg yolk in my version). It was really good but so super sweet its out of control.
By the time I got back to my desk, as you can imagine, I was hating myself for sampling the mooncake so I decided to learn why these little treats taunt us and what the Mid-Autumn Festival is all about.
A long time ago, according to a famous Chinese legend, the earth had ten suns circling it, each taking its turn to illuminate and warm it. One day, all ten suns appeared together, and the combined heat resulted in a terrible drought. To save the world from imminent destruction, China’s famous and able archer, Hou Yi, shot down nine of the suns. He became the hero and the Emperor presented him with the most beautiful woman in the land, Chang Er, to whom he married. The Emperor also rewarded him with a magic pill containing the elixir of immortality.
The curious Chang Er discovered the pill and consumed it in her husband’s absence. She transformed into a fairy and drifted to the moon, leaving the grief-stricken Hou Yi behind. His longing for Chang Er so touched the heart of the deities that they allow the couple to meet on the fifteenth day of each month in the lunar calendar. Thus, the Mid-Autum Festival is celebrated on this day each year (this year ~ September 25) As the full moon is round in shape and the word circle is synonymous with the word unity in Chinese, the Mid-Autum Festival is heralded as a time of harmony and blissful family reunions.
Humm…blissful family (and friends) reunions….September 25…I’ll certainly be celebrating since I’ll be BACK IN NYC…enjoying blissful reunions!!
By the time I got back to my desk, as you can imagine, I was hating myself for sampling the mooncake so I decided to learn why these little treats taunt us and what the Mid-Autumn Festival is all about.
A long time ago, according to a famous Chinese legend, the earth had ten suns circling it, each taking its turn to illuminate and warm it. One day, all ten suns appeared together, and the combined heat resulted in a terrible drought. To save the world from imminent destruction, China’s famous and able archer, Hou Yi, shot down nine of the suns. He became the hero and the Emperor presented him with the most beautiful woman in the land, Chang Er, to whom he married. The Emperor also rewarded him with a magic pill containing the elixir of immortality.
The curious Chang Er discovered the pill and consumed it in her husband’s absence. She transformed into a fairy and drifted to the moon, leaving the grief-stricken Hou Yi behind. His longing for Chang Er so touched the heart of the deities that they allow the couple to meet on the fifteenth day of each month in the lunar calendar. Thus, the Mid-Autum Festival is celebrated on this day each year (this year ~ September 25) As the full moon is round in shape and the word circle is synonymous with the word unity in Chinese, the Mid-Autum Festival is heralded as a time of harmony and blissful family reunions.
Humm…blissful family (and friends) reunions….September 25…I’ll certainly be celebrating since I’ll be BACK IN NYC…enjoying blissful reunions!!
3 comments:
Can you bring me a mooncake???
So how do Mooncakes fit into the legend?
They are round like the moon and the yolk represents the pill.
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