MoonCake and Mid Autumn Festival 2010

Today, in conjunction with the MoonCake and Mid Autumn Festival 2010, we will review a moon cake and along the way, we will share some fairy tales about MoonCake and Mid Autumn Festival and there will be a Digirama as well.

The Mid-Autumn Festival, also known as the Moon Festival or in Chinese, "Zhongqiujie" (traditional Chinese: 中秋節) is a popular harvest festival celebrated by Chinese people since over 3,000 years ago during China's Shang Dynasty.

It was first called Zhongqiu Jie (literally "Mid-Autumn Festival") in the Zhou Dynasty. In certain South East Asian region, it is also sometimes referred to as the Lantern Festival or Mooncake Festival. The Mid-Autumn Festival is one of the four most important Chinese festivals.

The Mid-Autumn Festival is held on the 15th day of the eighth month in the Chinese calendar, which is usually around late September or early October in the Gregorian calendar. It is a date that parallels the autumnal equinox of the solar calendar, when the moon is supposedly at its fullest and roundest.

The traditional food of this festival is the mooncake, of which there are many different varieties.

MoonCake are Chinese pastries traditionally eaten during the Mid-Autumn Festival / Zhongqiu Festival. The festival is for lunar worship and moon watching; moon cakes are regarded as an indispensable delicacy on this occasion. Mooncake are offered between friends or on family gatherings while celebrating the festival.

Typical mooncake are round or rectangular pastries, measuring about 10 cm in diameter and 4-5 cm thick. A thick filling usually made from lotus seed paste is surrounded by a relatively thin (2-3 mm) crust and may contain yolks from salted duck eggs. Mooncake are usually eaten in small wedges accompanied by Chinese tea.

Most mooncake consist of a thin tender skin enveloping a sweet, dense filling. The mooncake may contain one or more whole salted egg yolks in its center to symbolize the full moon. Very rarely, mooncake are also served steamed or fried.

Traditional mooncake have an imprint on top consisting of the Chinese characters for "longevity" or "harmony" as well as the name of the bakery and the filling in the moon cake. Imprints of the moon, the Chang'e woman on the moon, flowers, vines, or a rabbit (symbol of the moon) may surround the characters for additional decoration.

Many different types of fillings are available in traditional mooncakes may varies in accordance to the specific region's culture.

The mooncakes that featured here in Shewsbury Land today are basically the one that appear in our previous article about Pai Kut Wong Fan but in addition, we also include mooncakes that we bought separately from other retail outlets as well.

So let's have a look....


The box...






Standard 4 pieces inside...




Looks so yummy and smells nice as well... can't wait to bite it...







About 4 inches wide and 2 inches thick....




There are several types available from the restaurant that we bought this one, below is the full list and some info about the ingredients used for it;

Lotus Paste With 2 Yolks / Lotus Paste With 1 Yolk / White Lotus Paste With 2 Yolks / White Lotus Paste With 1 Yolk
– Lotus paste, salted egg yolk, sugar, flour, peanut oil, egg, watermelon seed

Plain Lotus Paste
- Lotus paste, sugar, flour, peanut oil, egg, watermelon seed.

Tau Sar
- Red bean paste, sugar, flour, peanut oil, egg, watermelon seed.

Tau Sar with yolk
- Red bean paste, sugar, flour, peanut oil, egg, watermelon seed, salted egg yolk

Lotus paste
- Sugar, flour, green bean, egg, watermelon seed.

Non-Baked plain lotus paste
- Red bean paste, sugar, short grain flour, peanut oil, egg, watermelon seed, flavoring

Non-Baked Tau Sar / Non-Baked Tau Sar With 1 Yolk
- Red bean paste, sugar, short grain flour, peanut oil, egg, watermelon seed, flavoring, salted egg yolk

Non-Baked Yam Cake
- Yam, sugar, short grain flour, peanut oil, egg, watermelon seed, flavoring, salted egg yolk








Usually people will cut and divide them equally to 4 parts... but some people will eat it as it is especially if they bought just 1 pieces for personal consumption only. That person must have big appetite to be able to finished 1 piece of mooncake alone.... well, don't be surprised that many people out there can do so....





This one is just the "Plain Lotus Paste" type, the price is SGD 6.50 each (about USD 4.80) - so SGD 26.00 for 1 set of 4 in a box (about USD 19.45) , I could see that some (probably those with egg yolks) will cost up to SGD 9.00 (about USD 6.70)





The 2 mooncakes below we bought from the local supermarket, this is one of those produced by certain outlets or producer for mass market and export purpose.





The first one....






It's a "Red Bean Paste" type - sweet and tasty....






And now the second one....







It's Jade with Read Bean Paste and a single yolk...... the so called "jade" is peppermint flavor actually.... the taste is kind of funny.... but not too bad...








Since early September, I have eaten 8 pieces of mooncakes - yeah, 8 big pieces not 8 slices from 2 pieces.... I guess I really love this mooncake stuff.... well, it's once a year thingy anyway...

How about yourself? How many pieces or maybe slices have gone into your stomach so far?




Happy MoonCake and Mid Autumn Festival 2010 to all regular readers and visitors of Shewsbury Land and to all our family and friends... go out have a nice dinner with your beloved partner or friends and family and enjoy yourself.... be sure to eat lots of mooncakes coz by next week they will slowly fade away from the retailer outlets....


By the way, if you want to see the latest Digirama from Shewsbury Land - Moon Cake Fiasco V2, the premier show will appear here at 12.00 noon later today (Singapore Time)


Be the first to see it.... See you later at 12.00PM




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