As the Mid-Autumn Festival looms over us, we take the time to find out about those little delectable morsels known as mooncakes, from its mythical origin of Chang Er to its historical context within the Ming Revolution, we also take a look at some of the offerings this season.
What Is The Mid-Autumn Festival?
The Mid-Autumn Festival (zhōngqiūjié, 中秋節) is celebrated by the Chinese diaspora across the world on the 15th day of the 8th month of the Chinese lunisolar calendar, which coincides with the Harvest Moon. This is why the Mid-Autumn Festival is also known as the Harvest Moon Festival. It is one of the big 4 celebrations in Chinese culture, the others being Chinese New Year (Spring Festival), Chinese All Souls’ Day (Qingming Festival), and Winter Harvest (Winter Solstice Festival). On this day Chinese families, and as extension other cultures from the Sinosphere, celebrate by a reunion dinner, lanterns and most importantly, eating mooncakes.
The Mythical Context: The Legend of Chang Er and Hou Yi
There are two accounts about how the mooncake came about, one mythical and legendary, while the other is based on Chinese historical accords. The legendary account is a love story between Chang Er (cháng é, 嫦娥), the Goddess of the Moon, and Hou Yi (hòu yì, 后羿), the archer. According to one legend, there were once 10 suns in the sky. Hou Yi shot 9 out of the 10 suns out of the sky saving the earth and was rewarded by the gods with the elixir of immortality. However, when Hou Yi’s disciple Feng Meng (féng méng, 逢蒙) found out about it he tried to rob them when Hou Yi wasn’t home. In trying to protect the elixir, Chang Er drank the elixir and flew to the moon, leaving Hou Yi behind. He missed her so much he made offerings of fruit and mooncakes in remembrance of her. This is the mythical origin of the mooncake.
The Historical Context: The Ming Revolution
The other historical origin of the mooncakes is tied to the rebellion during the Yuan Dynasty. The previous dynasty, the Ming Dynasty, were people of Han origin, while the Yuan Dynasty were descended from the Mongol Empire, which were seen as outsiders to the Chinese. In this story, mooncakes were used to pass secret messages amongst the rebels, under the guise as gifts for the Mid-Autumn Festival, so a revolt could be planned for that day, and that there was a plague spreading which could only be countered by the eating of these special mooncakes, which contained the message to kill the rulers on the Mid-Autumn Festival. In some stories, messages were printed on its surface, which is why traditionally there are auspicious sayings on mooncakes.
What Are Mooncakes?
Mooncakes (yuèbǐng, 月餅) are pastries that are traditionally eaten during the Mid-Autumn Festival, and are round shaped, a symbolic representation of the moon, as well as completeness. The cakes are round shaped like the moon, a symbolic representation of completeness. Mooncakes are traditionally baked in a chewy or flaky pastry, filled with lotus paste and a salted egg yolk, also representing the moon. They can come in a variety of sized, but the standard ones are usually the 10 centimetres or mini mooncakes.
Traditional Mooncakes
Traditionally, mooncakes are baked in a chewy or flaky pastry, but even traditionally, there are many versions and regional variations, such as the flaky crust Fan Mao (fānmáo yuèbǐng,翻毛月餅) and foamy crust Ti Jiang (tíjiāng yuèbǐng, 提將月餅) varieties from Beijing, flaky crusts of Suzhou, and with a variety of fillings which can be sweet, salty or sweet-savoury. The most common filling for mooncakes would be lotus seed paste, red bean paste, taro paste, and five kernels (wǔ rén, 五仁) which is made from walnuts, pumpkin seeds, watermelon seeds, sesame seeds, or almonds. Another important element is the salted duck egg yolk, which represents the moon. In the north, Beijing mooncakes are commonly filled with melon seed paste, peach seed paste, osmanthus, wisteria, mountain hawthorn, which is quite different from its southern counterparts. Savoury mooncakes also include the ham mooncakes (huǒtuǐ yuèbǐng, 火腿月饼) found in Yunnan and dried seafood mooncakes (hǎixiān yuèbǐng, 海鮮月餅) found in Ningbo and Chaoshan (Teochew). Other unique ingredients include winter melon paste found in Taiwanese mooncakes, seaweed in Ningbo mooncakes as well as chicken, duck, ham or roast pork, usually served as hot mooncakes, commonly found in Cantonese mooncakes (guǎngshì yuèbǐng, 廣式月餅).
Contemporary Mooncakes
Today, mooncakes come in all sorts of variations, from the very popular snow skin mooncakes (bīngpí yuèbǐng, 冰皮月饼) which is made using glutinous rice as its skin which was invented in Hong Kong, to jelly (yàncài yuèbǐng, 燕菜月饼) and ice cream mooncakes (bīngqílín yuèbǐng, 冰淇淋月饼). Tea flavoured mooncakes are also very popular, both being used in the skin itself such as matcha flavoured, to the flavouring of lotus paste with pu-er, oolong or even houjicha. The latest iteration of flavours sees the use of spirits in mooncakes such as whiskey, cognac and even specific cocktail flavours, and of course, the most luxurious ones, with ingredients like ginseng, bird’s nest, sharks’ fins or abalone.
Mooncakes This Season
There have been a number of interesting mooncakes in Kuala Lumpur this year, with special mention of one from Ipoh. This year we see a profound use of musang king durian, which is a favourite of Malaysians, as well as the use of sweet corn and purple yam in a few iterations, but what is most interesting is the use of cocktail flavours and even ones with BBQ meat (bakkwa). Some unique flavours and standouts for us this season include: –
- Musang King Durian Snowskin Mooncake by Mandarin Oriental Kuala Lumpur
- Snowy Corn & Flaxseed Paste with Single Yolk by Beta KL
- Sweet Corn Lotus Paste with Single Egg Yolk by Jade Pavilion, Pavilion Hotel
- Bar Trigona’s Old Fashion Mooncake by Yun House, Four Seasons Kuala Lumpur
- Hojicha Mung Bean (Purple Sweet Potato Snow Skin) by Oh Cha Matcha
- Cendol Coconut Mooncake by Yen, W Kuala Lumpur
- White Lotus Seed with Single Yolk by Quan’s Kitchen, Four Points by Sheraton, Chinatown
- BBQ Meat Lotus Sea Salt Lotus Mooncake by Chin Han Guan, Ipoh
Each of these offerings have been selected for its uniqueness, and if you’re looking to find out more, you can see our complete Instagram reviews of each of the mooncake offerings, as well as our Mid-Autumn Festival Mooncake Instagram Guide.