Mooncakes and the Chinese Moon Festival
On the 15th of the 8th Lunar Month the Chinese eat Mooncakes
The Chinese Moon Festival, celebrated on the 15th of the 8th lunar month, is one of the most important traditional events for the Chinese and is celebrated wherever Chinese people gather together. It is an occasion for a family reunion and when the full moon rises, families get together to enjoy the occasion, eat moon cakes, and sing moon songs. They gaze at the moon hoping to see Chang Er dancing on its surface, as she is said to do during the Moon Festival.
A quiet night without a cloud is the perfect night for the festival, especially if there is a mild breeze in the air. Then lovers can spend a romantic night together eating mooncake and drinking wine while watching the full moon sail across the sky. If the couple can't be together, they will watch the moon at the same time, eat the moon cakes and feel themselves to be together at the same hour.
There are mooncakes and there are gourmet mooncakes, and lovers of speciality mooncakes are in for a treat if they are headed for Singapore in the next few weeks. At the St. Regis Hotel, Chinese Executive Chef Chan Siu Kong and his culinary team at the St. Regis ,are introducing their unique mooncakes to celebrate this year’s festival at the hotel’s signature Chinese restaurant Yan Ting. Already, they are the talk of the town.
Chef Chan was inspired by the highly popular flavour of the hotel’s exclusive Dammann Frères tea from France and he has infused the tea’s aromatic and delicate “Seven Perfumes” into the snow skin and white lotus paste. In the centre of the mooncake lies hidden a velvety truffle filled with the elegant taste of Martell Cordon Bleu Cognac. He has even prepared a sugar-free version of Seven Perfumes Snow Skin with Single Yolk and White Lotus Paste Mooncake for those who might find the gourmet version too rich.
As well as the traditional range of top quality mooncakes with lotus paste and egg yolk, fragrant rich black sesame paste and Jin Hua ham, Chef Chan’s gourmet range includes an Almond Snow Skin with Martell Cordon Bleu Cognac Truffle and custard Paste, almond Snow Skin with Advocaat Egg Liqueur Truffle and Black Sesame Paste, and the crème de la crème, an Almond Snow Skin with Bird’s Nest and Custard Paste which is the ultimate in prestige in that it incorporates premium whole-strand bird’s nest gilded with edible gold.
But you don’t need to seek out gourmet delicacies, delicious though they may be, everyday popular mooncakes still hold a magic on the special Mooncake Festival night. There is even a village in Thailand dedicated to making the pure white Chinese buns that many Thais accept as mooncakes. One of the photographs below lists the ingredients:
- Minced pork
- Roasted pork
- Sweet black bean
- Cream
- Custard
Located on the road between Ranong and Chumphon, Tub-Lee village is a favourite stop for travellers who are addicted to these delicious Chinese buns(called Sa-ra-pao in Thai). Buy a bagful for a few Thai Baht and feast on the rich egg yolk paste – then look at the moon and make a wish.
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