If you’ve ever been to a Chinese bakery or grocery store, or spent some time watching travel videos in China, something that might have popped up along the way is mooncakes. Mooncakes are a Chinese pastry that is traditionally made during the Mid-Autumn festival which typically occurs anywhere from mid-September to early October as a way to celebrate the point when the moon is supposedly at its brightest. Despite its association with the Mid-Autumn festival, this pastry can be enjoyed year round.
The mooncake is usually a circular shaped pastry (though there are some square shaped versions) with characters or images pressed onto the top of the mooncake. Some of the most common fillings for mooncakes are red and black bean paste, lotus seed paste,red date paste, and sweet nut mixes. Additionally, several more traditional mooncakes will also have a salted and cured egg yolk in the center. These fillings are all sweet, however they may not be quite as sweet as many Americans are used to their desserts being.
Over the years there have been some variations made to the mooncake recipe to provide people with more flavors to try. Some people have tried switching out mooncakes traditionally sweet filling with savory fillings as an alternative. This includes fillings such as pork or nuts. Additionally, there is the popular snow-skin version of the mooncake. Snow skin mooncakes have a slightly chewy texture on the outside, similar to mochi (a Japanese rice cake) and are not baked, unlike their traditional counterpart.
If you’re looking to try mooncakes out for yourself there are a couple of places in the Raleigh area that you might want to check out. Your best bet is probably Grand Asia Market, which has a bakery in store that sells a wide variety of Chinese pastries, including mooncakes. Some other treats you might find there are egg tarts, and red bean buns. Another good place to try would be H-mart in Cary, which has Asian desserts from all over the country as well as a small food court in case you’re looking for a full meal in the meantime. If you don’t want to buy mooncakes, you can always try your hand at making them as well as there are beginner friendly mooncake recipes you can find online and mooncake presses on Amazon for around ten dollars. Regardless of what you choose, if you ever get the chance you should definitely try the Chinese pastries out for yourself.
