shangrila-moon.jpg

Beijing’s Mooncakes

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De ja vu? Maybe just like me you also saw Mike’s mooncake box from Shangri-la Manila.

It’s a week-long vacation here in Beijing and the house is overflowing with mooncakes from Consultants and Suppliers. (Oh no! Not because of the Mooncake festival but it is China’s National Day.) This year the Mooncake Festival or the Mid-Autumn Festival falls on the 6th of this month when the moon is at its brightest for the entire year. Go here to read its legend.

Mooncakes come in many shapes, sizes, taste and color. Fillings may be lotus seeds, red bean, Chinese dates, peanuts, walnuts, melon, sesame seeds, green tea, beef, pork, duck breasts, bird’s nest, what else? Think of anything and chances are, you would find it. Sometimes the choice of fillings is unbelievable like one with anise and pepper we couldn’t get a single bite. Yeah we often wonder why a package should come with different flavors. A and I are happy with the egg yolk filled ones if not chocolate or Haagen-Dazs ice cream.

Below are more photos of our stash this season. Long gone are the choco and Haagen-Dazs I didn’t get the chance to take decent photos.

This one is absolutely fantastic! The crust looks (and tastes) like that of a delicious pie. Yummy!

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Iska
I am not a professional cook. My only claim to having a culinary background is a short stint as my dad’s teen ‘sous chef’ in his carinderia ages ago. Dad ran small eateries since I was a young kid - serving standard ‘turo-turo’ food ranging from the likes of menudo, adobo, pritong isda, dinuguan, binagoongan, bopis, munggo, pinakbet and giniling to merienda fares like goto, ginataan, pancit bihon, halu-halo and saging con yelo.

My father, a farmer in his hometown before working his way to becoming an accountant, definitely influenced my cooking in a lot of ways than I thought. My siblings and I were raised in a backyard full of fruit trees and vegetable garden. We spent weekends and the summer breaks running around with ducks, chickens, goats and pigs. I had wonderful memories of gathering eggs, butchering chickens, selling vegetables and the sweet aroma of preserved fruits. But my love for art led me to a degree in Architecture. Just few months after getting my license, I went abroad and lived independently at age 23. Definitely no maid, no cook, and a totally different food culture. Along the way I met lots of friends and spent what seemed a lifetime learning new tricks and recipes.

Now living in Auckland, I am a work-from-home mum who juggles time between work, fun and family - in pursuit of work-life balance. No matter how busy I am, I love the idea of cooking for my family. My blog chronicles home cooking greatly influenced by life outside my home country from Southeast Asia to Beijing and Auckland. And most of the time, being busy also means easy (sometimes quick), affordable meals.

5 thoughts on “Beijing’s Mooncakes

  1. It’s not the same as tikoy no? What do they call tikoy in english? Is it a pinoy thing? I miss eating tikoy on Chinese New Year. How are things Iska?

  2. oh, what pretty packaging! my favorite is winter melon, but it is so hard to find. The best ones I found were in San Francisco’s China town.

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