Traditional Mid-Autumn Festival Food

The Mid-Autumn Festival is approaching; Macau gradually spreading out moon atmosphere everywhere. As Largo do Senado lighting start to get refurbished, more people start gathered in the main street Almeida da Ribeiro.

This year is also a special year. With the epidemic control requirements, the crowd control policies has begun to ease. Every Macau citizen would hope the economy will gradually stabilises and attract more tourists back to stay in Macau. This year, the Mid-Autumn Festival and the National Day holiday stay on the same calendar day. Everyone prefer to spend their time with their family this year reunited together, eat moon cakes enjoy the glorious full moon. They wish to celebrate this traditional holiday together on the golden Week.

I noticed that many people around me plan to spend most of their time in Macau this year celebrating Mid-Autumn Festival with their families. During the Full Moon Festival, what food should I prepare besides moon cakes? Hanging up the colorful Mid-Autumn Festival lights, alternatively eating fruits, desserts, drinks, etc……There are so many different kinds of things to do that day, having a bit of good food with good intentions, and a a little bit of luck blessings?

Moon Cakes

Since childhood, Macau moon cakes generally have fillings such as egg yolk, white lotus paste, custard, and five kernels. Later, different types of snowy moon cakes and Ice cream Moon Cakes in these recent years.

Moon viewing during the Mid-Autumn Festival has been a custom for many years since Song Dynasty. Most of the mooncakes are round in shape, just like the full moon – “Reunion Full round” means. Early moon cakes were originally used for offering sacrifices to the moon. In the old days, most people in the neighborhood ate with cheap ingredients, mostly sweeter than now it tastes. In the early 1940s, white sugar, rock sugar, and nuts were used as major fillings. After that, living standard turned better that time. In the 1950s, most of the stuffings sold were meat-contained stuffings; Chinese Sausages, Duck slices, Pork, etc; the most popular mooncake trend was back in the 50s and 60s, which Lotus Paste stuffing Mooncake series began to flourish.

In the 1970s, due to the fact that most people reckoned moon cakes in the market were too sweet, many cake shops began to put salted egg yolks to neutralise the over sweet feebacks. In the 1980s, they even focuses on hardcover gift boxes to promote popular Snowy Mooncakes, Ice cream mooncakes, Durian mooncakes, and Soft egg yolk mooncakes. Until now, because mooncakes are quite high in calories, it is not good for most of the young and old generations eating too much. Therefore, many mooncakes are aimed at low sugar, cereals, and even low calorie count. Later, we will introduce Macau famous moon cakes with different varieties in some well-known traditional Macau bakery stores.

Fruits

In the past, during the Mid-Autumn Festival worship ceremony, a lot of fruits were placed on the sacrificial stage such as: grapefruit, star fruit, guava, persimmon, red dates, bananas and so on. Later, the moon cakes were too greasy after eaten, reckoned eating some fruit after the mooncakes with a zip of Chinese tea can help digestions. Therefore, the fruit has also turned as a part of supplement after finishing the moon cake. Pomelo is the homophonic “Blessings”, which means blessed by the gods. Its Round shape also bodes well for reunion.

Taro

Many people in Macau have the custom of eating taro. The eighth month of the lunar calendar is the harvest time of taro. Farmers use taro to make sacrifices to gods and ancestors. On Mid-Autumn Festival, they cook a big pot of taro. Peel and eat with some sugar, the taste is not inferior to the simmered taro. There is another saying that eating taro during the Mid-Autumn Festival is to commemorate the Han people’s overthrow of the Yuan regime during the August fifteen Uprising and expelling the Tartar captives. At that time, the Han people sacrificed the moon with the head of Tartar, and later used taro to sacrifice the moon. And peeling taro skin is also called peeling ghost skin, which can ward off evil and eliminate disasters, which is interesting.

Seafood – Crab

Crab-eating is just the right time in autumn. It is almost fat and rich in crab roe. It is a good time to eat crabs. The so-called “seven tips and eight groups” means that male crabs are eaten in the seventh month of the lunar calendar, and female crabs are eaten in August. In the previous Mid-Autumn Festival, crabs were lined with flower carvings to watch the moon on the lake. Of course, it depends on the season. Not too many people would consider crab-eating during the Mid-Autumn Festival.

River Snail

Many people like to eat fried snails. The snail meat is very fat and it is said to be able to improve eyesight, so it means “looking at the sun in August, but still eating snails.”

Water Chestnuts

Water chestnut is an autumn fruit with two black heads resembling horns and a white fleshy heart; it can be eaten raw or cooked. In the Mid-Autumn Festival, water chestnuts are cooked and peeled as snacks, or they can be boiled in porridge. The homonym of “Ling” is “smart.” It is said that children are very smart when they eat water chestnut porridge. I would eat this every Mid-Autumn Festival every year when young.

Glutinous Rice Balls

In traditional Chinese customs, glutinous rice balls represent the sweet meaning of “people and moon reunion”. So the Mid-Autumn Festival will make glutinous rice balls for the festival.

Macau Mooncake Traditional Shop Promotion

I believe there are hundreds of mooncake styles or more in the market to choose from. But I always believe “A definete thing to eat traditional moon cakes in a traditional feast”. Here below are a few traditional old shops to introduce.

Pan Fong Mooncake

The owner of Pan Fon Mr Chan insists using his own lotus seed paste. The copper pot used to cook the lotus paste has a history of more than half of a centuries. In the past, most of the local chinese restaurant’s lotus seed paste came from Pang Fong. It such a sad thing most restaurants, casinos and junkets have switched their order to processing lotus seed paste in China with lower costs; some even went to other mainland manufacturers to create their own brands and slowly stopped picking up core ingredients from them.

The most recommended mooncake is the Double Egg Yolk lotus seed paste moon cake and Coconut Silk Moon – the most delicious ones which are hard to find in Macau. Now we still insist on using Hunan doubled lotus, grinded and knead every day, ensuring cakes are on its way; Moon cakes made out of the wooden mold showed a strong traditional flavor on it. The taste is not too sweet, from the outer layer to the soft inside, not many bakery stores can do it nowadays.

All moon cakes do not contain alkaline water or preservatives, but Pan Fong uses oil, salt, sugar and other formulas to slow down the deterioration. They insist when customers placed in mooncake orders, they need to pick up three or four days after, which will taste better after the fried oil stayed strained. Only then they are willing to hand it over to the guests, which the texture is so different when tasted. It is that we often say that the “Overnight Oily Taste” should wiped out after followed this steps.

For vegetarians or light eaters, please consider: Fruit vegetarian mooncakes and black sesame lotus paste mooncakes are the first choices to consider this year!

Ma Hong Kei Mooncakes

Ma Hong Ki, located in Rua Central, has been in business for more than sixty years; they have small workshops and factories making mooncakes every day. I popped into one of the cake shop at Fai Chi Kei to buy their last piece of mooncake – Rose Bean Paste and Egg Yolk; I don’t feel the greasy taste at all, the sweetness was just great. Because it is freshly made, the whole Egg Yolk looks like Lava egg right after it’s cut. It leaks oil immediately, which I felt extremely surprising. There are also mooncakes with Green bean paste and Egg Yolk, and Supreme double golden egs with nuts and preserved ham, which are also their top selling item. Only three days from now approaching Mid-Autumn Festival, most of the mooncakes have been sold out already.

There is also a limited edition “Piggie pie” or called “Trapped piglet cake” that I always craved for when young. It is made of the “The head and tail part” left over from the mooncake ingredients. The piggy products manufactured at the moment is not massive, and the whole piglet pie is filled with plastic caged net as wrapping, in the past which was once one of the must-buy during the Mid-Autumn Festival.

There are also freshly baked Abalone Crisps, Traditional Chinese Egg Tarts, and other Bakery items worth given a try.

Jing Kee Bakery

Quite difficult to buy Bamboo Beans on the market now; Black Bean Paste Mooncakes were popular in the Mainland in the past. The raw materials cost are low and can produced in large quantities. They are still equivalent to affordable mooncakes price sets back in those years. Jing Kee with Black Bean Paste Mooncakes’ texture is quite soft; the bean paste is dark black in color. Their Moon cake varieties created over the past decades can still keep up to a good standard level now. The most traditional Doubled Yellow Lotus Seed Paste Mooncakes, Red Bean Paste Mooncakes, and the Five Nuts Mooncakes are also one of their trump cards.