In 2006, I was invited to celebrate the Chinese Mid-Autumn Festival with Jenn's family and friends. Also known as the Moon festival, the event celebrates the harvest and dates back 3000 years. According to wikipedia.net, the festival originated in China's Shang Dynasty and is now held on the 15th day of the eighth month in the Chinese calendar, which translated to sometime mid or late September in the Gregorian calendar. The legend and lore that are associated with the festival are rather complicated to explain and come in several versions. Five, are included in the wikipedia entry on the festival.

Today, the festival is celebrated amongst family and friends who gather together to eat moon cakes and pomeloes after partaking of a large meal.

Here are some after-dinner highlights:

Wifey Cakes
Somethings are lost in translation. Yes, the box reads wife cakes. Wife cakes are flat round pastries containing a melange of candied winter melon, almond paste, and sesame seeds. Made badly, their crust tends to be too thick and their filling too firm. Made well, the crust is slightly buttery, light, and flaky. It encases a soft sweet filling. While not traditional to the festival itself, the cakes were well received as they were purchased and brought to Ottawa from overseas by a family friend. Here are two example recipes of wife cakes from the "Little Corner of Mine" and "Do What I Like" blogs.


Keefer Bakery Moon Cakes and Pomelo
Moon cake and pomelo are much more traditional. Pomelo is essentially a very thick rinded Asian grapefruit. Instead of being tart, ripe pomelo is honey sweet. Unripe, pomelo is mildly tasteless. The skin between each segments is actually too fibrous to eat, so each segment is split open to retrieve the citrus flesh inside. Moon cake is a pastry with a thin brown crust and a thick red bean filling. Though, an alternative filling includes lotus seed paste. Some moon cakes come with one or more preserved egg yolks. Others do not. They are extremely rich and need to be shared. Often times, an 1/8th wedge is a sufficient serving.

Packaged Moon Cakes

A Single Serving
The moon cakes pictured were manufactured in Canada by Vancouver's extremely well regarded Keefer Bakery. What sets Keefer's moon cakes apart involves their being made exclusively with vegetable oil, not lard or peanut oil. Every year, Keefer's moon cakes are shipped across Canada and exported overseas. They can be purchased 4 or 8 to a tin at most Asian grocery stores during the months leading up to the mid-autumn festival. I have actually seen places that sell Keefer's moon cakes individually as well.

If you want to purchase moon cakes as a gift, make sure to pickup one of the custom paper bags that are displayed with the tins. They are specific to each tin and serve as gift wrapping.

Speaking of paper, here is some careful paper folding by the elder of my better half's younger sisters. These piggies sparked several conversations that evening.

Piggies on Moon Cake

Close Up
BTW, it was unanimous. Everyone wanted to adopt the red piggie.

Particulars:
Keefer Bakery Ltd
251 E Georgia Street
Vancouver, British Columbia
(604)685-2117‎