Mooncake at Full Moon

On the fifteenth day of the eighth month of the Chinese calendar, the annual Mid-Autumn Festival is celebrated under a full moon. This year (2017), the festival falls on Wednesday, October 4.

During the Mid-Autumn Festival, Chinese people traditionally gaze at the full moon together while eating yuebing (mooncakes) together. They do this to celebrate the harvest and as a sign of friendship and togetherness. According to historians, this tradition dates back centuries before the Christian era and therefore long before the Thanksgiving tradition as well.

Duck Egg Yolk

This full-moon-round, tall cake with elegant Chinese characters on top is made from flour, water, sugar and lard. Traditionally, it is filled with red bean paste, nuts, lotus seeds and/or dates, with a salted duck egg yolk always at the center.

Every year, bakers also come up with new trendy fillings. In Singapore, for example, the Mezza9 restaurant at The Grand Hyatt hotel is serving a strawberry-lime-tequila truffle mooncake this year. There is also a black-lacquered durian mooncake on the market, topped with gold dust.

Intense

The lard in particular makes it an intense bite for the average Dutch person, even though the idea is that you should eat only a small piece.

Chinese autumn festival: gazing at the moon together and eating mooncake

You can buy mooncakes, for example, at Hoi Tin on Amsterdam’s Zeedijk. It is a restaurant with an extensive selection of Hong Kong/Chinese pastries sold at the door.

Custard Bun

So if you really find it too heavy, buy one for the sake of friendship and fill the rest of your bag with Hong Kong specialties such as the custard bun, the egg puff pastry tart (related to the Portuguese pastéis de nata), or treasure cake (formerly an integral part of every Chinese bride’s dowry).

Incidentally, none of them are light, airy little cakes.

Hoi Tin
Zeedijk 122-124
Amsterdam