In honor of the Chinese Mid-Autumn Festival, also known at the Moon Festival, this week, it's become tradition in my household to make mooncakes. My dad spends one weekend a year trying to perfect his mooncake recipe and I was delighted to find out that this year we would be making "snow skin" mooncake, which has an outside skin made of mochi instead of the traditional baked pastry.
My second trip to Shanghai, the trip that made me fall in love with the city and thus make a move to live there, fell at the same time as the Mid-Autumn Festival, since I was in love with everything Chinese, I went to the internet to see if there were any special types of mooncake that I could only find in China. I came across "snow skin" mooncakes by accident and so began my search for them. This was in 2006 and while in China, it seemed the "snow skin" mooncake had not yet become widely spread or popular, I ended that trip a little disappointed, but ever since then my mom has always kept a look out for me. In 2007, while I was living in Shanghai, I still had no luck finding the "snow skin" mooncake, the closest I came was feasting on the ever so yummy ice cream mooncakes created by Haagan Daz instead. It wasn't until 2008-2009 did my mom find the elusive "snow skin" mooncake in our local Chinese market, finally proving that I wasn't just imagining them.
This past Sunday, while making these mooncakes
, I felt everything the holiday was supposed to encompass, that is, time spent as a family together having fun. I'm a bit of a jokester in my family, I take after my father in that respect, however, while my father is known for his excellent narrations, my charm comes in quick one liners and silly jokes using the Chinese language, and during the weekend as are fingers grew stick with mochi and red bean paste we enjoyed the day acting silly.
So as I think about the good memories that were created that day, enjoy the pictures below of the mooncakes I made with my family.
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| Traditional Mooncake Modes |
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| Red Bean and Nut Fillings |
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| Tray of Snow Skin Mooncakes |
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| Snow Skin Mooncake |
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