#Midautumn festival meaning skin#
#Midautumn festival meaning full#

Making mooncakes from scratch requires patience - many steps and plenty of time. We gather, we cook something together and we share it, like we are gifting mooncakes but it's not as big as Chinese New Year,' she explained. It's one of those festivals in the middle of the year, leading to the big one (Chinese New Year).

#Midautumn festival meaning full#

Zhu, who is originally from China and is now based in New York City, said, “It's a little bit about family gathering and a little bit religious, and then there's the moon, that's when you have the full moon. “I would compare Mid-Autumn Festival to Easter,” she told TODAY. Maggie Zhu, a recipe developer, photographer and the food blogger behind Omnivore’s Cookbook, describes the holiday a little differently. Maggie Zhu has been experimenting with different mooncake recipes in her home kitchen. “We all buy them and give them to each other during the mid-autumn season, but you know, not everyone wants to receive a mooncake,' she said. Nuyen also compared the tradition of gifting mooncakes to that of Christmas fruitcake. It's just all about spending time with your family and celebrating the start of autumn and admiring the big, full moon.” I don't think it's a children's holiday in China. And it's been a lot of fun seeing what the holiday means for different Asian cultures. And people will light lanterns and kids will go out for the parade. It’s like our Thanksgiving, time to hang out as you would, stress-free with your family and really share that space.” Kao said, “For a lot of Asian Americans, for all of us who are born here, and also came here, the Mooncake Festival means a lot to us. The central theme surrounding mooncakes and the Mid-Autumn Festival is that of community.

In 2019, Nuyen estimated that they sold between 250-300 mooncakes each week for five weeks. “We’ve sold between like 100 to 250 (mooncakes) every weekend, sometimes more, sometimes less,' she said.

Their business has grown significantly since Nuyen started her food blog, Bun Bo Bae. Nuyen and her family sell their limited-batch mooncakes to friends and customers in the Chicago-area through word of mouth. One of Nuyen's baked mooncakes with a nontraditional pressed lattice pattern. “They very comfortably fit in the palm of your hand,” she said. Nuyen has been making mooncakes for a few weekends out of the year with her mother and sister for the last nine to 10 years, and her family’s mooncakes are 200 grams or about three inches in diameter. It's a pretty large size mooncake … (but) the trend is actually moving away from large mooncakes and going more towards small mooncakes and other pastries.”

Sheng Kee’s marketing director, Arthur Kao, whose family also owns the bakery chain, told TODAY, “Our large mooncakes, in terms of diameter, is almost two and a half to three inches across and about an inch and a half to two inches tall. Mooncakes range in size from large to small. Sheng Kee's taro pastry is one of their three taro offerings this year and features a taro filling inside a puff pastry shell. Sheng Kee Bakery, based in Brisbane, California for the last four decades, ships baked mooncakes to all 50 states and also offers nontraditional baked goods like tea mooncakes and egg yolk, green bean and taro pastries.

#Midautumn festival meaning skin#

Snow skin mooncakes, which are chilled and made with a mochi-like dough, are also a popular alternative to baked mooncakes.Īnother mooncake growing in popularity is the pastry mooncake, which has a light, flaky puff pastry surrounding the egg yolk. Over the years, mooncakes have evolved and been filled with everything from alcoholic infusions, ice cream and jellies to red velvet, rum raisin and tiramisu. They've been around for so long.' Sheng Kee Bakery's mooncakes are pressed with the flavor of each pastry on top. But at the same time, she said, 'I don't think the traditional mooncake will ever die out. You either love them or you hate them.' Suzanne Nuyen, an editor, food blogger and former TODAY intern, told TODAY Food. 'I feel like mooncakes are a very polarizing food. The jury seems to be split when it comes to these rich treats. The fillings are enrobed with a layer of dough made with cake flour. Another traditional filling is mixed nuts and dried fruit. Some popular savory fillings include ham, Chinese sausage, roast pork and radish. Typical sweet fillings include sweet bean paste, lotus seed paste or red date (jujube) paste that envelops one or more mini salted and cured duck egg yolks.