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I am sure you have heard it all about Chinese Moon Festival: it is celebrated anywhere in August, September or October. Traditional food is mooncakes – stuffed cakes, that often contain preserved eggs or two (significant to Chinese tradition and the history of the Festival).
However,  you may not know that Moon Festival is the time these mooncakes are heavily… traded. Yes, I didn’t make a mistake. We have ourselves have “recycled” the mooncakes since the number of boxes we have received in the past was simply overwhelming. I remember few years ago we had about 10 boxes plus several coupons to receive more boxes. So we gave many of them away,  shared with friends who came to visit and ate them ourselves.
In 13 years in China I only tasted 2 types of mooncakes which I could honestly eat and eat and eat: one was given to my husband by his school. Each teacher only got 1 mooncake as apparently it was from some very expensive bakery (we were never told the name!). And no wonder – it was so tasty, it was literally melting in my mouth!
And the other one  – Häagen Dazs ice cream mooncakes. Now, those were absolutely delicious!
If you are eager to try the mooncakes, there is one tip from me to you: don’t ask detailed list of ingredients unless you are allergic to something and don’t want it to be there. Some ingredients might kill your desire to eat a mooncake (e.g. pig fat, also known as lard).
Other than that, enjoy the holiday if you are celebrating and be careful in crowded places and lock your bikes extra well – holidays are always the time when pickpocketing and bike stealing are on the rise.
Happy Moon Festival to you all!