Chatty Cathy: I can has mooncakes?

[flemmings]

I first had mooncakes last year at paleaswater's wedding. They were good. I went looking for them this year and couldn't find them.

I know, I know- a twenty minute bike down to Huron and Dundas would have solved the problem in a jiffy. Alas, both my bicycle and I are unduly creaky these days, and while I don't necessarily mind biking down to Chinatown, the idea of biking back up the hill didn't appeal. I'd sort of hoped the big Korean supermarket ('Korean but not picky'- they carry yoghurt and o-senbei as well as kim chee and pig's ears) might have stocked them, but no. I wasn't looking *hard*, mind, or I'd have braved the ride south.

Whatever- today I'm up in the large yuppie supermarket, the likes of which I haven't seen outside of LA ('we sell lawn chairs, fashion crockery, skin care products, small kitchen appliances and of course food'). I'm picking up milk from the fridge back of the bakery section and turn to go when my eye is caught by a pile of very unyuppie-coloured red boxes. Mooncakes. From Alberta. Wrappers from Taiwan. What looks like a poem on the box. (Four lines of ten hanzi, written five and five. Suspicious, you know. Is it always the same poem, BTW?) I stop squinting at the hanzi and look at the price. 24.95 for the nice box of four big cakes, 22.95 for the not so nice box with six 'mini' cakes. Err- pricey, yes. But hey, special occasion. And pretty box.

Take it to the cash, she scans it, it comes out 26.95. Oh. I often misread signs, of course, and over $25 is more than I want to pay, or in fact have on me, but hey, special occasion. And pretty box. I use my debit card.

Then, most unCanadianly of me, I go double check the display. 22.95 and 24.95. Continuing out of character- what's a toonie among friends?-I go to customer service and point out the discrepancy. She pages the bakery section- several times, in fact- and finally sends a minion off to see what the display says, at which of course the bakery calls her back. "He says it's 24.95 for the small ones, 26.95 for the big ones," she says. "Err yes, but the sign says..." More time passes. Minion returns with the signs. CS woman does complicated things at the cash- 'How do you ring in tens?'- and asks for my debit card. "We'll credit it $10." The people in this store, seriously. "The difference was only two dollars," I remind her. "Yes, but for store errors we credit ten dollars." Sweet.

So there I am with my mooncakes for fifteen dollars. They are very good, aside from an understandable gaijin confusion as to what a serving consists of. They're confused too. They said 16 servings, meaning one serving is a quarter of a cake. But when you divide their 1 serving = 55 gms into the total weight, it comes out as 1 serving = a third of a cake, thus calming my panicked 'Did I just eat 800 calories of mooncake?!! reaction. 600 calories of mooncake. Too much mooncake, in any case. Shall save the rest for the day itself. Luckily that appears to be tomorrow.

Comments

[stormcloude]

I have always wanted to try mooncakes. I first saw them in the Vietnamese part of town a few years ago and they were about that pricey. My mind immediately said, "Something that expensive MUST be good."

Silly mind. Maybe this year I will actually find out if it's true.

[rasetsunyo.livejournal.com]

Mooncakes are incredibly high in calories. And the good ones can be expensive. My family usually cuts them into eighths, which makes for really small slivers but the taste is so rich anyway it's usually enough.

It's not always the same poem I don't think. Half the time there isn't a poem although the box is always pretty because people tend to use them as gifts. (although since everyone gives one to everyone else it becomes more a mooncake exchange than anything.)

Yes it's on the 25th this year! Mooncake + tea + looking at full moon, mmm.

[baka-gaijin.livejournal.com]

I shall do a google search on what, exactly, a mooncake is. You should take a pic of the box and post it. I can't touch your box... but I would like a peek at it. XD

[abyss-goat.livejournal.com]

Were they mooncakes? I thought they were pineapple cakes. Did you remember what was in it?

And OMG at the prices. You should be telling me this if you want them - I can get you a full BOX and mail them to you at that price.

[i-am-zan.livejournal.com]

hmm I should do a post today it being THE day!

The children will light their lanterns and we will admire the full moon and we shall see if they can see the rabbit and the Lady on the moon!

I don't like the yolk ones... waaay too rich and yes mooncakes are pricey and more so this year due to the increase of our GST to 7%and also because the AVA rejected something like 26000 ducks' salted egg yolks due to them not passing bird flu checks. However the plus for me is the the snow skin ones without the yolks turn out cheaper for me and I only bought 4 diddy ones. I was lucky with the flavours this year.

There was Green tea and Chestnut
Sakura essence with Lotus
Plum and red bean
Pomelo

...and I shared it with girl because hubby is very suspicious of things he cannot quite make out! and boy is like Daddy! ^__^

[sho-sunaga.livejournal.com]

I know this is a stupid question but what are moon cakes? Sounds like 月餅(geppei in Japanese)but I'm not sure. It is a Chinese cake with red bean paste and nuts and stuff in it. Is that what you are talking about? I love them!! the price in Canada boggled my mind^^;

[xsmoonshine.livejournal.com]

Just thought this would amuse -
Flavoured snowskin mooncakes. Glutinous rice crust, sort of like mochi. They're all lotus-paste filling apart from the taro, but flavoured.

The kanji on top for identification - yellow = durian, purple = taro, yellow-green = green tea, pale green = lotus.

View of cut mooncake


The more common baked variety - guessing this is what you got?

The cute but drier version

[shalimar1001.livejournal.com]

Usually I buy them in the Chinese Supermarket, but they are quite expensive just before the moon festival. So I don't have my mooncakes yet, will go tomorrow to pick up some discounted stuff.
I believe that the best mooncakes are made in HongKong, though I would love to buy the ones from my hometown, Guangzhou. The ones from my hometown are relatively cheaper, but the quality is as good as the Hongkong ones.
There are several kinds of stuffings for the mooncakes. Different regions in China produce different kinds of mooncakes. And I have never tried the other kinds other than the Cantonese type. In the Cantonese type, they have the pastes in White Lotus seed (this is toooooo sweet for me), regular Lotus seed (this is the most ordinary and less sweeter), Red Bean (I don't remember how it tastes like, probably less sweeter than the regular lotus seed), and the Five Nuts ones (My grandma's favourite, but I don't like, they have some nuts and some meat inside, sweet and oily. In fact, I don't actually know what exactly the stuffings are inside.) The egg yolk is what I dream for whenever I think of the Moon Festival. They are so yummy. Oops, my stomach is calling them already.
About the ice skin ones, I love them too. The stuffing is lovely. I bought them quite cheap this year, $10 for 4 pieces, two different stuffings.