Every year, during a mid-Autumn festival, the Chinese bake an indispensable delicacy in vast quantities and distribute it in much the same manner as we do our Diwali mithai .
The festival, celebrated in China on the 15th day of the eighth month of the Chinese calendar, always leaves Wang Yixuan — head chef of Yauatcha — who hails from the heart of Canton region, Guangdong, feeling nostalgic. “During the festival,” he says, “family members gather at one place, appreciate the bright full moon, and express strong yearnings towards family members and friends who live afar. As part of the food tradition, we exchange and eat moon cakes, which are thick-crust pastries with a filling of curd flavoured with Asian ingredients. Back home, we visit friends and relatives’ houses and gift moon cakes to each other. It is one of my favourite festivals that I look forward to in the year.”
This year, the festival is on September 15, and to mark the celebration of reunion and togetherness, Chef Yixuan has decided to offer a modern version of moon cakes for the entire month. His pastry team has created eggless contemporary flavours like salted caramel and sesame, coconut, lemon and jasmine tea.
Since the festival celebrates the spirit of sharing among near and dear ones, it is customary to present moon cakes to relatives and friends to indicate wishes of luck, love, happiness and a long life.
Authentic moon cakes usually have fillings of lotus seed paste or red bean paste, with a salted egg yolk middle. In China, the moon cakes usually have the name of the bakery stamped on them. They are best paired with Chinese tea and served steamed or fried.
“The fillings differ from region to region. Some of the most common fillings are five kernel and roast pork, cream cheese, snow skin, seafood, green tea, fruits and vegetables,” says Yixuan.
Cantonese-style moon cakes have a sweeter flavour and are filled with ham, chicken, duck, mushroom, melon seed paste and egg yolk. The most popular Yunan (a county of Guangdong Province) moon cakes are the ham-and-honey and flower cakes.
The ice-skin moon cakes from Hong Kong, a non-baked variety, so called because of their white skin and refrigerated style of preparation.
At Yauatcha, a pack of three cakes costs Rs. 300. We open the box with the cakes, which have an intricate floral stamp on their thick outer layer of pastry. Since there’s no way of identifying the flavours, we pick a random one.
We truly believe in love at first bite, and ours is that of a lemon curd filling. It cuts the sweetness of the pastry with its zesty flavour profile.
The second has the Asian flavour of jasmine tea. The green paste has a floral aftertaste, which leaves a freshness in the mouth.
The last one includes our all-time favourite: caramel curd with sesame seeds, which add a nutty texture. We wish the salted caramel had more salt.
The restaurant also offers a coconut moon cake, but the lemon moon cake is by far the most impressionable variant on our palate.
The author is a freelance writer
Available till September 30, at Yauatcha, Bandra-Kurla Complex
