MOONCAKES!! Part II is the story of my humble celebration. Although I enjoyed the fireworks, reflecting on China's sixtieth birthday was not really as joyous an occasion for me as I'm sure it was for the Chinese. Nevertheless, I decided to partake in the autumnal custom of eating a mooncake. If you haven't clicked on the link already, do it and you'll get a lot of information that seems correct as far as I can tell.
Mooncake adverts are postered all over the MTR stations now, featuring quasi-western looking Chinese models and diagrams of anatomy of a mooncake. I read in a foodie column in a local magazine that each one of these little bombs packs 800 calories...quite a lot for something about half the size of a donut.
On my way back from the fireworks, I purchased two two-packs. They were cold and the vendor packed them in an insulated bag for the trip home. When I got home, I eagerly teared it open and dug into it. It was pretty delicious, but I thought that it reminded me of raw cookie dough. I became suspicious and later learned that mooncakes should be baked before consumption. Although I felt kind of dumb for doing this, I also learned that most foreigners who introduce themselves to mooncakes do the same thing...and that they mostly think that eating them raw is actually the proper way until instructed otherwise.
I was lucky because the one that I ate was filled with strawberry jam. The vendor helped me pick out two packs and I think she purposefully steered me towards the sweet, jelly desserts rather than the savory flavors that might have shocked me on the first bite.
Don't they look great in that picture though?
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