Sunday 15 September 2013

A Bum Deal With Mooncakes

Mooncake
Mooncake (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
It is the time of year when a double-yolk, lotus paste moon cake dominates my thoughts.  In fact it is a far more tangible reaction than a mere thought; I have consumers four of them in recent weeks.

The Mooncake festival is one of the Chinese mid-Autumn festivals that retains a huge following globally which is god news to those of use not born into the tradition.  Mine is a mere culinary acknowledgement based more on a sense of taste rather than a deep cultural understanding.

That said, I am a 'traditionalist' in the sense that I prefer the older style mooncakes and forgo the more modern variations.

This partiality also applies to shape so I found it somewhat disturbing to learn that this year a Hong Kong company will be offering buttock-shaped mooncakes for sale.  The intricacy of the patterns on traditional mooncakes are part of their appeal and present them otherwise is a bum deal, both in the literal and actual sense.

Cheeky bum-shaped mooncakes created ahead of Singapore full moon festival - Mirror Online
I must also acknowledge that I have been jumping the gun in eating my mooncakes, as the festival itself doesn't officially start until later this week - on September 19. This happens to be the fifteenth day of the eighth month in the Chinese calendar.

Not that officials in the Chinese government will be distributing much joy at this time of year.  Their party has clamped down on such gift giving.

It should also be noted that the Hong Kong company who dreamed up this years novel Spring festival treat are the lifestyle label Goods of Desire (GOD for short).  So given the juxtaposition of the doughy hand on the buttock above right, could one rightly refer to it as the 'hand of G.O.D.'?

What ever you call them, the new derrière delights hold little appeal for me.  I re-state this in the full knowledge that my next sampling of white lotus paste, double-yolk mooncakes will be as tasty as the first I tried; the saltiness of the duck egg  a culinary counterpoint to the smooth, sweet texture of the lotus.

Pricey and calorific as they certainly are, mooncakes are a must at this time of year.
Enhanced by Zemanta

No comments: