happy mooncake festival day! The Mid-Autumn Festival falls on the 15th day of the 8th lunar month of the Chinese calendar (usually around mid- or late-September, this year it is September 25), a date that parallels the Autumn Equinox of the solar calendar. This is the ideal time, when the moon is at its fullest and brightest, to celebrate the abundance of the summer's harvest. The traditional food of this festival is the mooncake, of which there are many different varieties. this, by far, is my favorite chinese holidays...and probably the tastiest. i can probably eat mooncake all year long, but they only sell them this time of year. so my family stocks up.

Of course my favorite is the traditional cantonese version...lotus paste with the egg yoke inside. we stock up on those and freeze them and eat them year round...yummm! i *should* only eat at most 1/4 of a whole cake in one sitting, but that never ever happens :)

and in the recent years, my mommy has been buying us these mini mooncakes in assorted flavors such as, green tea, pomelo, red bean, date, and other assorted tea flavors. these are b's favorites...he smoked a box of 12 last year all by himself. i like these for 2 reasons...they are single serving sizes and the variety of flavors.

And now, the newest incarnation of the mooncake is ice cream mooncakes. Haagen-Dazs created the latest ice cream attraction and it comes in 4 delicious flavors - vanilla, strawberry, chocolate and macadamia nuts coated with white or milk chocolate and stuffed with mango sorbet (for the egg yoke) for a perfect treat. unfortunately, they are only selling them at certain and limited asian supermarkets in the states, but all over asia. There are a couple other companies, Swensens and Gelare, who also have ventured into the mooncake business.

i hope everyone gets to eat some mooncake, enjoy the beautiful harvest moon and the company of family and good friends.