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Festive Food

Mooncake

Origin

One of the sayings about the origin of mooncake is associated with the rebellion to the Mongol Dynasty of Zhuyuanzhang, the King of Song Dynasty. He and his advisor Liu Bowen spread a rumor of a coming plague and it could be cured by eating a special mooncake. Then he hid messages about him being king in the mooncake to make people believe that he was the one assigned by god to be king.

Chinese Values

天人合一

Holding communion with nature, Becoming one with the divine Connecting things with the nature is one of the traditional thoughts in Chinese. At the time a cake gradually become a Mid-Autumn Festival’s food, Chinese wanted to emphasize the interaction between themselves and the nature in this festival. At Mid-Autumn Festival, 15/8, it is full moon. As the Chinese thought that there was a relationship between their surrounding areas and the nature. Therefore, they associate mooncake with the moon by adding the meaning of moon into the the cake and call it Mooncake. It reflects that Chinese tried to become one with divine and interact between heaven and mankind.

Unity

The traditional mooncake is round in shape. This is because it is the shape of full moon and Mid-Autumn Festival is when the moon will become round and round. In fact, the round shape has a special meaning to Chinese. To Chinese, a round shape symbolises completeness and unity. Just like we call the moon in round shape as“full moon”. Mid-Autumn Festival is a day when family member gather together to celebrate. Chinese share mooncake on that day as the round shape has conveyed the message of family completeness and unity.

Emphasis on Family

Eating Mooncake at mid-autumn festival is a symbol of gathering with family and necessary part of the festival. It reflects one of the Chinese core values-importance of home. In the past, people eat sweet tasting cake called reunion cake which directly state the meaning of It, the name was changed to ‘mooncake’ . In some areas of China, there is a custom for making mooncake during the night of mid-autumn festival. Every family would bake these little sweet tasting cakes at home, then, the senior person at that home would take the responsibility to cut it into pieces and distribute it to each family member, everyone have a part of a mooncake, It means ‘family reunion’. Making mooncake provides the space for people to get along with their family. However, it was changed. In recent years, handselling a case of mooncake to their family or relatives to represent their kindly feelings has become the strong link to maintain the relationship of their family member instead of the process of making mooncake. People in China values on the family, they would send others mooncake or share the mooncake during mid-autumn festival in order to strengthen the relationship of their family.

Development

Over time, both the crusts and the composition of the fillings of mooncakes have diversified, in particular due to a commercial need to drive up sales in the face of intense competition between producers and from other food types. Part of these trends are also to cater to changing taste preferences, and because people are more health-conscious. Most of these contemporary styles were therefore especially prominent amongst the cosmopolitan and younger Chinese and amongst the overseas Chinese community, although traditional mooncakes are often sold alongside contemporary ones to cater to individual preferences. Some of the earliest forms of diversification were by changing the fillings with ingredients considered unusual then. Taro paste (芋泥, yùní), pineapple and durian were amongst the first to be introduced, especially amongst the overseas Chinese communities in Southeast Asia. The crust itself also evolved, particularly with the introduction of "snowskinmooncakes". Miniature mooncakes also appeared, in part to allow for easier individual consumption without the need to cut the large cakes. To adapt to today's health-conscious lifestyle, fat-free mooncakes also appeared. Some are made of yogurt, jelly, and fat-free ice-cream. Even high-fibre low-sugar mooncakes have made their appearance. Customers pick and choose the size and filling of mooncakes that suits their taste and diet. For added hygiene, each cake is often wrapped in airtight plastic, accompanied by a tiny food preserver packet. Contemporary-style mooncakes, while increasingly popular, have their detractors. Pricey ingredients have pushed up prices, causing worry of a "mooncake bubble" forming in China. Food critics sometimes point out that "chocolate mooncakes" are in reality just chocolate shaped into mooncakes, and not mooncakes made of chocolate, while others complain that food chains appear intent on coming up with exotic flavours to take advantage of the market, without much thought for how well the tastes fuse together.

Fillings

Fillings in contemporary style mooncakes has diversified to include just about anything which can be made into a paste. Mooncakes containing taro paste and pineapple, which were considered novelty items at their time of invention have in recent years become commonplace items. In addition, filling with ingredients such as coffee, chocolate, nuts (walnuts, mixed nuts, etc.), fruits (prunes, pineapples, melons, lychees, etc.), vegetables (sweet potatoes, etc.), and even ham have been added to give a modern twist to the traditional recipes. It is also increasingly popular to change the base of the paste to a custard-style. Some other examples include

• cream cheese
• chicken floss
• tiramisu
• green tea
• pandan
• durian
• ice cream (variety of flavors)
• chocolate
• coffee
• peanut
• Mango pomelo sago

Some bakeries and restaurants have attempted to go up-market, often with excellent results. Gold-plated mooncakes were popular when they first appeared, and it is now possible to even find entire mooncakes made of pure gold. Traditional Chinese delicacies such as ginseng and bird's nest were soon followed by abalone and shark fin. Foreign food companies have also tried to cash in. Häagen-Dazs were one of the first to create an ice-cream mooncake, with a choice of either the "traditional," snow-skin, or Belgian white, milk, and dark chocolate crusts. Other ice-cream and restaurant chains soon followed up with their own versions. Other western ingredients, including champagne ganache, malt whisky, volcanic-salt caramel and even Black truffles, caviar and foiegras have made it into mooncakes.

Crusts

Pink jelly mooncake with red-bean paste filling Snowy mooncakes first appeared on the market in the early 1980s. These non-baked, chilled mooncakes usually come with two types of crusts:

• Glutinous rice: A crust with texture similar to that of a mochi. This is a snow skin mooncake. These moon cakes are known colloquially as "snowskinmooncakes", "ice-skin mooncakes" or "snowy mooncakes" (冰皮 or 冰皮月餅).
• Jelly: A crust made of gelling mixtures such as agar, gelatin, or konjac and flavored with a wide variety of fruit flavorings.

Tangyuan

Origin

Tangyuan, which is also called Yuanxiao, is a popular festive food and snack in China. According to a legend, in Han Dynasty, there was a maid of honor who was called Yuanxiao. She missed her parents a lot but she could not leave the palace. Therefore, she wept all the time and even wanted to turn to suicide. A minister knew her story and promised to help her. What Yuanxiao needed to do was to make lots of Tangyuans, which was the best cuisine she could make, in order to worship the god of Day 15 of the first month in Chinese calendar. Finally, Yuanxiao did a great job and the God was so contented; therefore, Yuanxiao was permitted to meet her parents, Tangyuan was named as Yuanxiao and 15th day of the first month in Chinese calendar was considered to be Yuanxiao Festival. However, according to the record of history, Tangyuan has been a popular snack China since Sung Dynasty. Besides, during the Yongle era of the Ming Dynasty, Tangyuan was officially settled as Yuanxiao. After hundreds of years development, in 1912-1916, during Yuan Shikai’s rules, Yuanxiao was officially called as Tangyuan due to the reason that Yuan Shikai disliked the name Yuanxiao, as it sounded identical to “remove Yuan” in Chinese. Generally speaking, nowadays, in Northern Chinese, people called it Yuanxiao and it is Tangyuan for Southern Chinese.

Chinese Values

Reunion

Chinese people emphasize “tuanyuan”, which means reunion in Chinese. Especially in some special festivals like Mid-Autumn Festival, Chinese people are used to go back home and enjoy the dinner with their family. This reunion demonstrates the value of togetherness, harmony, happiness and health of a family. Tang Yuan is one of the most common sweet food at the festival as its shape and names symbolize Tuan Yuan in Chinese. The pronunciation of Tang Yuan is very similar to Tuan Yuan, hence, eating Tang Yuan with family is a symbol of reunion and togetherness within a family. Besides, the roundness and sticky texture of TangYuan also signify the harmony and unity within a family.

Complete Success and smoothness for the rest of the year

Chinese people like worshipping things that are round and circular in shape as this indicates a sense of completeness and fullness. Therefore, the roundness of Tang Yuan also represents "YuanmanChenggong”, meaning a complete success and wishing smoothness for the entire year.

Geographical Differences

Northern Chinese tend to eat yuanxiao in the mid-autumn festival while Southern Chinese eat tangyuan. Both yuanxiao and tangyuan are in the form of a small round dumpling calls made of glutinous rice flour. However, the preference for taste could be different between Northern and Southern Chinese. Sweet fillings, preferred by Southern Chinese, often consist of sugar, sesame, osmanthus flowers, sweet bean paste and sweetened tangerine peel, to name but a few. As for the salty fillings preferred by Northern Chinese, minced meat and vegetables are usually the ingredients. Despite the fact that Yuan Shikai changed the name “yuanxiao,” which people originally consume at Lantern Festival, to “tangyuan” in ancient times, as cited by Yu (2002), they are indeed quite different from each other in the way of preparation. According to Hao (2009), Northern Chinese makes yuanxiao by pinching the fillings into even paste, then placing them into the basket filled with glutinous rice flour, and continuously sprinkling water on the rice flour until the round shape is formed. On the contrary, Hao (2009) also suggested that Southern Chinese make tangyuan by shaping the dough of rice flour into balls with some filling inside.

Development

Interestingly, tangyuan is originally a food that people would consume at certain festivals such as Chinese New Year and Mid-Autumn Festival. However, things have changed a little bit. Nowadays, more people perceive it as a kind of dessert rather than simply a festive food. For instance, tangyuan is traditionally in white color. Yet, in order to cater to consumers’ needs and changing tastes, dessert specialty shops create new flavors or colors of tangyuan by substituting the traditional filling with chocolate, mashed potato and pumpkin paste. Thus, tangyuan has already evolved into a dessert that is consumed by Chinese from time to time throughout the year and is no longer limited to festivals.

References

http://big5.china.com.cn/ch-jieri/yuanxiao/2.htm http://en.tw.tranews.com/Show/Style203/Column/c1_Column.asp?SItemId=0131030&ProgramNo=A000203000004&SubjectNo=12964 http://wiki.riteme.site/wiki/Tangyuan_(food) http://www.fmprc.gov.cn/eng/wjb/zwjg/zwbd/t801350.htm