We have made Moon Cakes, off season!! Well, as far as we are concerned, Moon Cakes should be happily enjoyed all year round!!
Moon Cakes.
This time we used a yam paste which consists of lotus seed and the vegetable taro.
Yam Paste.
This is fresh taro…maybe we can make our own paste sometime.
Taro.
We have stashed them in our Moon Cake Treasure Chest…
Munchkin and Gnome Moon Cakes.
And, of course, a couple for the Duckie Bag. The Duckie Bag is our manual coffee/tea making facility (ie. thermos flask and teabags, coffee,sugar and milk) that we take with us everytime we go out.
We have just received a gift package from Singapore crammed with wonderful goodies. Gnome and I don’t miss much of our old life but we do miss real Chinese food and snacks. So this is really special and in actual fact, Gnome was one who introduced me to Straits Chinese food (He is after all a Straits Chinese Gnome and I am a Scottish Munchkin).
Confusing or What?
Scottish Munchkin.Chinese Gnome.
This Asian region extends from Penang through the Straits of Malacca to Java and Singapore is located in the middle of this area. Because of the diversity of culture, there are influences from Chinese, Malay and Thai cuisine which makes the food very interesting, spicy and delicious.
Here are some pictures of our yummies:
When you bite into one of these wasabi green peas, there is a wasabi explosion inside your nose which is kinda exhilirating.
Freshly Roasted Wasabi Green Peas.Green Pea Cookies.
The Belizean Post Office guy opened this box up for inspection thinking that it would have something very expensive in it. He was rather shocked to see that this plush looking box had cakes in it!
Singapore Mooncakes.Fried Spicy Fava Beans.
This one is actually called Yamaguchi Peanut Snack…the caption below is just our own generic term.
Puffy Peanut Yum Yums.
This is creamy, foamy tea which is famous in Singapore. This one is our all time favourite tea:
Teh Tarik.
And last but not least. 5kgs (10lbs) of lotus seed paste to make our own mooncakes for the rest of the year. We love big catering packs!!
Lotus Seed Paste.
A Big Thankyou to our Singapore connection!! We are really delighted with the generous gift of yummies!!
Yay!! We made Moon Cake!! Look at the picture: we are soooo pleased that we can make such an auspicious cake.
Home Made Moon Cake.
Moon Cakes are enjoyed during the Mid Autumn Festival by the Chinese. The night of the 15th day of the 8th lunar moon is called “Night of the Moon” and the 25th day of the 8th lunar month is called “Mid-Autumn.”
As a child, I remember eating Moon Cake with my family at this time of the year. The ones with lotus paste and duck eggs were always our favourite. Traditionally, they can also be made from red bean paste. More contemporary fillings contain durian, jackfruit, taro, chocolate and even ice cream. I can already see the creative possibilities…how exciting!
We baked traditional lotus paste Moon Cake this year.
Moon Cakes in the Oven.
I made the pastry and wrapped it around the lotus paste.
Making Moon Cake.
Gnome did his bit which involved the moulding of the cakes. This part is not that easy because you need to tap the moulds on a hard surface in order to get the cakes out perfectly. This is the Gnome Magic, of course.
Gnome Magic in the Kitchen.Moon Cake Moulding.Moon Cake De-moulded. Perfect!!
We had such a lovely time in the kitchen making them and then we had an even nicer time eating them! We enjoyed it so much that we have decided to do this every year to celebrate the Mid Autumn Festival. We would like to thank our Singapore connection for the thoughtful gifts of lotus paste and Moon Cake moulds.
