Throwback Thursday: Over The Moon For Mooncakes

The Beijingers | Aug 24, 2017 4:00 pm | Add a comment | 1919 reads

Throwback Thursday takes a look back into Beijing's past, using our nine-year-strong blog archives as the source for a glance at the weird and wonderful of yesteryear.

With the tireless rains and autumn winds starting to sweep us off our feet, we can feel the Mid-Autumn festivities coming our way. What Chinese festival can pass without food items to accompany it? None. And our muffin tops are overflowing with joy about it.

Mooncakes are no joke and everyone has their own favorites. If one of your friends prefers savory mooncakes and the other swears by sweet ones, they should not be left alone in the room for the sake of their health and safety. While some of us are still planning great escapes for the mid-autumn festival, others are stocking up on mooncakes. The truth is, the heavenly treats emerge on the shelves quite early on and by the time the festivities arrive, we've already stuffed our faces with more than enough for the year.

Six years ago, the Beijinger team has been looking into the modern flavors of the traditional delight. Back then, Starbucks mooncakes were taking the cake (or, mooncake, if you will) with their cheesecake, coffee or hazelnut flavors. They still often come out as winners in tasting contests when the big players are involved. While in the ultra modern age of 2017 there is very little left that can surprise us, there is still a fairly large number of flavor combinations that can make our stomachs turn (and not in a fun way). Or at least question our faith in humanity.

While the mooncake reviews on foreign food blogs usually end up with a shake of the head and a firm "no," we think they are kind of great. Well, some of them. Looking at these flavor masterpieces, we can't help but hope some of them never pass our lips.

How about a heavenly chocolate mooncake with hints of spicy beef? Or beef and curry stuffed into one? Fish and nuts? Our personal favorite? The instant noodle-filled mooncake. Ah, what screams "festivities" louder than a healthy portion of 方便面 (fāngbiànmiàn) ...

You should soon be able to score cheap and delicious mooncakes at your local bakery, but if you fancy coming up with your own horrific (or delicious) concoctions, why not head to one of the hutong stores and pamper yourself with one of the mooncake molds. How hard can it actually be? If you are consuming 800+ calories, it might as well be calories of your favorite things. (Has anyone made buffalo wing-filled mooncakes?) Happy mooncake hunting! May the best mooncake win.