Many years ago, there was a king in China. He was a brave man who did lots of belifits to the people. He admired a beautiful girl and made her stay in the palace so that he could see her whenever he wanted. But, the girl did not like the frightful figure of the
king. She seldomly spoke a word in the palace. Each time the king went to her place, he used to show her some treasures and brought some gifts to the girl in order to make her smile and speak. On every full moon, the girl would burned incenses and wax candles to worship the moon. People believed that there was a god lived in the moon that made the moon shine. Girls who wanted to be a beauty and have a handsome husband should worship the moon.
One day, the full moon of the eighth month, the king brought three herbs pills to show her.
"This is from the priest of the palace. If I eat them up, I can live forever." He exclaimed.
This was the first time the girl stuffs he brought.
He continued,"If you and I both take one, we will both live forever. No one can take you away from me!"
Because the king afraid of the pills would have side effects. He forced the girl to take the pill first. If nothing wrong with her after taking the pill, he would take it immediately. However, the girl recognized that if she took all three of them, the king would left her eventually. Therefore, the first time, she spoke to the king,"Let me have a look of the pills first. Otherwise, I will not try at all."
The king surprisingly the girl talked to him. So, he handed the pills to the girl. She did not say anything but eat all of them. The king was extremely angry. He wanted to kill her.
At this moment, the girl started to fly. She could fly because of the intake of the pills. The king could not catch her, but watched her flew toward the moon and disappeared.
After that, people believed that there was a beautiful girl stay in the moon with a little old man and a bunny. The old man was believed to be the god inside the moon and the bunny was his pet. Day after day, Chinese believed that there were people lived in the moon. Their movement made the dark spot when we looked up to the moon. People used to worship the girl to glorify her chastity. So, on every full moon of the mid-Autumn became a festival in order to memorize her.
Moon in Chinese Celestial Cosmology
The choice of the festival's theme -- celebrating the glories and mysteries of the moon -- was a natural. Along with the sun, the moon has long been an object of human curiosity and worship. "It is probable that sun and moon were early held to be deities and that they were the first visible objects of worship," according to the book "Sketches of the History of Man." To the most ancient ancestors of the Chinese, the sun and the moon were considered the "chief objects of veneration," according to records dating to the Han dynasty emperor Wu Di (157-87 B.C.).
In ancient Asian mythology, there is a strong relationship between the moon and water. The moon is said to regulate reservoirs and supplies of water. There is a suggestion that the moon produces fertility and freshness in the soil. The moon's role in bountiful harvests is widely recognized during autumns around the world.
In Chinese celestial cosmology, the moon represents the female principle, or yin. During ancient autumn Moon Festivals, women took center stage because the moon is considered feminine. Only women took part in Moon Festival rituals on the night of the full moon. Altars would be set up in households, and when the full moon appeared, women would make offerings of incense, candles, fruit, flowers, and mooncakes.
The enduring legend of the Moon Goddess, Chang O (Chang-E in other transliterations), reflects the feminine principle of yin, as opposed to the masculine principle of yang, which is symbolized by the sun.
Wednesday, September 20, 2006
Moon Cake from China
Moon Cake |
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| As every Chinese holiday is accompanied by some sort of special food, on the Moon Festival, people eat moon cakes, a kind of cookie with fillings of sugar, fat, sesame, walnut, lotus seeds, the yoke of preserved eggs, ham, dried flower petals or other material. The surface of the food is patterned with clouds, the moon, the rabbit. Some cakes will be sent to absent ones or saved at home for them. In Chinese fairy tales, there live on the moon the fairy Chang E, a wood cutter named Wu Gang and a jade rabbit which is Chang E's pet. In the old days, people paid respect to the fairy Chang E and her pet the jade rabbit.
Make Your Own Mooncakes
Syrup for mooncake
Ingredients:
1200g sugar
lkg water
1 lime - cut into 4 pieces, squeeze in the juice and put in the skin as well.
3 tbsp maltose
Method:
1.Put ingredients into a pot and bring to a boil till sugar has dissolved. Lower heat and continue to simmer till thick and syrupy.
2.Switch off the fire and add the maltose. Stir well to dissolve. Leave to cool and keep for use as syrup for the dough (skin). Mooncake Pastry
Ingredients:
400g golden syrup
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1 1/2 tbsp lye water (kan sui)
100ml peanut oil
550g flour
Method:
Pour golden syrup, bicarbonate of soda and oil into a mixing bowl. Add in lye water and mix with a wooden spoon. Fold in flour gradually and stir to form a firm dough. Let dough rest for five hours. Lotus Paste Filling
Ingredients:
500g lotus seeds (seong lin)
1 1/2 tbsp lye water (kan sui)
340ml peanut oil
450g sugar
1 tbsp maltose
1 tbsp kao fun (cooked glutinous rice flour)
Method:
1.Add lye water into lotus seeds, mix well and leave aside for 20 minutes. Pour in boiling water and cover up for 20-30 minutes. Strain and wash the lotus seeds to remove the skin.
2.Boil lotus seeds till soft. Put them into a blender with some water and blend into a thick paste.
3.Heat wok with a quarter portion of oil and a quarter portion of sugar. When sugar turns light brown, put in blended lotus paste and the remaining sugar. Stir constantly until paste is smooth and thick in consistency. Add in the rest of the oil gradually. Keep stirring the paste until thick. Lastly, stir in maltose and stir well to blend.
4.Sieve in 1 tbsp kao fun for a thicker and firmer consistency in the paste. Leave overnight before use.
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Wednesday, September 13, 2006
The Moon Festival
The moon festival is a different way to celebrate the Mid-Autumn harvest moon.
The Moon festival (also called the Mooncake or Mid-Autumn festival) falls on October 6 in the year 2006. What is the Moon festival? Every year on the fifteenth day of the eighth month of the lunar calendar, when the moon is at its maximum brightness for the entire year, the Chinese celebrate "zhong qiu jie." Children are told the story of the moon fairy living in a crystal palace, who comes out to dance on the moon's shadowed surface. The legend surrounding the "lady living in the moon" dates back to ancient times, to a day when ten suns appeared at once in the sky. The Emperor ordered a famous archer to shoot down the nine extra suns. Once the task was accomplished, Goddess of Western Heaven rewarded the archer with a pill that would make him immortal. However, his wife found the pill, took it, and was banished to the moon as a result. Legend says that her beauty is greatest on the day of the Moon festival.
According to another legend, on this day the "Man in the Moon" was spotted at an inn, carrying a writing tablet. When questioned, he said he was recording the names of all the happy couples who were fated to marry and live happily forever after. Accordingly, just as June is the traditional month for exchanging nuptials in the west, many Chinese weddings are held during the eighth lunar month, with the fifteenth day being the most popular.
Of course, the most famous legend surrounding the Moon festival concerns its possible role in Chinese history. Overrun by the Mongols in the thirteenth century, the Chinese threw off their oppressors in 1368 AD. It is said that mooncakes - which the Mongols did not eat - were the perfect vehicle for hiding and passing along plans for the rebellion. Families were instructed not to eat the mooncakes until the day of the moon festival, which is when the rebellion took place. (In another version plans were passed along in mooncakes over several years of Mid-Autumn festivals, but the basic idea is the same).
Today, Chinese people celebrate the Mid-Autumn festival with dances, feasting and moon gazing. Not to mention mooncakes. While baked goods are a common feature at most Chinese celebrations, mooncakes are inextricably linked with the Moon festival. One traditional mooncake is filled with lotus seed paste and quite distinctive in appearance (see top photo). Roughly the size of a human palm, these mooncakes are quite filling, meant to be cut diagonally in quarters and passed around. This explains their rather steep price (around $5.00 in Canada). A word of caution: the salty yolk in the middle, representing the full moon, is an acquired taste.
More elaborate versions of mooncakes contain four egg yolks (representing the four phases of the moon). Besides lotus seed paste, other traditional fillings include red bean paste and black bean paste. Unfortunately for dieters, mooncakes are rather high in calories.
While in the past mooncakes took up to four weeks to make, automation has speeded up the process considerably. Today, mooncakes may be filled with everything from dates, nuts, and fruit to Chinese sausages. More exotic creations include green tea mooncakes, and ping pei or snowskin mooncakes, a Southeast Asian variation made with cooked glutinous rice flour. Haagen-Daz has even gotten into the act by introducing a line of ice cream mooncakes in Asian markets.
Given the difficulty of making them, most people prefer to purchase their mooncakes instead of making them. You'll find them at Asian bakeries beginning around mid-August. Meanwhile, for those with a culinary bent, here are several recipes.
Mooncake Recipes:
Mooncake - A basic recipe using red azuki beans from my recipe file.
Mid-Autumn Mooncake Recipe - A good basic recipe, using lotus seed paste and walnuts, from Yan Can Cook, Inc.
Online Shopping - Buy Mooncakes and Mooncake molds to make your own mooncakes online.
"Malaysia Leads in Mooncake Variety" An interesting piece describing the Malaysian mooncake market, with a recipe for Lotus Paste Mooncake.
