A variety of Mid-Autumn Mooncakes from all over the world

Eating mooncakes during the Mid-Autumn Festival is a traditional habit of the Chinese people. The preparation methods, tastes and styles of mooncakes vary from place to place and with their own characteristics.

Su style: This is a suzhou specialty, using flour, oil, sugar, caramel as raw materials, respectively, into a water-adjusted dough and puff pastry dough, which is stacked with each other and wrapped in various fillings. It is finely made, carefully selected, the finished product resembles a flat drum, flat and full, the color is golden and oily, the puff pastry is layered, the taste is oily but not greasy, sweet and refreshing, and has a certain nut fragrance. Its representative varieties include crystal fruit, clear water rose, lard fine sand and so on.

Cantonese: Guangdong mooncake. The production method is to make a syrup dough with flour, oil, sugar, caramel, etc., wrap a variety of fillings, buckle out various patterns with a mold, brush the surface with egg paste, and bake it. It is characterized by thin skin, more filling, heavy sugar, light oil, not easy to break, easy to carry. There are many kinds of such mooncakes, and there are more than 40 kinds in Shanghai alone. It is generally named after the main ingredients of the filling, such as five kernels, lotus paste, coconut paste, bean paste, bean paste, etc. In addition to the sweet filling, there are also ham, Easter eggs, salted eggs, chicken, duck, char siu meat, shiitake mushrooms, etc., respectively, made of "Xi shi autumn moon", "Galaxy Moon Night" and other flower color mooncakes, salty and sweet, unique flavor.

Chao-style: Chao-style mooncakes, famous for heavy oil and heavy sugar, originated in the Chaoshan region of Guangdong, with a similar appearance to the Su-style and slightly similar to the Cantonese-style materials. The filling is mostly made of winter melon strips, accompanied by fat, lard, sesame seeds, green onion oil, melon seeds, peach kernels and so on. This type of mooncake is characterized by a crisp crust, a soft filling, a strong onion flavor, and a special flavor of sweet, fragrant, fat and thick in the mouth.

Beijing-style: Beijing's traditional mooncakes include pulping, turning hairs, and tap red, tap white, etc. The so-called pulp extraction, is to use protein liquid to raise the impurities in the syrup when boiling the cake crust syrup, hence the name. The hairy mooncake pays attention to the production of the crust, the puff pastry is extremely thin, the layers are clear, the appearance is white and fine, and it is named for its flocculent appearance. The Beijing-style mooncakes are exquisite in appearance and sweet in taste, among which the vine rose flower filling and hawthorn sauce filling are unique.

Ning-style: Zhejiang Ningbo mooncake, the crust is hard, most of the varieties are the same as The Su-style mooncake. Moss mooncakes and ham mooncakes are representative varieties of Ning-style mooncakes. Taking the moss mooncake as an example, high-quality winter moss is selected, accompanied by sesame oil, sesame seeds, melon seeds, peach kernels, etc. as the filling, and the taste is salted and peppery, and the entrance is delicious.

Dian-style: Dian-style mooncakes are called "pickles" in Yunnan, and are also multi-layered puff pastry varieties, but the pie filling has a special flavor. In terms of material selection, they are equipped with a certain amount of honey, so that the sugar does not turn over the sand; some varieties are also equipped with buckwheat flour or glutinous rice flour, which has a variety of tastes. Its representative varieties are white glutinous, fine sand, hemp seed, ham and so on. Among them, white glutinous is the most distinctive, sweet and fragrant. There is also a small but oily skewer, which is also very popular with the local people.

Others, such as the black hemp mooncake in Yangzhou, Jiangsu, the dried vegetable mooncake in Shaoxing, Zhejiang, the guiyuan mooncake in Fujian, the halal chicken shredded mooncake, etc., are all famous varieties, flavor characteristics, each with its own advantages.

conscience

September 4, 2021