The other big part of the Moon Festival is mooncakes. Mooncakes are special little cookies that you eat around this holiday. They come in different styles, sizes and textures and of course fillings.
The main differences are the crust. One kind is thick, soft and chewy. The other kind is thin and flaky. Both can come with a variety of fillings, such as beans, taro, peas, egg, even meat. And yes, as I've mentioned before, this is all supposed to have a sweet taste. They also have little words stamped or imprinted on them, to give good wishes.
The kind I most like are the very thin, flaky ones without any filling. But to be quite honest, people don't really eat mooncakes. They are more of a gift to be given for the holiday. As such you will see most being in very elaborate and expensive gift boxes. It's kind of like the various gifted treats we give for christmas to each other and nobody ever eats.
That's for the best though, because not only are they not very tasty, but they are extremely unhealthy. They are basically just oil soaked dough that has then been pan fried. Ugh, just talking about them makes my stomach feel sick.
Speaking of being sick....
In the picture is one of the types of mooncakes i really enjoy. It's an ice cream mooncake where the outside is a crispy kind of wafer and the inside is ice cream. During my second year here a friend gave me some and they were amazing. They really reminded me of an ice cream cookie sandwich from back home. Since that time I had always wanted them, but I could never get them. Mooncakes aren't really sold year round, and the one store that did sell these, for years didn't have them.
Finally this year they came back and I got them. As with everything, they weren't quite as good as in my memory, but they were still quite good. And this year they were packing an extra surprise. The day after, I spent a lot of time in the bathroom. A great taste and a free...cleansing, truly a special cookie. Yet one that i'm glad to only eat once a year.
