All About Mooncakes

 

Top L to R: Custard, Pandan, Lotus Seed Paste with
Single Egg Yolk, Lotus Seed Paste with Single Egg Yolk

Lotus Seed Paste with Single Egg Yolk

A friend has presented me with a box of delightful mooncakes of four different flavours.  This once-a-year delicacy is always welcomed and enjoyed during the Mid-Autumn Festival which falls on 17th September this year.  Mooncakes are best eaten in small wedges with Chinese tea - a perfect combination - and this time I found they're not too sweet!  My friend told me she had bought them from a different shop this year and I guess their mooncake makers are aware of how health conscious people are today!

Here's a little writeup I saw in the net.

There is a folk tale about the overthrow of the Yuan dynasty facilitated by messages smuggled in moon cakes.

Mooncakes were used by revolutionaries in their effort to overthrow the Mongol-led Yuan dynasty, eventually resulting in the establishment of the Ming dynasty. The idea is said to have been conceived by Zhu Yuanzhang and his advisor Liu Bowen, who circulated a rumor that a deadly plague was spreading and that the only way to prevent it was to eat special mooncakes, which would instantly revive and give special powers to the user. This prompted the quick distribution of mooncakes. The mooncakes contained a secret message: on the fifteenth day of the eighth lunar month, kill the rulers.

Another method of hiding a message was to print it on the surfaces of mooncakes (which came in packages of four), as a simple puzzle or mosaic. To read the message, each of the four mooncakes was cut into four parts. The resulting 16 pieces were pieced together to reveal the message. The pieces of mooncakes were then eaten to destroy the message.

(Story courtesy of Wikipedia)

Enjoy your mooncakes everyone and don't worry, there won't be any secret messages inside!