The mooncakes I grew up with had skins made of lard and rich, thick fillings of lotus seed or red bean paste. Like any Chinese family, mine would stock up on tins of mooncakes every year for Mid-Autumn Festival, as per tradition. Each tin had at least 4 to 8 cakes, which meant we ended up with a lot of a pastry that almost nobody could finish in one sitting.
Sometime during high school, I looked and found out from the metal tins that each large mooncake contained 1,600 calories. Now, I was never one to keep track of calories and fats, but I was still rather shocked to learn that my thighs and cholesterol would be better off if I ate a Big Mac and fries. ::Shudder:: But of course, traditional mooncakes are so dense and monotonous after a few slices that it’s hard to polish off a whole one by yourself.
Nowadays in Hong Kong and Singapore a new breed of healthier mooncakes have become popular. (They’re also slowly catching on in the U.S.) The name 冰皮月餅 (bing pay yuet bang in Cantonese, bing pi yue bing in Mandarin) translates into English as “snowy mooncakes” or “snow-skin mooncakes”. The off-white skin is made of glutinous rice and the fillings are rather unusual: matcha, durian, taro, cappucino, just to name a few. They also need to be refrigerated, resulting in an icy-cold pastry that can only be fully appreciated in the heat of Southeast Asia. The texture and taste can best be described as that of ice cream mochi.
As of last week, every supermarket I encountered Hong Kong had at least 4 or 5 different snowy mooncake vendors, selling their wares from popsicle fridges. My aunt received a big box of 8 varieties from Maxim’s as a gift, and of course I volunteered to eat some for her.
I was stuffed from a day of gorging myself on Cantonese and Japanese food, but just had to dig into a mooncake supposedly flavored like Hong Kong milk tea. While it was quite sugary and tasty, it lacked the ultrar-strong flavor I associate with my beloved milk tea. For curiosity’s sake, I also had to try the one labeled “bird’s nest”, the centerpiece and most expensive kind if you bought them individually.
Think little strands of very sugary jelly, surrounded by cold mochi.
And as much as I love ice cream mochi, and as healthy as these snowy mooncakes are compared to traditional ones, I will still be satisfied eating just slices, not the whole thing.
Oh, how I miss “bing peih”! I have never seen them in the Continental US!
Actually, that’s not true – I found them at Ranch 99 this year…for nearly $40US for a tin of 8!! I couldn’t believe it, and my budget just couldn’t allow it. I’d love to learn to make these at home!!
The Hello Kitty shaped bing peih go one step too far for me, though.
I bet some of the mooncakes have more than 1600 calories–the ones with 4 egg yolks. I mostly like the “leen yung” so I can do with just one egg yolk.
Sigh, you’re in Hong Kong again!
Wah, 1600 calories! And to think I used to eat a whole mooncake in one sitting.
I much prefer the smaller ones because then I can get more variety. Have you tried the jasmine tea-flavored ones?
I like the ones with egg yolk.
Aunt LoLo – Yeah, I would love to learn to make these too. I found a couple blogs with recipes, but the proxy I’m using to get to Blogspot sites prevented me from copying the URLs. Try searching for snowy mooncake or snow-skin mooncake recipes.
Michele – I was in Hong Kong, for too short of a period. Sigh. Now I’m back in Beijing, missing Cantonese food again.
Nate – Mmm…haven’t tried the jasmine tea ones. Are you talking about the regular kind or snow-skin ones?
i really like mooncakes with snowskin as i think they’re much lighter than the baked ones…these look fantastic! and i’m so intrigued by all the crazy flavours they keep coming up with. just last night i had a strawberry yoghurt and a chocolate & whiskey flavoured mooncake. we’ve got another sweet potato and chendol thing in the fridge. i like that they’re being creative but sometimes i feel it’s tending towards being scary. lol!
great pics!
1600 calories! Wow. I love the red bean paste ones best, but I think if they started importing the mochi ones to London, these would soon take over; especially purple yam ones!
Hi there, I found your blog from Tastespotting, what a lovely blog and pictures you have. I will need to visit from time to time.
I’m very curious about these mooncakes… I’ve never heard about them and now I just can’t stop thinking about how they are made…
They look tasteful on the picture! :)
diva – Chocolate and whiskey sounds interesting. Are yours made in England or imported? Yeah, the snowskin ones are much lighter…I would have eaten the whole milk tea one if I weren’t already stuffed from dinner.
Hello! I also found your blog through tastespotting. I love your blog! I totally miss China/Hong Kong/Macau. So, in California, they ARE selling the snowy mooncakes at Asian supermarkets. AND they seem to me to be about the prices I paid in Macau a year ago. Happy Mid-Autumn Festival!
I love snow skin moon cakes, much prefer them to the traditional ones, even before knowing the latter have 1600 calories! Not easy to find outside of Hong Kong, Malaysia and Singapore though.
Lizzie – I hear they’re available in NYC and San Francisco now. So it’s probably just a matter
of time before they reach London.
Goumet Traveller – Please do! :)
Leonor – I too would love to see these bakeries/factories in action. I’ve watched my dad make regular mooncakes for his bakery and they are definitely labor-intensive.
Michelle – Good to know about the prices being the same!
The Maxim’s tin for 2008 had a pair of black forest mooncakes (chocolate bits and cherry sauce- delicious), mango filling, lychee filling and strawberry.
I’m now eating the mango ones. I had the black forest ones last night since I missed the Mid-Autumn Festival last weekend.
Soooo good and I hope you guys in Canada get some of that snowy mooncakes next yr.
I think the hype over calories in moon cakes is a bit misleading.
Moon cakes are a very dense food, very filling. Many of the things that go into them, including egg and bean paste, are protein-rich. And although they are certainly sweet, they are a far cry from the over-sweetened desserts that many Americans eat. Most of them are very high in fiber, due to ingredients like lotus root, bean, and dried fruit.
I think comparing them with fast food and heavily processed foods is highly misleading.
America’s nutrition has gone wrong because people count calories. The path to optimal health and good diet is not counting calories. If you are eating traditional, natural foods that do not include food additives, it’s fine to consume as many calories as you want, because you will feel full. If you are able to eat a whole moon cake, you were probably really hungry to begin with.
I personally crave moon cakes after I’ve been exercising and burning off lots of calories. They’re a great source of energy and protein…I don’t feel ill after eating them after I would after eating a western dessert that contained a similar amount of sugar. They are a more balanced food. And the hype over them being too caloric is due to overly simplistic thinking.
So, while these look delicious as well, I’d say, if you like the typical or traditional ones, go ahead and eat them, and stop thinking about your calorie count.