During a program that I facilitated at work last Friday, a bunch of my students from China told me about this festival, and since they know that I can cook pretty well, challenged me to make the cakes for next Friday's session.
It seemed easy enough, so I said "sure!"
Well, it turns out that these cakes are incredibly complicated to make, and most people just buy them from the store because they are so complicated! Regardless, I never back down from a challenge! So, I went online and found some recipes, and headed down to the Asian grocery store to buy some special ingredients.
The things I do for my students! Not only did I brave the dangerous streets of Worcester, but I also actually walked into a store and uttered the words: "Excuse me ma'am. Could you please tell me where the sweet red bean paste and salty duck eggs preserved in mud are?" (FYI, the woman's words told me where they were, but her eyes said "silly white boy...the Gap is over there!) haha
Anyway, I tried a test batch tonight to see how they come out before I serve them to people on Friday.
Preserved duck egg (for the center of the moon cake)
Preserved duck egg yolk - looks kind of like an eye ball
Actual moon cake I bought from the store.
And this is the moon cake that I cooked. As you can see, mine came out looking more like a muffin than a cake. But the taste is pretty much the same.
Anyway, I'm going to refine my techniques and try again later in the week. Either way, both versions taste really good!
2 comments:
um... i guess they put the perserved duck egg in the mooncake in china but we never do that in taiwan.
and did u make the preserved duck egg (100000 year old egg) urself?
ur mooncake looks nothing like a real mooncake should look tho >"< i had to tell u the truth but it is really difficult to make tho
they used salted eggs for the moon cakes in Vietnam, I never had moon cakes with preserved duck eggs in them... don't think i'd like it.
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