Moon season gift

Enjoying tea and mooncakes on a full moon night. Photo: LN

Memories of home

Every year, during the Mid-Autumn Festival, along both sides of Saigon's streets, many lanterns of all shapes and colors appear.

As a lucky urban child, every Mid-Autumn Festival, my parents bought me a new lantern, eagerly waiting for the Mid-Autumn Festival to carry lanterns with the neighborhood children.

In the 1990s, although money was scarce, parents would save up and buy a few moon cakes for the whole family to enjoy. Because the Mid-Autumn Festival would not be complete without moon cakes.

That was the expectation, but every full moon night in August it would rain. We kids would gather in someone's yard (usually my yard), showing off our pretty lanterns, dancing, and chatting away.

Whenever we got tired of running around, we would sit in groups of five or seven in the middle of the yard, light small red candles, and arrange them in a circle or in the shape of a heart.

The tiny heads watched the warm light from the candles, swaying to the melody of "tung dinh dinh cac tung dinh dinh...".

While the children were playing, the kitchen of each family was on fire. The adults finished preparing dinner and called the children. We dispersed, each of us going home to eat.

My family's meals do not have traditional dishes for the Mid-Autumn Festival, but every meal my grandmother cooks will be full of meat dishes, vegetables and soup. The fullness of the family meal alone is a representative of the family tradition associated with childhood memories that no matter where I go or what I do, I will never forget. When I have my own small family, I still like to cook meals with full dishes, especially during the Mid-Autumn Festival.

Moon cake

After the meal, adults often cut the moon cake and call the children to give each one a piece. At that time, famous delicious moon cakes could be found at long-standing brands such as Givral, Brodard, Dong Khanh, Nhu Lan, Hy Lam Mon... The fillings included basic flavors such as mixed shredded chicken, taro, green beans, lotus seeds...

Mooncake with salted egg yolk filling. Photo: LN

A box of mooncakes usually has 3 baked cakes and 1 soft cake. The filling I like the most is the mixed filling with salty, sweet, crispy, and chewy flavors combined harmoniously from pork floss, Chinese sausage, pumpkin jam, lotus jam, lard, sesame seeds, cashews, pumpkin seeds, melon seeds, along with a little bit of the crunchiness of lemon leaves and the richness of salted egg. Sometimes, the salted egg is placed to one side instead of in the middle of the cake, so when cutting the cake, it is inevitable that the salted egg is not evenly divided.

Much later, when I had the opportunity to join the Mid-Autumn Festival atmosphere in my husband's hometown in Ba Vi district and enjoy delicious moon cakes, I learned that in the North, traditional mixed moon cakes do not have salted eggs. Northern moon cakes are different from those in the South in that they are less sweet and are enjoyed with a hot cup of tea.

The soft shape of each cake symbolizes the bright moon every full moon of August. However, I still like to believe in the child's reasoning that the salted egg yolk is the moon I often see looming behind the tall buildings of the city.

Moon gifts, like memories, are different for everyone. In his hometown, every year, each hamlet cuts and pastes paper and whittles bamboo to make large palanquins. On the full moon day, villagers line up to carry the palanquins from the village to the communal house yard.

In the stories about my husband's childhood memories, there are also images of a boy folding dragonfly wings from bamboo leaves, making pinwheels from pandan leaves with the thorns removed, popping popcorn, helping his uncle make sweet soup on rainy days, then imitating adults setting out a plate of sweet soup with a teapot, eating sweet soup and drinking tea with the children in the neighborhood.

Or like my friend of Teochew origin told me that her family often enjoyed Pia cakes instead of moon cakes. The round, spongy cakes with a sweet filling combined with bitter tea and the laughter of close relatives were a reward for her own journey of growing up.

Now, the moon cake market is developing with many rich and creative flavors such as cheese, red beans, green beans with coconut milk, chestnuts, green tea... In terms of appearance, the cakes are also decorated with pink, purple, black, green, moss green crusts... embossed with embossed patterns and covered with gold glitter, looking extremely eye-catching.

Of course, because I love food and am curious about the combination of different ingredients, I like to try most new flavors. However, the taste of the cakes of the past still brings the feeling of a familiar love when being a child being protected and embraced in love...

Source: https://baoquangnam.vn/thuc-qua-mua-trang-3141153.html