Moon Cake
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| Type | Pastry |
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| Place of origin | China |
| Main ingredients | Crust: lard or vegetable oil Filling: red bean or lotus seed paste |
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| Mooncake | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Traditional Chinese | 月餅 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Simplified Chinese | 月饼 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Hanyu Pinyin | yuèbĭng | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Literal meaning | Moon cake/biscuit | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Transcriptions | |
|---|---|
| Standard Mandarin | |
| Hanyu Pinyin | yuèbĭng |
| Wade–Giles | yüeh-ping |
| IPA | [ɥêpìŋ] |
| Wu | |
| Romanization | [ɲyɪʔ piɲ] |
| Gan | |
| Romanization | Ngiet7 biang3 |
| Hakka | |
| Romanization | Ngat biang |
| Yue: Cantonese | |
| Yale Romanization | yuht béng |
| Jyutping | jyut6 beng2 |
| Southern Min | |
| Hokkien POJ | go̍eh-piáⁿ |
A mooncake (simplified Chinese: 月饼; traditional Chinese: 月餅; pinyin: yuè bĭng; Jyutping: jyut6 beng2; Yale: yuht béng) is a Chinese bakery product traditionally eaten during the Mid-Autumn Festival (中秋節). The festival is for lunar appreciation and moon watching, when mooncakes are regarded as an indispensable delicacy. Mooncakes are offered between friends or on family gatherings while celebrating the festival. The Mid-Autumn Festival is one of the four most important Chinese festivals.
Typical mooncakes are round pastries, measuring about 10 cm in diameter and 3–4 cm thick. This is the Cantonese mooncake, eaten in Southern China in Guangdong, Hong Kong, and Macau. A rich thick filling usually made from red bean or lotus seed paste is surrounded by a thin (2–3 mm) crust and may contain yolks from salted duck eggs. Mooncakes are usually eaten in small wedges accompanied by tea. Today, it is customary for businessmen and families to present them to their clients or relatives as presents, helping to fuel a demand for high-end mooncakes. A considerable amount of waste is also produced. According to the Wall Street Journal's China edition, as many as two million mooncakes are thrown away each year in Hong Kong alone, not to mention the often voluminous packaging.
Most mooncakes consist of a thin, tender pastry skin enveloping a sweet, dense filling, and may contain one or more whole salted egg yolks in their center as the symbol of the full moon. Very rarely, mooncakes are also served steamed or fried.
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Wikipedia