Moonlight Gifts

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

Memories of family

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

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

In the 1990s, although money was scarce, parents would still 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 a heart shape.

The little heads watched the warm light from the candles and swayed to the melody of "tung ding ding cac tung ding ding...".

While the children were playing, the kitchen fire was blazing. 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 cakes

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 tangy taste of lemon leaves and the richness of salted egg. Sometimes, the salted egg is placed on one side instead of in the middle of the cake, so when cutting the cake, it is inevitable that the salted egg is divided unevenly.

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. The difference between the Northern moon cakes and the Southern moon cakes is 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 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 by 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 cakes, spongy crust, sweet filling combined with bitter tea, the laughter of close relatives were the reward for her own journey of growing up.

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

Of course, because of my love for food and curiosity about the combination of different ingredients, I like to try most new flavors. However, the taste of the cakes from 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