Mid-Autumn Festival (or "Jung Chau Jit") is one of the most popular of the annual Chinese Festivals. In 2013, it took place on 9/19. (It changes every year, since it follows the Lunar Calendar.) Think of it as the ChineseThanksgiving - it is a day to gather family, enjoy traditional foods, and give thanks for the bounty of the year. If we lived in China, there would have been huge community-wide celebrations, and several days off of work as people traveled around to get back to Mom's House. As it is, there are certainly celebrations to be found in America, but they are often more crowded and further away than we want to deal with. So, we have our own traditions at home!
The evening starts off with a large feast. This year, we had (clockwise from "12 o'clock"): cooked bean sprouts (nga choi), lotus root soup, seaweed salad (hoi jit), shitake mushroom and lettuce (dung gu saang choi), quick BBQ pork (cha sou), lemon pepper tilapia filets, and braised whole chicken. (Not pictured is the enormous bowl of chow mien - it was delicious!)
When it got dark, we went outside...to play with some fire. (This part would generally be kids dancing around with lanterns, but we just cut straight to the chase and broke out the birthday candles and lighters.)
After we burned through our birthday candles, it was time for dessert! We had a selection of mooncakes. The ones on the right are store bought, made in a local bakery. The ones on the left were made by me the day before. (They were "gam sa lai wong yuht behng", which roughly translates as Ferrero Rocher Custard Mooncakes. Which is weird, because there is a) no ferrero rocher candy involved and b) the inside was closer to a poundcake cake pop filling than a custard. As in, it was a cake crumbled up with a stick of melted butter, and then rolled into balls, wrapped in pastry, and molded into leaf shapes. No custard involved.) (If you are interested in the recipe, you can find it here. Make sure you read all the comments for tips and insights!)
We laid out a spread of mooncakes and fruit. SJ wanted to pose with the fruit, so he lay down on the table...or he was just really tired. One or the other.
Wishing you all a season of joy, luck and blessings!
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