久久亚洲国产成人影院-久久亚洲国产的中文-久久亚洲国产高清-久久亚洲国产精品-亚洲图片偷拍自拍-亚洲图色视频

chinadaily.com.cn
left corner left corner
China Daily Website

Moon · Cakes · Tea

Updated: 2012-09-17 13:13
By Pauline D. Loh and China Daily Sunday team ( China Daily)

Moon · Cakes · Tea

Soon, the mid-autumn moon will shine biggest and brightest, and Chinese all over the world will bask in its glow and take it as another opportunity to feast. Pauline D. Loh and the China Daily Sunday team share their pick of the best mooncakes.

The lotus paste should be so silky it melts in the mouth like soft, sweet butter, with an indulgent mouth-feel that can only come from the best Hunan lotus nuts. The pastry skin must be paper-thin, but delicately covering the cake completely so you do not see unseemly patches of naked filling.

The egg yolk inside should be a pale orange the color of the rising moon, and it should be seeping out just a little oil, moistening the lotus paste as the knife surgically slices the cake into six perfect wedges.

In the pastry of our dreams, every wedge should have a cross-section of yolk so the little cakes live up to their name.

For such attention to detail and perfection, you have to go south, to Hong Kong, where arguably the best mooncakes are made. Although mooncakes are shipped and sent all over the country, no one makes them like the Hong Kong pastry maestros.

You have the award-winning custard mooncakes from the Langham Hotel Hong Kong, where the tiny pastries are cranked up the ladder of sophistication, combining sifted salted egg yolks, fine bean puree and a delicate skin.

But the common man's favorite must still be Maxim's - available at every metro station in Hong Kong and where vouchers for next year's mooncakes start selling even before the crumb's from this year's pastries have been wiped off.

Yep, these vouchers are sold in a sort of tontine system that's been used for so long it's become a part of the household budget.

So are the southern moons better, brighter and sweeter?

Well, it's all about tradition and practice. They've just been doing it a lot longer.

In the austere years before an open economy helped the Chinese mainland catch up with the world, the selling and buying of mooncakes during the Mid-Autumn Festival was not a priority. But in the 30 years since, the market has taken a Great Leap Forward.

In fact, it sort of got away, once unfettered.

Mooncake gifts during the season became so extravagantly packaged that it raised Forbidden City eyebrows. The mooncakes are not so ostentatiously boxed now, but the country's couriers are still currently rushing to deliver stacks to clients, friends, family ... and media.

Many of us still remember the urban legend of the single mooncake in a gilded birdcage when the mooncake cost about 18 yuan ($2.80) and the birdcage reportedly cost 88,888 yuan. There were no details as to what flavor the mooncake was.

Fortunately, that sort of over-the-top opulence has since been tempered with a little taste. And talking of taste, you can just about get any flavor these days, much to the chagrin of those (like me) who think a mooncake should still be made of lotus or red bean paste, with just a few variations in-between.

For this feature, we sampled cranberry and red wine, corn and water chestnut, mocha and chestnuts, red bean and mochi (glutinous rice ball), candied winter melon and peanuts, spicy melon seeds, walnuts and ham, Yunnan ham and rose petal jam, jujube paste and walnuts, macadamia nuts and coffee, oolong tea, green tea, red tea ... and some other combinations we prefer to forget.

In short, anything that will stick in a paste has been stuck in the paste. We even have a bakery chain touting its French mooncakes, all baked like tarts. Like the old salty dog would say, there's no tart like a

In the modern compulsive, obsessive need for innovation, and the everyday motto of "let's be different", perhaps it would do good to remember that some traditions are best left untouched. Improved upon, maybe, but in still recognizable forms.

We'll let the pictures do the talking as we take you through some of the more delicious flavors we discovered. You can use our mooncake buying guide for reference.

PS: We paid for all our taste-test mooncakes. You can get similar ones at supermarkets, bakeries, or online. In addition, we have suggested some teas that we think will help wash down those sweet nothings.

Contact the writer at paulined@chinadaily.com.cn.

Related: Making Cantonese moon cakes

Previous Page 1 2 3 4 5 6 Next Page

...
...
...
主站蜘蛛池模板: 99成人免费视频 | 蜜桃日本一道无卡不码高清 | 免费观看一级特黄三大片视频 | 精品国产免费人成高清 | 久久小视频 | 亚洲人成亚洲精品 | 欧美在线成人免费国产 | 国产福利一区二区三区 | 一级黄片毛片 | 91亚洲国产成人久久精品网站 | 精品国产自在现线看久久 | 日日操夜夜爽 | 欧美一级手机免费观看片 | 欧美日韩精品一区二区三区高清视频 | 亚洲第一区视频 | 性色tv视频观看 | 免费毛片网站 | 欧美久久亚洲精品 | 性欧美精品 | 精品在线一区二区三区 | 亚洲欧美日韩一级特黄在线 | 亚洲精品国产综合99久久一区 | 国产一区二区三区影院 | 国产成人一区二区三区免费观看 | 日本一线一区二区三区免费视频 | 欧美日韩精品一区二区三区视频在线 | 日日a.v拍夜夜添久久免费 | 国产精品午夜性视频 | 国产玖玖玖精品视频 | 免费在线一区二区三区 | 9久久免费国产精品特黄 | 免费人成年短视频在线观看免费网站 | 久久久久久久国产精品 | 美美女高清毛片视频免费观看 | 欧美日韩高清不卡免费观看 | 国产在线精品福利一区二区三区 | 欧美在线视频免费观看 | www.黄色片网站 | 国产精品分类视频分类一区 | 亚洲美女中文字幕 | 久久精品www |