The 14th of September is the date of the Mid-Autumn Festival for 2008. What does this mean? Mooncake!! Mooncake mooncake everywhere, so many variations to choose from.

About.com gives a great description of the Festival. Here’s a brief — ha ha — taste:

Every year on the fifteenth day of the eighth month of the lunar calendar, when the moon is at its maximum brightness for the entire year, the Chinese celebrate “zhong qiu jie.” Children are told the story of the moon fairy living in a crystal palace, who comes out to dance on the moon’s shadowed surface. The legend surrounding the “lady living in the moon” dates back to ancient times, to a day when ten suns appeared at once in the sky. The Emperor ordered a famous archer to shoot down the nine extra suns. Once the task was accomplished, Goddess of Western Heaven rewarded the archer with a pill that would make him immortal. However, his wife found the pill, took it, and was banished to the moon as a result. Legend says that her beauty is greatest on the day of the Moon festival.

As mooncakes only come around once a year, J and I make it a point to try different types and, in our quest for delectable edibles, have stumbled across the excellent range from Yong Sheng. Their Yoghurt Paste Mochi Moon Cake is divine (moon cake filled with cranberry yoghurt paste and a Taiwan-style mochi), as is their Auspicious Moon Cake (yam filling enclosing a mochi with a strawberry fruit gel in the middle). I’m also hankering for their Lemon Green Tea Moon Cake which, as you’ve probably guessed, contains green tea. Their strangest one, though, is the one I wanted to point out:

It’s called a Nyonya Pudding Curry Moon Cake and, in case the text from the brochure is too indistinct, this is how it’s described:

The aromatic curry paste in this mooncake is made from curry power [sic], galanga [sic], lemongrass, chilly, lotus seed paste and other 20 over Nyonya style cooking ingredients. The taste is definitely aromatic, spicy with a touch of Peranakan cuisine. The smooth mochi and pudding filling are indeed the ideal blend for superb taste. Surely pleasing your sensitive taste buds.

Yes, you have just seen the words “curry” and “pudding” together (hopefully, for the first time ever at this blog). And, believe it or not, it actually tastes pretty darn nice. It’s also rather hot, so is not recommended for those who normally avoid fiery food. (Or, er, curry pudding.) Hop along to Yong Sheng and you’ll see some mooncakes that look almost too gorgeous to eat. Almost. Heh heh. Of course they’re all high in calories but, what the heck, the Mid-Autumn Festival only comes around once a year. In fact, there’s a Yong Sheng shop on the way to the bank and I need to duck out to do some banking later this afternoon…

*: That’s the Gary Larson spelling for “food”, not the acronym for “fear, uncertainty, doubt”.