Mid-Autumn Festival mooncakes: What they symbolize and where to find them in metro Phoenix

As the Mid-Autumn Festival approaches, Asian supermarkets and Costcos in metro Phoenix have been preparing for the occasion by stocking up on mooncakes, called yue bing in Chinese (月餅).

The dense, round cakes are about the size of a hockey puck and are a symbolic part of the festival, which is a time of family reunions.

Entwined with the Chinese legend of Chang'e, goddess of the moon, the festival follows the Chinese lunisolar calendar, falling on the 15th day of the eighth month. This year, the Mid-Autumn Festival is Tuesday, Sept. 21.

Every year Valley resident Jason Kwan and his parents sit down together for a Mid-Autumn Festival meal, usually featuring steamed chicken, crispy roasted pork and a clear noodle dish made with stir-fried tofu, baby corn, snap peas and other vegetables.

They then head out to their backyard to look at the full moon together and split a mooncake into four pieces — one piece each for Kwan and his dad, two pieces for his mom.

Kwan said he personally doesn't care for mooncakes, as he feels they're too heavy, but the Mid-Autumn Festival wouldn't be the same without them.

"If you don’t get them, you feel like you're missing out," he said.

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A gift-giving tradition

Several countries in East Asia celebrate the Mid-Autumn Festival. Families in China and Vietnam mark the occasion by carrying brightly lit lanterns and eating mooncakes together.

The round shape symbolizes reunion, though mooncakes can come in square shapes. The whole, salted egg yolk in the middle of the cakes symbolizes the full moon.

It's tradition to give the sweets as presents to family, friends and coworkers — though the piling-up of extravagantly packaged mooncakes has given the treats the reputation of being the “fruitcake of China.”

For Chandler resident Catherine Nguyen, the Mid-Autumn Festival is a time for family and community bonding, as well as generosity. When she lived in Saigon, Nguyen made mooncakes every year with her cousins, which they shared with neighbors.

As children, she and the other neighborhood kids would walk out in the streets, singing songs and carrying candle-lit paper lanterns shaped like the animals of the Chinese zodiac.

Her mother would also take them to a children’s orphanage during the Mid-Autumn Festival to distribute the cakes, called bánh trung thu in Vietnamese. Nguyen said that back then they typically ate mooncakes filled with mung bean paste or mixed nuts, ground chicken and egg yolk.

Now there are many other fillings available, such as taro, matcha and durian, she said. Her son enjoys helping her in the kitchen, so she hopes to pass down her family's recipes.

After moving to Arizona in 2016, Nguyen opened her restaurant Max Saigon. There she sells mooncakes made by her aunt every year and sends the profits back to the orphanage in Saigon, she said.

“Because growing up, I was so blessed and so fortunate,” Nguyen said. “I always have nice memories of my mom giving me nice mooncakes. She always bought me lanterns…We wanted to help kids who don’t have families to have the chance like us, to send something to kids there so they can have what we had.”

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Making mooncakes at home

For his first Mid-Autumn Festival during the pandemic, Kwan was spending more time at home and he learned how to make snow skin mooncakes so his parents wouldn't have to go to the grocery store.

Popularized in Hong Kong, snow skin mooncakes are refrigerated instead of baked. Made without lard and oil, they're supposed to be a lighter and less fatty version, Kwan said. The crust, or "snow skin," is made with glutinous rice flour, which gives it a similar texture to mochi. Kwan mixes his rice flour with tapioca starch to make it less chewy than mochi, he said.

Mooncakes were a food he used to take for granted, Kwan said. While researching mooncakes, he learned about the symbolism and history behind them.

"I think with the pandemic there’s a trend of home bakers and people wanting to make more stuff at home," Kwan said. "It gives me an opportunity to take some of the foods that are traditional I grew up with...and now just learning how to experiment with them. It's an arduous process and gives you an appreciation of the work it takes to make this type of sweets and desserts."

Last year Kwan and his parents, the taste testers, dropped off his homemade snow skin mooncakes to family and friends. He made them small enough to fit in the palm of his hand and filled them with four different custards: mango, matcha, mocha and black sesame.

He has since started selling snow skin mooncake kits that include cake molds and video instructions via his online store Happy Buns.

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Regional varieties of mooncakes

The most common type of mooncake available in metro Phoenix is a Cantonese version, which has a chewy, golden-brown crust made with alkaline water, lard and golden syrup. There are a variety of different fillings, but traditionally the cakes are filled with lotus paste and one or two whole salted egg yolks.

Shanghai-style mooncakes have a buttery crust similar to pie. Taiwan-style mooncakes favor a flaky crust. The Suzhou-style mooncake has a sweet and savory profile, featuring layers of flaky crust, generous portions of lard and sugar, and often meat fillings such as ground pork.

Contemporary versions can be shaped like animals. Modern mooncakes have fillings ranging from ice cream to "lava custard" made with a molten egg yolk center.

Kwan said his parents, who are from Guangdong, like to get Cantonese double egg yolk mooncakes from Lee Lee International Supermarket in Peoria or Mekong Supermarket in Mesa.

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Where to get mooncakes in metro Phoenix

Nguyen said she may start taking mooncake orders again at Max Saigon. Follow the restaurant's Facebook for updates at facebook.com/maxsaigonaz.

Kwan's business, Happy Buns, sells DIY snow skin kits for $85-$95 at localasianbakery.square.site. The kit contains all the ingredients, including custard mixes for five flavors: mocha, mango, black sesame, strawberry and original. The molds also come with six different designs.

Our Thai Vegan Delights plans on selling vegan mooncakes at Uptown Farmers Market in Phoenix on Saturday, Sept. 18 before the festival. Contact them at facebook.com/ourthaivegan to pre-order.

Commercial mooncakes can be found at major Asian grocery stores in metro Phoenix, including:

Lee Lee International Supermarket: 7575 W. Cactus Road, Peoria. Also 2025 N. Dobson Road, Chandler. leeleesupermarket.com. The bakery inside Lee Lee also sells freshly baked mooncakes.

Lams Market: 3446 W. Camelback Road, Phoenix. lamsmarket.com.

Mekong Supermarket: 66 S. Dobson Road, Mesa. mekongplaza.com.

AZ International Marketplace: 1920 W. Broadway Road, Mesa. facebook.com/AZInternationalMarketplace.

Mooncakes are also available at select Costco locations. Call your local Costco to check if they're in stock. Costco's online store (costco.com) is also selling a decorative box of four, double-egg yolk and lotus paste mooncakes for $39.99.

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Reach the reporter at Priscilla.Totiya@azcentral.com. Follow @priscillatotiya on Twitter and Instagram.

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