Vancouver pastry chef crafts creative mooncakes for Mid-Autumn Festival
Buttermere Patisserie’s Jamie Tung launches a new collection inspired by the Chinese moon goddess
Buttermere Patisserie’s Jamie Tung has released her inaugural mooncake set to mark Mid-Autumn Festival. Photo by Leila Kwok
VANCOUVER PASTRY CHEF Jamie Tung can still recall the first time she ever laid her eyes on a mooncake as a child in her home city of Kaohsiung, Taiwan. The small, round cakes are traditionally filled with ingredients such as red-bean paste, salted egg yolks, nuts, fruit, or lotus-seed paste and are often adorned with Chinese characters signifying longevity.
Symbolizing family reunions and good wishes, the little treats are ubiquitous during Mid-Autumn Moon Festival.
“I remember when I was little, my mom bought boxes of mooncakes, and I was asking all sorts of questions like ‘Why do we eat mooncake?’” says Tung, who is the founder of Buttermere Patisserie (636 Main Street). “My mom told me the story of the moon, and I started to point at the moon with my finger. My mom quickly stopped me from doing that and said the gesture is very disrespectful to the moon and if I kept doing it, my ear would be cut. The next morning, I really felt my ear was in pain. This superstition has kind of stuck with me until now.”
These days, rather than use her hands to point skyward, Tung is busy making Buttermere’s first mooncake collection to celebrate Mid-Autumn Festival.
Buttermere’s Marigold mooncake. Photo by Leila Kwok
The second most important event in many Asian cultures after Lunar New Year, the fest takes place on the 15th day of the eighth month in the lunar calendar when the moon is at its fullest and brightest.
This year falling on September 21, the celebration also known as the Moon Festival is observed throughout China, Taiwan, Korea, Japan, Singapore, Vietnam, Cambodia, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, the Philippines, and beyond.
The moon’s round shape signifies reunion, and gathering with loved ones is at the fest’s heart.
“Mid-Autumn Festival is all about family reunion,” Tung says. “I have not celebrated Mid-Autumn Festival with my family for many years, and I do miss them even more when it comes to festive holidays. Since we live on different continents, my parents always joke, ‘at least we are looking at the same moon.’”
To mark the holiday, Tung has created a set of six distinctly flavoured and shaped “snowy” mooncakes. Made with steamed glutinous rice flour, they have a mochi-like pastry shell.
Each one signifies an element of the story of Chang’e, the Chinese moon goddess. Legend has it that she sought refuge in the moon when her husband, Hou Yi (the Lord Archer), discovered she had stolen the drug of immortality that he had been given by the gods. The Hare, however, would not let her irate spouse pass by until he promised reconciliation.
Buttermere’s white coconut pandan Jade Hare (玉兔), for example, is the mythical moon rabbit sent to accompany the goddess; Marigold (萬壽菊), with green matcha red bean, is a symbol of love and despair; the dark pink cream cheese cranberry Lotus (蓮花) is a depiction of purity and union.
Hua-Chuan (花窗), with black-sesame hazelnut, is shaped in the form of the antique Chinese window pane from which someone would admire the moon. Tung’s purple milky taro Auspicious Cloud (祥雲) represents a mark in the evening sky; and the classic yellow salted-egg custard Mid-Autumn mooncake is an ode to folklore.
The classic yellow mooncake, Tung says, holds the most significance since its shape and colour, with the salted egg yolk, are meant to resemble the moon.
Each set is $60 and is available for pre-order now until September 18 for pick up or delivery to September 21.
For more information, see Buttermere Patisserie.
Buttermere’s Mid-Autumn Mooncake. Photo by Leila Kwok
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