Oh MAAAAAAN, the freakin Moon Cakes are back!

If you've been following my life here in China you'll know how much I love these 'things' NOT!

I got to school this morning and there was a big bag on my desk. HHHhhhhmmm I thought, I wonder what is in there. Maybe another bag of fungus for me to....buggered if I know mate. Still don't know what to do with the bag I still have. If I cooked I'd add the fungus to what ever it is I was cooking. Fact is I don't cook at all and have a huge bag of fungus sitting in my kitchen.

Anyone want some fungus?

Anyhow, the bag was full of many varieties of moon cakes. I managed to palm a few off to students and maybe I'll eat the rest during the long cold winter.

So what are the Moon Cakes for you ask.
Here is a simple explanation.


Moon Cake Day falls in the middle of autumn OR for the freaky people, it falls on the 15th day of the eight lunar month. So its real name is The Mid Autumn Festival. In ancient times, people would offer elaborate cakes as sacrifices to the Moon Goddess on this day.

After the ceremony, family and friends would kick back, share some rice wine and eat these Moon Cake things. I guess the rice wine would kill the taste, or maybe the Moon Cake was created to kill the taste of the rice wine. Oh I dunno, I just know it spells bad news for me. I'll have to hide indoors for the next few days so I don't have to offend anyone who invites me in to share moon cakes and rice wine! Tee hee!

So, time passes, the capital moves, civil wars are fought, people come and people go and now the custom has came to symbolise 'family reunion'. On this glorious mid-autumn night the moon is huge and bright as buttons mate. Families get together and go for an evening walk, giggle at the foreigner who walks past and invite him home to share moon cakes. He tries to pass the invite and says he's too full. They won't have any of it! The family and the foreigner sit together eating moon cakes whilst sharing rice wine.

As the hours pass they all stare at and admire the moon in its perfect splendour.
Soon the moon becomes a little distorted and hazy from the rice wine.
The foreigner decides to go home!