Mid-Autumn Festival: O-Mochi Mooncake Giveaway

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Friday, September 11, 2009

Have you noticed the brightly coloured tins appearing in Asian grocery stores?

The Mid-Autumn Moon Festival falls on October 3 this year, a time for families to come together and eat mooncakes and pomelos, beneath the bright and full mid-autumn moon.

The packaging and flavours of mooncakes continues to evolve each year. These fancy mooncake gift boxes are probably the most impressive I've seen - the one on the left has drawers which are secured by the chopstick at the front. Perfect for re-using as a jewellery box!

Image by Hei Yue Thong

Grab Your Fork recently received some sample boxes of o-mochi mooncakes by Hei Yue Thong, presented in beautifully decorated packaging.

Sonata Combo Bento gift box

The Sonata Combo: white lotus 2 yolk,
green tea with milk, mixed nut and chestnut o-mochi

Autumn Romance 4A Butterfly pattern

Autumn Romance 4A: green tea o-mochi,
chocolate o-mochi, pandan o-mochi and chestnut o-mochi

What is an o-mochi mooncake?

Chestnut o-mochi, chocolate o-mochi and green tea o-mochi mooncakes

Chestnut, green tea tea and chocolate mooncakes with mochi

Instead of the traditional salted egg yolk, o-mochi mooncakes have a chewy ball of pounded rice cake--or mochi--in the middle. The unusual flavours provide a new twist on an old favourite, although the thin baked skin of the traditional mooncake remains the same.

The chocolate mooncake has an almost fudgy texture and the flavour of the green tea mooncake isn't too overwhelming. Chestnut was a favourite with everyone with its fragrance and delicate nutty flavour.

Curious to try some yourself? Thanks to Australian distributors Amyson, we have ~~three~~ five boxes of the Autumn Romance o-mochi mooncakes to give away.

Prize giveaway for Grab Your Fork readers

THE PRIZE:
1 x box of Autumn Romance o-mochi mooncakes (valued at about AU$30)

Due to an overwhelming response, there are ~~three~~ now five boxes to be won (thanks Amyson!).

HOW TO ENTER:
All you have to do is,

Add a comment to this post with your answer to the question: "What's your favourite thing about Autumn (or the mid-Autumn Moon Festival)?"
Send an email to grabyourforkmooncakecomp@yahoo.com.au with your full name and a copy of your posted comment to the question above.

Good luck all, and Happy Moon Festival!

COMPETITION CONDITIONS:

This competition is open to entrants with an address in Sydney or Melbourne only.
Competition closes on Wednesday 23 September 2009 at 5.00pm AEST. Winners will be announced on Friday 25 September 2009.
The winners will be drawn randomly.

Hei Yue Thong mooncakes are available at major Asian grocery stores.

THE WINNERS have been announced here.

107 comments - Add some comment love

posted by Helen (Grab Your Fork) on 9/11/2009 12:36:00 am

107 Comments:

At 9/11/2009 1:43 am, Mrs Pig Flyin' said…

Mooncakes are a bit like Easter eggs now, you see them weeks before the actual day.

Very interesting! Pig Flyin' hates fully cooked egg yolks and happens to love mochi, what a good alternative. His fav is five-nuts cake, only old people eat that :p
At 9/11/2009 6:46 am, Anonymous said…

Hi Helen, My favourite part of the Mooncake Festival is the day after the actual festival when all mooncakes go for half price! Seriously though; I do love the myths/legends that go with the historical significance of the festival, ie how the Han Chinese smuggled their secret messages within the cakes to each other to synchronize themselves for rebelling against the Mongolian invaders and also the boiled baby yams to resemble the heads of the Mongols et cetera.

Gobsmack'd
At 9/11/2009 7:49 am, Anonymous said…

Best part about Mid-Autumn Festival is being with families and friends enjoying wonderful mooncakes. Lanterns and candles brightly lit and folks tales are shared. ^B.L.I.S.S^
At 9/11/2009 8:47 am, Catherine said…

my favourite bit about mid-autumn festival is meeting up with friends and families and have wonderful dinner + mooncakesssss!!! as a tradition of my mum's family, we always have a dish - taro paste!! its super yummy! what's better than sitting around with friends and families with lots of food and mooncakes surrounding us? :D
At 9/11/2009 9:11 am, "Grendel" said…

My favourite part of the mid autumn festival is that it is yet another time when I have been welcomed into the homes of friends and made to feel part of the family, another great example of how sharing culture enriches the lives of those around you.
At 9/11/2009 9:50 am, Jin said…

The best part about the autumn festival is where the family gathers again to feast at dinner and to savour the lovely mooncakes that only make their appearances once a year.
At 9/11/2009 10:21 am, S said…

my fav bit of the festival are the mooncakes themselves!!
At 9/11/2009 10:28 am, Anonymous said…

Favourite thing about the Autumn Moon Festival? Getting together with family, mooncakes, festivities and lanterns!
At 9/11/2009 10:39 am, Livia said…

My fave thing about the Autumn moon festival is thinking back to my childhood and me savouring those mooncakes; having them cut into 8ths and taking a tiny piece each time (over several days), and hearing the legend as told to me by my mother.
At 9/11/2009 10:56 am, Anonymous said…

Always a good excuse to bring female friend out to see something different and the mooncakes arent bad either!! :P

Sydneyguyrojoe
At 9/11/2009 11:15 am, kkfc01 said…

The best part about mid-autumn festival is the lanterns that i used to play as a kid, not the paper ones, but the ones of anime characters from sailor moon, dragon ball z etc..
At 9/11/2009 11:17 am, ragingyoghurt said…

when i was five, growing up in malaysia, i took the initiative of inviting my entire kindy class to my house for a lantern parade around the neighbourhood. i failed to let my mother know of the planned festivities until about 10 minutes before everyone was to arrive, but she took it very well. amazing, isn't it, how little children were allowed to carry flimsy and flammable cellophane paper lanterns with small fires burning inside them? every so often a candle would topple, and the paper would ignite. so brightly it burned, and so very quickly! in seconds, a colourful bunny or goldfish shriveled up into a charred, black wraith. these days, the kids carry sturdy plastic lanterns, glowing with the light from a tiny bulb. the battery hidden in the lantern's handle can also make it twirl, or sing an irritating electronic tune. progress!

i much prefer keeping up with developments in mooncake technology. every year my mum lets me know of the brave new varieties unleashed by the chefs at fancy hotels and bakeries in singapore. crystal skin, snow skin, durian chocolate, lotus custard, champagne truffle... alas, i have never had the pleasure of eating any of these.

the most out-there one i've had was surely the beguiling candied roast duck mooncake i found in emperor's garden a few years ago. the traditional brown, cakey skin concealed a sweet, crunchy filling of duck skin, all brown and glistening with honey, sesame seeds and duck fat. now *this* is the stuff memories are made of. i'm willing to bet though, that the o-mochi ones are probably better. ;)
At 9/11/2009 11:23 am, Carmen said…

Like most people, the best part about mid-autumn festival is the opportunity to have family together celebrating the festival over a nice home cooked dinner by my dad (who is a retired chef) and then eat mooncakes that are home made by other relatives! As a child, i love listening to the myths behind why we eat mooncake, and even more recently, I was discussing with my boyfriend why in Australia, it is still called the mid-autumn festival when we are well into spring! He explained to me the fact that farmers harvest their crops in the northern hemisphere during mid-autumn because the moonlight was so bring. Stories like this make moonlight festival so much more meaningful....
At 9/11/2009 11:37 am, jess said…

the most thing i enjoy for the mooncake festival as a chinese, is the chances for the whole family members get together and have a reunion. drinking the tea and eating the mooncake, enjoying the full mooon is like the best part came along with the reunion.. and espcially the part where we get to have the tanglung lighting, walking all over the street, singing the mid-autumn festival song.. this is one of the best childhood memory~
At 9/11/2009 11:45 am, Cam said…

I haven't had a proper mooncake festival for AGES but back in the childhood days in Singapore we used to eat tons of mooncakes, play with lanterns (both electronic musical ones and traditional candle lit ones) and sparklers! My grandaunt also made her own mooncakes with "snow skin" (similar to mochi skin) and old school skin moulds and those were my favourite :D I think there are some snowskin ones available here in Sydney but they're plentiful in Singapore.
At 9/11/2009 11:52 am, Meow said…

Guessing Lantern riddles!

Here's one:
When small, it walks on four legs.
When grown, it walks on two legs.
When old, it walks on three legs.
At 9/11/2009 12:10 pm, red bean said…

When I was little, aimlessly wandering around with paper lanterns around our backyard like it was a new adventure. Now I teach my younger cousins how to ceremoniously set fire to them accidentally! Love getting drunk on incense fumes in packed temples, and family dinners drinking tea and sharing mooncake.
At 9/11/2009 12:15 pm, quizzycal said…

My favourite part of the festival is an activity we used to do in my childhood. We would have a picnic down at Clovelly and set tiny candles alight on paper boats. I personally liked setting the whole boat on fire :P
At 9/11/2009 1:18 pm, Nancy said…

My favourite part of the mid-Autumn Moon Festival was going to the festivals at Bankstown or Cabramatta and choosing a lantern to buy and carry around. I'd get bored of them by the end of the day, but they were fun while I had them :)
At 9/11/2009 3:15 pm, Tuyen said…

my favourite thing about Autumn Moon Festival is just the celebration of having family and friends together! its always a great feeling!

Also gathering around to eat the mooncakes themselves is also my favourite thing.
At 9/11/2009 4:06 pm, Jon said…

The best thing about autumn is kicking piles of fallen leaves!
At 9/11/2009 4:54 pm, An said…

I love the whole festival is focused on gathering the family, spending time together. I have fond memories of:
-playing with paper, candle lanterns with my cousin
-lighting up plastic sailormoon lanterns (not as fun as the paper, fire lite ones though)
-get a mooncake tin and watch, light and melt candle wax (it's the only time we as kids could "play with fire")
- carefully slicing up a mooncake grandma and grandmother gives us (as a family) into 8 and slowly savouring it over the next few days/week (my fav is white lotus 2 yolk).
-being with the extended family for dinner, then walk down the street to watch the "dancing dragon" parade in Tai Hang, Hong Kong, where the community parades with a incense lite up dragon to celebrate the ceasing of a horrible plaque in the area.

Now, my favourite thing is to share this "delicacy" with friends who is foreign to this practice.

I've never tried O-Mochi mooncakes before - how are they like?
At 9/11/2009 5:14 pm, Jo Anne said…

My daughter loves Mooncakes. Her suppliers would come in to the office where she used to work and bring them as gifts. Nobody else liked them so guess who got them all.
At 9/11/2009 6:42 pm, Iris said…

Mooncakes.
At 9/11/2009 6:55 pm, cyberiagirl said…

My favourite thing about Autumn Moon Festival is that it allows those of us from non-Asian backgrounds to learn and experience some fun that isn't available to those of us who grew up in the country! It can be a bit daunting to go to Cabramatta with no idea of what is going on or what to try but it is a great experience. :)
At 9/11/2009 6:57 pm, Arwen from Hoglet K said…

I love the boxes - they're definitely worth reusing. The patterns on the cakes are good too.
At 9/11/2009 7:09 pm, Beck said…

What kind of foodie would I be if I didn't say the mooncakes themselves? Nom nom nom!
At 9/11/2009 7:22 pm, Natalie said…

Hi Helen
To me, the best part about Mid-Autumn Festival is of course, trying out all sorts of mooncakes which shops have on offer. I still love the plain lotus paste one the best though (: Also being able to enjoy a lovely dinner with the whole family.
At 9/11/2009 7:28 pm, Mim said…

When I was young, my favourite thing about mid-Autumn festival was lighting and melting candles in mooncake tins on the driveway after our yearly family dinner, figuring out all the fun things we could do with matches and melted wax.

Now, it's basking in the warmth of the early spring night, talking and laughing with my family over mooncake and tea. Although if someone busted out the candles...
At 9/11/2009 7:31 pm, Kay said…

back home the chinese locals/we'd play a game w/ family (game of dice too long to explain the rules lol) the luckiest dice would get the biggest mooncake they also say its lucky to be the winner. hehe.. :D
At 9/11/2009 9:55 pm, Anonymous said…

this is a really important day as it marks my parent's wedding anniverary. They got married on this day as it represents that their family is as round as the moon. -wenqi
At 9/11/2009 10:52 pm, YaYa said…

What a fantastic re-invention of the traditional mooncake! I wonder if mochi mooncakes have less calories than the traditional lard-laden egg yolky version - never mind, they look delicious and the packaging is worth the purchase itself.
At 9/11/2009 11:04 pm, Anonymous said…

My best memories of the moon cake festival is of the latterns and lattern parade in the housing estate back in Msia when we were young. Also making our own latterns with colored glass paper, wires and making moulds from "Milo" tin.

And of course playing with fire and candles. Other than fire crackers during CNY which was later banned, the other chance to "play wih fire" is only on mooncake festival.

BC
At 9/12/2009 1:10 am, Ange said…

the best thing about the moon festival will definitely have to be the mooncakes! i know it's packed with lots of fat, sugar and it's a heart-clogging delicacies. but it's so delicious that i can never pass one. like EVER! my sisters and i had like 8 mooncakes to share between the 3 of us last year and we are yet to break the record this year. lol

btw, i saw a giant mooncake with eight yolks at chinatown. i am considering if i should get it. rofl :)
At 9/12/2009 4:16 am, kirbie said…

what beautiful mooncakes! I've never tried ones with a mochi middle..I didn't even know they make them with mochi filling!
At 9/12/2009 5:34 am, pigpigscorner said…

The packaging is beautiful! I've never had moonakes with mochi filling before, interesting.
At 9/12/2009 10:10 am, Elise said…

the best part is eating mooncakes of course (: its got to be the mooncake festival for a reason hahaha
At 9/12/2009 10:56 am, Paul said…

My favourite thing in the mid-autumn festival is the delicious lotus mooncakes, the gathering of extended family and the festivities like the lanterns at night time.
At 9/12/2009 11:00 am, dr- said…

My favourite thing about the mid-Autumn Moon Festival would be the chance to sample delectable green 'snow-skin' mooncakes. Since no one else in my family likes the 'snow-skin' ones, I had all of them to myself! *grinz*
At 9/12/2009 11:27 am, Anonymous said…

The best part about Autumn moon featival is learning and tasting a little more Chinese culture. Hen hao
At 9/12/2009 2:32 pm, Michelle said…

The best would be spending time with my family at the front yard, while adults drink tea and eat mooncakes and chat. The kids (including me) would light up the paper latterns and hang it on the fence every metre. From memory as a kid, I always thought it made the house look so nice with everything lit up! And of course, stomping on the lanterns once they caught on fire ;)
At 9/12/2009 5:02 pm, MissNg said…

Mid-Autumn Moon Festival..from what I remember as a child, we used to go out to the park
to light the lanterns and hang them up on trees. After that, the family would cut the mooncakes and enjoy the fullmoon night.
At 9/12/2009 7:24 pm, MChan said…

My favourite thing about mid-Autumn Moon Festival…
I used to think it was the lanterns, candles and enjoying chinese tea with the mooncakes. My sister and I used to decorate our gates and garden with lighted candles. The next morning, we will get a great scolding from granny for leaving the candles wax everywhere!
This mid-Autumn Moon Festival is the first year we will be celebrating without our beloved granny. The day does not seem so special and exciting anymore. It made me realise that my favourite thing about the Festival is spending time with my family. How I wish I am able to enjoy one more special night with my granny again…
At 9/12/2009 8:20 pm, Unknown said…

My favourite Autumn Moon festival moment is eating mooncakes with the entire family!
At 9/13/2009 7:35 pm, ~t@b!tH4~ said…

eating the many ex & free mooncakes (wif egg yolks of cuzzzz!!!!) my dad brings home given by suppliers! =) together with the gathering of the family and lighting up lanterns! sometimes we would even light up firecrackers! and play around the garden...

i would always rmb the one time wen i was visiting my gpa's house in m'sia when me+my cousin huddled up in the corner of the roof and tried to lit up our paper lanterns! but due to the strong winds as we were by the sea... O_O our candles kept extinguishing and worse, our lanterns kept catching fire!!!

sooo both of us... 7 & 15... we left wif no more lanterns to play and we headed downstairs gloomily...
At 9/13/2009 7:43 pm, Jane said…

love the boxes! they are so pretty.

fav part? hm...definitely the big feast with family. pretty much like chinese new year, less the red pocket but hurrah for the mooncake goodness!!! =D
At 9/13/2009 9:37 pm, Anonymous said…

The best thing about the mid-autumn festival is the brightness of the moon and the nostalgia it bestows. I realise the full moon shows itself pretty much every month- haha- but in mid autumn it is at its roundest, biggest, and brightest. It brings back many fond memories of food-centric family dinners and celebrations under the stars. As a child I've always found that aspect of the mid-autumn festival to be quite magical, and as an adult the ability to retain that sense of wonder is something which has real meaning to me.
At 9/13/2009 10:10 pm, min said…

My favourite thing about the Mid-Autumn Festival is having a delicious meal with the family. Everyone makes time for mooncakes and takes part in the lantern-carrying, even the adults!
At 9/13/2009 11:11 pm, Phuoc said…

Oooo... they are pretty boxes.. I'm so going to look out for these to give. My boyfriend is italian and last year I gave them the "moon cakes" that are shaped into pigs?? Not to sure what they are actually called though... His dad is very old fashion and doesn't like trying new things but when I got him to try it he didn't mind it at all and quite enjoyed it!

My favourite thing about Moon Festival was going to the festival at Cabramatta and mucking around with friends. This was when I was a teenager and had no care in the world.. Now, it's all about the food!
At 9/14/2009 1:35 am, Jessica B <3 said…

My Favorite thing about atutumn is the wonderful colors all around and the good food :)
At 9/14/2009 12:10 pm, rhianna said…

I can't meet up with my family for mid autumn festival being an international student, but my favorite part is introducing my friends to moon cake and getting them to join me in the celebration.
At 9/14/2009 12:49 pm, yvonne z said…

Favourite memory is playing mah-jong with my grandmothers and mother. Three generations of women, together enjoying the festivities. Grandmother (in her 90s) taking me to the cleaners.
At 9/14/2009 12:55 pm, Amaya said…

Every year I have the same little tradition around the time of the Autumn festival; being the white girl trying to buy mooncakes. I love the look of confusion on the faces of the sellers and their consternation as I pick up the boxes and read the ingredients. Will she understand, does she know there's *gasp* preserved egg in the cake? Eventually they seem to decide I must have a Chinese partner as I walk away with quality cakes in a variety of styles and occasionally get comment that I "choose like a Chinese mother" which always makes me laugh. Eventually when the cakes are all gone I love using the boxes for storage, all my stationery at work is stored in Kee Wah tins.

As for our actual Autumn, coming from Queensland the turning of the leaves still fascinates me... it never gets cold enough up north for it to happen. I would love to get to Japan in Autumn instead of Spring to see the maples in Kyoto.

---

BTW having big problems with your OpenID log in, so had to post old fashioned style.
At 9/14/2009 4:19 pm, Apple said…

Hello!

My favourite part without a doubt is the myths and legends. I'm a sucker for a good story. Even better with tea and mooncakes! The culture is so facinating. The food is divine. Close to the best holiday of the year I think!
At 9/14/2009 5:07 pm, Anonymous said…

I'd love to try the chestnut ones - but what does the packaging look like for those - pic please so I can print it and take it to my local chinese place...as a non chinese speaker I can only go by the pictures once I get there!

By the way, on your new post comment screen there's no longer the option to just select name - how come?
Regards
Jax
At 9/14/2009 5:11 pm, Aimee said…

It's during this time of the year where you get to slice the mooncake into quarters (keeping one for yourself of course!) and trading the other three quarters with friends and families for all the other different flavoured mooncake you don't have before devouring each one! Yum!
At 9/14/2009 11:15 pm, Anonymous said…

My favourite part of midautumn festival is seeing the new flavours of mooncake come out each year. I swear, it started with just lotus with egg and now it's spread to crazy flavours like coffee, lychee, taro and even strawyberry mooncake. Never ceases to amaze me what they'll come up with next. Love an excuse to eat cake :)
At 9/14/2009 11:53 pm, erica said…

Food, friends and family!
At 9/15/2009 9:02 am, Rebecca Jee said…

I love the sense of occasion, the packaging and the delicious texture of the moon cakes. I was in Malaysia recently and there was a whole slew of crazy flavours, but I still like the lotus seed ones the best.
At 9/15/2009 8:08 pm, Yen said…

The mooncake- durian flavour is my favourite. Wish they have it here in Australia. I remember one year, we have a great cookout to celebrate the festival with various food with different symbolic names; lotus moon soup (Lotus root soup), fish pond under the moon (steam fish with ginger sauce), Autumn leaves combo (all sorts of vege) etc. YUMMMMM!
At 9/15/2009 10:34 pm, Nesty said…

The best thing about Mid-Autumn Festive is the mooncakes (yes yes i know it's typical, but it's the one thing that makes me love being asian)
At 9/16/2009 12:30 pm, Anonymous said…

My wife introduced the mid-autumn festival to me and a few years ago we gathered with some friends in a local park in Brooklyn NY to celebrate. We brought lanterns for the kids, food (including mooncakes!), and a selection of lunar-centric songs--most in chinese but some in english: moon river, blue moon, etc. It was fun, but my favorite part would have to be the lanterns!
cheers,
"johnny forks"
At 9/16/2009 2:04 pm, Olivia said…

Best thing about Mid-Autumn Festival is eating the yummilicious mooncakes and watching the kids run around with their lanterns.
At 9/16/2009 5:51 pm, w said…

My ever so frugal parents never bought mooncakes during the festival but rather waited afterwards when they become heavily discounted. So my favourite part of the festival when I was growing up was the lighting and parades of the paper lanterns. I can still remember the smell of hot candle wax on crepe tissue paper.
At 9/16/2009 6:33 pm, abc123 said…

My favourite thing about the Lunar Festival when I was younger was being allowed to stay up and play in the garden with sparklers and lanterns. These days, I'm a little too old to be frolicking around with the youngsters so I enjoy the feast that my mum cooks up every year and of course, savouring the so delicious, yet so unhealthy mooncakes.
At 9/16/2009 7:09 pm, Anonymous said…

My favourite thing is the family time made even more special by the spread of mooncakes and chinese tea on the table. Yummy food and family warmth...perfect!
At 9/17/2009 5:27 pm, Louise said…

The bestest part of mid autumn festival,as for me, sitting around the dining table,picking out every single bits of the melon seeds before savouring the red bean paste mooncake, then only one by one I pop those seeds in mouth and crunch them away. This is my family tradition i guess..as in for all the youngsters. Some may said it's gross but it's really fun and memorable throughout my childhood (well, i still inherit this habit until now,lol). Not to mention, lighting all the colourful candles,pink,red,yellow,green...you named it... along the concrete paths around the house.
At 9/20/2009 1:22 am, yu said…

I think this year we have started a new tradition whereby my parents eat split mooncake for breakfast and then leave me a quarter as they get up before I do. Great start to the day (albeit unhealthy!!)
At 9/20/2009 2:15 am, chareli said…

My favourite part of the Mooncake festival was not eating the mooncakes (although I must admit, they were too good to resist) nor was it the chinese tea (wasn't a big fan when I was a kid) nor even the folklore (I still imagine what it would be like to have rabbits hopping all over the moon) but was actually the part where I got to stay up late and enjoy the cool breeze and darkness of the surroundings while admiring the beauty and sheer awesomeness of the Moon! And this all happened while a couple of lanterns were set ablaze. We did enjoy burning the uglier lanterns out. It was like our Mid Autumn Festival ritual for my brother and I. After lighting some, we had to burn some. Hehehe. =)
At 9/20/2009 2:18 am, chareli said…

oh and I do know the answer to Meow's riddle. Muahahaha.

It's a "namuh"!

(clue: read backwards)
At 9/20/2009 7:37 pm, Amy said…

Hi Helen,
i love your blog because it feels like im a step closer to home and i always check ti if im stuck for ideas when going out with friends, now a few of my friends read your blog too. :]

my favourite thing abt mid autumn festival is spending time with my family and being able to share the lovely mooncakes we recieve or buy each year under a full moon with nice fruits and traditonal chinese tea.

have a nice mid autumn fesitval!
At 9/21/2009 10:15 am, maycheangdesigns said…

I love Moon Cake Festival because I LOVE mooncakes. I especially love collecting all the lovely mooncakes boxes every year!!!
At 9/21/2009 11:53 am, Tracey said…

I love the mooncakes - something you can't get any other time. Worth hunting down.
At 9/21/2009 12:03 pm, penny aka jeroxie said…

It reminds me of my Grandma and how she will buy me multiple lanterns as I keep burning mine! One year she got a little frustrated and bought me a battery operated one instead. Hahhaa! And of course, eating mooncakes and she used to be make the best ones ever. Very fond memories.

I have been away from family for a long time. Family here is just Mister and some close friends which are 'orphans' like me. But we make it a point to get all sorts of mooncakes and enjoy them together.
At 9/21/2009 1:30 pm, Anonymous said…

best bit about moon festival would have to be dinner and catching up with families! the food, the laughter and eating the mooncake itself with tea or cognac :)

best thing about the moon festival this year will be for my brother, he is getting married! it will be double celebration for him!
At 9/21/2009 2:05 pm, lynn.wabbit said…

I love the falling leaves during Autumn and when it crackles beneath my feet. But most of all, I love the smell of Autumn in the air!
At 9/21/2009 3:33 pm, Anonymous said…

My fondest memory of Mid-Autumn fest is when i tried to burn my brother's paper lantern at night. hohoho. but yeah, all the mischievous fun has turned into enjoying mooncakes with friends and family.
At 9/21/2009 6:46 pm, Anonymous said…

Autumn... one cannot help but think of baked sweet potato warming cold hands, chestnuts and mooncake, calmly sipping tea and gazing at the full moon while children laugh happily nearby, holding colourful lanterns and dripping candle wax into water to make colourful droplets.

These are a few of my favourite things =)
At 9/21/2009 9:33 pm, Andrea said…

My favourite thing is slicing up a mooncake into the tiniest of slivers as they are so rich and sharing them around with family and friends.
At 9/22/2009 12:40 am, Aunt-T said…

My favourite thing about mid autumn mooncake festival (besides all the cliche reasons), is this:
Have you ever needed to say thank you, or shopw appreciation or just gone to someone's house and needed to find a gift suitable for the whole family.

Well for once, your woes are at an end. Mooncakes is always a correct answer!

That's what I love about mooncake festival =)
At 9/22/2009 2:59 am, Anonymous said…

mmm Autumn means running around the street to step on the crunchiest leaves you can find.

Mooncake means picking at the mooncake to get the creamy paste and none of the yucky egg yolk > <
At 9/22/2009 4:37 am, sugarpuffi said…

My favourite part of autumn is the red leaves on the trees and on the ground. You would want to swoosh them around with ur feet making that nice ruffling sound.

Moon Festival of course is the.. EATING OF MOONCAKES mmm!! I love to eat the yolks inside the mooncakes so I would scoop them out and eat it first XD
At 9/22/2009 10:05 am, Audrey said…

best thing about autumn, to be able to walk around knowing that you won't have beads of sweat building up as the wind is cold enough to freeze it
At 9/22/2009 10:49 am, clekitty said…

When I was younger my favourite part of the Autumn Moon Festival was trying all the different mooncakes! My extended family and family friends would come over with different boxes of mooncakes and I would greedily eye up each one. Because I didn't realise till I was older that different mooncakes had different patterns so you could generally tell which was which. Before we could eat our mooncakes we would have to "offer" them to our ancestors by placing the cakes on their shrine for a day.. (this is when the eyeing up would occur). I would either be disappointed when it was the meat and nut version.. or be delightfully happy when I found out the moon cake was lotus paste and egg yolk (the more egg yolk the better!).
At 9/22/2009 10:49 am, shez said…

My favourite thing? Memories of running around my suburban Aussie backyard with bare feet and red paper "lanterns". I say "lanterns" and not lanterns because a combination of dry grass, giant candles and six year old clumsiness prevented us from ever having them lit...

Not that my sister minded. While I pretended to dance with my "lantern", my sister ate the middles out of the mooncakes and blamed it on me.
At 9/22/2009 11:03 am, Rilsta said…

The best thing for me about the Mid-Autumn moon festival is the mooncakes! Growing up in Australia, the only sign I know it's coming is the arrival of the mooncake boxes in the Asian grocery shops!

These mooncake boxes are gorgeous! So much better than the usual metal tin ones!
At 9/22/2009 11:47 am, Jackie said…

my favourite thing about mid-autumn mooon festival is sitting around the dinner table with my family and sharing mooncakes! :)
At 9/22/2009 3:42 pm, Anonymous said…

My favourite thing about Autumn is the combination of crisp air and sunshine. It's the best season to be outdoors in!
At 9/22/2009 4:05 pm, Unknown said…

A haiku to describe my favourite Autumn things:

Autumn full moon ----
a bowl of warm edamame,
a pint of cold beer

-Lucas
At 9/22/2009 5:42 pm, Anonymous said…

HI helen,

My favourite would have to be just eating and trying different types of mooncakes!!
At 9/22/2009 6:14 pm, Jacq said…

My favourite thing about the mid-Autumn was this lantern festival held every year in the suburb where I used to live. All of us kids would be running around with colourful paper lanterns - I looked forward to it so much! Thanks for the competition Helen!
At 9/22/2009 9:15 pm, uberannie said…

My favourite thing about Autumn is seeing the beautiful seasonal tree leaves change their colour to a gorgeous red/orange and seeing them fall to the ground... the weather is cooling and it's starting to get to snuggle-under-the-covers weather :)
At 9/22/2009 9:16 pm, Lev said…

Best thing about the Mid-Autumn Moon Festival is definitely the assortment of food and the unity it brings! Colourful mooncakes, the white soft cookie/bread and pamelos.
The tradition of gathering everyone for a short prayer under the brightly lit moon, with lanterns everywhere, kids running around and lanterns accidentally burning up, causing minor fires bring a lot of excitement. And the evolution of lanterns to battery driven ones always amazes me. This is a great tradition that reminds me what being in a Chinese family is all about, unity and great food.
At 9/22/2009 9:38 pm, M R said…

My favourite thing about Autumn is when I take my first step outside my house every morning only to hear the light crackle of the autumn leaves beneath my feet. It is like when you take your first bite into a fat crunchy potato chip that has come straight out of the fryer. As you bite through the firm outer layer, you get the initial pleasure to the sensors, the 'crunch'. Although being such a simple sound, it is what the sound represents which makes it so special. A preview to such a devine taste sensation that comes from eloquently simple ingredients that make a chip. Once the initial taste bud euforia starts to wear off its then come to horrid realisation that the chip is still covered boiling hot oil! The thought of spitting it out and wasting such a tasty specimen is just too horrendous to imagine, so *gulp* and down it goes......

Opps, got a bit distracted, yes Autumn is awesome.
At 9/22/2009 10:18 pm, Giselle said…

The mid-autumn festival brings up memories of the whole family gathered around, eating slivers of mooncake and grapefruit, while throwing riddles at the younger relatives. Afterwards, there is the six-dice game, where prizes are won depending on the number of 4's thrown. Tradition has it that the grand winner (six 4's or one of each number) will have good luck for the rest of the year. These are the things I love about the festival, especially now as an international student living alone in Sydney.
At 9/22/2009 10:26 pm, Jimmy Ly said…

Cabramatta!

Being asian and growing up in the west meant that moon festival was all about scabbing as much money from your parents to spend on games and fishball sticks!
At 9/22/2009 11:08 pm, Kitty said…

Best part is gathering with families and friends for a beautiful dinner which ends with mooncake, tang yuen, boiled taro and pomelo.
At 9/22/2009 11:12 pm, EUG said…

Missed those old paper lanterns since now mostly they are replaced by plastic ones. The beach was the place to go time of the year usually the weather is quite warm. Me and my cousins would run around with the lanterns in our hands while the other kids started burning candles in the mooncake tin cans.Wish I could still do this but my cousins are over the other side of the world.
At 9/22/2009 11:12 pm, xiuling said…

it is the time of the year when we get to eat nice mooncakes while drinking chinese tea. it is also a time for gatherings and catching-ups :D

most importantly, it is my mum's birthday on lunar calendar! :D
At 9/22/2009 11:40 pm, Martin said…

My favourite thing is pretty obvious.. it's mooncakes! When I was younger it was a real treat to eat mooncakes as they were hard to come by in China (well they were for my family after we fell through hard times). But we still celebrated the festivities the best we could :)
At 9/22/2009 11:41 pm, Vince said…

I'm going to be honest - the best part about the mid-Autumn Moon Festival is the "Hóng Bāo" red packets!!
At 9/22/2009 11:49 pm, D said…

The Mid Autumn Moon Festival always makes me feel particularly Asian - sharing mooncakes with family, lanterns and watching Asian TV shows at grandma's.
At 9/22/2009 11:58 pm, Lilia said…

My favourite is the happy crowds, traditional culture environment, and lots of food cooking at family reunions, also nothing beat the moon cake as dessert time with hot tea plus long conversation.
At 9/23/2009 10:10 am, Sarah said…

Favourite thing is definitely the mooncakes! We always buy the "mei tong" brand with double egg-yolks. ooh yeh.

But with that comes the mooncake weight LOL - inevitable when you look at the nutritional info on the back of the tins!
At 9/23/2009 12:31 pm, Anonymous said…

my favourite thing is all the beautiful lanterns and festive atmosphere. i will also always cherish those childhood memories of running around the neighbourhood with brightly lit lanterns and sparklers!
At 9/23/2009 1:31 pm, Anonymous said…

delicious food and more of it!
At 9/23/2009 2:00 pm, Amanda said…

My favourite thing about autumn is the smell of a pile of freshly fallen crunchy leaves when you step on them. Sure, the sound is great and evocative, but the smell lifts it higher and makes your senses and imagination come alive!