I'm sure everyone have been waiting for this wonderful moment of the year. Yes, it's the Mid-Autumn Festival. The time of the year whereby nobody is going to call you an idiot if you carry a lantern and walk around even though you are 20 years old. Th time of the year where the whole family will gather around and eat something that is sought after by all, no matter their age. And the wonderful delicacy is called Moon cakes.
Moon cakes were used as a medium by the Ming revolutionaries in their espionage effort to secretly distribute letters in order to overthrow the Mongolian rulers of China in the Yuan dynasty. The idea is said to be conceived by Zhu Yuanzhang and his advisor Liu Bowen., who circulated a rumor that a deadly plague was spreading and the only way to prevent it was to eat the special moon cakes. This prompted the quick distribution of the moon cakes, which were used to hide a secret message coordinating the Han Chinese revolt on the 15th day of the eighth lunar month.
Another method of hiding the message was printed on the surface of moon cakes as a simple puzzle or mosaic. In order to read the encrypted message, each of the 4 moon cakes packaged together must be cut into 4 parts each. The 16 pieces of moon cakes must then be pieced together in such a fashion that the secret messages can be read. The pieces of moon cakes are then eaten to destroy the message.
The traditional moon cakes will look something like this :


But lately in the markets, modernized moon cakes can be seen everywhere. I've found some interestingly shaped moon cakes which I would like to share with everyone as I'm sure everyone loves moon cakes. That is, except Yiting, the only person I've ever known to hate moon cakes. And her reason for hating moon cakes was the taste. I thought she will dislike it because it's fattening, but she says that she just don't like the taste. But how could that be possible? How could you hate something that is so absolutely tasty? I admit it's kind of sinful if you eat too much. But it's a once in a year event therefore you should not miss it. So go ahead on gorge yourselves silly on the boxes and boxes of moon cakes in front of you. Personally, I've eaten 2 boxes of moon cakes already. 2 x 4 = 8 moon cakes. And it's double egg yolk some more. Sinful sinful. But like I say, how can you resist the temptation of moon cakes? It's like resisting Ba gua during the Chinese New year. Impossible right?

Photo credits: Scuzzi

Photo credits: Bossacafez

Photo credits: BossacafezPhoto credits: Bossacafez

Photo credits: Seet YingPhoto credits: Isidora.M

Photo credits: Lynn.wabbit

People, please tag more often at my lonely blog. It's getting much more lonesome by the minute. And I've just received news from my personal secretary that I will be working from 13th to 21st September. Which means I won't be online for 9 long days, it also means my beloved blog won't be able to see me for 9 long days. And it also means you guys won't have any wonderful new entries for 9 long days. *pukes* But anyway, do tag more often so I know I'm not writing my post to myself. Or perhaps I should make my blog private and only opening it to those that will tag.

Perhaps Perhaps Perhaps