Moon cakes are made with a variety of tastes, old
and new. According to the manager of the Long Xuong Bakery in District 5, Ho
Chi Minh City, Chinese people living around Cho Lon made the first moon cakes.
A traditional Chinese moon cake should taste sweet and fatty and should smell
of therapeutic herbs. Some experienced bakers make the filling of these cakes
with Chinese dried sausage, roast lean pork, and fish fins. They mix the
ingredients with herbs and spices, especially dried ginger, in a special
formula that offers both salty and sweet tastes.
Moon cakes made in northern Viet Nam are also sweet
but less rich than those from the south. Their fillings often smell of lemon
leaves and mandarin-orange and grapefruit peels. Deo (soft) moon cakes made in
Ha Noi are especially delicious. The fragrance of grapefruit flowers emerges as
soon as you bite into the coating of sticky-rice paste.
Some moon-cake producers in Ho Chi Minh City - such
as Kinh Do, Dong Khanh, Ai Hue, Hy Lam Mon - also add mixtures of coconut and
milk, taro root and milk, durian, green bean, and cocoa or hazelnuts. A few
local bakers add whisky to give their cakes' filling a special taste. Thanh
Long in Ho Chi Minh City even makes diet moon cakes that are cholesterol-free
and less sweet taste.
Other cakes bear influences from beyond Viet Nam.
The Equatorial Hotel makes Malaysian-style cakes from red beans and sesame oil,
or lotus seeds and sweet-smelling leaves. They cover the cakes with a coating
of chocolate. Hong Kong's Saint Honore Cakes also come in many flavors,
including soybeans with orange flavor, white lotus, black beans, and lotus
seeds with tea.
Most moon cakes are either round or square. However,
some are shaped like pigs or fish.
Moon cakes can be eaten right after they are made,
but they definitely taste better when eaten at the right time. Traditionally, a
moon cake is served three days after baking so that the oil in the filling can
seep into the coating, making it soft and creating a delicious, rich taste.
Newly baked cakes tend to be dry and hard. Today, however, according to Luu Lap
Chanh, owner of Hy Lam Mon Bakery in Ho Chi Minh City, modern technology and
new recipes allow the oil to seep into the coating in just twelve hours,
although this makes the cakes less tasty than the traditional three-day method.
Moon cakes are often packed with sugar and calories.
According to the Kinh Do Confectionery Company in 116 Chi Minh City, a 200 grams
cake filled with green beans contains as many as 700 kilocalories whereas an
adult needs about 2,000 kilocalories a day for basic health. A moon cake has
all the ingredients for putting on weight: starch, fat, and sugar. Sugar
accounts for between 40% and 60% of a cake's weight. Thus, an average 200 grams
cake may contain more than 100 grams of sugar. Cakes that are high in sugar,
roast pork, fatty meat, and oily fillings provide even more calories.
Moon cakes are easy to keep. During normal weather
conditions they can last fifteen days. Some vacuum-packed cakes, those packed
in airtight boxes with humidity or oxygen absorbers, and those treated
with ultraviolet rays may last longer, but they still should be eaten within
one month. Consumers should be careful about cakes that are kept in normal
conditions yet seem to last several months. The producer may have used an
anti-mold agent which is believed to be harmful to health.