What does Mid Autumn Festival mean to me? It means eating, eating and eating some more! Traditionally this day brings the whole family together to share a table full of glorious food, light some lanterns, exchange moon cakes and admiring the bright full moon in a clear sky. Only this year is different, my parents are in Hong Kong which leaves only us at home to fend for ourselves. Instead of the traditional meal my mother cooks every year followed by a dessert of pomelo, we decided to eat out in the local Chinese restaurant.
We started the day with moon cake washed down with Chinese tea. Moon cake is a very expensive delicacy, bought only for the 15th day of the 8th lunar month, according to the Chinese calendar. Moon cake is typically made of a salted duck egg yolk, wrapped with lotus seed paste and finally surrounded by a thin layer of pastry. I haven't got a very sweet tooth, so a small segment is enough to satisfy me. However my B can easily devour a whole moon cake in one sitting. Moon cake can be very sweet and oily so the Chinese tea helps to balance it out. In the evening we met up with my brother and cousin for our mini get-together at the restaurant. At 7.30pm the whole restaurant was already full up of Chinese students celebrating the festival. It is nice to think even they, with their family back home in China can still celebrate such a heart-warming festival with fellow comrades.
My B, brother, cousin and I decided to go all-out tonight; even though our parents were all abroad, we were determined to follow our family tradition of seeing the Autumn in with food.
A typical Chinese festival would not be the same without chicken. We ordered a half salted chicken with ginger sauce.
I had to order my favourite dish of deep fried ribs in sweet and sour sauce Hong Kong style.
To spice things up, we ordered a portion of deep-fried crispy squid with salt, chilli and pepper.
A festival cannot be a festival without a roast of some sort. Instead of a roast duck we opted for crispy roasted pork belly. The crunch of the crackling makes it all the more appetising. Following our Hakka family's tradition the dish is also accompanied with a small dish of granulated sugar to dip the meat in. Trust me, try it and you will not regret it. The sweet taste of the sugar compliments the saltiness of the meat.
We needed a saucy dish to balance out the other dishes. The stir fried three-treasures is always a sure winner. The treasures comprises of aubergine, tofu and green bell peppers stuffed with minced prawns cooked in a black bean sauce.
My cousin had to order her favourite dish of braised duck feet with Chinese mushrooms. Duck feet is very similar to chicken feet, except the toes are webbed and is less gelatinous in consistency. I have to say it is an acquired taste, only she devoured the whole pot by herself.
Finally, we realised we did not order one vegetarian dish. Our family is known for our love of meat and eating capacity, but even we felt a bit piggish, so we thought we'd be good and order a portion of stir fried Chinese broccoli and ginger sauce. Our parents would be very proud of us!
Seven dishes is considered very inauspicious, but we figured rice can be counted as the eighth dish. We really could not stomach another extra dish.
We tried our best in devouring every morsel but we did not succeed. Even so, it was a very satisfying night spent with great company and celebrating the Hakka way, with FOOD.
I wish everyone a Happy Mid-Autumn Festival and may all the loved ones be re-united to gaze upon the bright moon together!!
No comments:
Post a Comment