Button moon, the man in the moon ....

It is that time of the year when the moon is ruling over each and every one of us. Now when I was a child I was led to believe that the moon was made of cheese and in some cases cream cheese (that western thing about cheese again). Having been here almost 4 years I am now convinced that the moon is in fact made of cake, to be more specific moon cake, and what a lot of cake there is! My office this week has been over run by moon cake, big cake, small cake, square cake, round cake ... but all with one thing in common the moon.

I am not actually sure what moon cake is made from, it certainly doesn't resemble the surface of the moon and I still don't have much idea what is in the middle of the moon, but I don't think it is a strange yellow colour. I am just going to pop off now and have a google .... ok, a moon cake may contain:

• Filling: 1 pound red azuki beans, water, 3/4 cup lard or oil, 1-3/4 cups sugar, Water
• Shortening Dough: 2 cups flour, 5 tablespoons lard, 10 tablespoons water, 1/4 teaspoon salt

Firstly I note a lack of chocolate , poor me, moon cake is commonly, red bean (not so yum yum), lotus seed paste (hmm interesting), jujube paste (no idea what that is, subject to another google later), five kernel (a mix nuts that sounds respectable), and oh so Taiwanese, mung beans (on a par with red beans). I think over the years I must have tried them all and those with a salty egg yolk in the middle (definitely not convinced about that one), conjuring images of the moon.

Well I have been slowly nibbling away on the assortment of moon cakes here and by far the best was pineapple (not actually a moon cake at all). My taste buds still struggle, even after 3 years of moon cakes, to get accustom to the sweet yet savory taste of the cake.

I have yet to try the Haagen Daaz moon cake, which I assume is in fact ice cream and seems to go against all tradition in so many ways, but now maybe a good time to try ... whilst I am still in search of a traditional chocolate moon cake ....