It is Autumn Festival in China.
-- Badtux the International Penguin
PS: The moon cakes and tea at our celebration this afternoon were nice, but the moon cakes sure taste weird to someone accustomed to American sweets...
1 day ago
Sunday, September 14, 2008
12 comments:
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So?
ReplyDeleteMoon Cakes?
ReplyDeleteIs that anything like Moon Pie?
Do you do a lot of Mooning at this festival?
What kind of moons do they look like?
ReplyDeleteJust asking.
Suzan
I'm blogrolling you!
Full moons, Suzan. Of course. They are small flat dense round cakes with Chinese characters on the top, some with yolk (cooked), with the very slightest bit of sweetness and a bit of an "off" taste for the American palette. I politely took a tiny little piece of the different cakes that I was offered, but wasn't really impressed by the taste. Not like the first time I encountered Korean kimchi, where I was, like, "Wow, this is good!"
ReplyDelete- Badtux the Festival Penguin
Versus the initial smell of kimchi!
ReplyDeleteAre they something you think you could eventually grow used to enough to prefer? I've had that happen to me with foreign (at first) tastes. Like anchovies?
Love anchovies.
Thanks for the info!
Suzan
Talk about the weird taste of Asian desserts! (At least weird to us round-eyes...) When I worked in S.F., Chinese patients' families would occasionally bring in sweets for the nurses. Between the red bean paste and the odd-looking jellied cubes of God-knows-what, I was left wondering whether that's part of the reasons why Asians aren't as fat as we Westerners. Nobody's going back for seconds on a gooey blob of vomit-green translucence.
ReplyDeleteSadly, the custom of giving "lollies" (as sweets are called here) does not apply in Oz. This is a damn shame to my tastebuds, because I would eat my weight in See's chokkies every year in S.F. Now, I've got one can of Toffee-ettes left in the pantry and I eye them every day, waiting for an occasion special enough to justify opening these nuggets I used to snarf without thinking.
(BadTux probably knows what Toffee-ettes are, but for any of you comment readers outside the S.F. area, imagine chocolate/almond coated crack made of crunchy caramel, and you've got it. Most addictive candies in the world, and I should know, because I've eaten stuff from all over.)
The red bean paste ones were the ones that had the yolk in them. Thanks for reminding me. There was also a nutty one that the polite Chinese lady was sure was "too sweet", that wasn't sweet at all by my tastes, it tasted like nuts, not sweet. Nuts with sesame seeds. And no, Suzan, I don't think this is something I'm going to acquire a taste for. It's like ketchup, nobody outside the United States can stand the nasty tasting stuff, the only reason Americans can stand it is because we all grew up eating meatloaf and shit saturated with the nasty stuff...
ReplyDeleteOn a nicer note, had a nice pho ga for lunch today at the neighborhood pho shop. Oh sure, I can cook noodles myself, but it's nice having someone else cook them for me occasionally.
- Badtux the Culinary Penguin
Thanks, Tuxy,
ReplyDeleteI like to keep up with the good eatin'! Now exactly what type of noodle dish is that again?
And it's no wonder that the Chinese (not American-Chinese) are known for their slender frames what with that yummy red bean paste and jellied yucks!
Hey Rick!!
I shoulda known you would turn up at a culinary discussion. And now I'm searching the web for toffee-ettes! Shame on you. (Cause I'm not going to SF anytime soon.)
Love ya,
Suze
Don't dis the ketchup, BadTux! Down here, they have something called tomato "sauce" (aka "dead horse" which rhymes with "source" as it's pronounced in an Aussie/Cockney accent). It's thin, vinegary stuff, but they love it with their chips and meat pies. (Standard meal when you're blotto drunk.) It's crap, though, compared to Heinz ketchup. France and Germany also dispense lame ketchup with their deep-fried potatoes.
ReplyDeleteMe and Mrs. Bukko literally carry plastic containers of Heniz with us when we for fish and chips. Not sure whether we'll take a bottle when we go to Italy next week. American ketchup -- it's THAT good! Take it from someone who plans trips based on the Guide Michelin.
Hey Suze -- I see your old buddy JP has resumed his blog! Piss on him, though, the disappearance artist. I'm plaguing the Penguin with my comments now instead.
Plague away, me Bukko!
ReplyDeleteTuxy can take it.
I believe he started it again once he saw mine up and running. It cured whatever pique he had. The good news is that he's been able to keep all his regular commenters, so he's back on form.
He's still complaining though that no one reads him.
I'm sure time will cure that.
Good to know you're (both!) ready to travel again!
Love ya,
S
Pho is a Vietnamese noodle dish that is basic fast food around here in the SF Bay area. We have pho shops around here in roughly the same proportions that we have hamburger joints. Usually it is made with beef, but I like the chicken variant. Basically consider your basic supermarket ramen noodles. Now, make it with chicken broth rather than the crap "flavor" packet, add freshly stir-fried chicken strips (stir-fried with lemon grass), onion (green and white), lemon grass, fresh coriander (cilantro) leaves, bean sprouts, a couple of slices of fresh jalapeno (you don't eat them, you're just letting the flavor cook into the broth a little), maybe some salt and 5-spice to taste. You basically have pho then. Use your chopsticks to dip the chicken strips into a small dish of mixed Sriracha sauce and Hoisin sauce (adjust the sweet-spicy mix to your pallate) and to pull the cooked noodles out of the broth, use your soup spoon to sip the broth, which is way good especially once the cilantro and onions let loose their flavor into it.
ReplyDeleteAnyhow, like I said, this is a Vietnamese fast food around here, and I just head out to the local pho shop rather than try to cook it myself. I mean, we're talking about a $5 meal (if you just drink cold water with it), not something fancy or expensive. It's pho-king good. (That's a pun, BTW -- "pho" has an omlaut over the "o", and is pronounced "fuh").
And what this has to do with Asian sweets, other than the fact that Asian sweets mystify me and don't appeal to me at all... (shrug). BTW, Indian sweets also have that same "what the fuh?" effect upon me (my last employer was Indian, the current one is Chinese, what, you thought American high-tech businesses were owned by Americans? Silly person!). I like their main cuisines, but the sweets... meh.
_ Badtux the Culinary Penguin
I made a good blackberry shake yesterday, sounds better than a moon cake.
ReplyDelete