I tried all the Mooncakes for you

If you ever heard of or tried mooncakes, chances are what you've had is this, Cayenne's Yuebing or 广式月饼. But fun fact, this type of invert syrup crust, sort of egg yolk stuffed cake, that everyone else of China think of as mooncake, is just one type, and comparatively, not even all that traditional. It was invented around the turn of the 20th century by two pretty legendary restaurants, And from there, it spread to Hong Kong, Singapore, and Chinatowns across four corners of the earth. But if you went back in time before that point and had a Chinese mooncake, it would probably look a lot more like this, featuring a flaky crust laminated with lard. But this type of mooncake is not dying at all, this one's from Suzhou and is well and alive. And similar style can be found in Chaozhou, and in Yunnan, you can also see some similar crust, but it's often stuffed with ham or roast. There's a whole world of Chinese mooncakes. There's mooncake that's basically just a big loaf of more bread, there's mooncake that's stuffed with traditional Chinese cheese, there's more than mooncake that's stuffed with custard or chocolate, and even an old school Shanxi mooncake that's just basically an empty shell. So today we're gonna try them all and see if we can crown our favorite mooncakes in all of China. But in doing so, we should probably also address the elephants in the room. I've met a lot of travelers in China, expats in China, foreign friends in Thailand, and I've heard it so much, that's almost a meme by this point, that Westerners just don't like mooncake. Now, frankly speaking, this is my food, it's not some holy artifact from an Asian land that we should all revert, it doesn't really affect my life if you don't like something delicious. Lots of Chinese people hate French macaron, and they're wrong too. But, because I know a lot of you watching are from the West and new to the sport, so in addition to my rating according to my Chinese palate, we'll also have a dedicated panel of guai lou. So hopefully by the end, you will have a clearer path towards what kind of mooncake that you may wanna try. So, mooncake tasting begins. First, let's try the classic Cantonese one, lotus seed paste with agyo as our baseline. It will be number 11 on our list, and let's give it a go. Smells good as I remember, sweet, savory, rich, lotus seed paste is kind of like elegantly sweet. But that's just my opinion as a Cantonese, let's hand it over to our international panel and see what they think. Next, we'll go over to the Suzhou type, this is the more traditional mooncake, the more classic one with the flaky white skin that's laminated with lard, more crisp, crispy, flaky. This is the rose with red bean paste from Suzhou, give it a go. Oh, pretty good, not too sweet as an Asian can give a dessert highest price. Yeah, with a little bit of like rose fragrant, red bean paste is actually one of my favorite mooncake feelings. Oh, this is hard, is it above or below the Cantonese one? One rank below. So now, let's see how our international panel thinks. Okay, next one, still Suzhou style, but salt and pepper. This is the sweet and savory one, I believe there's sugar and nuts inside. Let's give it a go. I'll put it below the previous red bean paste one. Let's see how our friends think. I know. It's a little confusing. It is confusing. I think I like it. Like, where's the salt? Like a little bit of salt, I guess. It's like the salt in American style cookies. Okay, so this is Chris from the future editing this. Now, for our international panel, we basically assumed that all of our preferences, they kind of cluster around similar ideas. And for me and my buddy Skelly, who's from Canada, they basically did. But then our friend Yusuf, who comes from a Palestinian family and grew up in the UK, he ended up having some pretty radically different tastes. Now, with the benefit of hindsight, that obviously makes sense, because he grew up on Middle Eastern desserts, he grew up on British desserts, and those are obviously pretty different than North America. So starting from this one, we ended up splitting our international list into Yusuf's list and the North American list. Moving on, we will have the Yunnan rose one. Same, similar, like similar kinds of like lard laminated flaky crust, but with local rose jam inside. This one looks really fragrant when I cut it up. Let's see how it tastes like. I like this. I'll put it above the county's lotus seed paste. All right, let's head over to the panel. All right, next we have the classic Yunnan ham stuffed one. It's that kind of like sweet, savory feeling with ham and sugar. And also I think toasted flour as the filler to stick it together. Now, let's give it a go. From the Hongta group. I like it for a reason. Now this one is ranking above the county's one and above the Yunnan rose one for me. Let's see. This one I got it from the bakery yesterday, so it's like probably the freshest. Yeah, that's what whiskey is. Okay, next one we'll have beef jerky one from made by the Muslim community in Yunnan. Okay, taste-wise it's pretty good, but the jerky is pretty hard. So there's some kind of like textural dilemma there. I'll put it below the county's one. Let's see how they think. As you bite into it, as you keep on chewing, it's pretty fragrant. Yeah, the texture is a little... Yeah, for me the texture is a little bit weird. Yeah, if the beef jerky can be softer. But it's a jerky, right? Yeah, I think if you cook it with honey or maltose and then mix it with flour, that would be better. I don't mind it though. Now moving on, we'll have the massive Yunnan mooncake that's supposed to be stuffed with the local cheese, zhu bing. But I can't really see it here in the filling. So let's see if we can taste it. I can't. So anyway, it's kind of weird. And then it does have that kind of sandiness coming from the granulated sugar. It's a little bit too sweet for me. Right now I will have to put it at the bottom. Sorry. Let's see how others think. I don't get anything. Oh, I got sugar. No. Maybe you have a different... Oh, I got some rose now. But where's the cheese? Is it white? Don't you have cheese? It's like the sheets of cheese. No, no, no, no. It's like the... Oh, okay. I see it now. It's the brown bits. They deep fry it. Oh, I actually like it. It has an anise kind of flavor. Like an Indian sweet. Yeah, it actually does. If they have mint inside, I may prefer it. Yeah, although I like Indian sweets. It's pretty sweet. Yeah. So for Indians, you may like this one. So next one. It's the kind of cakey one from Inner Mongolia. Fung Zhen Moon Cake. They call it like Hun Tang Yue Bing. Mix sugar, mix syrup. It's just cake. There's no filling. With flaxseed oil. I like the smell of it. Let's give it a taste. Kind of like cakey. Firmer than a sponge cake. Not too sweet. This is hard. I'm gonna put it above Cayone's Lotus Seed. Actually. What do you guys think? Yeah, about Cayone's Lotus Seed. Okay, let's see. I'm having like a red date cake. I do like it. Feels like muffin, right? It's like a brand muffin. Yeah. It's nice, but it doesn't feel special. Yeah, like I find it in a continental hotel's breakfast buffet. All right. So next, we'll also still have the Inner Mongolian one. The same type. But this one, it's rock sugar and honey. See if it's... It looks like a cake already. Interesting. This one's a lot less fragrant. I'll put it below the Yunnan jerky. Hey, come over. Let me try. Yeah. Try it. It's got an odd taste for me. All right. Next one, we'll have the Shanxi egg skin one. It also looks like cake. Let's see if it's less dry than the previous rock sugar one. There's one thing. I do like red date paste. I'm gonna put it under the Yunnan ham right now. A lot less dry than the previous one. Does it feel like fake mutant? A little bit. Yeah. Honestly, you just put that in my head. I don't know if it doesn't... I'm not like, oh, this is red date. It's like red date with something else. It doesn't taste just like red date. It tastes good. With something else. Maybe it's the brown sugar that they fry the red date with. Oh, yeah. Yeah, there's like that kind of molasses. Yeah. All right. Next one, the same egg skin, but five nuts. Personally, never been a fan of five nuts. We'll see how this one is. Yeah, no. I'll put it just above the Yunnan cheese. Just can't do five nuts. What are the five nuts? Let's make some pistachios. Yeah, sure. What are the five nuts? Go again. Walnut, sesame seeds, pumpkin seeds. Pistachios? Apricot. Apricot seeds. I don't know. I kind of like this one. I mean, if you like it, it's good. Then like, you know, this is just personal taste for me. Because it also has dried like candied orange peels or like tangerine peel. Yeah, there's something in that. So you also have that kind of like flavor in that for me, like in my brain, it's very clashing with each other. So like nut and citrus. Yeah. I love it. I know. So next, we'll have the also Shanxi mooncake, but the empty shell one. It smells really good. Very strong flaxseed oil fragrance when it's like right out of the oven after I reheat it. So let's see how is it. Molasses-y, crackery. I do like it. I'm gonna put it below the red date paste, the Shanxi red date paste. You can get the one with on the bottom that's a little bit more sugar. The ones on top, it's like less brown sugar. It's just so different. If it's straight from the oven, it's actually really good. Yeah. This one's also a little stale. Okay, so this is the steamed one from Lanzhou. Smells really good. Let's see what it's like. Interesting. It's like a big baozi. Give it a try. I don't know where I want to put it. It's not very flavorful, but I want to keep eating it. But this is something you'd have like as a breakfast thing, you know? You have it on Mid-Autumn Festival as the mooncake. This is the mooncake in like Gansu and Qinghai province. Yeah. That fast? No, it's very different. I like it as a food, but I do agree it doesn't really hold up to the mooncakes as a treat. I do kind of like eating it, but it's not a mooncake in my head. Yeah, so I'm gonna put it above the... For me too, also the Mongolian honey. So now we have Xinjiang one, which has like a harder crust plus... Oh, walnuts. It's a little crumbly. I guess I'll just do this. Interesting. It feels like it's matching the Xinjiang climate. Also pretty dry. Maybe that's why the Tang Dynasty mooncake or the Tang Dynasty cake that looks like a mooncake can last a thousand years at the archaeological site. Well, not that dry, but... It's like, think about naan. Maybe it's fresh. When it's like freshly baked, it will be good. For me, this one is definitely nice naan. Okay. Okay, another one from Xinjiang, which is the black wheat as the wrapper. And inside, it's also just whole nuts. Let's see. Okay. Also reflects the Xinjiang climate. Got some sensibility there. Pretty dry. But I will prefer it before the previous one, actually, I think. So the Xinjiang rose and walnuts one is very interesting. I actually really like the whole walnuts inside, and then the rose has some nice sweetness. But the crust, it's pretty dry. It's kind of good, but not my favorite. So next one, let's move on to the Chaozhou lard cake. Let's do the taro paste one. I used to like it a lot in Xinjiang. Let's see. I do like it. It will be below the Yunnan ham, below whatever the Shanxi red date paste. Although the taro paste is not super pure, I would say. They mix other stuff in. If it's pure taro paste, it will be great. Well, that would keep you alive, I'm afraid. Yes. And that's how I rate all my food. Oh, the filling itself is also fried with lard. There's lard on the wrapper, there's lard in the filling. It seemed like you didn't really like it very much. It was too heavy. It's too oily. I would judge as well. No, but it's too oily. Like even just one bite, I was like, oh. Yeah, it is very oily. Yeah, but I like the flavor. I'm too oily, just right. I would put it above the Cantonese. I would also put it above the Cantonese, but. Okay, next. Still Chaozhou one, but this time it's the red bean paste with salted egg. Let's give it a go. I like it. Goes above the taro paste. I like it a lot better than the taro. But it's also because the taro is not pure. This is a higher quality bean paste than that was a taro paste. But I prefer taro paste to bean paste. Steph, you're putting the Chaozhou ones above the Cantonese one. So far, yes, but we haven't got to my favorite Cantonese one. So now moving towards back to Cantonese world, we are having the also red bean paste with aged tangerine peels and a little bit of salted egg yolk. Oh, I'm going to put that right below the Yunnan ham. How do you feel about it? It's like nutty chocolate. Yeah, that's not chocolate, right? It's red bean. It's just it's a good red bean paste. It's so good. This is the best red bean paste. They fry it like very slowly over charcoal, charcoal, not wood. They do it like slowly over wood fire. So it's like almost like brown. So then you have that kind of deep nuttiness. That's so good. That reminds me of when all my hippie friends started making like chocolate brownies that are blue bean. It feels clean. Yeah. Is that a weird description? It feels very clean. Yeah, it's like a very like clean, but like deep, rich, but clean. That kind of taste. While it's officially thing. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. I think that's like very important. All right. So next we'll have another Cantonese one, which is the winter melon one. My favorite in college after my roommate introduced it to me. I don't know how they would like it. I already know I would like it. Yeah. I'm guessing you guys probably wouldn't like it as much as I do. It's too fruity. All right, we're moving towards the end here. This is our Hainan one with coconut and pandan and salted egg. First time trying Hainan style. I think you guys may like it too. So, okay, our last two will be the innovative one. This is the Taoshan skin or Momoyama skin. I've heard mixed reviews from people. Let's give it a go. My first time. I understand where the mixed reviews are from. And I also understand why the analogy of chewing gum. So it's a skin that like people in Taiwan took inspiration from the Japanese wagashi, like the Japanese traditional sweets. They use those kind of things that you can make pretty flowers on those kind of thing. They took that skin as this wrapper. And it looks really good. The one that you put in a big wooden thing. You can do that. But then usually the way they do wagashi, you have a, you kind of form it into a ball and start using tools, wooden tools to just kind of like carve some like flowers or look on it. The thing about this kind of thing, they always need to add so much like kind of preservatives. So it's like kind of pretty artificial. Tastes like it looks like a toy cake. Yeah. So last one, moving to our uh snow skin, which is this is just from the fridge. So it's kind of cool. Inside it's either ice cream or custard, cream cheese. This is matcha and chocolate. Interesting combination. Let's see how it is. Okay. It's like a more than dessert. It's, I don't know. It's like a dessert part. It also doesn't feel like mooncake to me. I don't know where I want to put the snow skin. Yeah. I think I'd rather have like ice cream. Yeah. Yeah. Just have ice cream. Yeah. So, uh, we try all the mooncakes and it's pretty feeling. So for me personally, my top three are the Yunnan ham, the Cantonese red day, specifically the one from Xinhui because they do a very good job with that. And then the Hainan coconut one. So I would happily recommend this for anyone that are looking for mooncakes. But something I want to be clear is that I actually really don't like rankings because I think all of this are people's food. It meant something for the local culture and local diet. So it's really like, you know, not up to me to say if something's good or not good. So I think they're all good mooncake. But something it's also actually not fair because some of the mooncakes, especially the Yunnan ones, they are freshly made locally. So they're actually like good. I just got it from the bakery yesterday, but some of them are like mailed from Inner Mongolia or Xinjiang. So like, think about the week that it was on the road. Of course, they got like more sale. And I believe they will just taste awesome freshly out from the oven. All right. So check out the sub stack for a detailed ranking post and some more background stories about the mooncake. And thank you for everyone that's supporting us on Patreon. And don't forget to subscribe for more Chinese cooking and maybe tasting videos.