Why 1 Billion People Eat This Cake Once a Year?

Once a year, roughly 1 billion people around the world eating this cake. Except, this is not one cake. Some are rich with lotus paste and egg yolk. Some are flaky all the way through. Some even filled with meat. And the modern ones, colorful snow-skinned mooncakes. This is our cake. It's Jiao Yan Ma Bi. This looks plain, but this means a lot to me. So how did all these different kinds of mooncakes become part of the same holiday? And today, I'm recreating this one I'm growing up with, first time making. And also tell you the story. This is the Sichuan Flaky Sesame Cake. My grandpa used to buy them in those paper-wrapped packaging. You can see this back in the 90s. This recipe is from a very old town in western Sichuan, very close to where I'm growing up. The filling is really simple. Six ingredients. Flour, sugar, sesame, salt, rapeseed oil, of course, Sichuan peppercorn. Yes, that might sound weird, but that's one of my favorite ingredients I like in this cake. Then we mix all the filling ingredients. And until you can form them into a ball. If you can hold them together, that's right. 30 seconds later. The tingling, fuzzy, the sensation on your tongue in a good way. And a little bit sweet. A lot of sesame fragrance. This is the flavor I remember. Wow. Now we're making the dough. So this little cake actually secretly in two doughs. It's one make this flaky layer and the other one holds everything together. The first dough, it's an oil dough. We mix everything together until it's smooth and not sticking to your hand. And that's ready. And the second one, it's water, oil, and flour. We knead the dough until it's smooth and elastic. Then you can see this little honeycomb bubbles. Then we put it on the side for 10 minutes. This local bakery in Sifeng has been making Mabie for generations. And trace it back to Ming Dynasty. While the dough is resting, I'm going to tell you a story about how mooncakes become a tradition that people come back to every year. Now, Chinese mom, story time. Yes, so mid-autumn festival is on the 15th day of the 8th month in the Chinese New Year calendar. I love my grandpa telling me the same story over and over, especially during the moon festival. We're standing on the third floor balcony. He's standing next to me while he's smoking. He points to the moon and says, look carefully, that big shadow there, that's the tree. And under, that's a little person there chopping the tree. So I really look and look, staring at the moon for a very long time, looking for the tree, then for the tiny person under the tree. And honestly, sometime I really thought, something's moving, must be him chopping the tree. I really believe it. The story about this guy Wugong, he's learning becoming immortal, but he wasn't practiced very hard and made a mistake. So the guards sent him to the moon. The moon considered the cold palace for the punishment and told him he needs to cut down this lorry tree, then he can go home. But this tree is magic. When he cut it open, the tree healed itself back instantly. So he just chopped over and over. He's still chopping the tree up there, I think, forever. The story is old, as written over 1200 years ago back in Tang dynasty. So the moon already has stories, rituals, and the cake comes later. Now, there's something amazing. In 1972, in Xinjiang Tulufan desert, they found this cake in the tomb from Tang dynasty. It's about 1400 years old. It's round. It's like a flower pattern stamp on the top. Also, they found the other pastry and dumpling. But this is important. The Tang dynasty back then, they did not call this cake moon cake. And there's no evidence connecting this cake to mid-autumn festival. It was just a cake for the rich, wealthy, or emperor. So this is a familiar cake but no tradition yet. But we're gonna dig deeper. So fast forward another 700 years. The most famous mid-autumn poem written by Shu Shi in 1076. This even made into a modern song. People still sing every year during moon festival. Maybe I can sing it two seconds for you. 但愿人长久,千里共嬋娟 But the poem didn't mention about moon cakes at all. So by the time in 1200s, 月饼 moon cake, this word finally show up in the food records. By the 1500s, the Ming dynasty, the connection becomes clear. There was a writer named Tian Wucheng wrote about a custom during mid-autumn festival. People gifting each other moon cakes take a meaning of reunion because they are round. So this was the first time moon cake, mid-autumn, and reunion. All three things show up in one sentence. People would worship the moon with round offerings and cut the moon cakes to share with the family during mid-autumn festival. Once that idea caught on and every region star make their own moon cakes. China is so big. Imagine back then there's no communication. We just make our own cakes. Yeah, we agree on the holiday. But we never agree on one cake. After dinner, we eat sweet moon cakes with some tea. Then staring at the moon. I hope you still see the wu gan chopping down the tree. And this year, I got something new. Thanks to Roy Fair for sponsoring today's video. For my mid-autumn festival table, I put all different kind of moon cakes together. The traditional lotus paste. The flaky ribbing paste. And my Sichuan peppercorn sesame cake. And some of the modern ones too. I found this blue dinner set on Roy Fair. And this set looks beautiful. Also goes well with my Chinese sets. Look how these all different kind of moon cakes stand out on the blue plates. And I got this white tray too. Of course, we eat moon cakes. We also drink tea. So I put my tea sets in the tray. Put in the middle of the table. Then we will eat moon cake and drink the tea. It's still the same kitchen. Same table. I just change a few things. But suddenly I feel change of scenery. Kind of refreshing. Now my table is ready for mid-autumn festival. Let's go back. Finish making my moon cakes. Now the big dough is ready. We put the oil dough inside the big dough. Wrap it like a big dumpling. Then we roll it out like a big pancake. This is the fun part. So in the middle, poke a hole. Then we roll it outwards into a big ring. Maybe like a big rope. Now we cut into pieces. I measure with my Chinese eyeballs. You can use scale. It's about 30 to 33 grams. Let's see. Perfect. You need to practice with me. Then you have Chinese eyeballs. And this is the Cifeng style. Cifeng has its own emperor legends. Back to 1300s, the local people say the Ming dynasty founder, Emperor Zhu Yuanzhang, once passing by the town. Then he tried this Sichuan peppercorn sesame pastry cake. And then he really loved it. Then he asked people to send in from Cifeng every year during mid-autumn festival. Well, back to our dough. So now we have the individual, the small pieces. Then we press it down like a dumpling wrapper. Roll it out a little bit. Then we put the filling in. Wrap it. Then they put the cake on a bamboo basket with some water. Pretty damp. And sesame. Because that way the sesame can stick to the cake. The part is difficult. They say need five years to perfect the skill. It's shaking the bamboo basket. Get the sesame on top. Five years practice. I don't have a bamboo basket. But I have blue plate doing the same job. Okay. Not so bad. Look at that. I think that's good enough. I'm not selling this unless you want to buy. Looking good. So they are almost ready for the oven. Now we put all the cake on the baking sheet. And look at this. They have this little machine. Poke two holes on top. I'm just poking with knife. So the air can escape. The one crack. You can see some of the cake. I'm gonna put in. I forgot to poke a hole. They actually puff up. They all puff up. The air, the steam. Oh, become a little bit bigger. While the cake is baking. I hope turned out to be good. I actually went back to China in June this year. The first time in eight years. I visited my grandparents finally. But this time was different. Well, let's try this. Let's break around open. Oh, actually it looks flaky. Wow. Has layers. Let's take a bite. Flaky layers. And crunchy outside. A little bit sweet, but not too sweet. And the tingling numbing. This is so fragrant. This tastes like. This tastes. This tastes like my grandpa brought me. Tastes the same. Gorgeous mooncake guys. Thank you for watching all the way here. Listen to my story. And I think the best mooncake to me. Is the one from my memory. From what I remember the flavor. I grew up eating. That's the best mooncake to me. So hope you make some memories with your loved ones. And you will come back one day. Say to me. Yes, that's my mooncake. I hope you'll find one. So I hope you're enjoying this one. Kind of a new format. I really love to tell stories. And my next story will be Mapo Tofu. What do you think? So give me suggestions. There are many Chinese food stories. What do you want to hear? I will see you in my next Chinese mom food story. So if you are not subscribed. Which 50% of people not subscribed. Watching my video. So I hope you subscribe. Come back to my vlog next week. Hello, hello. This one is for you. I love this shrimp peppercorn. So, so good.