月饼 yuèbǐng
calkins
September 12, 2008, 05:17 AM posted in General Discussion
In honor of Mid-Autumn Moon Festival, September 14.
yuèbǐng
T : 月餅
S : 月饼
Example Sentences
这些月饼是澄沙馅的。
zhèxie yuèbǐng shì dèng shā xiàn de.
These moon cakes are stuffed with fine and smooth sweetened bean paste.
中秋节到了, 超市在展销各式月饼。
Zhōngqiūjié dàole, chāoshì zài zhǎnxiāo gè shì yuèbǐng.
The mid-autumn festival is coming, the supermarkets are displaying and selling all kinds of moon cakes.
bodawei
November 08, 2009, 02:19 PM
Actually this is more along the lines of what I was thinking of, Changye. I have seen a number of variations on this and right now can't find the particular one I was after. It is lengthened, and the lines are somewhat straighter. And it is usually drawn perfectly symmetrical. I guess that there are many variations developed over the ages.
bababardwan
September 13, 2008, 02:07 PMfound a picture of a "snow skin mooncake" but I would also be interested if this is what Sebire is referring to.
bababardwan
September 13, 2008, 02:16 PMthese look like they have the characters on top: 
calkins
September 13, 2008, 02:29 PMHa ha, I love the little pig 饼干 bǐnggān in your last photo!
changye
September 13, 2008, 02:33 PM看样子，中国人非常讲究月饼！
cassielin
September 13, 2008, 03:14 PMyeah, there are lots of different types! actually, they are different tastes! My favorite is 红豆沙馅的月饼.(moon cakes with red bean paste inside)
bazza
September 13, 2008, 07:41 PMDoes the moon cake in the main picture have 昌門（昌门） written on it?
calkins
September 13, 2008, 09:44 PMThe making of the moon cake:
Bazza, it does look like 昌門. What does that mean? Prosperous entry? Prosperous opening? Prosperous beginning?
calkins
September 13, 2008, 01:25 PMSebire, what are snow moon cakes? Icing on top?
bababardwan
September 13, 2008, 11:20 PMcalkins,
thanks heaps for the video.Great to see how it's done.
cassielin,
I really liked red bean flavoured cakes when I was in Taiwan but don't think they were mooncakes.I wonder what they were?
calkins
September 13, 2008, 11:29 PMbababardwan, 不客气！
gesang says：
What kind of molasses is this?
I think it's the sticky kind ;)
sebire
September 15, 2008, 07:32 PMOh yes, those are the "snow" ones I was talking about!
Mooncakes are actually really fun to make, though in our family we cheat and buy the lotus paste stuff ready-made. Then you have to stretch the tiniest ball of pastry around the big ball of lotus paste. Looks like it should defy physics, but it seems to work!
I fed a mooncake to my housemates once. It didn't go down well.
dunderklumpen
October 27, 2009, 07:34 PM大家好!
I have just made a mooncake-mold and I am cooking golden syrup as I type. I'm looking for a receipt to make the red bean paste. If anyone knows a good one I'd be glad to have it. Extra glad if it is a traditional one, written in chinese ^_^
dunderklumpen
November 08, 2009, 10:09 AM大家好!
I found a recipe on wikipedia. Next problem: what characters should I carve into the mooncake mold? I'd like some traditional text. Something like Longevity.
bodawei
November 08, 2009, 10:29 AM@dunderklumpen
寿 shòu。 But there is an ancient form of this character (can't use the keyboard to write it unfortunately) that is conveniently symmetrical - would look great. In fact I am sure that it is used on lots of 月饼。
changye
November 08, 2009, 11:40 AM
Hi dunderklumpen
The character bodawei mentioned is probably an oracle bone script form of "寿" (shou4). You can see it in the webpage below. It's the fourth character in the right line. Please click the picture in the page to see larger view.
gesang
September 13, 2008, 10:34 PMWow, this seems so easy... put flour and molasses together and you have the mooncake dough?
What kind of molasses is this?
sebire
September 12, 2008, 04:46 PMThere are lots of different types. I like the ones with the eggs in the middle. Have you tried the "snow" ones? They are covered in some kind of icing. Apparently mooncakes are incredibly calorific!