Happy Mooncake Festival!

Last night we had the honor of eating once again at my second Aunt's house. Luckily, the focus was on the bro since he was visiting town. Comments made about his weight (he is very slim) and mine (I am not) as well as arguments about whether the chicken wing tip had more cholesterol than chicken feet dominated the evening. Yes, the usual family dinner type convo.


Going through the highlights of the ginormous meal was the excellent chilled, slightly seasoned bitter gourd...




the ubiquitous shark's fin...






delicious Chinese mushrooms with chestnuts...





the spicy, slightly charred, gorgeously tender and flavorful pork neck...




and many others...

The dessert, as is often the case, was the veritable icing on the cake.


We started small, with lovely glutinous rice dumplings in hot ginger syrup soup.

The small ones had no filling and the larger ones were filled with ginger flavored sugar which had melted during the warming process into a little explosion of sweetness.



Lovely, plump with a nice chewiness, they were delectable balls of handmade yumminess.


Then my Aunt brought out a big box. As you can see, it was a very large mooncake...

so large in fact that it contained...

wait for it... a whopping 18 salted egg yolks!!!



For those of you not in the know, the more egg yolks, the more expensive and valuable it is supposed to be.

Luckily my Aunt didn't want us to die of a heart attack at her table and only cut a corner out for us to try.


But what a corner!

I'm ashamed to admit it. As much as I don't think I like mooncake, I think I secretly do. It was absolutely delicious.



A close up shot for those of you unable (or unwilling) to share in Mid-Autumn festival eating....