As the summer holiday season fades away, it is time to prepare for the Mid-Autumn Festival and Yauatcha, London’s Chinese dim sum teahouse, has you covered. The festival, also known as Moon Festival, is the second most significant date in the Chinese calendar, after the Lunar New Year of course, which honours the moon and a fruitful harvest. The festival is usually celebrated with moon gazing, family banquets, and delicious mooncakes. This year, Yauatcha have crafted its own limited-edition mooncakes in three sumptuous flavours to bite into when celebrating in the restaurant or devouring at home.
Try Yauatcha's Mid-Autumn Festival mooncakes
The Mid-Autumn Festival, like with many Chinese customs, dates back to ancient times, and started with the worshipping of the moon and thanking it for a bountiful harvest that year, and years to come. However the custom of eating mooncakes during this time holds a much deeper history then it being just a tasty treat. According to historical records, the first mooncake was introduced during the Tang Dynasty (618-907 AD). On the 15th day of the 8th lunar month General Lijing, commanded by Emperor Li Shimin of the Tang Dynasty, led his troops to victory against the Turks. As a token of appreciation, a Tibetan trader offered the emperor some round cakes which quickly gained popularity and were named ‘mooncakes’.
These delicious confectionaries also helped to overthrow the government in the 13th century. The Mongols succeeded in invading China, with Kublai Khan establishing the Yuan dynasty. The new rule was oppressive and many Chinese people were monitored under close guard, and expected to give up their own food and wine. Liu Bowen, a rebel leader, decided to plan a rebellion during the Mid-Autumn Festival, and distributed mooncakes to Chinese residents in the guise of a blessing to the longevity of the Mongol emperor. As Mongols didn’t eat mooncakes, a hidden message was placed within each pastry parcel saying; ‘attack the Mongols on the 15th day of the 8th month.’ This simple plan succeeded and the Mongols were overthrown.
This year the Mid-Autumn Festival falls on 17 September, and to celebrate Yauchata have crafted three packaged interpretations of the traditional pasties- Traditional Baked Egg Custard, offers a classic Cantonese-style custard filling wrapped up in a golden pastry crust; Snowskin Earl Grey, has an Earl Grey and white chocolate shell with a mango cream filling, bundled up in a snowskin dough; and Snowskin Musang King Durian, which celebrates the unusual sweet and savoury fruit which has underlying tastes of caramel ,vanilla and almond again packaged in a white snowskin dough, all available until 24th September.
To immerse in the full Mid-Autumn Festival spirit both Yauatcha Soho and City outposts will be decorated in illustrations across its windows and patisserie counters marking the occasion in festive fashion.
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