As the Mid-Autumn Festival approaches, the debate about mooncakes has begun: sweet, salty or sweet and salty, Soviet style, Cantonese style or Beijing style, Internet celebrity fillings or classic traditions, and where there are mooncakes, there is a battlefield.

As the Mid-Autumn Festival approaches, the debate about mooncakes has begun: sweet, salty or sweet and salty, Soviet style, Cantonese style or Beijing style, Internet celebrity fillings are still classic and traditional, where there are mooncakes, there is a battlefield.

followed the footsteps of Taitai and traveled across the country to see Where is the most delicious and curious mooncake in China? Are mooncakes from your hometown on the list?

In ancient times, it is said that the Mid-Autumn Festival has already begun. At that time, mooncakes were an offering for worshiping the moon god during the ancient Mid-Autumn Festival. By the Ming Dynasty, the custom of eating mooncakes during the Mid-Autumn Festival spread among the people, and it was also regarded as a symbol of reunion.

Liuxin Custard Mooncake

In the Qing Dynasty, there were more records about mooncakes, and the production process became more sophisticated. Yuan Mei of the Qing Dynasty's " Suiyuan Food List" introduced: " meringue mooncakes are filled with pine nuts, walnut kernels, melon seeds, rock sugar, and lard. They taste sweet but fragrant, soft and greasy, and are very different. Ordinary". Unexpectedly, the history hidden behind a small mooncake is endless.

But for our generation born in the 1990s, there are very few young people who go out to buy mooncakes to eat, and most of them are just polite holiday gifts. But there are actually quite a few delicious mooncakes out there. If you don’t believe me, just take a look below!

As we all know, traditional mooncakes are said to be " Beijing Nanguang, East Su, West Yunnan ", and are divided into 4 factions, namely Cantonese style, Soviet style, Beijing style, and Yunnan style , which almost divide half of the mooncake market equally. .

Cantonese style - five-nut mooncake, lotus seed paste and egg yolk mooncake

Cantonese style mooncake which occupies a small part of the mooncake world. The shiny syrup skin is its magic weapon and what distinguishes it from other mooncakes. Maximum sign. The quality of syrup determines the taste and appearance of mooncakes. Not only that, the fillings in Cantonese-style mooncakes must be thick.

Taitai’s favorites in the Cantonese style are egg yolk lotus paste and red bean paste . Once they are baked, they are golden in color. The delicate taste of lotus paste melts away with just a sip between your lips, and the addition of egg yolk adds a layer of texture. Unfortunately, because of the characteristics of Cantonese mooncakes that are heavy in oil and sugar, I often can’t finish them after half a piece. (Guangzhou people often share one meal with the whole family)

The shelf life of many Cantonese-style mooncakes is as long as one or two years, so it is usually the first choice for everyone to give gifts. Maybe you will still find the ones left over from last year at home in the coming year. Cantonese style mooncakes!

Five-nut mooncake - the "black hole" in the mooncake world, especially the red and green silk inside, makes people talk about "silk". However, Cantonese people don’t take this responsibility seriously, because people have never tried at all. The authentic Cantonese "five kernels" are only almonds, walnut kernels, sesame seeds, olive kernels, and melon seeds . Moreover, many unscrupulous merchants pass off inferior products, resulting in most of the five-nut mooncakes on the market not having the original taste.

Knowledgeable gourmets will choose the Jinjiu Wuren mooncake from Wuchuan, the hometown of Chinese mooncakes. It has solid fillings, rich nut flavor, and is really delicious. In addition to five kernels and egg yolks, Guangzhou people who know how to eat put roasted goose and barbecued pork into the fillings, and eat mooncakes as a dish.

Recommended brands: Golden Moon Cake, Guangzhou Restaurant

Soviet-style mooncakes - hundred fruit mooncakes, fresh meat mooncakes

Soviet-style mooncakes that are loved by people in the free shipping area, formerly known as crispy mooncakes, with Soviet-style pastries Xiaojiabiyu It is also the only representative in the mooncake industry that can compete with Cantonese-style hard-skin mooncakes.

Its pastry is white with golden color and looks very shiny. When you take a bite, it is as thin as a cicada , and the pastry falls down in a fluttering sound. It is so crisp that it falls into pieces.

The fillings of Su-style mooncakes are divided into sweet and salty. sweet mooncakes are mainly baked, while salty mooncakes are more baked . When it comes to the representative sweetness of Su-style mooncakes, the top four must be clear water rose, refined mint, white sesame pepper and salt, and sanded lard . Each one is remarkable.

The representative of the salty taste is Shanghai meat mooncakes, which are freshly baked and eaten. Taitai's favorite is fresh out of the oven. It smells deliciously hot and the meat juices splash out when you bite into it. Every time around the Mid-Autumn Festival, Shanghainese crowds of people line up Guangming Village on Huaihai Middle Road and Laodafang on Nanjing Road.

Shanghainese who like to "make dojos in snail shells" have made new tricks on the basic fresh meat mooncakes, and upgraded them to crayfish fresh meat, pickled fresh meat, crab meat fresh meat , a proper Internet celebrity payment.

Recommended brands: Zhiweiguan, Xinghualou, Laodafang (fresh meat)

Yunnan style - flower cake , Yunnan moon cake

The new favorite in the mooncake industry in the past two years - Yunnan style mooncake, is a "late bloomer", Ming Dynasty It only appeared in the late Qing Dynasty and early Qing Dynasty. Yunnan-style cakes have crispy skin and are known as "hard-shell mooncakes". It is best at using local materials, including the flowers and cloud legs that are abundant in Yunnan, into mooncakes.

comes with romantic style flower cake, and the processed fresh petals are all wrapped into the inner . As soon as you take your mouth, the strong smell of roses robs your mouth, and the refreshing floral fragrance lingers in your mouth, as if you are immersed in a rose bath, fragrant but not greasy.

Cloud Leg Mooncake uses the best part of Xuanwei ham, . The fat and thin ham is mixed with honey and lard. The meat is fragrant and the sweet and salty mix is ​​perfect. No one of the two steals the limelight from the other! Yunnan leg stuffing is also combined with roses, egg yolks, and even matsutake mushrooms to wrap it together. Its popularity has skyrocketed, and it has spread beyond Yunnan.

Recommended brands: Jiahua, Pan Xiangji

Beijing style - Tijiang mooncake, Zi Laihong

Beijing style mooncake born under the roots of Huangcheng, has its own nobility. There are pulp mooncakes, furry mooncakes that are replicas of Soviet-style meringue mooncakes, the most down-to-earth tapioca red, and tapioca white . Each has its own merits.

Beijing Daoxiang Village official Weibo

Old Beijingers prefer Zilai red and Zilai white. Their names come from the different skin colors. Tapihong is made from hot dough and is golden in color; Tapibai is made from cold water dough and is clean white . The inside is filled with white sugar, rock sugar residue and nuts. (There is also a beautiful myth about Zi Laihong and Zi Lai Bai, saying that they are two colors of medicine made by the Jade Rabbit Fairy, used to cure diseases and save people)

The current Zi Lai Red and Zi Lai Bai have been upgraded from the old ones. , sweet-scented osmanthus, green and red silk and other preserved fruit ingredients complement each other, the texture is crisper, and it tastes sweet.

Recommended brands: Daoxiangcun

Hong Kong style - snowskin mooncakes, custard mooncakes

Many people have misunderstandings about Hong Kong-style mooncakes, thinking that they are the same type as Cantonese-style mooncakes, but in fact they are not. Hong Kong people have a unique view on mooncakes. likes to combine Chinese and Western elements. , snowskin mooncakes are the most convincing product.

Snow Skin Durian Mooncake

The outer shell of the Snow Skin Mooncake is made of glutinous rice flour, and the inside is mostly fruit and cream fillings. There is no need to bake and it tastes as cold as ice cream. Compared with the heavy oil characteristics of Cantonese-style mooncakes, it is also much less burdensome. I remember when I was a kid, Yuanzu’s snowskin mooncakes were a rare commodity. Now, if you eat them, you will definitely post them on WeChat Moments.

No one doesn’t love Hong Kong-style custard mooncakes! The Maxim's Liuxin Custard Mooncake , which was once hard to find, has conquered many foodies with its bursting calories of liquid milk. At that time, if you wanted to buy it, you had to look for purchasing agents everywhere. (But now Maxim’s has entered the mainland)

But the real founder of custard mooncakes is Peninsula Hotel . In 1986, they launched custard mooncakes , which is still famous today.

Recommended brands: Yuanzu, Maxim's, Peninsula Hotel

Teochew style - mung bean paste mooncakes, taro cakes, fermented bean curd cakes

Rongcheng Food official

Although Teochew style mooncakes are not included in the four major sects, their Jianghu status It cannot be shaken.

Xidirenhe official

It is also called the cake (楥 means lard in Chaoshan dialect). The white outer skin is lard mixed with flour, and the filling is basically sweet. The main representatives are mung bean paste and black bean paste mooncakes. And taro cake .

Compared with the delicate and dense texture of mung bean paste, taro pancakes have a firmer texture, with crispy skin and thin filling.

Chaoshan’s famous fermented bean curd cake is a combination of white meat, minced garlic, fermented bean curd, sugar, peanuts, and sorghum wine. The filling is sweet and salty, and it is even more delicious when paired with a cup of Kung Fu tea.

Recommended brands: Huamei, Rongcheng Food

Ning-style mooncakes - moss vegetable mooncakes

Ning-style mooncakes, which are very similar to Su-style mooncakes, are very popular among friends in the free shipping area. They are characterized by a harder crust. Moss vegetable mooncakes are a favorite of old Ningbo people. They use high-quality winter moss and are filled with sesame oil, melon seeds, peach kernels and other fillings to create a salt-and-pepper flavor. They are emerald green in color and salty in texture.

Recommended brands: Sanyang Nanhuo

Desktop - Mung Bean Cake

Taiwan: Yu Zhenxin official

Mung Bean Cake (pèng) is a traditional mooncake in Taiwan. The outer layer is puff pastry, the inside is sweet mung bean paste and shallots, and is baked on one side with lard.

Taiwanese people really love braised pork very much, and they also wrap braised pork in mung bean filling. When the fat of braised pork penetrates into the dense mung bean filling, the moist texture is amazing.

Inner Mongolia - Fengzhen Mooncake

Haipeng Fengzhen Mooncake Official

Fengzhen Mooncake, which looks like a cookie, is only a cake with no fillings inside. There is no cumbersome packaging, and it is more in line with the bold and informal characteristics of northerners.

Haipeng Fengzhen Mooncake Official

Fengzhen Mooncake is inseparable from the northern specialty sesame oil . The fusion of sesame oil and white sugar, and the overflowing aroma of charcoal grilling, all catalyze the brown color of Fengzhen Mooncake. Fluffy and sweet and delicious.

Recommended brands: Haipengfeng Town mooncakes

Qinghai large mooncakes

Pictures from the Internet

Qinghai large mooncakes can definitely be regarded as "wonderful" in the mooncake world! The unique shape and production method are also very unique. Steaming with a fan steamer, the large mooncakes can fill the entire steamer, which is full of posture.

Grind the couscous beans, red yeast rice, and turmeric to become the "pigment" added above, knead the dough once, add a little oil and pigment, and stack it layer by layer. When you cut it open, you will find that there are 7 or 8 layers of inside the , which are full of colors, fragrant and delicious.

Qin style - Xi'an crystal cake

Qin style mooncakes are mainly produced in Shaanxi, among which Xi'an's crystal cakes are the most famous. They are named crystal cakes because of their crystal clear, white skin and crispy fragrance. The small and exquisite ones have also been awarded the title of "crystal cakes". It was praised as " with gold base and silver background, and red seal in the center of ", and was even called "the leader of Qin Dynasty".

Recommended brand: Demaogong

Hui-style mooncakes with dried plums

Combined with sugar. The most representative one is the plum moon cake, which contains pickled wild soybean vegetables . It has a light fragrance and is very nutritious.

Recommended brands: Hu Xingtang, Deaf Mooncake

Quzhou - Quzhou Seed Cake

Pictures from the Internet

The representative of Quzhou Mooncake is Quzhou Seed Cake. uses sesame as the main raw material , and the cake surface is covered with unshelled White sesame. The kneading, fluffing and charcoal roasting processes all require ingenious polishing.

Recommended brand: Shao Yongfeng

After reading these 13 styles, 19 mooncakes with different flavors and characteristics, what have you planted? Everyone is also welcome to comment in the comment area. What is the most delicious mooncake in your opinion?

text | Zhudi

pictures | Siyu, Eleven

design | Eleven