Eco-friendly, lighter-flavored mooncakes flourish on the market
Mooncakes on sale at Xing Hua Lou on Wednesday.
More than a week before this year's Mid-Autumn Festival, a battle of mooncakes, the festival's traditional delicacy, has begun, with new trends in the market.
In addition to focusing solely on unconventional flavors that challenge people's perceptions, mooncake makers are rolling out products with lighter flavors and simpler packaging.
This year's Mid-Autumn Festival falls on September 10. It is a festival marked by family reunions, appreciation of full moon, and the consumption of mooncakes.
The Xing Hua Lou restaurant in Huangpu District, the city's oldest Cantonese-style eatery, has introduced several new flavors this year, including raw coconut lattes, avocado walnut kernels, white peach oolong, and Parma ham.
"Milk tea-flavored mooncake proved popular last year, and we made some innovations based on it this year," said Zhi Jing, Xing Hua Lou's deputy general manager.
Almost 10 different types of tea have been introduced into mooncakes, blending the fragrance of tea into seasonal delicacies.
"I like coffee, and the raw coconut latte flavor sounds interesting," said Dai Min, a young consumer in her 20s. "I'd like to give it a shot, and I'll also get some classic flavored mooncakes for my parents."
Just like smartphones, there are now pro and mini versions of mooncakes. Head to Xing Hua Lou to grab a "mini" mooncake or a "pro" mooncake.
The mini version comes in a gift box with one mooncake that weighs about 150 grams and comes in two flavors: egg yolk lotus paste and egg yolk bean paste. Each box costs 38 yuan.
"We hope to get young people to try the old brand's food," Zhi said.
A gift box designed by Shangri-La for children features the patterns of a lantern adorned with a revolving circle of paper horses.
For the pro version, each mooncake in the gift box weighs 100 grams rather than the traditional 80 grams, making it more suitable for families to share. The fillings are classic flavors such as egg yolk bean paste and egg yolk lotus paste.
Both versions are popular, with the mini version selling out almost every day.
"I bought three boxes of of classic flavors of mooncakes and sent them to my parents via express delivery," said Li Yanfei, a Shanghai white-collar worker and native of Zhangjiagang, Jiangsu Province. "They enjoy eating mooncakes and can sample Shanghai's time-honored flavors."
An East-meets-West approach infuses vitality into traditional food at the 96-year-old Sunya Cantonese Restaurant at Nanjing Road Pedestrian Mall.
This year's special offerings include mooncakes stuffed with foie gras and fresh meat, tuna with mustard sauce, rattan pepper fish, and xiefen, or crab powder and shrimp.
Because of the bones, fish is rarely used in mooncakes, according to executive chef Huang Renkang.
"In our rattan pepper fish mooncake, we use basa fish (a species of catfish) because it has few bones and is tender," he explained.
The spicy flavor of the rattan pepper fish mooncake has been toned down to make the flavor lighter.
The yanduxian, a traditional Shanghai soup of pork and bamboo shoots, and mooncake are also popular at the restaurant.
To cater to the tastes of young people, Shangri-La Group has upgraded its mooncake recipes by introducing light spicy satay beef, sweet and sour mangosteen custard, matcha, sweet scented osmanthus wine, and ceylon tea flavors.
Its guochao (China-chic) mooncake gift box combines flavors from different regions, including Cantonese lotus paste, Suzhou-style dried meat floss, Yunnan ham stuffed mooncakes, and Chanshan-style mung bean pastry.
A children's gift box is decorated with the patterns of a lantern and a revolving circle of paper horses and rabbits.
The mooncakes are stuffed with fruits like grapes, leeches, and passion fruit, and children can try their hand in making a mooncake.
The exquisite package design of the time-honored brands caters to the young.
Packaged mooncakes on display for sale.
According to a new national standard that went into effect on August 15, packages of mooncake should have no more than three layers, as opposed to four in the past. This year's mooncake packages will be lighter than usual. Under the new standard, mooncakes can no longer be wrapped in precious metals, rosewood, or other expensive materials, and should not be sold in boxes prepackaged with other commodities.
"We adjusted the porosity of the packages," Zhi explained.
To make mooncakes that are less sweet and greasy, healthier recipes are replacing traditional ones.
Dingdong Maicai, an online platform, said that it is using sugar substitute in place of sugar and pine nuts and cashew nuts to replace preserved or candied fruit in traditional wuren, a five-nut stuffing, mooncakes to reduce sugar intake.
Long lines have also been seen in front of food stores on Huaihai Road M. and Nanjing Road Pedestrian Mall, with people waiting to sink their teeth into hot handmade fresh meat mooncakes, a local favorite.
"From the recipe to the raw ingredients and techniques, we have always stuck to the most traditional things," said chef Liu Jinyan of the time-honored Guang Ming Cun restaurant, one of the city's most popular fresh pork mooncake restaurants.
"Despite the booming business, we have never compromised on the criteria," he said. "For example, the ratio of lean to fat meat is carefully controlled to ensure the best taste."
A magic mooncake tasting journey
