All the Mooncakes in the Cosmos

Celebrate Mid-Autumn Festival by sampling all the mooncakes in the cosmos. Here's a listing of the various styles of mooncakes and the places to get them around the city.

Cantonese
The most popular variety throughout China, these mooncakes are known for their soft, thin golden skin emblazoned with beautiful patterns and auspicious wishes. These are a little oilier than other types of mooncakes, but very tender and smooth in texture. Common fillings range from fruits and nuts to vegetables and meat. Sweet fillings include taro, lotus seed, almonds, walnuts, fruits and sesame. Savory varieties include salted egg yolk, Cantonese BBQ pork or goose, mushrooms, and occasionally even abalone.

Su style
This style originates from the area encompassing Suzhou, Hangzhou and Shanghai. The skin of Su (苏) mooncakes are crispy, the fillings savory, sweet, or often, a combination of both. There are two ways of making Su mooncakes – the predominantly sweet ones are roasted in an oven, while the savory cakes are baked on an iron griddle. For the sweet ones, osmanthus and rose are often used for filling, while the most common fillings for savory Su-style mooncakes are spiced and, of course, “fresh meat,” as the locals call them.

Beijing
Beijing mooncakes are very popular in northern China. The traditional Beijing style mooncake’s ratio of skin to stuffing is about 1:1. Compared to other styles of mooncakes, Beijing’s variety of flavors is a bit narrow. The most popular are “five nuts” (伍仁) and zilaihong/zilaibai (自来红/自来白), which feature a mixed stuffing of flowers, nuts and more.

Yunnan style
A distinctive kind of Yunnan mooncake features specialty Yunnan ham with honey, lard and sugar. The dough skin is usually yellow or brownish-red, crusty outside with many layers and an oily, resplendent sheen. The filling of minced cubes of aromatic ham is invigorated by the sweet taste of honey.

Anhui
Anhui-style mooncakes are distinguished for their diminutive elegance and jade-like white skin. The most representative stuffing is prune. The dough skins of these mooncakes are made of vegetable oil, with the fillings typically composed of pickled prune with sugar, combining to create a very special flavor.

Chaozhou
Chaoshan or Chaozhou, known as Chao (潮), indicates a geo Although these come from the same province as Cantonese mooncakes, they are very different. These are distinguishable by their soft yet crispy texture, and white, bright skin. The most common fillings are mashed red or green bean.

Quzhou
Zhejiang province’s Quzhou mooncakes are known for their brown-yellow skin, and are always filled with sesame stuffing.

Ice Skin
To imitate the cold moon, people created this variety of mooncake, with skin composed of starch and cream rather than of grains. Ice skin mooncakes are eaten directly without being roasted. To date, the powder to make the special skin for these mooncakes has only been seen in southern China. Beijingers must purchase them online.

Ice Cream
Actually more like mooncake-shaped ice cream than ice cream-filled mooncakes. Many ice cream brands, both local and international have given this notion a go, including Baxi (八喜), and Dairy Queen. Häagen-Dazs’ ice cream mooncakes are the most expensive, but not necessarily the best.

Organic
Although some mooncake businesses (宏兴隆 and 正谷健康原料月饼 for example) in recent years have claimed their mooncakes are organic, there are skeptics. Some argue that these mooncakes should be properly categorized as “organic material made mooncakes.”

Various Grains
The new healthy trend is to use many different kinds of various grains, such as naked oats, buckwheat and corn to make the mooncake skin dough. Tastes as interesting as it sounds. See Xibei, below.

Foreign/fusion
Many attempts continue to be made to bring unusual and novel flavors to mooncakes. (Not to attract foreign eaters but rather to surprise and impress locals.) Cheese, wine, coffee, chocolate, tea, cereal … you name it, someone is probably putting it into a mooncake at this very moment.

Where to buy:

Daoxiangcun The largest and best known bakery chain for traditional Chinese pastry sells some of the best Beijing-style and Cantonese-style mooncakes around. Their larger outlets (of among their dozens of branches in Beijing) even bake Su-style mooncakes onsite. 19 Dongzhimennei Dajie, Dongcheng District. (8404 3305) 稻香村, 东城区东直门内大街19号

Xibei This popular Northwestern Chinese chain restaurant was at the vanguard in making various grain mooncakes. Daily11am-2pm, 5.30-9pm. Inside Xibei Youmiancun restaurant, 4 Yongding Lu, Haidian District. (150 1017 0748) www.xibei.com.cn 西贝五谷杂粮月饼, 海淀区永定路4号西贝莜面村内(定慧桥西北角)

Meixin This Hong Kong brand specializes in Cantonese and ice-skinned mooncake styles. B1/F, Shin Kong Place, 87 Jianguo Lu, Chaoyang District. 美心, 朝阳区建国路87号新光天地地下1层

Paris Baguette Popular Western-style bakery is offering predominantly Cantonese and Su style mooncakes this year. Abalone and cappuccino flavors available. Daily 7am-10pm. B1/F, China World Shopping Mall, 1 Jianguomenwai Dajie, Chaoyang District. (6505 4277) 巴黎贝甜, 朝阳区建国门外大街1号国贸商城B1楼