Mooncake Festival

Every time I visit southern California to visit my Chinese grandmother I always ask the same question, "Are there any mooncakes?" And every year I get the same response, "No. You can only buy them in the fall." Why are these delectable treats popularly made with lotus paste only available for a short period of time in September and October? My findings led me to discover that while I would like to enjoy the unique taste of a moon cake year round, they are only available during the time of the Mooncake Festival.

Coincidentally, this year the Mooncake Festival was on September 25, 2007 (I guess my craving for moon cakes came at an appropriate time). Every year on the fifteenth day of the eight month of the lunar calendar Chinese celebrate this occasion. The celebration is when the moon is at its fullest and brightest. The Mooncake Festival, also known as the Moon Fesitval or the Mid-Autumn Festival, is honored with dancing, feasting and moon gazing. And of course eating mooncakes.

Considered one of the most important celebrations on the lunar calendar, the tradition is celebrated with family reunions and spending time with loved ones. Families hold Moonlight Parties to bring people together. Additionally, lattern making competitions are held. Latterns are the traditional children's toy for the Mooncake Festival. People will create their own unique lanterns and then compete in a parade.

I cannot forget about why I originally discovered the Mooncake Festival, and that is because of the baked dessert the mooncake. Mooncakes are traditionally made with lotus seed and are approximately the size of your palm. This dense pastry is surrounded by a thin crust, and sometimes filled with the yolk of a salted duck egg. Some moon cakes have four yolks inside, represently the four equinoxes of the moon. The rich pastry is eaten in small wedges with Chinese tea. While I always wanted to eat the entire pastry, it now makes sense why my grandmother would only serve me a small wedge of the cake. But who says you can't change tradition?

I don't think I will be able to find any mooncakes for purchase in Fort Collins, Colo. I did however stumble upon China Sprout, a company that sells Chinese educational products online, including mooncakes. If eating is what it takes to get an education, you can count me in.

Fortune Cookies

Walk into any Chinese restaurant in America and you will cleanse your palate and finish your meal with a fortune cookie. These simple biscuits folded into a moon shape with a slip of paper inside have become popular in all American and Canadian Chinese restaurants. Ironically enough, the origin of the fortune cookie is not in China. Different stories predict where this Chinese dessert came from.

The fortune cookie as we know it today originated in America. One story recounts the creation of the fortune cookie when Chinese men were settling in the area between California and Nevada laying railways. Workers had few pleasures during this hard time except these small biscuits to exchange with one another during the Chinese Moon Festival. Traditional Lotus Moon Cakes were traded during this celebration, but all the settlers had were these biscuits filled with good luck messages. Thus the fortune cookie was born.

Another story recounts a local baker in Los Angeles. Around 1920 David Jung began making these cookies filled with words of encouragement to hand out to the poor and homeless. He eventually founded the Hong Kong Noodle Company.

Los Angeles cannot take the claim so quickly because San Francisco also has a claim on the creation of fortune cookies. In 1907 Makota Hagiwara, a caretaker of a Japanese Tea Garden, created these cookies as well bearing thank you notes. These cookies helped him with a dispute against the mayor and in 1915 his invention was displayed at the Panama Convention.

These small cookies were originally made by hand through the talented work of chopsticks. In 1964 San Francisco's Lotus Fortune Cookie Company created a machine to make the cookies and slip tiny fortunes in them. However, currently the largest fortune cookie company is the Wonton Food Inc. of Long Island City, and this plant distributes 60 millions cookies per month. Now that is a lot of good luck to go around.

Chinese Zodiac

Many Chinese restaurants use the Chinese Zodiac as their paper place mat. Patrons are invited to read about which animal they most resemble based on their year of birth. As I read about being the Year of the Tiger, I see a striking resemblance to my own personality. "Tigers are blessed with endless enthusiasm for life's simple pleasures." Apparently one of those pleasures involves dissecting the Chinese Zodiac.

The Chinese Zodiac is based on an extremely complex ancient agricultural calendar. Rumor has it Buddha invited all of the animals on earth to visit him New Year's Day. When the day arrived only 12 animals showed up. They were the Rat, the Ox, the Tiger, the Rabbit, the Dragon, the Snake, the Horse, the Ram, the Monkey, the Rooster, the Dog and the Pig. From these 12 animals he gave each animal their own year. Chinese calendars run on this cyclical calendar of time where the beginning of the year falls between January and February.

Chinese horoscopes are also based on the five elements water, earth, fire, wood and metal. The Zodiac can be further divided into complex segments based on these elements. These modifiers further affect the characteristics of animal signs. The interpretation of universal harmony and balance impacts the horoscope through Yin (female) and Yang (male).

While many people look at their paper disposable place mats of the Chinese Zodiac and chuckle, it is surprisingly more complex than meets the eye. Certain animals are compatible and incompatible with other animals. This is very similar to American horoscopes and people's compatibility, or lack thereof, with other astrological signs. I may not always believe what the stars say, but I do take to heart knowing I am compatible with the Horse and Dog.

Dim Sum

Dim sum. No this is not the sound you would hear from a drummer in a marching band or a parade brigade down the streets on New Year's Day. Similar to Mexican Tapas, dim sum is the Chinese culinary tradition of bite-sized appetizers. Literally translated, "to touch the heart," dim sum has become a Chinese family custom popular in many countries and cities outside of China.

Originally a Cantonese custom, dim sum was associated with Chinese tea drinking. Tea houses were created in China for weary travelers to stop and rest or for farmers to go in the afternoon after a long day's work. Eventually snacks started to accompany the tea when it became known that tea helps aid in digestion and cleans the palate. Dim Sum originated in the United States in the 19th century as a result of Chinese immigrants. It is rumored the Chinese came up with the term "brunch" when dim sum combined breakfast and lunch. If this is indeed true then I am not complaining and am appreciative of these intricate delicacies.

If you are unfamiliar with Chinese dim sum then it is important to know how it is served. Instead of ordering off a menu, steaming carts of dim sum are pushed in between tables. When something tickles your fancy you simply alert the person pushing the cart you would like a little appetizer. Typically one order of dim sum comes with three to four appetizers. A stamp or check mark of some sort is placed on your bill that sits at your table. You then proceed with the family style meal.

One of the highlights of a dim sum meal is the variety of different foods your palate encounters. Most of the dishes are either steamed or fried, and it mixes the sweet with the savory. Popular dishes include steamed shrimp dumplings (har qau) and steamed pork dumplings (siu mai). If you are adventuresome, or traditional like my grandma, you can try more exotic dishes including chicken feet or snails. The meal finishes with a touch of desert including custard tarts or sponge cake.

My next dim sum encounter will not be until I visit Chinatown in California this upcoming December. Until then I guess I will have to settle for traditional American brunch.

Lai-See

With my birthday looming around the corner, September 13 to be exact, I can only reflect upon the times when my Chinese family would give me little red envelopes for special occasions.

These small envelopes adorned with Chinese script and pictures hold a great history behind them and are frequently used during special occasions. I always remembered looking forward to them for the mere pleasure of getting free money. Often times I would be presented this gift just for visiting my relatives in California, but I was also presented red envelopes during my birthday, Christmas and Chinese New Year.

Known officially as Lai-See envelopes, children were given these envelopes on New Years Day. Good luck money was tucked inside these envelopes, appropriate because in China the color red represents good luck. Combined the colors red and gold represent wealth, popular colors during Chinese New Year. It is believed good luck will come to both the giver and receiver of these tiny envelopes. I always found them to be lucky, especially as a child who receives a minimal allowance. Though maybe I was just lucky because I could eat my fill of authentic Chinese food at lavish family dinners were I would receive this gift.

While I may not see Lai-See envelopes as frequently anymore, the next large occasion people customarily give and receive red envelopes is during a wedding. The western idea of receiving large gifts from a registry list is virtually unknown in China, so money wrapped in red envelopes is more customary. Is a wedding in my near future? Let's just say when the times comes I will be looking forward to pushing the red envelope.

Chinese Fascination

I think the first time I ever recall learning about Americans adopting Chinese children I was 12 years old. Family friends had recently adopted a young girl around two years old and asked me to babysit her. She was named Stephanie, and from that pivotal point of seventh grade money-making on, I was fascinated with young Asian children adopted by Caucasians.

I will admit being half-Chinese may have added to the initial fascination of Chinese children. Growing up with my mom's entire family 100 percent Chinese, I was continually immersed in the Chinatown culture found in southern California. Walking into a restaurant where 90 percent of the patrons and 100 percent of the waitstaff were Chinese, I had no other option than to acclimate myself to the Chinese culture in efforts to fit in.

Menus were scribed in half Chinese and half English, and my Chinese grandparents would order food speaking their native language I knew virtually nothing about. Young children would bang chopsticks on white plates, and most all of these children were of Chinese descent. Even I was once a child eagerly grasping my chopsticks in an effort to shovel chow mein into my mouth.

This Chinese upbringing may have dwindled somewhat when I moved to Colorado, but nonetheless it was still prevalent during yearly trips to Southern California. My exposure to Chinese children continued when my aunt married a Chinese man and they bore two beautiful boys, now 7 and 10.

When I learned of Americans adopting children from China, primarily girls (approximately 95 percent- courtesy of Great Wall China Adoption), I was led to a deeper fascination of the opportunity at life these children are given. I would love to give a young Chinese child the opportunity at life, while continuing to strengthen mine and their cultural background.