Around the same time each year, Thailand’s Chinese community, celebrate the Moon festival, which dated back hundreds and thousands of years. In those days, only the Emperor was able to worship the moon. He believed that by worshipping the moon and the rabbit he would gain eternal life. The Chinese had a very precise lunar calendar, which would dictate the exact date of this festivity to co-inside with the full moon. Now that China no longer has an Emperor. The tradition of worshipping the moon has been adopted by Chinese citizens and carried down through the ages. Thailand also has this tradition. Many of our citizens have Chinese ancestries. We owe Thai Chinese a lot for the growth in our economy. I can even venture to say that Thai Chinese community represents the backbone of our economy.

            Moon festival is a religious occasion. A large and competitive business has grown from this festival in the form of Moon Cakes. They make moon cakes to sell as gifts and this is a two billion Bahts business a year. For those of you who are not familiar with the product, moon cake is nothing more than a filling, which is made in a form of a paste from different products such as soybeans or durian. These different types of filling are cooked with sugar and spices; flavoring is added and cooked down into a thick paste.

            The paste is formed into a ball and a very thin pastry shell is wrapped around it. This ball is then pressed into an intricately carved wooden mold to imprint the design. The cake is knocked out of the mold and baked until golden. Many moon cake makers compete in the taste of the cakes. They all try to come out with different kinds of filling and packaging to attract customers. The standard fillings that everyone has come up with are durian paste and yolk of a salted egg, lotus seeds and red bean paste, a five ingredients combination which consist of almonds, melon seeds, dry orange peel, cashew nuts yolk of salted egg and ham. Next week Thai Chinese community celebrates the moon festivals and I am sure many of you will receive moon cakes from friends. Some of you may not be able to resist the taste tempting appeal of these cakes that will be on sale at every bakeries and malls.

            Today I will write about one particular brand that has come up with many new flavors. These flavors are not only unusual but they tasted quite wonderful. At Baan Gor Pai or Bamboo House Bakery the pastry chefs have used imagination and their technical skills to produce a very different kind of moon cakes. The unusual kinds of fillings started last year. They started to develop them and came to me for advice on taste and combination of products. As a result, they had achieved a measure of success with their red beans and chestnut filling and black sesame and melon seeds.

            The fact that their fillings were different differentiated them from other brands. Yes, they also tasted good! Moon cakes are usually fairly expensive because all the ingredients are expensive and the process of making it is difficult. Most moon cakes are too sweet and very rich. You cannot consume a cake in one sitting but at Bamboo House Bakery, I have asked them to tone down sugar. This year they have come to me for advice on taste directions but they relied on their own imagination to create new filling that no one else has.

            They have come up with three new flavors. The first is black and white sesame. They wanted to play on the Chinese concept of Ying and Yang. It worked and the end product is a very smooth texture for the paste and a wonderful aroma, yet not too sweet. Then they have dry longan and lotus seeds which for me was a little too sweet and I have asked them to reduce the sugar as usual. The last filling is my favorite. Green tea, this filling is made from soybean paste sugar and Japanese green tea. It has a superb scent with every bite and not at all to sweet. I would eat it with tea in the afternoon or for breakfast. Should you want to try some of these cakes made by Bamboo House Bakery, they are on sale at The Mall and The Emporium fifth floor. Or you can contact them directly at 02 873 3873.