Mad about Mooncakes
Another mid-Autumn festival has come and gone, and that means boxes and boxes of unopened mooncakes – the "Chinese equivalent of the Christmas fruitcake" – in homes and offices across the city. But before you throw those salted-duck-egg-yolk stuffed-delights in the trash, consider this:
- A massive 40-kilogram mooncake measuring over 2.8 meters wide was served up to a crowd of over a hundred people in Lanzhou yesterday.
- While last month, a 13-ton, 8.15-m wide by 20-cm thick mooncake was made in Shenyang. A team of ten chefs took over ten hours to make the monstrosity.
- The average cost of mooncakes also rose this year, due to the recent general inflation in food prices – with the cost of the raw materials rising by 15 to 30 percent.
- These rising costs prompted popular bakery chains like Holliland and Guixiangcun to package their mooncakes in more “environmentally-friendly recycled paper” …
- A trend that contrasts with the approach of some extravagant-minded vendors in Zhengzhou “who came up with mooncakes made of silver and adorned with 56 precious stones selling at a price of 6,900 yuan (USD 920).”
- Meanwhile, up in Changchun, another group sold a mooncake box complete with golf club for RMB 1,800 …
- While mooncake makers down in Yunnan “have also managed to pack a digital camera in with the traditional pastries.”
- Last year the China Daily reported that about 250,000 tons of moon cakes were produced and sold for about USD 1.42 billionet on the final tally for this year …
Links and Sources:
xinhuanet.com: http://news3.xinhuanet.com/english/2007-09/22/content_6767632.htm
http://news3.xinhuanet.com/english/2007-09/25/content_6787631.htm
Asia Times Online: http://www.atimes.com/atimes/China/II26Ad01.html
Washintonpost.com: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/09/25/AR2007092502163.html?hpid=topnews
Danwei.org: http://www.danwei.org/trends_and_buzz/moonstruck_fallout_from_the_mi.php
http://www.danwei.org/state_media/pity_the_peacekeepers.php
