A Moon Made of Bean Paste

*Took a picture of the bakery with my phone but its currently not sending so I decided to upload a picture of all the moon cakes.*

Pastry Shop: TaiPan Bakery

Website: N/A

Location: 194 Canal Street

Phone: 212.732.2222

Price Range for a Moon Cake: $$

Choices: White Skin Single-Yolk with White Lotus-Seed Paste; Single-Yolk with Bean Paste Snowy Moon Cake; Taro with Bean Paste Snowy Moon Cake; Green Tea with Bean Paste Snowy Moon Cake; Sesame with Bean Paste Snowy Moon Cake; Orange with Bean Paste Snowy Moon Cake; Coffee with Bean Paste Snowy Moon Cake; and Strawberry with Bean Paste Snowy Moon Cake

Mid-Autumn Festival is on the 15^th of August of the lunar calendar, typically in October on a Gregorian calendar. It is a special day when Chinese families get together and admire moon cakes, which symbolizes family reunion, family culture, and the embodying spiritual feelings. In ancient China, moon cakes were used as an offering to Chang E, the celestial being of the palace of the moon. If you would like to learn more on the history of the Mid-Autumn Festival, click on the following links. History of Mid-Autumn Festival. Celebrating the Harvest Moon.

I’ll be covering eight varieties of moon cakes from a popular Chinese bakery located in the heart of Chinatown, called TaiPan Bakery. The varieties are White Skin Single-Yolk with White Lotus-Seed Paste, Single-Yolk with Bean Paste Snowy Moon Cake, Taro with Bean Paste Snowy Moon Cake, Green Tea with Bean Paste Snowy Moon Cake, Sesame with Bean Paste Snowy Moon Cake, Orange with Bean Paste Snowy Moon Cake, Coffee with Bean Paste Snowy Moon Cake, and Strawberry with Bean Paste Snowy Moon Cake. The difference between a Snowy Moon Cake and the Traditional Moon Cake is the outer layer. A Snowy Moon Cake typically has components of bean paste and a soft gluey skin made of cooked glutinous rice flour called Koh Fun in Chinese.  A Traditional Moon Cake consists of bean paste and an outer layer of dough. This dough can be prepared in three ways, chewy, flaky, and tender. Here’s a link if you would like to learn more about the different ways of preparation.

The White Skin Single-Yolk with White Lotus-Seed Paste, and the Single-Yolk with Bean Paste Snowy Moon Cake tastes very similar. Both have compositions of sweet bean paste with a salty yolk to keep the palates balanced. The paste had a good consistency, a great combination with the smooth chewy outer layer. The outer layers acted as a container, holding the paste and yolk together giving you the opportunity to really experience the flavors melding.

Taro Snowy Moon Cake and Green Tea Snowy Moon Cake were my favorites. Both outer layers were chewy with just enough taro, and green tea flavors. You can tell flavored powders were used to give each outer layer of snowy moon cakes their distinctive flavors. The smooth bean paste was not too sweet blending well with the lightly flavored skins.

The next two snowy moon cakes I’ll be covering are the Sesame Snowy Moon Cake, and the Coffee Snowy Moon Cake. These two delicacies are a little different than the previous ones. It is evident the skin of the Sesame moon cake were made of black sesame seeds; biting into the skin gives you a nice crunchy texture. Unusually, my mom did not like the sesame moon cake; she said, “It tasted like I was drinking a bottle of sesame oil.” The specialties are also in the sweet bean paste. The sweet bean paste within the coffee moon cake had strong aroma and flavors of espresso while the paste in the sesame moon cake had an infusion of blended sesame seeds. These two moon cakes are distinctive because of the additional details added to the paste.

The last two moon cakes I tasted were not for me. It was the Orange Snowy Moon Cake and the Strawberry Snowy Moon Cake. One bite into these moon cakes instantly gave me a reminder of my childhood days when I was sick and had to take cough syrup. The pastes had its original flavor. The skins were profound with unnatural flavors. The positive end of these two flavors is the smooth consistency of the sweet bean paste and the chewy out layers.

Moon cakes are very filling and it is not recommended to eat more than one in two days. You will definitely need a nice hot cup of oolong tea to help digest the heavy pastry. Overall, I quite enjoy this modern twist to the traditional moon cake, offering more options in flavors that appeal more to the new generations. I didn’t get a chance to enjoy the delicacies in the bakery because it is always crowded. 

Mishii's Rating: 6/10