Dine with Asian Food and Wine – September 2022
Dine with Asian Food and Wine – September 2022
Dine with Asian Food and Wine - Mid-Autumn Festival
By
Ronald Jan, M.D.
[Legendary Chang’e and the moon. Photo Credit: www.weeklytimes.com]
The Fifteenth day of the eighth lunar month commonly falls in mid-September (in 2022 this will be on September 10th by the Gregorian Calendar). Typically, this is the day when the moon is full and very bright heralding the annual Moon Festival (aka Mid-Autumn Festival). The festival likely began as a harvest festival and evolved into the Moon Festival celebrating Hou Yi’s wife, Chang’e, who drank the elixir of eternal life and then ascended to the moon where she resides. (Image of Mid-Autumn Festival with Chang’e. Photo Credit: www.dallasthydraulics.com)
[Whole mooncake with design on outside. Photo Credit: LzzyCooking]
Moon cakes in their round form symbolize completeness and reunion of the family. The spirit of such unity is represented in the presentation of mooncakes to family members and to close friends.
[Mooncake with doh sah filling. Photo Credit: www.dreamstime.com]
Mooncakes are typically filled with doh sah sweet red bean paste and other ingredients such as duck egg yolk. With this lightly sweet dessert the wines which are also only lightly sweet should accompany well without overpowering the doh sah moon cake.
[Vino Noceto’s Frivolo, Photo Credit: Ronald Jan, M.D.]
Such wine is Vino Noceto’s Frivolo, a sparkling muscat made in the Asti Method. The wine is lightly sweet and sparkling with acid to balance the sweetness while the acid with the bubbles brings freshness to the mooncake without overpowering with excessive sweetness.
[Huge Moon Cake. Photo Credit: Yeinjee.com]
With this year’s Moon Festival, share the Moon Cakes with friends and family while enjoying a lightly sweet dessert wine. Happy Mid-Autumn Festival!
About the author: Dr. Ronald G. Jan who specializes in Vascular Surgery is a Clinical Professor of Surgery at the University of California at Davis School of Medicine. As a hobby, he holds WSET level 3 certification in wines and has been writing and publishing wine commentaries attracting lots of readers.
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