Yesterday was mid-autumn festival!! It's a holiday to celebrate the full moon and there's always plenty of moon cakes around this time. This year as so different from the usual. My suitemate Holy invited us to her home in Cheung Chau, an island 40 minutes away from Central by ferry, for a family meal. It was so fun and the food was really good too. Her entire family was there so it was noisy but happy at her home. There were little kids running around while her grandma who was in her 80's brought us food. What was most amazing was that she had cooked everything herself and there were over 20 dishes on the table!! There were fresh prawns, abalone, and 2 different types of fish because people still fished on the island. My favorite was the fish. I had never tasted fish so sweet and soft before. There was chicken, duck, pork and beef in different dishes. It was simply amazing. When we finished there was still so much food left but we just could not eat anymore. I would've taken a picture of the food but it seemed rather inappropriate. I can still remember the tastes though. My roommate and I were joking about how this was probably going to be the best meal we'd have in Hong Kong.
After our meal, we took a quick stroll outside to buy lanterns and more food. We first picked up some mango mochis that her grandma had ordered earlier that day for us. I didn't even know these existed and they don't exist outside of Cheung Chau. It's made at a famous local dessert store and it's always sold out so we were lucky Holy's grandma had connections. It's basically fresh mango wrapped in mochi. The mango was so delicious and sweet. This has now become my most favorite food hehe Then we were off to buy traditional lanterns. I've never played with lanterns before but it's so fun. We got some candles and burned the bottoms a bit so they would stick to the lantern. Then we lit the candles and opened the lanterns to their full size. We then attached them to wooden sticks and wala~ our lantern was finished. I felt so proud carrying that lantern down the street. |
I thought it was kinda sad though because instead of playing with traditional lanterns, all the local kids and teenagers were instead playing with glow sticks and LED toys. I know it's fun for me because I am a tourist and I'd never played with them before. It's just I find it a bit of a shame that western cultures are slowly replacing traditional customs.
When we came back with our lanterns, her family was already on the roof of her house enjoying the moon together. Another thing about mid-autumn festival is that it's a holiday when everyone in the family returns home and celebrates. It was heart-warming to see her entire family on the roof just looking at the moon. Oh and her roof was covered with lanterns too. Then it was moon cake time. I had never seen so many different types of mooncake before. There was first of all the traditional moon cake which is always good. Then there were the newer flavors. My favorite was the chocolate mochi skin with mango filling and chocolate crunch. It was so smooth and sweet but when you bit into the moon cake, there was a crunchy texture because of the tiny pieces of chocolate crunch. |
That's us on her rooftop eating mooncake and fruit. I think all we did was keep eating non-stop and we honestly couldn't stop because everything was so deliciously amazing.
When we were finally done eating (more like when her family finally stopped offering us food), we headed to the beach with our lanterns and some beers. It was so busy on the beach because there were a lot of teenagers hanging out and playing with candles. We also played with candles as well. We dug out a heart shape and placed candles inside and lit them. Then we just sat on the beach, opened our beers and toasted to a great night. I think nothing could have made that night more perfect as we sat there looking out over the water and just enjoyed the natural ambiance of being completely immersed in a local environment and each others' company. >>>MORE PICTURES XD |