Sit at the dinner table #11 Moon Cake (月饼) During the Mid-Autumn Festival to Remember My Dad

To me, home is more about the dinner table than about anything else.

I have traveled halfway around the globe before settling down in a small town in the United States, where life is so different from where I grew up. Food, especially, is more exotic to me when I first moved to the U.S. than now. Over time, I have learned to cook in different styles: Eastern, Western, but mostly Chinese. These home-made meals bring back lots of memories – all mixed-up with my life here – just like a giant stir-fry dish.

Come and sit next to me at my dinner table, and enjoy a home-made meal and maybe a story or two.

September 24th this year is a traditional holiday in China, called Mid-Autumn Festival (中秋节) which has been celebrated for more than 2,000 years.

To celebrate, you’ve got to have a mooncake which symbolizes the whole family coming together to enjoy the brightest autumn moon. If someone from the family can’t make it back, a piece of mooncake will be evenly cut and saved for him or her.

I have learned to make mooncake recently, a special kind. Instead of flour dough, the outside of the cake is made of mung bean paste. The fillings are traditional red bean paste or a salty duck egg-yolk mixture.

This kind of mooncake used to be one of my dad’s favorite desserts in the fall season. Chinese don’t eat lots of sweets regularly, but a special occasion or holiday always comes with a special dessert.

My dad had passed away almost 4 years ago; he never had the chance to taste the mooncake I make. I think I chose to learn about making this cake to say how much I have missed my dad.

Dad, this whole piece is for you, I won’t cut it.