The 15th lunar day of the 8th lunar month is the Chinese Moon Festival. Mooncakes are a historical tradition of this festival, but do you know their significance? According to the Legendary Stories of the Chinese Moon Festival:

"During the Yuan dynasty (A.D.1280-1368) China was ruled by the Mongolian people. Leaders from the preceding Sung dynasty (A.D.960-1280) were unhappy at submitting to foreign rule, and set out to coordinate the rebellion without it being discovered. The leaders of the rebellion, knowing that the Moon Festival was drawing near, ordered the making of special cakes. Packed into each moon cake was a message with the outline of the attack. On the night of the Moon Festival, the rebels successfully attacked and overthrew the government. What followed was the establishment of the Ming dynasty (A.D. 1368-1644).

"Today, mooncakes are eaten to commemorate this legend."



And now . . . a legend commemorates these mooncakes!

In 2004 for the first time, four tempting kinds of mooncakes went on sale at Wakin's Kitchen in Taipei. Absolutely delicious! And Japanese genmai-cha is particularly well-suited to accompany them.

No idea whether or not Wakin's Kitchen would believe an overseas order request — but when the annual Mooncake Festival rolls around again, inquiries can be E-mailed to the restaurant at wakins.kitchen@msa.hinet.net.