What to eat for the Mid-Autumn Festival: the most popular food and dishes to try

The Mid-Autumn Festival goes by many names, depending on where you are in the world. It is a celebration that follows the lunar calendar and brings together friends and family to appreciate the full moon during the fall and celebrate the harvest of the year. Although it may be referred to as Tsukimi in Japan and Chuseok in Korea, a common thread in all East Asian and Southeast Asian countries that celebrate the Mid-Autumn Festival is the joy of gathering around the table to eat.

This year, the Mid-Autumn Festival falls on October 1. Here’s what to eat for the event, whether you’ve been celebrating your whole life or are looking for an excuse to grab moon-themed snacks:

Grapefruits

Grapefruit season begins in the fall, so the Mid-Autumn Festival marks the perfect time to start enjoying these great citrus fruits. If you’ve never had grapefruit before, it is very similar to grapefruit but has a less abrasive taste. Rather than overwhelming acidity or bitterness, grapefruits are meaty and smooth. Eat them plain or dip the grapefruit in a mixture of sugar, salt, and chili flakes.

Hairy crab

Hairy crab, also known as Chinese mitten crab, is a Shanghai specialty served for the Mid-Autumn Festival. Crabs are known for their hairy claws and mature during September and October, making the Mid-Autumn Festival the perfect time to serve this delicacy. Typically, crabs are steamed whole. They are then served alongside a ginger, chives, and vinegar sauce that complements the delicate meat beneath the cracked rind.

pumpkin

As the Mid-Autumn Festival rolls around when the weather starts to change from summer to fall, it makes sense for squash to be on the menu. Pumpkins are harvested during the fall and can be used in a number of ways for the holidays – steamed, added to curries, made into buns, and sautéed are just a few of the ways pumpkin is served. Like many of the foods on this list, pumpkins are also round and symbolic of the moon, thus marking them as an auspicious food.

Tsukimi Dango

In Japan, the Mid-Autumn Festival is known as Tsukimi, and during Tsukimi it is traditional to eat Tsukimi dango, or Japanese rice cakes, to celebrate the full moon. In Japanese folklore, it is said that if you look closely enough, you can see the image of rabbits beating mochi on the moon, which may be the reason why dango has become such a popular holiday food. Furthermore, the spherical mochi dumplings are pale and round, symbolic of the autumn full moon. Unlike the subtly sweet chichi dango or soy sauce glazed dango mitarashi, the dango consumed during Tsukimi is relatively simple and is served stacked in a pyramid rather than skewered.

Songpyeon

Songpyeon is a type of Korean tteok or rice cake. Instead of a full moon sphere like Tsukimi dango, these rice cakes are usually folded into a crescent shape. In Korea, the Mid-Autumn Festival is known as Chuseok and songpyeon is always on the menu. Like mooncakes, songpyeons are generally filled with a variety of fillings – chestnuts, dates, kidney beans, and soybeans are common choices. Unlike mooncakes, songpyeons are steamed together with pine needles, offering a grassy flavor and fresh aroma.

Duck

When it comes to family gatherings for Chinese holidays, duck is almost always on the menu. Sure, the preparations vary by region: you can have roast duck with its characteristic crispy skin, blackened and aromatic smoked duck, or baked duck along with fall greens. Either way, the Mid-Autumn Festival is a perfect excuse to enjoy a whole duck with friends and family.

Moon cakes

Since the Mid-Autumn Festival is all about getting together with friends and family and viewing the moon together, it makes sense that mooncakes are one of the most frequent foods of the holiday. These dense cakes are typically stamped with Chinese characters and traditionally filled with lotus bean paste, red kidney beans, mixed nuts, or date paste and often have a salted egg yolk suspended in their center, a nod to the full moon. . Mooncake styles vary by region and location; Mooncakes are consumed in China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and throughout Southeast Asia. More contemporary flavors include durian, chocolate, peanut, and matcha, and some “mooncakes” are actually jellies in the shape of a moon cake mold. There are even tasty pork-filled mooncakes that possess a flaky exterior, also known as Suzhou mooncakes. Mooncakes are the namesake of the holiday and are a must for October 1.

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