Hey, happy mid autumn in advance! Wanted to get this one out there to give some of y'all a chance for informed mooncake purchasing ;)

This one was mostly just for fun (huge thank you to our friends Yousef and Skelly for helping with the taste test) - we've been working on what's become... sort of a beast of a video. Should be out in ~2 weeks, and'll have some proper recipes inside of it.

Oh, and definitely do check out the Substack post for a slightly more detailed discussion! https://chinesecookingdemystified.substack.com/p/finding-the-best-chinese-mooncake

"Dedicated panel of gweilo". Man, I laughed so hard at that.

I greatly appreciate Yousef’s input coming from a Middle Eastern/British palate, which is a refreshing (and fascinating) deviation from the usual North American/Australian/etc. reactions we’re used to seeing on Chinese food on YouTube. I’d be interested to see more of him in future opinion videos!

Growing up in Hong Kong, the lotus seed with salted egg yolk(s) was THE mooncake. I remember trying a mooncake that was filled with five nuts and feeling betrayed and lied to.

okay so some more for your repertoire!

Vietnam has its own unique style in the north (i think thats where it came from????) where it's basically the Cantonese crust combined with the Yunnan ham filling. It's VERY divisive (older generations would swear by it while younger people gravitate more towards paste-like fillings like the lotus seed or red bean ones). They would often be served as a pair with bánh dẻo, a rice-based moon cake that's almost like a mochi but with the same fillings (paste or ham)

The Teochew style also got a makeover in Vietnam, with the paste made from durian! It's a more Southern thing and understandably not everyone's cup of tea, but they're all worth trying.

21:30 “This feels like a childhood snack” “Do you like it?” “No” 😭😭😭

Yeah Inner Mongolia mooncake mentioned! Glad you guys enjoyed it! We used to bring our own ingredients like flour, sugar and mustard seed oil to the bakery (btw most of them are Muslim bakeries) and they would make the mooncake for us, called 打月饼. It's a fun tradition and honestly it brings a sense of community to our neighbourhood.

Learned about so many new varieties that we've never had before! As a Fuzhounese person, I really hope you can try the Fuzhou mooncake (which is also eaten for other festive celebrations like weddings and birthdays). It is similar to the Teochew lard cake but it has peanuts, roasted sesame, candied winter melon, flour, and lard. It is savory and sweet, quite heavy but there is really nothing quite like the taste of my childhood.

we admire the pains you had to endure to get us this information lmao

I'm partial to the tiny 蛋黄酥 (is that even considered a mooncake?), i'm a sucker for the flaky kind with red bean paste and egg yolk. The savory ones from Yunnan sound interesting.

I'm interested to see if it's worth it for you guys to try chinese diaspora pastries-- here in the Philippines, hopia (好餅) is made from a similar dough, and meant to be an affordable snack, filled with a variety of bean pastes, custards, or even savory fillings.

I'm originally from Hong Kong and emigrated to the U.S. with my family for over 50 years. Before my retirement, I always brought Cantonese style mooncakes to my work place each year to share with co-workers. They all love the monncakes I brought. Since I live in NYC, people here are no strangers to foods from around the world.

As an East European, the one I'd like a recipe for the most is the empty shell one smeared with nuts and brown sugar. It was very interesting to see everyone's preferences for these, and to see that basically none of you liked this one all too much even though it seems like it would be my favorite from the list!

The introduction of the dedicated panel of "gwai lo" was hilarious

Nice to see Mr. Bear representing IKEALAND. 🧸

I've said this many times before, but i LOVE your videos so much. The style of videos and how you explain in detail why things are made some ways as opposed to others. And then when you do taste  tests, you break things down into manageable way for us the consumer of your video can easily understand and relate to. And you also have a great balance between the two of you taking the lead in either explaining or dong the cooking. Love you guys!

Thanks, reminded me of my great friend and neighbor, she would buy them for us each year, so proud of her native dishes
Sadly we lost her this year your video reminds me of her and the happiness and love she brought to all that knew her.
Thank you.

1:56 that holy "cat worshippers" drawing is hilarious, great job Steph and Chris :)

Appreciate having the UK/Middle East perspective broken out! I tend to enjoy a lot of those desserts more than an average American or Canadian would, so the comparison was really helpful

I really love the snowskin version! While the icecream version is indeed quite common, you can also find the snowskin  variant with lotus paste and salted egg here in Singapore! While it still eats as a dessert, I think the salted egg help in balancing the sweetness, making it better in my opinion.

"I tried all the mooncakes for you" in order to make me want to try all the mooncakes. :D

As a chinese Mauritian the only the moon cake I knew was the white one make with  rice flour .