Once upon a purple moon ago, when mooncakes became scarce and super expensive on Gold Coast land, and chinese heritage was seriously in danger of becoming obliterated in the Lim family, we decided let's just celebrate this year's Mid-Autumn Festival in mini-fashion for the evening and get Jordie acquainted with some of his chinese roots before he totally lost it...
So off we went on the hunt for mooncake lotus paste plus the mould for it, with the ambitious aim of wanting to make our own home-made ones since they really cost a bomb here. To my dismay, no shops carried those mooncake moulds and the lotus paste was just nowhere to be found in asian shops here. They only had black sesame and red bean- not so divine. Lotus paste which is the filling for mooncake is so tedious to make, I'd rather not bother with it and might even not manage to make a good one anyway. So, yesterday, on the mooncake festival date itself, we went to try to get some mooncakes,... well, most shops were out of stock and the ones left were so expensive, so we just got the teochew types and the mini round ones.
After dinner, we told Jordan the origin and legend of the festival. Then, we 'walked the lantern' outside the neighbourhood streets and he had fun, the thrill of 'playing with fire' I guess.... too bad his neighbours were already in bed by then.
We then had some mooncakes, which Jordie found lip-smackingly good and daddy taught him the finer aspects of chinese tea appreciation and preparation.
For once, he enjoyed the tea and wanted 2nd and 3rd helpings so daddy was quite happy because he had now found a tea companion.
I never really enjoyed chinese tea myself, coffee's more my thing...
Well anyway, when I quote purple moon, I mean it really IS RARE for us to get traditional in this manner... I mean while in Malaysia, I never really went into this kinda chinese heritage embracing and it was a virtual non-event there. Now, it just felt important to do it, because when I look at Jordan growing up in this land, amongst Aussies and many other internationals, I feel he is slowly losing his identity as a chinese. His hair had been turning brown lately maybe due to the sun or the high chlorine content in the water and he seemed happy about it because he felt he was turning into an 'aussie' boy. So, I feel we needed to teach him to be proud of his background, who he is and where he came from. Of course, speaking the language, behaviour and understanding of lifestyles to blend in well here is just as important, but knowing who he is and being able to live out this diversity in his life will be a definite advantage.... I hope...
Once upon a purple moon ago, when mooncakes became scarce and super expensive on Gold Coast land, and chinese heritage was seriously in danger of becoming obliterated in the Lim family, we decided let's just celebrate this year's Mid-Autumn Festival in mini-fashion for the evening and get Jordie acquainted with some of his chinese roots before he totally lost it...
So off we went on the hunt for mooncake lotus paste plus the mould for it, with the ambitious aim of wanting to make our own home-made ones since they really cost a bomb here. To my dismay, no shops carried those mooncake moulds and the lotus paste was just nowhere to be found in asian shops here. They only had black sesame and red bean- not so divine. Lotus paste which is the filling for mooncake is so tedious to make, I'd rather not bother with it and might even not manage to make a good one anyway. So, yesterday, on the mooncake festival date itself, we went to try to get some mooncakes,... well, most shops were out of stock and the ones left were so expensive, so we just got the teochew types and the mini round ones.
After dinner, we told Jordan the origin and legend of the festival. Then, we 'walked the lantern' outside the neighbourhood streets and he had fun, the thrill of 'playing with fire' I guess.... too bad his neighbours were already in bed by then. We then had some mooncakes, which Jordie found lip-smackingly good and daddy taught him the finer aspects of chinese tea appreciation and preparation.
For once, he enjoyed the tea and wanted 2nd and 3rd helpings so daddy was quite happy because he had now found a tea companion.
I never really enjoyed chinese tea myself, coffee's more my thing...
Well anyway, when I quote purple moon, I mean it really IS RARE for us to get traditional in this manner... I mean while in Malaysia, I never really went into this kinda chinese heritage embracing and it was a virtual non-event there. Now, it just felt important to do it, because when I look at Jordan growing up in this land, amongst Aussies and many other internationals, I feel he is slowly losing his identity as a chinese. His hair had been turning brown lately maybe due to the sun or the high chlorine content in the water and he seemed happy about it because he felt he was turning into an 'aussie' boy. So, I feel we needed to teach him to be proud of his background, who he is and where he came from. Of course, speaking the language, behaviour and understanding of lifestyles to blend in well here is just as important, but knowing who he is and being able to live out this diversity in his life will be a definite advantage.... I hope...
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