Mid-Autumn Festival: some people enjoy mooncakes, while others find sticky rice mooncakes too sweet.

Although mooncakes only consist of baked and glutinous rice cakes, there is much debate behind which one tastes better.

One early autumn afternoon, I pulled out a wooden chair and sat next to a friend, offering her a piece of pristine white sticky rice cake with a delicious mixed filling of salted egg yolk. Surprisingly, she refused because… she was afraid of getting fat.

Upon further conversation, I learned that she was racking her brain trying to choose the right type of cake to give as gifts to relatives on both her and her husband's sides.

“In my family, everyone has their own preferences. The adults don't generally like sweets and pastries. Some prefer mooncakes with lotus seed or red bean fillings, while others will go to great lengths to find a traditional mixed filling with sausage and candied winter melon, refusing the modern mixed fillings.” - Ms. Pham Thi Quynh Tram (32 years old - lecturer in the English Department at the Vietnam Maritime University - Hai Phong) replied.

"Did you buy any sticky rice cakes for the elderly?" I asked.

"Usually not, because everyone prefers baked mooncakes because sticky rice mooncakes are very sweet. The crust of sticky rice mooncakes is sweet, and so is the filling. In the old days, our ancestors used to eat both baked and sticky rice mooncakes with tea to balance the sweetness," she continued. "Baked mooncakes have a wider variety of fillings, both sweet and savory, so they're easier to eat. The crust of baked mooncakes is soft, the filling is soft, and children can eat them."

Baked mooncakes, on the other hand, have a very complex and meticulous crust, requiring hours of simmering of sugar syrup, mixing it with flour, and then baking. During baking, the cake is also very prone to cracking and spilling the filling. Glutinous rice mooncakes are simpler, requiring only mixing sugar syrup with roasted glutinous rice flour.

One might think that the speed and convenience of making this white cake would make it popular, but baked cakes remain a favorite for many diners. To clarify this, a Travellive reporter decided to interview Mr. Nguyen Tien Dung (34 years old - IT employee and owner of the fanpage specializing in introducing delicious restaurants, 2 FAT GUYS - Ho Chi Minh City): “In Saigon, sticky rice cakes have fallen into oblivion. Just kidding, I find sticky rice cakes too sweet because they put too much sugar in the crust. I haven't eaten a sticky rice cake in years. Around me, it's all mung bean baked cakes and mixed-filling baked cakes.”

Regarding fillings, mooncakes come in a wide variety, from mixed nuts, roast chicken, shark fin, mung bean, lotus seed paste, red bean, and glutinous rice cakes. However, with glutinous rice cakes, because the outer layer is so sweet, not all fillings have a flavor that complements this cake.

Travellive reporters interviewed another pastry expert to see whether he preferred baked goods or sticky rice cakes. Nguyen Duc Long (34 years old - founder of The Patisseries Lab - a European-style bakery in Hanoi) said: “I only like baked goods because sticky rice cakes are too sweet and I get tired of eating them.”

Some traditional mooncake shops often arrange a box of four mooncakes, with three baked and one soft mooncake for variety.

As for Binh An (27 years old - an English teacher in Ho Chi Minh City), he believes that sticky rice cakes would taste better if they were less sweet: "I like mixed-flavor baked cakes. Sticky rice cakes are too sweet; they're just sugar. Sticky rice cakes that are less sweet, like mochi, would be delicious because both are chewy."

All the interviewees chose baked goods and shared the opinion that sticky rice cakes were very sweet. Travellive reporters contacted someone with in-depth knowledge of cuisine in general to clarify their question.

Talking to Bui Ngoc Khoi (29 years old - food photographer and owner of the "I Want to Eat Deliciously" group in Hanoi), I understood more about why mooncakes are usually sweet, especially the soft ones.

"I prefer baked goods because they can be made less sweet. In the past, making many sweet cakes to preserve them for a long time was a brilliant idea. But now, food preservation conditions are much better, so we don't necessarily have to accept super sweet cakes anymore," Mr. Khoi said with a smile.

Since ancient times, sugar has been a natural food preservative. In the past, many dishes with a strong sugary flavor, such as jams and candied fruits, were primarily used to extend the shelf life of fresh fruits like apricots, plums, pumpkins, coconuts, and kumquats.

The reason is usually that sticky rice cakes are not cooked directly but are just a mixture of roasted glutinous rice flour with regular sugar syrup, and the filling sometimes contains both sweet and savory ingredients. Therefore, if not enough sugar is added, the cake will easily become moldy and spoiled.

"I might even like the mochi smaller, about the size of a jackfruit seed. Usually during the Mid-Autumn Festival, I buy baked mochi in the size of 120 grams or less and Japanese Wagashi mochi, both of which are soft and chewy. Wagashi are still mochi with bean paste filling like ours, but they're beautiful. If only Vietnamese mochi were as beautiful and adorable, I'd buy them right away," he continued.

Traditional Vietnamese sticky rice cakes remain an indispensable treat during the Mid-Autumn Festival, but they are gradually becoming outdated and less popular among consumers. Nowadays, thanks to modern techniques, the sweetness of these cakes has been significantly reduced to keep pace with the increasingly fierce competition in the massive Mid-Autumn Festival cake market.

Ha Chuu