Am I normal? Fellow Shanghailanders fess-up about their feelings on Chinese mooncakes

Mooncakes may be small in size, but they pack quite a punch.

These sweet little hockey pucks, er, cakes, claim quite a proud role in Chinese history -- according to legend they hid messages which helped overthrow the Ming Dynasty. But this claim to fame has done nothing to tamp down the controversy over whether these dense and intense desserts, traditionally eaten during Mid-Autumn Festival, are delicious or quite the opposite. 

We stopped five random people on the street for their views, and tastes. (Check out our look at some of the mooncakes reviewed in Hong Kong.)

Name: Shirly Lu
Nationality: Chinese
Job: Engineer
Do you like Chinese mooncakes? Yes!
Favorite Chinese mooncake flavors: Lotus seed paste, pork meat (xian rou yuebing, like a meat pie in flaky pastry) and black bean paste.
Chinese mooncake flavor you'd like to see: I’d like to see more fruit flavors. How about durian? I know not everyone goes for this flavor, but I’m pretty open-minded about foods. I like it.
An alternative use for Chinese mooncakes: As a playing piece in Chinese chess.

 

 

Name: Joanna Li
Nationality: Chinese
Job: Sales
Do you like Chinese mooncakes? Yes!
Strangest Chinese Chinese mooncake flavor tasted: Last week I tried a green tea flavored one and also a cheese flavored one. Yeah it sounds strange but they were really good!
Favorite Chinese mooncake flavor: Pork meat.
A Chinese mooncake flavor you'd like to see: I’d like a blueberry and cheese flavored kind.
An alternative use for Chinese mooncakes: Display it like an artwork.

 

 

Name: Bob Niemann
Nationality: German
Job: Company chief representative
Do you like mooncakes? Heck no.
Strangest Chinese mooncake flavor tasted: Egg.
Favorite Chinese mooncake flavors: None.
A Chinese mooncake flavor you'd like to see: Sauerkraut with sausages, because we’re German. Or carrot cake, but then, why then need to even make it a mooncake, why not just have carrot cake?
An alternative use for Chinese mooncakes: Give it to my Chinese staff, they always like them, even the egg ones.

 

 

Name: Seaumus Graham
Nationality: Canadian
Job: Business information specialist
Do you like mooncakes? I think some of them are just way too sweet, they kind of dry out my whole mouth.
Favorite Chinese mooncake flavors: I have very little Chinese mooncake knowledge because I try to avoid them. I’ve been living in Greater China for 11 years now but I don’t think I’ve eaten a Chinese mooncake for maybe six or seven years.
A Chinese mooncake flavor you'd like to see: Camembert cheese.
An alternative use for Chinese mooncakes: Making friends, when you give them away. Don’t eat them! Just pass them around, as a gesture of good will. If they are given to me in a package I’ll pass them onto another friend and pretend I was thinking of them.

Name: Jack Sommers
Nationality: American
Job: Eighth grade student
Do you like Chinese mooncakes? No, they are sickly sweet. [Jack’s younger brother Ryan chimes in: At my school when they had mooncakes, I would hide in the corner so I wouldn’t have to eat them.]
Strangest Chinese mooncake you've tasted? I can’t remember. I think I tried them when I first came here but no one in my family really likes them, so we never had them again.
Favorite Chinese mooncake flavors: I only like the Haagen Daz mooncakes. My favorite is the chocolate strawberry.
An alternative use for Chinese mooncakes: Egging things! [After admonishment from parents] Okay, as a hockey puck, say that.