For Chinese people, eating mooncakes with families is one of the most important ways to celebrate the Mid-Autumn Festival, which falls on October 4 this year, or the 15th day of the 8th Chinese lunar month. As mass-produced mooncakes sweep the market with
For Chinese people, eating mooncakes with families is one of the most important ways to celebrate the Mid-Autumn Festival, which falls on October 4 this year, or the 15th day of the 8th Chinese lunar month. As mass-produced mooncakes sweep the market with different flavors and various kinds of stuffing, customers are inclined to return to more traditional flavors, which make hand-made mooncakes a hot commodity in the market.
Photo: Internet
Wei Quanfa’s hand-made mooncakes are one such case. The 72-year-old baker inherited the traditional craft from his family and started his new business in Zhengzhou, in Central China’s Henan province.
Wei Quanfa makes mooncakes at his shop in Zhengzhou, Central China’s Henan province
Kneads the dough
Weighs each piece of dough
Fills the stuffing at his mooncake
Thumps the dough
The mooncake mould at Wei’s mooncake shop
Wei carries out each step of the procedure by himself, including making the stuffing and the mooncake mould, boiling the oil, and baking. Because of this, Wei is not able to make more than 40 kilograms of mooncakes per day in the last month before the festival, and a 30-centimeter-diameter mooncake is priced at over 200 yuan ($30).
With the festival just around the corner, reserving Wei’s mooncakes even two days in advance is next to impossible.
Carves on a mooncake
Bakes the mooncakes
