月饼背后的故事

香港半岛酒店(Peninsula Hong Kong Hotel)嘉麟楼(Spring Moon)餐厅的主厨刘平旅（音）为迎接中秋节(Midautumn Festival)而进行的训练就像是在对付一场真正的马拉松。他对制作工具要求严格，不断进行练习，敦促自己保持旺盛的精力。于是，在中秋节开始之前的整整一个月里，他与一个27人的团队每天工作10小时，每天产出高达12000个月饼，着实令人惊叹。
　　Chef Lau Ping-lui of Spring Moon restaurant in the Peninsula Hong Kong hotel trains for the Midautumn Festival much as he would a marathon: He calibrates his tools, conducts practice runs and paces himself to build up stamina. Then, for a solid month before the start of the festival, together with a team of 27 staff working 10-hour shifts, he knocks out a staggering 12,000 mooncakes a day.

　　即便是以这种惊人的速度，刘师傅也从没有做出过足够的月饼，满足这个中国传统佳节前后人们对于月饼的需求。中秋节是每年农历8月的第15天，今年为10月3日，这是一个老老少少阖家团聚，一起挂花灯，共赏月的时候，据说中秋之夜的月亮是一年当中最圆的时刻。在这样一个完美的夜晚，月饼是不可或缺的美食。
　　Even at this breakneck pace, Chef Lau never makes enough to meet demand for the pastries around the Chinese holiday. It falls on the 15th day of the eighth lunar month and occurs this year on Oct. 3, a night when young and old gather to hang up multicolored lanterns and gaze at what is said to be the brightest full moon of the year. To round off the celebrations, a mouthful of mooncake is essential.

　　月饼质地厚重，是传统的馈赠亲朋好友的礼品。月饼通常为手掌大小，薄薄的烤皮裹着密实柔软的夹心，样子有普通的，有奇异的，有传统的，有现代的，五花八门。在经过烤制之前，未被加工的月饼会被压制在木制模具里成形，并在烤皮外面形成凸起。
　　Mooncake has dense texture and role as a gifting item during the festival season, the palm-size pastry -- made up of a thin baked crust cosseting a compact, soft filling -- runs the gamut from plain to fancy, traditional to contemporary. Before being baked, the raw mooncakes are pressed into wooden molds that give them their shape and create a traditional raised design on the top crust.

　　在亚洲和海外华人社区最为常见的月饼是广式莲蓉月饼和咸鸭蛋黄月饼，其四方的形状，还有那泛着光泽的棕色烤皮上精美的图案，都让你能一眼认出它。另一种最流行的广式月饼，叫做金华火腿和五仁（由五种坚果制成──杏仁、松子、核桃、开心果和牛油果）月饼。除此之外，还有其它式样：北式月饼呈圆形，没有蛋黄。在北京，最常见的月饼外表简单、看似馒头，馅料多用红枣泥。
　　The version seen most widely in Asia and in overseas Chinese communities is the Cantonese-style lotus-seed paste and salted duck-egg yolk mooncake, easily distinguished by its square shape and the ornate decorations on its glossy brown skin. Second in popularity, and also part of the Southern-Chinese-style of mooncakes, is the jin hua huo tui (cured ham) and wu ren (five nuts -- almond, pistachio, pecan, cashew and macadamia) flavor. But there are others: Northern-Chinese-style mooncakes are round in shape and contain no egg yolk. In Beijing, the most common mooncakes are humble bun-like pastries similar to mantou, and come filled with a paste of red jujube fruit, which tastes like a tangy dried date spread.

　　月饼的历史
　　The History

　　新加坡食品、饮料和生活方式咨询公司Ate Consulting的总监Lynn Yeow说，关于月饼的起源，不乏传说；众说纷纭让人无法只认其中任何一个。不过，大多数人都比较认同两个故事。
　　'The trouble with uncovering the origin of mooncakes isn't the lack of explanations, but rather the overabundance of different versions, making it impossible to pinpoint just one,' says Lynn Yeow, director of Ate Consulting, a Singapore-based food, beverage and lifestyle consultancy. Most people agree, however, that two folk stories stand out.

　　第一个传说与“嫦娥奔月”有关。Lynn Yeow说，老师在学校里经常给孩子讲这个故事：那时候天上有十个太阳同时出现在天空，太阳的灼热使庄稼都枯死了，因此天帝委任当时世上箭术最好的后羿把其中九个太阳射下来。后来，后羿寻得了一种可以长生不老的神药，他的妻子嫦娥乘他不备独自服下了神药。顿时，嫦娥缓缓向天上飘去，最后来到月亮上，至今都住在广寒宫里。每逢中秋，世人都会摆出月饼，供奉嫦娥。
　　The first tale centers around the 'Lady on the Moon,' an immortal goddess named Chang E. 'Children in schools are often told this lore, about a time when the world had 10 suns,' Ms. Yeow recounts. 'The heat from the suns was killing the crops, and so the emperor commissioned the best archer of the land, Hou Yi, to shoot down nine of the suns. Later Hou Yi came to possess a pill of immortality, which his wife, Chang E, took. Upon taking the pill, she floats into the sky and resides to this day on the moon. The people lay out their mooncakes as an offering to her during Midautumn Festival.'

　　而根据第二个传说，月饼是被用来散布秘密消息的工具。故事发生在蒙古人统治汉人的元朝，汉人为了推翻蒙古人的统治，利用月饼秘传消息一齐动手反叛。
　　In the second account, mooncakes were used as a vessel to disperse secret notes alerting Han Chinese rebels to join a revolt against the Mongols.

　　香港美食博客作家Josh Tse（其笔名为“叉烧包”）说，传说每个月饼内都夹有一个纸条，文曰：请于八月十五杀死鞑子兵──朱元璋落笔。据说，此次反叛结束了由蒙古人统治的元朝(1271-1368)。
　　'It all began, so the legend says, when notes were hidden underneath the mooncake skin to circulate the message: Kill the Mongols on the 15th day of the eighth month by General Zhu Yuan Chang,' says Hong Kong food blogger Josh Tse, who goes by the pseudonym Cha Xiu Bao (roast-pork steamed buns). The rebellion is said to have ended the Mongol-led Yuan dynasty (1271-1368).

　　除了传说以外，关于月饼到底是在何时何地首次面世的，至今仍然是一个谜。Josh Tse说，史书中早在唐朝(619-907)的时候就有描述与月饼相似的圆形糕点的记载。至于月饼是如何辗转地与拜月和中秋节联系在一起的，还没有人能够说得清楚。
　　Fables aside, exactly when and where mooncakes were first introduced remains a mystery. 'There are records in ancient texts describing round pastries similar to mooncakes as far back as the Tang dynasty (619-907),' says Mr. Tse. 'How it became so intricately associated with moon worship and the Midautumn Festival -- no one can say for certain.'

　　月饼的品尝
　　The Setting

　　香港美食评论家纪晓华(Walter Kei)表示，在古代，月饼是只有在中秋才能吃到的稀罕而昂贵的美味。如今，夏天还未结束，人们往往就会收到二三十盒月饼，他们必须在中秋前的一个月就开始吃月饼，然后一直要吃，直到最后不得不浪费掉为止。
　　'In the olden days, mooncakes were a rare, expensive treat to be enjoyed just one day a year on Mid-autumn Festival,' says Hong Kong food critic Walter Kei. 'Now that people receive stacks of 20 or 30 boxes before the summer is even over, they have to get started eating them a month before autumn and continue to eat the leftovers until they spoil.'

　　然而，品尝月饼的正确方式从未变过。月饼不是一个人独享的──虽然一些极端的月饼爱好者会这样做，与大家分享月饼是中秋团圆主题的一部分。Lynn Yeow解释道，传统上，大点的月饼会被切成八份，因为八是幸运数字。她还说，月饼在室内常温下品尝味道最好。
　　The proper method of enjoying a mooncake, however, is unchanged. Not to be devoured whole by one person -- although some extreme mooncake lovers do -- the experience of sharing a mooncake is part of the Midautumn tuan yuan, or family reunion, spirit. 'Customarily, the larger mooncakes are cut into eight pieces because eight is an auspicious number,' explains Ms. Yeow, who adds that they are best served at room temperature.

　　作为餐后甜品或者午后点心，月饼总是要和浓茶搭配在一起享用。纪晓华建议，为了去甜味和脂肪，试着搭配上海的龙井，广州的茉莉花茶，或者云南的普洱茶，这些都是味道又浓又苦的好茶。
　　Enjoyed as an end-of-meal dessert or afternoon snack, mooncakes should always be served with a strong cup of hot tea. 'To cut the sweetness and fat,' suggests Mr. Kei, 'try pairing it with long jin tea from Shanghai, muo li hua tea from Canton, or puer from Yunnan -- all intense bitter teas.'

　　最后的告诫：小心别吃多了！月饼看似份量很小，但是每180克就含800卡路里的热量。因此，以小块品尝为宜。
　　The caveat: Beware of overeating! The calorie count of these miniature morsels is a heartstopping 800 calories per 180-gram cake. So it's a treat best sampled in moderation.

　　月饼的评判
　　The Judgment
　　香港洲际酒店(InterContinental Hong Kong)欣图轩(Yan Toh Heen)餐厅的主厨刘耀飞（音）表示，月饼好不好，要看它是不是薄皮大馅，这也是一般点心的原则。刘师傅今年一直在教授一个月饼制作学习班。
　　'Good mooncakes are judged according to the rule of dim sum: thin skin, lots of filling,' says Chef Lau Yiu-fai of Yan Toh Heen restaurant in the InterContinental Hong Kong hotel, who this year has been teaching a mooncake-cooking class.

　　嘉麟楼的刘师傅说，最后的成品应当是烤皮泛光泽，无裂缝，刻字清晰。切开月饼后，外皮内馅之间不会看到气泡。所有的原料应当光滑如丝般地凝结在一起，包括蛋黄在内。至于蛋黄，原则是“越老越好”，原因是高质量的保鲜鸭蛋至少要保存一个月才能形成油滑的蛋黄。
　　'The final product should have a luster to the skin, no cracks and clear lettering,' says the chef, who isn't related to Spring Moon's Chef Lau. 'And when you cut inside, there shouldn't be air bubbles between the skin and the filling.' All the ingredients should congeal in a smooth and silken consistency, including the egg yolk, where the motto is 'the older the better' since high-quality preserved duck eggs are aged for at least a month to produce a more oily yolk.

　　至于月饼馅，欣图轩的刘师傅说，咸甜要适中，才能造就好月饼。月饼的味道不应让人感到偏咸或者偏甜的，而应是味道和谐完美的融合。
　　As for the filling, 'there should be a delicate balance between that salty tinge and blooming sweetness in a perfect mooncake,' says Spring Moon's Chef Lau. 'The flavors shouldn't pull you in any one direction, but blend perfectly in harmony.'

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