Have you ever checked in, tasted local mooncakes, and visited Xinchang Ancient Town
As the Mid-Autumn Festival approaches, moon cakes have become a popular food, and some local moon cakes with strong local characteristics have become popular.
The Xinchang Ancient Town is bustling with visitors, who have brought a variety of delicious food to the town, among which a local mooncake is particularly noteworthy. Because of the addition of peach gum with local characteristics, it has become a unique peach gum fresh meat mooncake, attracting many people to buy and taste.
Liang Tao, the owner of the Taojiao Fresh Meat Mooncake Shop in Xinchang Ancient Town, said that Shanghai people like to eat fresh meat mooncakes. Xinchang is also the hometown of Taoyuan, and peach gum is its specialty. Therefore, this time I want to try adding peach gum to the mooncakes to reflect the local characteristics of Xinchang.
The so-called peach gum mooncake refers to adding peach gum to the fresh meat filling, making it not only have a meat aroma but also exude a peach fragrance, which has become a local delicacy feature in Xinchang. In the second floor production room of this shop, two mooncake makers are busy wrapping mooncakes. After mixing oil and flour, they roll out the dough, fill it with filling, and bake it in the oven. A fragrant fresh meat and peach gum mooncake is born. The release of this mooncake not only enriches the local cuisine, but also adds to the charm of the ancient town that has been accumulated for a long time. Hu Huaying, the producer of mooncakes in Guzhen, introduced that the meat filling of mooncakes must be well mixed because it is crispy and the meat quality is not good, making it difficult to wrap. At the same time, because they use peach gum, the meat filling should be prepared one day in advance and stored in the refrigerator overnight to allow the moisture to solidify, making it easier to wrap.
The pastry of mooncakes is made by mixing oil flour and water surface, with oil flour accounting for two-thirds and water mixed flour accounting for one-third. The mooncake baked in this way has a better crispy effect and a better taste.
There are more than one mooncake shop on the old street of Xinchang Ancient Town, each with its own unique features. As the Mid Autumn Festival approaches, there are many customers who purchase and taste mooncakes. Mr. Li, the owner of the mooncake shop, said that sales are good now, with about thirty to forty pots sold every day.
Text/Photography: Zheng Guiyong
*Reprinted from official WeChat account released by Pudong
