Of mooncakes and friendship

The friendship I have with Fan has not always been easy. For a time, we were too close to even tolerate each other’s bigger circle of friends. Once I completely stopped talking to her because she could not handle me being close to another girl in our class. It was just so childish, "This is mine, I will not share it with others."

We were quite young back then. We were stuck in this situation for about one year. Neither of us knew that we could open the knot simply by communication. I don’t remember exactly what caused things to change, only that it was Fan’s continuous caring and kindness led me back to her.

Students abroad miss their home most on family reunion festivals. In China, we have two of them, first is the Spring Festival, or the Chinese New Year. The other is the Moon Festival or Mid-Autumn Festival that falls on every 15th day of the 8th lunar month (this year, it falls on 6th October in the western calendar). Sometimes we Chinese students celebrate these festivals together, but we don’t usually have mooncakes to eat on Moon Festival.

On the Moon Festival two years ago, I had one of the best mooncakes of my life. On that day, Fan mysteriously called me into her room and stuffed a small red paper package into my hand. She then proudly announced, "Let’s eat." I looked at the package, the scenery cannot be more familiar, a yellowish perfect full-moon hanging on the sky on a peaceful night. A mooncake, my favorite type, with two salty duck egg yolks and red bean paste filling…

I looked at her in surprise, "Where did you get this?"

Fan, who held a similar package in her hand, still had the mysterious smile on her face when she said, "My mother sent me these two, and only these two, mooncakes via my uncle (that uncle always travels between Finland and China). Very fresh. Eat now."

It was so precious that I didn’t really want to eat it right away. I said, "I shall share it with Pasi (my boyfriend) later. He has never seen a mooncake."

Fan immediately responded with a stubborn tone, "No, you eat it now, all by yourself, this is your favorite mooncake." Meanwhile, she tore her mooncake package open and started eating.

I smiled and sat down next to her, carefully opened the package, joyfully and gratefully took my first bite, imagining the full moon in China. Fan looked at me with satisfaction and asked, "Is it good?"

The weather is getting colder. It's a good time now to have a hotpot with friends and families. It will warm you up and is easy to make.

Luo-han – vegetarian hot pot

A hotpot is perfect for sharing with family and friends. (Image: Mika Hiltunen from Liuxiang 2, written by Jin Cuihong & Li Songchun)

Rinse the vegetables and slice them into suitable sizes. If you are using dried mushroom or tofu, soak them first. Peel and slice the carrots.

Preparing the hotpot broth

Boil a liter of water in the hotpot dish. Add the ginger and carrots and bring it back to the boil. Add 1/2 tsp salt, 1/3 tsp natrium glutamate, the bean sprouts, and 1.5 tsp cooking oil. Let it gently simmer.

Preparing the dipping sauce

Finely chop 2 pcs of chili into a bowl. Add 2 Tbsp sesame oil and 2 Tbsp light soy sauce. Mix well.

Serving the hotpot

Divide the dipping sauce into individual serving bowls. Diners can add a spoonful of the broth into the sauce, if they wish. Each diner can then cook the vegetable of their choice in the hot pot and eat.

In China, we rarely eat pure vegetarian food. We use chicken stock as a base for the broth for the hot pot. You can substitute half a cube of chicken broth cube for the salt and natrium glutamate.