Culture | World in a dish

Mooncakes, an ancient tradition, are constant yet variable

Like other holiday treats, they are also a lot of work

BEIJING, CHINA - 2016/09/10: A piece of Mooncake is put on red paper-cut window decoration. On September 15, Chinese people will celebrate 2016 Mid-Autumn festival by getting together with their families and eating mooncakes. The Mid-Autumn festival, also called Moon Festival is the second largest holiday celebrated after the Lunar Chinese New Year. (Photo by Zhang Peng/LightRocket via Getty Images)
|NEW YORK

At the southern end of Manhattan the grid system comes undone, and the streets converge like electric cables at the bottom of a junk drawer. Chinese immigrants have flocked to the neighbourhood for well over a century. Trend-obsessed eaters shun this Chinatown for the one in Flushing, or glitzier spots in the East Village. But nowhere in New York offers such a wealth of old-school Cantonese delicacies: crackling roast pork, carefully seasoned seafood and, at this time of year, soft, golden mooncakes.

This article appeared in the Culture section of the print edition under the headline “Promising the moon”

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