Hi Kevin!!
Ahhhhh procrastination... is an issue in my life... I prepared this a week ahead and now we have half hour before the day ends...
Here here! I wanted to share with you some traditional food we have when we celebrate Mid Autumn Festival (it's the same time as your Chuseok).
There's mooncakes, pamelo, mini baby yam, and water caltrops.
My favorite is water caltrops! I call it Batman nuts... It's a bit like Batman logo... Or a Buffalo? We get it only once a year. ( the shell is quite hard, we used to crack it by hitting it with a ketchup bottle... But now I developed a skill to bite it in such a way that the nut remains in shape...)
Like this.... I'm proud of myself.
Don't you think they look cute?
But they stink when you boil it...
Interestingly many people doesn't eat these water caltrops or the baby yams during Mid Autumn Festival... Some doesn't even know what they are, coz mainly we have mooncakes, and in Malaysia we light up lanterns.
I get to know these from my late dad's friend's Mid Autumn Festival celebration when I was a kid. Every year we are invited to this uncle's house, and their family... Uhm.. pray to the moon. So they will prepare all the traditional food and have a gathering.
Ahh. Childhood memories.
In Malaysia we have lanterns during Mid Autumn, while Chinese in China have lanterns on the 15th day of the Lunar new year. So kids normally get a new lantern each year, mine almost always a goldfish... But there are traditional designs too, and battery operated ones. Some families make their own lanterns using milk cans... Schools organizes lantern making competition too, it's always fun to see those.
And at gatherings, kids will light up the lanterns and go for walks in a big group. Along the way, you hear leile shouting coz their entire lantern burn up (it's candles inside in case you don't know...)
Let me steal some photos online to show you.
Mid Autumn Festival is always colorful and WE ALWAYS NEED LOTS OF CANDLES! A lot of fun memories.
Today I spent the day with my mom, my aunt and uncle having lots of food. I'd think it's a time for gatherings. But this year the moon from my place was hidden due to the cloudy skies. I guess I will look at the moon tomorrow night.
I hope you had fun today too, whichever way you spent it.
Oh, and back to the story of my watermelon strawberry sugar kombucha... The answer is, DO NOT FERMENT WATERMELON. It tasted like watermelon that's gone bad. So I guess blending watermelon into kombucha might be the answer.
And... I still haven't shown you some other photos I took ages ago... Let me dig my gallery and come back again soon!
Hope you enjoyed my stories!
💋