Mooncake Season

Happy Mid-Autumn Festival, everyone! It's mooncake season again. I myself prefer the taste and mouthfeel of the white snow skin mooncakes over the traditional reddish-brown crust.

As the son of Chinese-Vietnamese retired bakers, every year around this time, I would come help at the bakery on weekends.

From the kitchen, you'd hear the Bap-Bop-BAP-BAP! noise of my father and his staff repeatedly pummeling wooden mooncake molds against the tables to loosen the packed mooncake ingredients. Then, they'd gently place them onto the large baking trays. 

My mother would call out for from the front: "Một cà phê sữa đá!" We'd shovel ice into a styrofoam cup pre-filled with Vietnamese iced coffee, snap on a lid, and insert a straw. Speed-walking through the narrow corridor, past the pastries in their glass cases, or around from the other end, past the lotto machine. I would try to remember to deliver the $2.00 beverage with a cảm ơn.

I'd like to say cảm ơn, or thank you, to my parents, now retired. So much sacrifice and hard work getting us from there to here, and then to now.

Living with CKD or any chronic illness, it's incredibly helpful to receive emotional support from your folks, if you are lucky enough to have it, and I am deeply grateful for theirs.

"At the Store." Oil on Canvas, 36" x 48", 1998.