Happy Moon Festival everyone! Too all Asians and non-Asians! 🙂 I used to think this was a Vietnamese moon festival because my family celebrates it too.. but Chinese and Koreans celebrate it too. It is the Mid-Autumn Festival that occurs every year on the 15th of the 8th month of the year. My mom says that the whole point of the Moon Festival is for the kids to gift their parents traditional moon cakes (However, I think there is more to the tradition than just that 😀 I think she just wants free moon cakes lol jk). This is celebrated according to the lunar calendar when the full moon is bright. It is in accordance with moon worship and moon gazing; hence, we eat moon cakes also! There are many moon festivals in multiple cities to celebrate the Moon Festival. One of them occurred in Monterey Park this past weekend called 2016 Moon Festival in Monterey Park. This is the time for friends and family to gather, harvest crops, give thanks to the harvest, and pray. For me, it’s more about pretty lanterns and eating yummy moon cakes!

There are multiple booths at Monterey Park. It kind of resembles 626 Night Market and OC Night Market, but since it’s newer, it was a lot less crowded so shorter to almost no lines for food! Yay!

crispy gua-bao (kimchi pork belly). This was delicious! Sure it was expensive.. $6 for one.. but it was really good! The bun was super crispy and crunchy. I like the small flakes that gave it that crunchy texture when I bit into it. The pork belly was really soft, tender, and fatty. mmMm

In line waiting for the wheel cake.. Ohh what yummy childhood dreams coming true again!! They had three flavors: custard, red bean and oreo.. Yup.. I said oreo.. oreos… in wheel cake..

One of each! Surprisingly, the oreo was pretty good in this sweet, flour dough on the outside. The oreo melted inside so it was a sweet and hot dessert.

turnip cake

And I got me some sweet sugar cane drink! Freshly squeezed right in front of you!

And for the finale.. haha.. Yes.. I guess I am a big baby! 🙂 The watermelon juice was good and sweet! There were bits of watermelon, cantaloupe and honeydew inside!! And now I have a big girl baby bottle! Yay!!

Happy Moon Festival again everyone! Hope you all are enjoying yummy moon cakes like I am 🙂