It's time for mooncakes! Take a look at how it relates to meteorological conditions

　　Mid-Autumn Festival is approaching, and it's time to eat mooncakes, the traditional food of this Chinese Festival.

　　There is indeed a relationship between mooncakes and meteorological conditions in various places, which is mainly reflected in the selection of raw materials, production process, taste and flavor of mooncakes, as well as sales and transportation.

　　In general, mooncakes in Northern China are tend to be sweet, mooncakes in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River taste salty, while flavors in southwest and southern China are both sweet and salty.

　　The flavor of the mooncakes reflects the regional differences in traditional Chinese food culture, as well as the fact that people's tastes are related to geography and meteorological factors.

　　In Northern China, where winter temperatures are low and fresh vegetables are difficult to rise, it is customary to pickle and store them with salt. Therefore, people in the north like to eat more salty food.

　　But they will use sugar in the filling of mooncakes, which they don't usually eat.In addition, as the temperature drops during this period, people prefer to eat high-calorie foods .

　　Due to the warm and humid climate in the southern China, especially in the tropical and subtropical areas south of 24°N, such as Guangdong, Guangxi and Fujian, the meteorological conditions in these areas are very suitable for the growth of cane and other sugar crops.

　　It is because of the high production of sugar crops in the south of China that people prefer to make mooncakes out of ingredients such as meat and salted egg yolks, with sugar simply serving as a sweetener to accompany them.

　　Cantonese-style mooncake

　　What's more, the production process of mooncakes is also closely related to meteorological conditions.

　　Taking the Suzhou-style and Chiu Chow-style mooncakes as examples, they have richly layered and crispy puff pastry. During the production process, proper humidity and temperature are crucial to the molding of and texture ofpuff pastry. If the weather is too dry or humid, it may affect the quality of it.

　　fresh meat mooncake

　　The sale and transportation of mooncakes are also affected by meteorological conditions. In hot weather, perishable mooncakes, such as fresh meat mooncakes, require special preservation measures to ensure their quality, while iced mooncakes require refrigerated transportation to maintain their texture. And adverse weather conditions such as rainstorms and typhoons may also affect the transportation and sale of mooncakes.

　　Various types of mooncakes in supermarket

　　In recent years, more and more creative mooncakes popped up, including those made with ice cream, tea leaves, chocolate, sugarsubstitute to satisfy the demands of different diners.

　　Editor: WANG Chang