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V
u Bao Linh is a third year stu-
dent at a university in Hanoi.
She finished a short cake mak-
ing course before she headed
back to her home town for summer
vacation. “This is a big summer for me,”
she says. “I will start my small busi-
ness making healthy home-made moon
cakes.” Moon cakes are an indispensa-
ble delicacy of the Mid-autumn Festival.
STARTING EARLY
Since the middle of July, thousands
of eye-catching stalls of famous bakery
brands such as Kinh Do, Huu Nghi,
Trang An, Bibica, Thu Huong Bakery,
Hai Ha Kotobuki and many others have
been set up on pavements in Hanoi and
throughout Vietnam.
The festival falls on September 15
this year, which means the cakes are
being sold earlier than ever. Tran Tuan
Anh, a salesman at Kinh Do moon cake’s
stall on Ton That Tung Street, said that
he can sell 100 mooncakes per day,
which means a daily revenue of millions
(in VND). “In better locations, they can
sell much more than me,” he added.
“I don’t need to buy a box of four
cakes at such a stall,” said 38 year old
housewife Pham Bich Thuy. Instead,
she buys separate cakes and selects the
filling she likes. “The price is reason-
able at VND50,000-55,000 per pastry
and VND35,000-60,000 for a glutinous
rice cake, depending on the filling,” she
said. Thuy bought the first cakes at
the end of June because her kids were
so excited: “Even though it was not
the time of the festival yet, I bought
mooncakes to worship the ancestors,”
she said.
Beside the normal size cakes
(200 grams), Kinh Do bakery has also
launched over-size cakes of 700 grams
priced at VND240,000-390,000. Signs
of booming consumer power seem to
have encouraged the company to de-
velop more luxury moon cake gift box-
es which range from VND1,200,000 to
VND2,500,000, with fillings of abalone,
Japanese scallops, king crab and other
special ingredients.
Rising demand for mooncakes has
been reported by many key players in
the moon-cakes market. Tran Quoc
Viet, Director of Kinh Do Bakery, says
that the company expects to shift 2,400
tons of mooncakes in 2013 - a 15 per
cent increase over 2012.
Bibica Corporation also increased its
production to 550 tons - a 10 per cent
rise. Other less-popular brands, such as
Evolving tradition
The mooncake is an integral part of the Mid-autumn Festival and this year it is
available in more guises than ever, writes
Hong Nhung
SLICE OF LIFE