Moon Festival at Jason Lin's Garden - Part 2

 They had a little sideshow going on all night.  The ladies of the family made mooncakes.  I had never seen them made before.  It was quite interesting to watch.

 

I missed the first step but basically there was an egg mixture that was rolled into a ball.  Next that egg ball was covered with sweetened red bean paste.

 It was an exact science for them.  They weighed at every step.
The third step was the form the dough into a ball.  From there they rolled it out into a tongue shape.
From there they rolled it together like a cinnamon bun is rolled.  From that they flattened it again and rolled it into a circular shape.  This covered the red bean ball.  It also explains why mooncakes are so flaky.  It creates layers upon layers within the dough, similar to puff pastry.

 

  There's the eggy first step below.

 And the finished product.  I have to say, there were much more delicious than the ones that we get in the store.  There's just something about home baked products that is so much more appealing.

 This was the outdoor oven they used for the mooncakes.

Moon Festival at Jason Lin's Garden - Part 1

 Jason Lin invited us to his family's garden for Moon Festival.  We had gone to the garden in early summer and had a great time so we gladly accepted the invitation.

The whole garden had a night market atmosphere.  They had games set up such as the fish game.  At the night market you fish with a circular fan shaped thing... only it isn't a fan.  The filler is similar to interfacing.  It disintegrates in water leaving only a limited amount of time to catch the fish.  There are cups and you just toss the flip-floppy creatures into the cup and take them home.  Well, here we don't take them home; just play, play, play... and play again.

 Josie stopped using the fan thing and started using her hands.  Oh that just grossed me out in ways I cannot describe.  She was not squeamish about it at all. She just kept picking them up.

 Jason brought his football along.  Since we had been here before, we had some idea of the area we could play in.  Jason taught them how to throw the ball.  There were some hits and some misses, but overall they got the hang of it.  Jevin got clobbered once or twice as he walked into the path, but fared well.

 I made my 7 Layer Dip.  It was a similar reaction to what the parents at Perimeter had when I made it years ago.  They were hesitant... new food and all...  One got brave and tried it... and then all of them tried it.  There were no leftovers.  I was very flattered. 
They were unsure if it should be cooked or not.  I guess it does sort of look like pizza. LOL.

 Jason's cousin, Anson, took care of Jevin all night long.  Anson is in grade nine at our school.  Jason just graduated from our school and is going to senior high in Kaohsiung in a high school-college combination program.

 It was so nice not having to watch Jevin.  He stayed with Anson the whole night.  And Anson was so accommodating.  If Jevin wanted to be carried, Anson complied.  If Jevin wanted to eat, Anson fed him.  If Jevin wanted to play, Anson was there with the toys.

 The fireworks were quite special.  They had bought a box with them inside.  Lighting just one fuse set them all off.  This box was a happy face... See it?  Blue eyes, red smile, white circle...

 Jason, Jason and Jevin.

 Anson taking a Jevin-break...

 This is a barbeque - night market style.  They had all sorts of things you might find at a night market.

 Jason is barbequing with Jason, Jason Lin's cousin, looking on.  Yes, there were three Jason's at the barbeque.

 I took a picture of this because they just had everything there and I was not sure people would believe me.  This is something we would find in our 7-elevens.  It had snack foods that have been boiled in water.  For those of you who saw Flat Stanley's pictures, you may remember him having his picture taken with the 7-eleven guy next to these kinds of snacks.

 Here are the leftovers from dinner.  There was just so much food...

Incidentally, all the furniture here was brought to the garden by Jason Lin's uncle.  He had gone to Bali Island to buy it all.  There were tables, chairs, lawn chairs, huts, lights and so much  more.  It was just so beautiful and very fitting for such a large space.