The Stories Behind Mid-Autumn Festival Traditional Jobs

Dong Hung Vien – Traditional Mooncake

Dong Hung Vien was established in Saigon’s Chinatown in 1954.  In 2007, Mr. Phuong and his brothers took over the business in Saigon after their father. Mr. Phuong’s father learned the heirloom secret of how to make mooncake from a chief baker of Dong Hung Vien but he is indeed not related to the original owner. His father kept the brand “Dong Hung Vien” and developed the business in Vietnam. During the year, each member of the family has his own business to attend to but come the Mid-Autumn Festival, the whole family comes together for the holiday.

Mr. Phuong at his bakery, Dong Hung Vien

Dong Hung Vien only makes mooncake from the beginning of July to the 10th of August on the Lunar calendar. Therefore, the bakery sells all their mooncake before the Mid-Autumn Festival. This is quite different from other bakeries. Many bakeries will sell a large number of mooncakes and discount them after the Mid-Autumn Festival. That’s why the Dong Hung Vien mooncakes are always fresh and delicious. But this isn’t just because of their timely baking schedule. Dong Hung Vien chooses the best ingredients and some are sourced from different provinces in order to maintain the high quality. 

Approximately two to three months before mid-autumn arrives, the syrup consisting of just water and sugar is cooked so it has time to cool. The syrup is later mixed with wheat flour to make the crust. The baking process consists of the following steps. To prepare the filling, first mix the mooncake filling, place the salted duck egg yolk into the filling, and knead the filling into a round shape. Then, encase the filling with wheat flour, press the mooncake into the mold, and bake. After the mooncake has been baked once, spray egg yolk onto the mooncake, bake for a second time, and put the delicious cakes in an isolated room to cool. Baking the mooncake twice gives it a beautiful amber color and of course, you’ll taste the difference. After that, the mooncake will be packaged and ready to sell.

What does a mooncake look like inside?

Some bakeries will buy ready-made mooncake filling to save time. But Dong Hung Vien does no such thing, they use an heirloom secret paired with fresh ingredients. This makes their mooncake more delicious and distinct. 

In the past, most bakers used wooden molds and braziers to make mooncakes. This traditional method requires a lot of labor. Nowadays, Dong Hung Vien has changed to a modern baking method using electricity and gas to increase their quantity. Every year, ten tons of mooncake are made and sold by Dong Hung Vien. 

Dong Hung Vien has many kinds of mooncake, including coconut, lotus, mung bean, taro, and mixed filling. The mixed filling usually includes nuts and seeds mixed with Chinese sausage, roasted chicken, ham, and more. The mung bean, coconut, and mixed filling mooncakes are the most popular among the local people. In particular, when Mr. Phuong took over Dong Hung Vien, he created fruit fillings such as kiwi, pineapple, strawberry, and blueberry. These newer and fruitier mooncakes have become crowd favorites. You can find several different sizes of mooncake at Dong Hung Vien: small, big, round, or rectangular. Lots of companies order a big number of mooncakes with their brand name to gift their customers and staff in the Mid-Autumn Festival.

This batch is ready to be baked!

Ten to twenty bakers do all the work in the few months before the Mid-Autumn Festival. Some bakers are seniors who have baked mooncake for Dong Hung Vien for a long time. They are mainly responsible for important baking steps. The others are younger newbies or just bakers with a few years of experience. Just like the owner, these bakers have different jobs throughout the year, but they come back just to work the Mid-Autumn Festival.  

A normal work day at Dong Hung Vien

Dong Hung Vien has distribution shops in Nha Trang, Da Lat, Buon Ma Thuot, Bien Hoa, and Ba Ria city. In Saigon, there are two shops: one in Binh Thanh district and another one is the main bakery in 176 Ben Bai Say street, District 6. Since Dong Hung Vien does not focus on marketing or advertising, they don’t have many bakeries. However, they have many loyal customers who come back year after year.  

What delicious and pretty mooncakes!