TL;DR: Mooncakes come in two main types: baked mooncakes and snow skin mooncakes, originating from China and entering Vietnam with traders and Chinese migrants, tied to the Mid-Autumn Festival on the full moon of the eighth lunar month. Traditional fillings center on mung bean, lotus seed, taro, and mixed nuts with candied winter melon, watermelon seeds, sesame, Chinese sausage, and salted egg yolk. Hanoi mooncakes lean toward a light, delicate taste, while Cholon mooncakes in Ho Chi Minh City carry a richer Chinese flavor from family-run bakeries.
What Are Mooncakes and Why Are There Two Types, Baked and Snow Skin?
Mooncakes are eaten around the full moon of the eighth lunar month and come in two main kinds: baked mooncakes (bánh nướng) and snow skin mooncakes (bánh dẻo). As the press describes them, bánh dẻo has a crust of white glutinous rice flour kneaded with sugar and pomelo blossom water and pressed in a mold; bánh nướng has a wheat flour crust mixed with egg and a little wine[1].
In the common understanding, the round shape of bánh dẻo evokes the round, ivory-white autumn moon and is tied to the idea of "family reunion"[1]; the ethnologist Đào Hùng likewise writes that the round bánh nướng is a symbol of the moon[2].
Tết Trung thu is the full moon of the eighth lunar month, one of the major festivals of the Vietnamese; bánh nướng and bánh dẻo are the characteristic foods of the occasion[1].
Where Do Mooncakes Come From?
According to an article on VietNamNet's Infonet, mooncakes originated in China and were passed on to Vietnam[1]. Mrs. Hoàng Thị Như Huy also says the mooncake is not Vietnamese in origin[2]. As for how the cake first came about, there are only legends, and each tells it differently.
One tale has it that at the end of the Yuan dynasty two rebel leaders, Zhu Yuanzhang and Liu Bowen, had round cakes made with slips of paper inside fixing the uprising for the brightest moonlit night of the eighth month, so as to pass the word in secret; later people made the cakes on the 15th of the eighth month in remembrance[1]. Another tale says that as early as the Yin and Zhou periods, in the Zhejiang area, there was a cake commemorating Grand Preceptor Wen Zhong, called the Thái Sư cake; in the Western Han, Zhang Qian (the article spells the name Trương Thiên) travelled to the Western Regions and brought back sesame, walnuts and watermelon as ingredients, so the cake was also called the walnut cake[1].
The article relays these stories as legends and cites no historical record; they should not be read as events that actually happened.
Another tale says that at a festival welcoming the full moon, Emperor Xuanzong of Tang tasted the cake and Yang Guifei proposed naming it after the moon, a name glossed as "moon shadow"[1]. The article adds that the cake had earlier been called the Hồ cake, the royal cake or the reunion cake, used in a moon-welcoming rite of old[1].
What the sources agree on is only that the cake came from China and was passed on to Vietnam. The stories of the Tang and the Yuan, of Zhu Yuanzhang or Yang Guifei, are legend, not historical record.
What Goes Into Traditional Mooncake Fillings?
Traditional mooncake fillings in Vietnam center on beans, seeds, and candied fruits. According to common descriptions, snow skin mooncakes are made from white glutinous rice flour filled with sugar and pomelo blossom water, molded in wood or plastic round molds, with fillings of lotus seed or mashed mung bean[1]. Baked mooncakes have a yeast-raised wheat flour crust mixed with chicken egg and a little wine; fillings can be mung bean, taro, or mashed lotus seed wrapped around a salted egg yolk, or mixed nuts filling with ham, pork, bird's nest, coconut, watermelon seeds, lotus root, and winter melon[1].
Ethnographer Đào Hùng, in the book Câu chuyện ẩm thực dưới góc nhìn lịch sử, describes the Vietnamese snow skin mooncake as made from white glutinous rice flour, with an outer crust that differs slightly but fillings still based on seeds as the Chinese commonly make, including egg, finely sliced fat, watermelon seeds, sesame, chestnuts, lotus seeds, winter melon, and kumquat[2]. Also according to Đào Hùng, the round baked mooncake is a symbol of the moon, sometimes shaped as a sow or a litter of piglets, implying a wish for increased fertility[2].
For Vietnamese people, Mid-Autumn is an agricultural festival, autumn is the season of yin abundance ruled by the moon; ancients observed the moon to predict crops, a bright moon meant a good harvest, a golden moon was a sign of silkworms producing much silk, and a faint dark spot on the moon was an omen of war[2].
Comparison Table of Common Fillings
| Filling | Ingredients named by the source | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Lotus seed or mung bean (bánh dẻo) | Mashed lotus seed or mung bean | Infonet |
| Mung bean, taro, lotus seed (bánh nướng) | Mashed, wrapped around a salted egg yolk | Infonet |
| Mixed, thập cẩm (bánh nướng) | Ham, pork, shark fin and bird's nest (vi yến), coconut, melon seeds, lotus root, winter melon | Infonet |
| Mixed seeds (bánh dẻo) | Egg, diced pork fat, melon seeds, sesame, chestnut, lotus seed, winter melon, kumquat | Đào Hùng, via Thanh Niên |
| Mixed with roast chicken | Thanh Niên (bà Tuyết, Mã Mây); Người Lao Động (Quảng Nguyên Long) | |
| Green rice, cốm (bánh nướng, bánh dẻo) | Thanh Niên (Gia Trịnh) | |
| Mixed, coconut, mung bean | Người Lao Động (Đồng Ký) |
How Do Hanoi and Saigon Mooncakes Differ?
Two newspaper articles show two different pictures. In Hanoi, many well-known traditional bakeries cluster in the Old Quarter[2]. In Ho Chi Minh City, the mooncake trade of the Chinese community is more than a hundred years old, with family-run bakeries in Cholon[3].
Hanoi: Old Quarter Cluster and Light Flavor
According to a 2018 Thanh Niên article, on the map of traditional Hanoi mooncakes one can see the "clustering" distribution of many famous brands in the Old Quarter: Ninh Hương on Hàng Điếu, bà Dần on Hàng Bè, Phương Soát on Hàng Chiếu, bà Tuyết on Mã Mây[2]. Outside the Old Quarter there are other bakeries such as Bảo Phương on Thụy Khuê, Gia Trịnh on Lý Nam Đế, Vinh Thu on Lý Thường Kiệt, Madame Nhung on Quán Sứ[2].
In terms of taste, the article describes Ninh Hương cakes as having a gently fragrant crust, fillings balanced in color and the crisp fragrance of candied fruit, sesame, and watermelon seeds, with moderate sweetness; mung bean snow skin with salted egg is bà Dần's standout; Phương Soát is praised for its mixed nut baked cakes with well-controlled richness; bà Tuyết on Mã Mây is remembered for roast chicken mixed nut cakes[2].
Mrs. Hoàng Thị Như Huy, academician of the French Academy of Culinary Arts, comments that mooncakes are not originally Vietnamese, but the Vietnamese-style and Hanoi-style traditional methods are; although the principle of fillings being beans, lotus, or candied fruit is the same, Hanoi cake fillings still retain a very distinct light taste[2]. She also believes people like traditional Hanoi cakes for other reasons, including nostalgia for the past[2].
Saigon and Cholon: Chinese Family-Run Bakeries
According to a Tuổi Trẻ article citing Người Lao Động in 2025, in Ho Chi Minh City, the mooncake trade of the Chinese community has existed for over a hundred years[3]. From the early period when Chinese people arrived in Cholon, the cake trade formed with them, starting from small bakeries in alleys serving neighbors and spreading into names like Đông Hưng Viên and Quảng Nguyên Long[3]. By the 20th century, bakeries expanded in scale, still keeping traditional recipes but improving tools and packaging[3].
The article quotes Mrs. Trần Gia Huê, owner of Nam Việt bakery, saying her family began making cakes in the late 1970s, initially learning and working for other bakeries before building their own brand, officially opening the shop in the early 1990s[3]. Mr. Quang Huy, representative of Đồng Ký bakery, says his family has been in the trade for over 30 years, his grandfather was Teochew and researched the recipe himself and opened the shop in 1990[3]. According to him, customer tastes at the shop still lean toward traditional fillings like mixed nuts, coconut, and mung bean[3].
The article also notes that many bakeries long ago switched from charcoal ovens to high-capacity electric ovens to keep the temperature stable, be more hygienic and produce less smoke and dust, while keeping the core manual steps to preserve the flavor[3].
Comparison Table of Two Regions
| Criterion | Hanoi (per Thanh Niên, 2018) | Cholon, HCMC (per Người Lao Động, 2025) |
|---|---|---|
| Bakeries mentioned | Old Quarter: Hàng Điếu, Hàng Bè, Hàng Chiếu, Mã Mây; also Thụy Khuê, Lý Nam Đế, Lý Thường Kiệt, Quán Sứ | Chinese-run bakeries: Đông Hưng Viên, Quảng Nguyên Long, Đồng Ký, Nam Việt |
| How the taste is described | Light (in the words of Mrs. Hoàng Thị Như Huy); Bảo Phương is sweeter | Old-style flavor; Đồng Ký describes its own filling as pure, with nothing added |
| Fillings mentioned | Mixed, mung bean with salted egg, mixed with roast chicken, green rice (cốm) | Mixed, coconut, mung bean, mixed with roast chicken |
| Selling season | Ninh Hương sells all year round | Đồng Ký works only from mid seventh lunar month to the 15th of the eighth |
Why Are Mooncakes Called Reunion Cakes?
The mooncake is also regarded as a symbol of reunion. According to the Infonet article, among the cake's older names is "reunion cake", used in a moon-welcoming rite[1].
A common explanation holds that the round shape of the cake represents the round, ivory-white autumn moon, a symbol of "family reunion"; the salty taste of salted egg yolk represents difficulties and setbacks in life, while the sweetness of the crust and filling represents the loving embrace of relatives[1]. This is a symbolic interpretation, not a mandatory rule.
The Thanh Niên article notes that the researcher Hoàng Đạo Thúy, in his book Hà Nội thanh lịch, says very little about mooncakes; his piece on Tết Trung thu mentions them in a single phrase, "bánh dẻo mặt trăng", and the rest describes the feast tray and pastimes such as carousel lanterns, drums and papier-mache lion heads[2].
Nhật Nguyệt's Suggestions
Nhật Nguyệt's suggestion: when reading about mooncakes, keep the question of origin (the sources say only that the cake came over from China) apart from the legends of the Tang and the Yuan, and apart from the meaning of reunion that people attach to the cake. When buying, hygiene, the origin of ingredients and the expiry date should come before any story about origins.
