Mooncake fillings can sometimes leave me guessing

Life is like a box of mooncakes. You never know what you're going to get.

A profound mystery in Chinese life comes in a plastic case with the silica packet. The mooncake is one of the best pastries I have ever tasted, but buying it is a never-ending surprise－or disappointment. You never know what kind of stuffing you will get!

Growing up in Manila, I remember eating thin, tiny mooncakes the size of a compact makeup. We called them hopia. We knew they were Chinese delicacies produced by Chinese immigrants in the Philippines. If we wanted to have them for snacks, we needed to buy them from neighborhood convenience stores run by the Chinese. The hopia was best washed down with Coke or steaming hot coffee. Sometimes they were sold stale, the red bean filling was dry and crumbly, because the sellers would not bake new ones until everything had been sold out. I wasn't particularly fond of them, but when served on a table, I would help myself to a piece. When they're freshly baked, they're divine.