Ah the mooncake, Asia's must-have Mid-Autumn festival treat. These small circular pastries are beautifully designed and filled with a variety of ingredients, the most popular being lotus seed paste, red bean paste, and the signature salted duck egg in the center. Moon cakes carry a lot of meaning and history behind them. The intricate designs at the top of the cakes usually feature the Chinese characters for "fortune" or "longevity".

Families buy these elegantly packed treats in bulk to give to friends and family during the festival as they signify unity, warmth, and completeness. What some people don’t know is that these harmless little cakes actually played a big part during the Ming Revolution. It is said that revolutionaries would pack secret messages that contained plans to coordinate the revolt against the Mongols, it's a good thing Mongols didn't find salted duck egg as appetizing as the Han Chinese.