TARBUCKS sells them in coffee flavours. Haagen-Dazs has launched an ice cream version.

　　Mooncakes aren't just salted duck egg yolk any more. In Hong Kong, they've become big business.

　　The Chinese swear by these traditional, round pastries, shared among family and friends and reverently given away at the height of the Mid-Autumn Festival.

　　This year, mainlanders turned to Hong Kong for their annual fix after a series of food scares, most notably fake milk powder scams that killed 13 babies and shocked the world's most populous nation.

　　The city's bakeries scrambled to hire staff to churn out hundreds of millions of the palm-sized cakes - each of which has more calories than a McDonald's Big Mac - as their delivery hotlines ring off-the-hook.

　　"A lot of people come from the mainland to buy mooncakes. Now they account for 30 to 40 per cent of our business," said Cheung Tze-wing, a chef at the auspiciously named Eight Spirits Bakery in bustling Kowloon district.

　　"More people can afford mooncakes ... Our ingredients are good and genuine," said Cheung, wiping the sweat from his brow and patting flour from his apron.

　　In a tiny kitchen next to his stall, some 30 workers whip up 1,600 mooncakes a day in the run-up to the festival. The cakes are hand-made the old way, in traditional flavours.

　　Bakery owners say despite the advent of new-fangled versions, nothing beats the classics, the ones oozing with gummy lotus seed paste and salted duck egg yolk to symbolize the full moon. Others boast ham and assorted nuts, red or green bean paste.

　　Subversive sweets

　　The mooncake celebrates the overthrow of the Mongols at the end of the Yuan Dynasty in the 14th century. According to legend, secret notes baked into the sweets helped spark an uprising.

　　Today, people give away the cakes in elaborately designed boxes to show respect and gratitude to friends and family.

　　Along with colourful lantern processions, they are indispensable to the family gathered to admire the radiant autumn moon on the 15th day of the eighth lunar month.

　　And as the Hong Kong economy begins to emerge from years of malaise, the booming mooncake industry is a welcome boost.

　　The city buys some 5 million mooncakes a year, worth more than US$20 million. Chinese consumption is up to 150 times that.

　　Prices for vegetable oil and sugar usually climb in China in August or September as bakeries spring into action.

　　An average gift box costs about HK$150 (US$19) in Hong Kong. But taxes and transport mean prices head north towards 200 yuan (US$24) or more on the mainland - compared with an average per capita annual income there of about US$1,000.

　　But the high prices seem to have done little to curb China's appetite for their annual treats.

　　The China Association of Bakery and Confectionery Industry estimated that the country's mooncake consumption was growing by close to 10 per cent.

　　"Consumption is increasing every year along with improving living standards and rapid urbanization," said Zhu Nianlin, the organization's chairman.

　　Indigestion?

　　He estimated that Chinese eat about 150,000 tons of mooncakes - translating into 600-750 million pieces - in September and October alone.

　　A pity, therefore, that the humble mooncake had been dragged through the mud of late, leaving a sour taste.

　　In scandals over the past years, it was revealed that some Chinese companies had recycled mooncakes from the previous year, while others had used lotus paste or other ingredients that had long since passed expiry dates.

　　But there's a flip side for Hong Kong bakers: rising demand for their product means higher prices for ingredients, squeezing many bakeries. Even duck eggs are costlier following an outbreak of bird flu in Viet Nam and China.

　　"A lot of small manufacturers cannot afford quality ingredients," said Janus Chan at Kee Wah Bakery Ltd, one of Hong Kong's biggest mooncake vendors.

　　"The supply of quality egg yolks has decreased because of the bird flu. They killed all chickens and ducks in May ... This year the lotus seed prices are up by 50 per cent from last year."

　　Kee Wah alone uses about about 2 million salted duck eggs for its 1 million traditional mooncakes, and another 2 to 3 million smaller versions designed for the more health-conscious or waistline-aware.

　　(Agencies via Xinhua)