Give Me Your Mooncake Opinions!! (ZAN! #12)

plus Japanese jazz, current TV obsessions, and more!

Happy Mid-Autumn Festival, everyone!

‘Tis the season to slice up a mooncake into eight teeny tiny pieces and loop “The Moon Represents My Heart” by Teresa Teng while gazing at the sky.

(Please hit play as you read the rest of this newsletter for maximum festive-ness. 🌚)

In honor of the holiday, I have an important question for you all:

My opinion will revealed in just a few paragraphs, so let’s jump in! This week, I have one lovely teahouse, one band, one book, and one TV show to recommend.

---

🫖 Té Company

Located in NYC’s West Village, Té Company is an intimate Taiwanese tearoom whose name is inspired by the word for “tea” in Taiwanese Hokkien.

They source their high-quality teas straight from Taiwan, and also boast a phenomenal selection of both sweet and savory snacks. (The pineapple linzer cookie made me cry a little. No joke.)

Importantly, for Mid-Autumn Festival, Té Company sells a homemade Taiwanese-style mooncake. Compared to the more well-known lotus paste cakes, Taiwanese-style mooncakes have a flaky pastry exterior and a mung bean paste interior. I personally think they’re the best.

GET IN MY BELLY

If you’re not based in New York, they also provide shipping on their website. I highly recommend treating yourself and giving Té Company a try!

---

🎵 bohemianvoodoo

I’ve been obsessed with jazz recently, especially after acquiring a record player (I’ve been spinning my Paul Desmond Quartet vinyl a little too much).

Aside from enjoying classic jazz standards from the US, one iteration that has caught my eye is Japanese jazz. Enter bohemianvoodoo, a longstanding Japanese jazz band that has been performing together since 2008!

Their newest album, CROSSING, is a great high-energy instrumental choice to get you through the workday. And if you enjoy their sound, they have a decade and a half’s worth of music on their discography to explore!

---

📖 Lan Samantha Chang - Hunger

Originally published in 1998, Hunger is a collection consisting of one novella and five short stories. (It also has a gorgeous cover, which multiple people have commented on to me, haha.)

Chang’s stories focus primarily on Chinese immigrants to America. As you read the stories — described as “spare and haunting” by the Chicago Tribune — you’ll find yourself feeling that Chang gets it. Her work captures all the emotion, struggle, and generational trauma experienced by new immigrants and their first generation children.

Here’s one line from the novella, titled “Hunger,” that gave me chills:

“As I looked at my daughter’s face, I began to understand that to love another was to be a custodian of that person’s decline — to know this fate, hold onto it, and live.”

---

📺 Old Enough

I had to balance out the weightiness of Hunger with the adorable lightheartedness of “Old Enough,” a longstanding Japanese variety show that follows young children as they run their first grown-up errand.

The version of the show on Netflix bridges a huge leap in time: they show the original clip from the 90s of the child running the errand, then follows up to see what they’re up to now.

It’s an absolutely endearing, heartwarming show. My husband and I are now plotting our imaginary future child’s first errand (and how we’ll secretly follow them sans camera crew).

---

📺 Bonus: I’m currently obsessed w/ Indian Matchmaking

It doesn’t make a lot of sense to recommend this show since the hype has already been around for years, but my husband and I just powered through this Emmy-nominated show in two weeks. (I know we’re behind. Forgive us.)

This reality show follows Sima, one of the top matchmakers in Mumbai, as she travels the world to help young members of the Indian diaspora find their potential partners.

While Sima’s matchmaking success rate on the show is questionable at best, it’s still fun (and sometimes very cringey) to experience what the matchmaking process is like. Turns out a lot of the time it involves your whole family. Oh my.

Plus, Sima Auntie also low key has some great advice when it comes to romance, like the importance of compromise and the willingness to let go of your (occasionally nonsensical) expectations for a partner. Ok Sima Auntie!!

(P.S. Did you know that they just released Jewish Matchmaking?! It’s next on my list.)

---

🙇🏻‍♀️ Now, it’s your turn!

There are two main things you can do to support this newsletter.

1. Subscribe for biweekly updates (here’s a handy button below).

2. Share it with a friend who might be interested (oh look, another a handy button.)

Until next time,

Rebecca