# What is a moon pie?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-moon-pie/218471
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [December 12, 2003, 12:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-moon-pie/218471 "2003-12-12T00:40:07Z")
**Posts on this page:** 16
**Page:** 2
### Author:  [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)
#### Post date: [December 12, 2003, 4:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-moon-pie/218471/21 "2003-12-12T16:43:13Z")
There’s another Moon Pie in existence, after which I theorize the sweet thing was named.
They’re Chinese, and served as a delicacy at Mid-Autumn Festival.
They look like a square Melton Mowbray pork pie. You bite through the very short, sweetened pastry into a jellied black-bean confection which is not at all unpleasant.
Munch a bit more and you will eventually encounter, and bite into, the moon.
The moon is a boiled egg.
Quite freaked me at the time.
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### Author:  [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)
#### Post date: [December 12, 2003, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-moon-pie/218471/22 "2003-12-12T16:48:12Z")
I’m quite happy for this thread to move onto the subject of Tunnock’s Teacakes, if anyone is so inclined.
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### Author:  [@Rayne\_Man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rayne_Man)
#### Post date: [December 12, 2003, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-moon-pie/218471/23 "2003-12-12T16:59:57Z")
And Snowballs
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### Author:  [@Capt\_B.Phart](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Capt_B.Phart)
#### Post date: [December 12, 2003, 5:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-moon-pie/218471/24 "2003-12-12T17:07:17Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Rayne Man \*
> \*\*If you look at the bottom of this page you should get your answer
> gGood old Google! :-
>
> [http://www.nicecupofteaandasitdown.com/biscuits/views.php3?filter=botw%3D18](http://www.nicecupofteaandasitdown.com/biscuits/views.php3?filter=botw%3D18) \*\*
Noooooo! Wagon wheels were made in Slough!!! Eeekk
This is almost as bad as finding out that the voice of the Cadbury’s Caramel Bunny was Miriam Margolise!
“Come friendly bombs and fall on Slough” J Betjamin
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### Author:  [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)
#### Post date: [December 12, 2003, 5:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-moon-pie/218471/25 "2003-12-12T17:15:45Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Capt B. Phart \*
> \*\*“Come friendly bombs and fall on Slough” J Betjamin \*\*
I don’t think you solve town planning problems by dropping bombs all over the place. He’s embarrassed himself there.
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### Author:  [@\_Deep\_F\_ied](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/_Deep_F_ied)
#### Post date: [December 12, 2003, 5:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-moon-pie/218471/26 "2003-12-12T17:35:37Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by jjimm \*
> \*\*There’s another Moon Pie in existence, after which I theorize the sweet thing was named.
>
> They’re Chinese, and served as a delicacy at Mid-Autumn Festival.
>
> They look like a square Melton Mowbray pork pie. You bite through the very short, sweetened pastry into a jellied black-bean confection which is not at all unpleasant.
>
> Munch a bit more and you will eventually encounter, and bite into, the moon.
>
> The moon is a boiled egg.
>
> Quite freaked me at the time. \*\*
Damn you **jjim** , you beat me to it…
That is exactly what I was thinking of when I read the thread title. Moon pies are quite popular here amongst my mostly Asian co-workers. They come in a wide variety and are quite delicious (especially if you scrape out the egg part.)
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### Author:  [@Capt\_B.Phart](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Capt_B.Phart)
#### Post date: [December 12, 2003, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-moon-pie/218471/27 "2003-12-12T18:13:06Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by jjimm \*
> \*\*I don’t think you solve town planning problems by dropping bombs all over the place. He’s embarrassed himself there. \*\*
In all fairness I think old Betters was thinking more of total obliteration, rather than just sorting out the one-way system.
Of course that sort of thing would require a precision weapon - space-based gigawatt masers, perhaps? But remember our poet laureate only had WWII era technology to work with.
Also he can’t have foreseen denying future generations the perfect setting for “The Office”
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### Author:  [@county](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/county)
#### Post date: [December 12, 2003, 8:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-moon-pie/218471/28 "2003-12-12T20:17:23Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Reeder \*
> \*\*You do know that the law requires you to drink an RC Cola when you eat a moon pie don’t you? \*\*
The misinformation about the South is startling/a Nehi Grape Soda Pop is perfectly acceptable with the moon pie and many find it’s piquant bouquet preferrable.
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### Author:  [@Race\_Bannon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Race_Bannon)
#### Post date: [December 12, 2003, 10:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-moon-pie/218471/29 "2003-12-12T22:41:33Z")
I suppose I should mention the RC Cola and Moon Pie Festival that occurs annually in [Bell Buckle, TN](http://www.bellbuckletn.org/events.shtml) . I usually participate in their 10 mile road race (it’s only a 2 mile town!) for which all runners are awarded a Moon Pie and RC snack.
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### Author:  [@spingears](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/spingears)
#### Post date: [December 13, 2003, 3:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-moon-pie/218471/30 "2003-12-13T03:19:56Z")
Now I’ll have to go out in the cold night to look for a carton of Moon Pies (assorted) and a six pack of Nehi Grape Soda!
See you in “Paradise.”
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### Author:  [@sailor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sailor)
#### Post date: [December 13, 2003, 5:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-moon-pie/218471/31 "2003-12-13T05:31:20Z")
I had no idea of the existence of this “moon pie”. I only knew the original and authentic [Chinese Moon Cake](http://sailor.teemingmillions.com/images/mooncake.htm).
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### Author:  [@TheLoadedDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheLoadedDog)
#### Post date: [December 13, 2003, 5:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-moon-pie/218471/32 "2003-12-13T05:43:45Z")
Mooncake. Yech! I love Chinese tucker, but mooncake is the exception. Mix egg, honey, Vegemite, scotch whisky, Nutrasweet, and dog turds, and reduce it to the texture of toothpaste, and you will get the taste of a mooncake’s contents about right.
As for the Wagon Wheels, we have them in Australia too. They seem smaller to me now than when I was a kid. HOWEVER, I also remember as a kid, my mum telling me they were smaller then than when _she_ was a kid. In any event, I’ve seen some delicious-looking recipes for homemade ones, and those f\*\*kers are humungous.
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### Author:  [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)
#### Post date: [December 13, 2003, 1:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-moon-pie/218471/33 "2003-12-13T13:31:44Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by sailor \*
> \*\*I had no idea of the existence of this “moon pie”. I only knew the original and authentic [Chinese Moon Cake](http://sailor.teemingmillions.com/images/mooncake.htm). \*\*
Cake, pie, schmake, schmie. It may be called a cake, but it bloody well is a pie. 😉
I can’t remember the Cantonese for either cake or pie, so I can’t verify how wrong I actually am.
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### Author:  [@fortytwo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fortytwo)
#### Post date: [December 13, 2003, 2:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-moon-pie/218471/34 "2003-12-13T14:55:40Z")
I’m still not convinced by Mr Spokesman from Weston. When I first ate a Wagon Wheel I was as grown up as I’ll ever be, and that WW could hardly fit in my hand. Now I can hold it in two fingers. So there.🙂
V
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### Author:  [@sailor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sailor)
#### Post date: [December 13, 2003, 3:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-moon-pie/218471/35 "2003-12-13T15:02:44Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by jjimm \*
> Cake, pie, schmake, schmie. It may be called a cake, but it bloody well is a pie. 😉
>
> I can’t remember the Cantonese for either cake or pie, so I can’t verify how wrong I actually am.
Well, I am not quite sure of the strict difference in english between “pie” and “cake” but I believe “cake” is sweet as is the Chinese product. In any event, the Chinese themselves always use the English word “Cake” (as you can see in the link I supplied) and that is good enough for me.
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### Author:  [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)
#### Post date: [December 13, 2003, 5:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-moon-pie/218471/36 "2003-12-13T17:17:14Z")
I had always thought that a pie was strictly “contents enclosed in pastry”, with cake describing many other, non-pastry enclosed, confections. However, I do agree that I was wrong.
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