Surrounded by anime memorabilia, Labubus in crochet wares and manga wallpaper, I found myself baking mooncakes on a Tuesday evening in Tommy Ly’s GeekEasy Anime Café.
Kneading dough, measuring our chosen fillings, assembling the mooncake and pressing it into an ornate 3D-printed mold, Ly walked students through each step of the process while offering a history lesson on the mooncake origin story.
Mooncakes first originated in China as harvest offerings. In one legend, Ly explained, the mooncakes were used to transmit secret messages in the successful Han Chinese uprising against the Mongol-led Yuan Dynasty.
Today, the pastries are a Mid-Autumn staple symbolizing unity. You can find mooncakes with traditional fillings like lotus paste and red bean paste with a salted egg yolk in the middle, or sweeter options like custard, cheesecake or cookie dough.
The workshops at GeekEasy are part of a Mid-Autumn series Ly has been hosting Tuesdays and Thursdays at the cafe. Throughout September and ending Oct. 2, the “Make Me a Mooncake” workshops offer attendees a chance to try their hands at creating the traditional treats.
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Ly makes fresh batches of mooncakes by hand every day leading up to Mid-Autumn, which falls on Oct. 6 this year, and sells them at GeekEasy Anime Café. The café, which opened in December 2024, is next door to the Chinatown Museum in Old Town and serves cozy anime-inspired dishes like ham ramen from Studio Ghibli’s “Ponyo” or a breakfast tray based on “Howl’s Moving Castle.”
The café also offers matcha, coffee and tea-based drinks, with a current rainbow lineup of Pokémon-inspired sodas and oolong teas.
“If you ask me what type of cuisine GeekEasy is, I would say it’s an Asian fusion,” Ly said. “Our menu is based on all the places I lived at or traveled to. So we have Thailand inspired, Vietnamese inspired, Chinese, Japanese inspired.”
Ly also owns Stumptown Otaku, Portland’s largest anime store, a few blocks south of the café, but his presence in the food scene has lasted much longer. Before opening the café, Ly would host free mooncake workshops through an Asian food group on Meetup.
At Geek Easy, he now offers workshops with different styles of mooncakes (like shortbread and traditional) with various fillings, limiting classes to four people at a time, to create an intimate hands-on experience.
The workshops aren’t limited to mooncakes either, with other traditional dishes getting a spotlight. Ly hosts lessons throughout the year with different themes. Previous classes have included Chinese dim sum, Japanese oyakodon and chicken karaage. Ly sees the workshops as a way to introduce people to his Asian culture and his café, noting that many participants become returning customers.
“It’s been great because a lot of people actually never had mooncakes before,” Ly said. “I was able to introduce them to a new type of dessert and pastry.”
Until Tuesday, I was one of those people. The other students in my workshop, Eva Chan and her daughter Vivi Chan, were more familiar with mooncakes, although they had never made them at home.
“He made it so easy,” Eva said about Ly’s lesson. “And in my personal opinion, making things easy is very difficult. I think anyone can feel confident doing it at home, and it’s so fun.”
The lesson was also accessible for kids, Eva said. Vivi was particularly excited about pressing the cakes into her chosen molds: a blooming flower design and the character Totoro from “My Neighbor Totoro.” Ly had a variety of design options, from the GeekEasy logo and Hello Kitty and a more traditional Chinese mold with the phrase “beautiful blossoms.”
With four to-go boxes of lotus and red bean filled mooncakes by the end of the workshop, Eva was excited to share the batch with her family and friends.
“It’s something so special that you make yourself,” Eva said. “It’s not bought from the store, it’s fresh ingredients. Food for me, it’s a kind of love for your family and friends.”
We made two types of mooncakes during the lesson: traditional ones with lard-based dough and shortbread-style mooncakes. Ly suggested letting the traditional lard mooncakes sit for a couple of days before eating them, allowing the flavors to fully develop in the pastry. The shortbread-style mooncakes are best enjoyed fresh.
The last “Make Me a Mooncake” workshops of the season take place Sept. 30 and Oct. 2, offering a chance to try your hand at the intricate baking process before Mid-Autumn arrives. Register here for the $60 per person lesson.
Then, on Oct. 4, GeekEasy Anime Café will transform into a festive gathering space for its Mid-Autumn Festival Night, featuring a buffet dinner, lantern-making activities, karaoke and trivia. Guests can enjoy an evening of food, culture and community while taking home a gift bag filled with mooncakes and holiday treats. Tickets are $20 for adults, $10 for ages 6-12 and free for those under 6. Register here.
“Make Me a Mooncake” workshop: 6:30, Tuesday, Sept. 30, and Thursday, Oct. 2. Mid-Autumn Festival Night: 6:30-9 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 4; GeekEasy Anime Café, 310 N.W. Davis St.
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