September 20th is Chuseok (추석), an yearly harvest festival in Korea held around the Autumn Equinox, at which songpyeon (송편), a half-moon shaped rice cake, is traditionally eaten. It is steamed with pine needles, which lend their selves to the songpyeon's fragrance and taste. The character song (송) stands for a pine tree. It comes in different colors and is usually filled with sugar, honey, and sesame seeds or sometimes chestnut or mung beans.
There aren't many pine trees in NYC where I can just pick pine needles off of. I went to US Evergreen in the flower district, and they let me take a pine bough for free. Use non-glutinous rice flour (쌀가루 or 쌀떡가루), which is usually in the frozen section, and not glutinous sweet rice flour to make the songpyeon. It's said that if you make pretty songpyeon, you'll have a pretty daughter. I say just try your best to make it look like a half moon.
