Thursday, January 26, 2012

Food: Eng Bee Tin Hopia in Mongo and Ube Flavor

I'm not particularly fond of hopia. But I remember that when I was much younger, my Dad brought home two packs of Eng Bee Tin hopia in Mongo (Mung Bean) and Ube (Purple Yam) flavor, and as soon as I sank my teeth into its soft, rich filling, I thought it was the best hopia I've ever tasted. And it still is, many years later, when I had it again after I stumbled upon a stall in SM Muntinlupa selling Eng Bee Tin hopia among others, in line with the Chinese New Year festivities.


Suddenly, I developed a craving especially for the ube flavor so I asked my Dad, who's working in Manila, if he can find a way to buy me a few packs. The stall in SM sells them for P65/pack, which I suspect is very expensive. And I was right. The mongo flavor is only P36/pack and the ube is P42/pack.








But not being a hopia aficionado, I can't claim that I've tasted that many hopias to know for certain that Eng Bee Tin Chinese Deli offers the best hopia in town. So let me just enumerate the things I love about this product, that I couldn't find in other hopia brands that I've tasted. Actually, there are just a couple of things: the filling and the crust.

The filling, as I've declared earlier, has a soft and fine texture, unlike other hopia fillings that are rather crumbly, chunky or grainy. One will definitely agree that a hopia can easily become too sweet but necessarily flavorful, but this one isn't. The flavors, in this case, mongo and ube, are rich and delectable with just the right sweetness.



Moving on to the crust, one thing I like about it is that it's thin. I've had hopias before where they have more of the crust than the filling, thus rendering the hopia less enjoyable to eat. Who would want a thick, flavorless pastry? Because it's thin, the crust is both flaky and soft to bite. And it goes without saying that the thinner the crust, the more the filling. So you get what you pay for. Sulit diba?



One of these days, when I finally have my long-delayed and always-postponed Binondo food trip, I will surely drop by Eng Bee Tin Chinese Deli store and sample their other food items. I hope they are just as good.


No comments:

Post a Comment