mei heong yuen dessert, town

alright-ish chinese dessert at the basement of the ion shopping mall. since coming back to singapore, I’ve been trying to eat more chinese desserts and dimsum – those are the things I missed most in london, and actually chinese tongshui (a cantonese term that refers to desserts, and literally translates to sugar water) is a recent passion.

I know many bloggers locally lament the lack of good and authentic cantonese tongshui in singapore, but since I haven’t gone back to hong kong in recent years, and have been deprived while in the uk, I don’t really feel any aggravation over this lack of authenticity or purported lack of quality.

in this way, this tiny (and slightly dingy – witness the beaten-up menu) cafe serves pretty well. I got a bowl of steamed egg pudding – a little sweeter than I’d like but still pretty smooth, and my mother also had her savoury cravings sated by the simple plate of rice rolls (this are also known as chee cheung fun, and differ from the silky dimsum style in that these are thick and usually premade). my sister also had no issues with her bowl of sweetcorn-egg-drop soup.

but the best thing by far was this plate of coconut jelly with mango. when I first saw it I thought it was going to be a stodgy mochi-type confection, but it was really a sheet of silky coconut jelly wrapped around ripe mango, and drizzled with ‘mango’ sauce. the whole thing comes chilled, and it really is a refreshingly good dessert.