Jan-chan’s Tidbits

For those that live or have been to HK, you’d know there are dessert places called “tong sui dim” 糖水店 (literally translated as “sweet soup store”). There are a lot of dessert places in Vancouver that serves a variety of cakes and other baked sweets but I have been looking for a place that sells sweet soups for the longest time. Sure there are those red bean or green bean soup you get after your meal at a Chinese restaurant or the ones my mom makes at home which is usually Coconut Sago (西米露) or sweet potato soup (番薯糖水) but I wanted something different, like  bean curd (or tofu skin) with ginko nuts and egg (腐竹白果鷄蛋糖水) or a mango dessert with tapioca and grapefruit (楊支金露 ).

In the summer I can get my craving fix at the night marketing. There’s a vendor there which sells a variety of sweet soups but I have no idea where their store is located. Last summer, being the foodie that we are (more like “wai sik guai”), Nel and I asked for their address. We didn’t take it down but remembered roughly that it’s behind the Richmond Public Market. Last weekend we decide to search for this mysterious dessert place and found it! Well more like we all recognized the banner it used at the night market with the name 桂花林 and a list of their desserts.

It was pretty busy on a Saturday night. We ordered tofu pudding with ginger syrup (豆腐花), sweet almond soup (杏仁糊) and two mango dessert with tapioca and grapefruit (楊支金露). They were all very very yummy. They also have some light snacks such as pork sandwiches, noodles and bubble tea.

Mango dessert (楊支金露)

Tofu pudding with ginger syrup. (豆腐花)

I also had a pork sandwich.

Info: Bubble Fruity 桂花林 (180-8188 Saba Road) Tel: 604-233-1130

I’m still trying to perfect this bao (bun) recipe as every time I make it, it turns too brown at the bottom. I’ve tried lowering the heat, reduce the time and both but I still end up with a slightly darker, more crispy bottom than I’d like it to be. Anyways, if you try it, let me know how it turned out. Read More

I was just browsing Jessica’s (Su Good Eats) blog and came across the translated version of the char siu bao (bbq pork bun) filling recipe. She used it in her baked char siu bao and it works fine for the steamed ones too. Here it is:

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