Several years ago, I opined about the misguided hate towards Chinese desserts, and how a subset of Hongkongers were attempting to buck the stereotype of sweet soups and puddings as boring, one-dimensional, or too sweet.
In the time since, the usual wave of sugary trends has waxed and waned: from croffle madness to the rise and fall of doughnut shops to the dominance of Dubai chocolate and all of its iterations.
Now, we are seeing a resurgence of dessert specialists that are honing in on more classic local flavours and techniques, while some are playing with the blueprints a little. Meanwhile, dessert soup stalwarts such as Kai Kai Dessert – so popular it inspired post-punk rockers NYPD to pen a song about it – are expanding quickly with new branches on both sides of the harbour.
Similarly, Prince Edward’s Yup Moment, which specialises in Chinese dessert soups with a modern touch, opened a new branch in Kowloon City. It serves signature desserts such as coconut and pistachio cream sweet soup, longan shaved ice and mango sweet soup with mini mochi – the last a bit of a hat-tip to the item popularised by now-defunct mango dessert chain Hui Lau Shan.
Most recently, Oi Man Sang, the popular dai pai dong in Sham Shui Po on Kowloon side, unveiled Oi Sweets, its own desserts parlour that is distinct from its visual DNA. Instead of serving the expected sweet endings, the team have dreamed up a series of fashionable desserts that are old favourites with a nip-tuck and a new stylist.
Classic dragonbeard candy is pulled and wrapped around chocolate-coated pistachio gelato, while nostalgic baked sago pudding gets a fresh presentation with a clay pot vessel and a quenelle of ice cream.
