Wo also extols her desserts' healing properties. So I set the price lower." Most of her desserts cost between $2 and $3. "At first, when I just came here, my life was so difficult," says Wo. When she came to the United States from Hong Kong in 1995, in her mid-30s, she labored seven days a week cutting cloth at a coat factory. Molly Wo, owner of the homespun Yummy Guide cafe in Oakland's Chinatown, knows what it's like to work hard. Ng, Ho, Wong and another friend, Lawrence Lee - all Chinese immigrants who came to the United States as children - decided to follow their advice and opened JJ's last year.Īfter working at several technology startups, Wong says, "I wanted to have something for myself, something more stable I could work hard on and build up." Those listed on the specials board may include papaya, mango or sesame paste nestled luxuriously in the center of the custard.Īfter co-owners Jenny Ng and Wong's wife, Jenny Ho (the J and J of the cafe's name) began duplicating desserts they ate in Hong Kong, friends suggested they open a place of their own. Egg custards use the same ingredients but also include yolk. Served warm, the delicate milk puddings are made of egg whites, sugar and milk and have a smooth texture and subtly sweet taste. If the answer is hot, Wong may suggest a traditional steamed egg custard or milk pudding. When customers ask Francis Wong for recommendations, the co-owner of JJ Dessert House in San Francisco's Sunset District usually starts by inquiring whether they prefer a hot or cold dish. A small white pitcher filled with a brown sugar and boiled fresh ginger syrup accompanies the dish. It's served warm in a graceful glass bowl, which, like all of the cafe's dishes, is imported from Hong Kong. Siu's brother-in-law, a chef who's worked in some of Hong Kong's top hotels, makes the silky smooth tofu from scratch each evening in the kitchen. "I just ran to the door and I tried to beg my mom to buy it," she recalls. Now in her 30s, Siu still remembers hearing the vendors' calls when she was 6 years old. What Siu recalls most clearly is the creamy tofu that Hong Kong vendors carried in wooden buckets slung across their shoulders. "The first bite of dessert, I think you remember that forever." "I missed the Hong Kong part of it, the culture," says Siu, who worked as an engineer in the semiconductor industry for 12 years before opening the cafe. Like many of the other cafe owners, Maggie Siu is a budding entrepreneur with a sweet tooth who opened BreakTime in June to introduce tofu and other tastes of her childhood to the Bay Area. But when it comes to "tofu as a dessert, maybe I just have a mental block." "They try to get me to sample all of the Chinese desserts," says engineer Sujith Abey, gesturing to his Chinese-American coworkers, Minna Chan and Tzong- Maw Tsai, who are sitting across the table from him at BreakTime Desserts and Snacks in Cupertino. Other ingredients like tofu and avocado may seem out of place in a dessert. Then they sprinkle in Asian touches such as tiny sea coconut cubes or pearls of starch made from sago palms.Īt first glance, the cafe's extensive menus featuring items like snow frog fat, which comes from a frog common in China, white fungus and herb jelly can seem intimidating. To tempt Western palates, cafe owners have created some dishes that incorporate familiar ingredients like coconut ice cream or fresh mango. "White fungus with papaya, you can't get that at Denny's," says Betty Chu, 22, who drops by Kowloon Tong twice a month, usually "after clubbing, or whenever we want some place that's open late and it's cheap."Ĭontemporary Chinese desserts, which emphasize fresh fruit, tend to be lighter and not as sweet as American ones. on weekends - also draw a younger set that bounces from dinner to dessert, then into a club or bar. Their late-night hours - Kowloon Tong, for example, stays open until 2 a.m. A sweeter version of an American waffle, the Hong Kong street snack is crispy on the outside, tender and custardlike inside.ĭessert may not be the first thing most people associate with Chinese food, but in Asian neighborhoods across the Bay Area, new Hong Kong-style dessert cafes are attracting a mixture of immigrants hungry for a taste of home and Asian-Americans hooked on their unique sweets. Earlier that afternoon at, another dessert cafe, college students and young professionals flip through glossy Chinese-language magazines, check e-mail at free Internet terminals and munch on egg puffs.
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