00:00 I think I'm happy. This episode, all I do is eat, right?
00:03 Nothing else I have to do, right?
00:05 Right?
00:06 Hello, I'm Runa and welcome to Asia One Tries,
00:19 where we explore local traditions and different cultures
00:22 and find out what makes Singapore a melting pot of cultures.
00:26 We are in beautiful Chinatown,
00:28 and I used to come here for the nightlife,
00:31 but I haven't been here in a long time and I'm feeling a bit nostalgic.
00:35 I do wonder what we're doing though that's related to arts and culture,
00:38 because there's too many here.
00:40 Can you give me my three hints, please?
00:41 Okay, Munah, so here are the three hints.
00:43 Sugary, comforting, hot or cold.
00:47 Coffee.
00:48 Sugarcane!
00:49 Oh.
00:50 It's a type of dessert.
00:51 What kind of dessert?
00:53 We're making Chinese dessert.
00:55 Yes, Munah, so today you will be making Chinese dessert.
00:58 The only Chinese dessert I know is actually chian teng,
01:03 because my grandma, she's Chinese,
01:05 and she and my mom used to be obsessed with that.
01:07 So I'm very excited to delve into her culture
01:10 and make Chinese dessert. Let's go!
01:11 Hello!
01:14 Hi, I'm Munah.
01:15 - Nice to meet you. - Hi, Munah.
01:16 Nice to meet you.
01:17 I'm excited to make dessert.
01:18 You've come to the right place.
01:19 Have a seat, we'll serve you a drink and all.
01:22 - Okay, sure. Thank you. - Alright.
01:24 Thank you.
01:25 Hi, Munah, try this.
01:27 This is our homemade hot tonic juice.
01:29 Oh!
01:30 Okay, it's good for digestion.
01:31 Very refreshing.
01:32 Please, have a seat. Join me.
01:34 Okay.
01:35 Cheers.
01:37 Cheers. Sorry, I just went for it.
01:39 So tell me more about this place.
01:41 Welcome to Hapka Foon.
01:43 This is a small little shop that we have.
01:45 We both co-own it, and basically,
01:48 I'm the salesman and she is the main chef behind it.
01:51 Not in our wildest dreams that we think
01:53 that we'll end up in this.
01:55 Used to be a regional business development manager.
01:59 My wife, Sharon, she used to be a stockbroker.
02:02 He asked me, "You know, you have a bit of passion.
02:05 Why don't you give it a try?"
02:06 So on that note, tell me a bit about Hapka Foon
02:09 and how it started.
02:10 Basically, we are just a traditional dessert shop
02:12 where we serve mainly more of a
02:15 skewed to Cantonese-style dessert.
02:17 And we also have the traditional local or Asia desserts,
02:20 things like jemdo and stuff.
02:22 Hapka Foon started after we were helped by my uncle
02:26 in the Singapore Centre.
02:27 We already have his recipe and everything.
02:29 Ooh, okay.
02:30 And so, with Chinese desserts,
02:32 how did it come over here to Singapore?
02:35 Primarily, I believe that it came over together
02:37 with all the immigrants that came over.
02:40 Together, the Chinese immigrants,
02:41 they bring their type of food,
02:42 and then on top of that, dessert is one of them.
02:45 And what are some of the different types of desserts?
02:47 The Cantonese, we like our paste.
02:50 So we have things like almond, sesame paste,
02:53 which is a black sesame,
02:54 and then we have the walnut.
02:56 Southern China type, we have the red bean.
02:58 The way we cook it is thickened,
03:00 and then it's with tangerine peel and lotus seed.
03:03 Okay, sounds very tempting already, just speaking to you.
03:06 So I think I'm ready to learn how to make Chinese desserts.
03:09 All right, let's go!
03:11 Come to our small little kitchen.
03:13 Okay, basically, down here in the kitchen,
03:15 this part will be the cold section.
03:17 Okay, and then this is our homemade taro balls.
03:21 We basically made ourselves from fresh sweet potato.
03:25 Over here is the hot section.
03:26 This is the hot section.
03:27 Okay, this is the almond cream.
03:30 And you make this at home?
03:31 Ah, yes.
03:32 We use the almond nuts, a few types of almond nuts,
03:34 and then we blend together.
03:35 We filter it into a bag,
03:37 and then we process to make it into the viscosity
03:40 that we want.
03:41 How long does it take to make it?
03:42 Hour to two.
03:43 Oh!
03:44 Yeah, this one is the sesame.
03:45 So this is sesame paste, it's slightly thicker
03:48 than the almond cream.
03:49 This one is the walnut paste.
03:50 I love walnut paste!
03:52 You can actually mix the paste,
03:54 like, you know, walnut, sesame, walnut, almond,
03:56 it's up to you.
03:58 All right, so when a customer orders,
04:00 for example, they order the walnut paste,
04:02 what's the process like?
04:03 This is the bowl that we serve it,
04:06 we just, yeah.
04:08 And then, oh!
04:08 Okay, this is our walnut.
04:09 Oh, thank you!
04:10 So normally when we serve, we'll tell them,
04:11 okay, this is your walnut.
04:13 All right, thank you.
04:14 That's all, that's a wrap, guys.
04:16 That's all I needed today.
04:17 (laughs)
04:19 It's so good!
04:22 I love walnut paste!
04:24 Okay, I have to stop myself from eating it.
04:26 So, actually, what are some of the common ingredients
04:29 found in Chinese desserts?
04:30 See, for Chinese desserts, we are more into
04:32 more of the beans and beans,
04:35 the seeds and stuff like that.
04:37 Really natural, natural products.
04:39 Ah, okay, that's nice.
04:40 So do you have any modern twist
04:42 to any of the desserts here, then?
04:43 What we have, one is called MJ.
04:46 We don't have a proper name for it,
04:47 so we just put, temporarily put it MJ.
04:50 Basically, it stands for Michael Jackson.
04:52 Can I actually see it?
04:53 Yeah, sure, sure.
04:55 The fairy grass that we made ourselves,
04:57 then we just drain it off onto a bowl.
05:00 Then we put some magic sugar.
05:02 (laughs)
05:03 Magic sugar.
05:05 Put the black glutinous rice.
05:07 Oh, you call it pulut hitam?
05:08 Yeah, pulut hitam.
05:09 That's cooked with gula melaka.
05:11 And then a bit of coconut cream.
05:14 And then a dollop of vanilla ice cream.
05:16 I've had experience with ice cream before.
05:18 If you watch the show.
05:19 Ha!
05:21 Voila!
05:22 MJ!
05:23 Yeah.
05:23 I got all the ingredients in one spoon now, ready?
05:27 How's the texture in the mouth?
05:32 What?
05:33 (laughs)
05:34 It's like an explosion of happiness and joy.
05:37 All right, so this is an evolution of black glutinous rice.
05:40 In a way, it is.
05:42 Black glutinous rice itself,
05:43 I think is of Malay heritage.
05:45 Fairy grass jelly is basically a Chinese heritage.
05:47 Ice cream is a Western heritage thing.
05:50 It just happens so that all this traditional dessert
05:52 falls nicely in place together.
05:54 All right, so this is like a fusion
05:56 of different cultures then.
05:58 Yeah.
05:58 A whole melting pot.
06:00 I think I'm happy.
06:01 This episode, all I do is eat, right?
06:03 Nothing else I have to do, right?
06:05 Right?
06:06 I think it's time for you to work now.
06:08 I knew I was too happy here.
06:09 Since you guessed the activity correctly,
06:11 you get another additional 30 seconds.
06:13 So one minute.
06:14 So all in all, you get one full minute
06:16 to make up your own melting pot of dessert.
06:19 All right.
06:19 Three, two, one, go.
06:22 (laughs)
06:23 Okay, the thing is, I know what I like,
06:25 but I don't know how things taste combined together.
06:28 So...
06:29 Okay, pulut itam is the base.
06:32 Coconut.
06:33 Munah, you're left with 30 seconds.
06:35 Hey, why so fast?
06:36 Okay, wait, wait, wait, wait.
06:37 And then mango.
06:39 (timer beeps)
06:41 10 more seconds to go.
06:42 Okay, three, two, one, time's up.
06:51 (buzzer)
06:52 Okay.
06:53 Well, in terms of presentation, I guess it's not too bad.
06:57 Yeah, I like the color.
06:59 The color combination, you know,
07:01 and you've got a dark background behind it.
07:03 Next, I guess we have to taste it
07:06 and see if everything goes together.
07:08 You can be more enthusiastic about it.
07:10 (laughs)
07:12 You know, you have got a creaminess of the pulut itam
07:18 and also the fragrance of the coconut milk.
07:21 All of a sudden, the mango jumps in and gives it a burst.
07:25 Actually, I would give it a seven or eight.
07:27 Yeah.
07:28 Okay, where do you think I could have improved?
07:30 Maybe the gula melaka.
07:32 Because the sago has no taste to it.
07:34 It is absorbing the coconut milk.
07:37 So a bit of gula just to bring up a little bit of taste
07:39 from the sago side.
07:40 So you all do that before you put on the menu, okay?
07:42 Okay.
07:43 Improve the taste.
07:45 Yay, thank you.
07:48 Okay, let's have some dessert while we chat.
07:50 Yes.
07:51 Have you observed an upward trend
07:54 in the popularity of Chinese desserts?
07:56 The Chinese dessert is always here to stay
07:58 because it tastes good as it is already.
08:01 It's not only a dessert dessert,
08:03 but it's actually there's a lot of health benefits behind.
08:06 For example, walnuts, they say it'll nourish your brain.
08:09 Black sesame for black hair.
08:11 Yeah, it's a culture.
08:12 It's like a Tangsuyuk culture.
08:14 You know, after meals, you want something sweet.
08:17 You want something to complete you.
08:19 So why do you feel that it is important
08:21 to preserve the tradition of Cantonese snacks and desserts?
08:26 If you look around the market, the dessert stores, it's few.
08:29 To make a red bean paste, you need a lot more time, effort,
08:33 and more ingredients to it.
08:34 We're just trying to make sure that
08:36 the tastes are still like what it used to be.
08:38 My customers say, "Wow, this is like what my grandma used to cook."
08:42 Hopefully, we can impart that in our products.
08:45 It's nice.
08:46 Thanks for sharing the space with me
08:48 and sharing the skills, a little bit of it,
08:50 and the dessert, most of all.
08:52 Please enjoy.
08:54 I was so happy today because I really do love Chinese dessert.
08:59 And during the challenge, I was actually inspired by MJ
09:02 because MJ was a whole melting pot, right, of different flavors.
09:07 But it worked, and I love it.
09:09 And you know what? Dessert is dessert.
09:10 So it doesn't matter if you have a certain nostalgia for it.
09:13 That's great, but I think people of different races like myself
09:16 should also try different Chinese desserts
09:19 because it really is a melting pot, and it tastes so good.
09:22 So try mine.
09:23 See you in the next episode of Asia One Tries!
09:25 Mwah.
09:26 Come try my dessert.
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