A trip to Chinatown wouldn't be complete without a stop to an Eng Bee Tin store. Now that I live on both ends of Metro Manila - Paranaque in the south and Quezon City in the North, I'm finding it more difficult to get a hold of my favorite hopia brand. It was only recently that I came upon their kiosk in Glorietta 4's Food Choices. You can imagine my excitement when I saw those colorful wrappers for the different types of hopia they have.
Since Eng Bee Tin has been around since the 1912, you can expect them to really push the envelope when it comes to product development. And their 90-year stint in the Chinese delicacy industry has made them the number one hopia brand in the Philippines. They sell 24 types of premium hopia, 24 types of tikoy and other products such as mochi balls, ampaos, peanut cakes and more.
Of course, hopia will always be the most beloved product of Eng Bee Tin. They have the basic classifications: the regular hopia, hopiang Hapon, and diced hopia, mochipia, hopia lite, whole wheat hopia and combi hopia (which combines two flavors in one). They really gained popularity in the early 80's for their innovative flavor selection, particularly the ube hopia. Other must-try flavors are ube-langka, ube-queso, ube-pastillas, ube macapuno, mongo, red mongo, kundol, buko-pandan and custard.
Among these, my favories will always be the red mungo, which has a delicately sweet red bean filling and the ube, the flavor of which takes from a page of the traditional halayang ube. Their classic hopia crust is flaky yet moist. The custard hopia is the latest addition to their hopia line. It is best served chilled. The filling is creamy and is a cross between egg tarts and leche flan.
Whatever hopia flavor you fancy, you will definitely get you money's worth. At P45-60 per pack, it is definitely a bargain. read more