Looking for after-meal desserts or a place to get out of the heat when sight-seeing in Chinatown? Go for traditional or iced desserts at Mei Heong Yuen Dessert in the heart of Chinatown.
Mei Heong Yuen Dessert (味香园甜品) is an iconic Singaporean heritage brand celebrated for its traditional Chinese desserts and a series of refreshing snow ice (or shaved ice) desserts. It has been serving desserts along Temple Street for many years and has since expanded to having several outlets across Singapore.
Mei Heong Yuen first started selling peanuts in Malaysia in the 1940s before bringing the famous Farmer Brand Peanuts to Singapore in the 1950s. The second-generation owners opened the flagship dessert shop in Chinatown in 2002. Their Farmer Brand Peanuts, in plastic packagings, are available on the shelves of most supermarkets in Singapore.
The dessert shop offers both hot and cold traditional desserts (almond / peanut / black sesame / walnut paste, mango pomelo sago, egg / milk pudding, etc), light snacks (rice dumpling, glutinous rice balls, carrot / yam / pumpkin cake, mochi, etc) and a wide range of snow ice desserts. And, newer items are pasted on the walls. There are really a lot to satisfy everyone.
The “Four Heavenly Kings” are the healthy, best-sellers of Mei Heong Yuen, consisting Peanut Paste (生磨花生糊), (Black) Sesame Paste (生磨芝麻糊), Almond Paste (生磨杏仁糊) and Walnut Paste (生磨核桃糊). These hot-paste desserts are grounded till super-fine with a viscosity that is neither too thick nor too fluid. They have rich flavours and low / no sugar.
The hot Egg Pudding with Ginger (姜汁炖鸡蛋) is another popular choice. It has smooth ginger-egg flavour, mild-sweet, and without the sharp spiciness of ginger.
Top-left: The refreshing Coconut Pudding (椰汁糕) is soft, bouncy with delightful coconut flavour — not sweet coconut milk flavour.
Top-right: The Chinese-style Osmanthus Cake (桂花糕) has a pleasant osmanthus aroma and refreshing, mild-sweet flavour with soft, bouncy texture.
Bottom-left: The Water Chestnut Cake (马蹄糕) has fine-ground water chestnut in the soft, translucent jelly as well as chunky fresh cuts that provide crisp crunchiness.
Bottom-right: Other traditional desserts that I have tried over the years include Mango Roll (芒果卷), Lemongrass Jelly (香茅果冻), Peanut / Sesame Glutinous Rice Balls in Ginger Soup (汤圆姜汤), etc. And, they are mostly of low sweetness.
Mei Heong Yuen’s wide range of snow ice desserts are hot-sellers on hot, humid days. There are fruity series with real fruits and also snow ices with traditional flavours, like mocha, chocolate, black sesame, almond, milk tea — and cendol.
The Almond & Sesame Snow Ice (杏仁芝麻雪花冰), with glass jelly cubes and crunchy roasted almond slices, is a traditional dessert with an icy twist. Ice are formed using sweet almond and earthly black sesame and shaved to make the “towering” dessert. The natural flavours of the ingredients are not diluted — just don’t wait for it to be fully melted.
If Mei Heong Yuen Dessert’s original outlet at Temple Street is packed, the nearest alternative is the branch outlet in Basement 2 of Chinatown Point (shopping centre), next to Chinatown MRT Station — just 250 metres away.
Social Media:
Facebook | Website
Original Outlet:
63-67 Temple Street, Singapore 058611
Opening Hours:
11:30am to 10:30pm | Closed on Monday
*If a public holiday falls on Monday, the dessert shop will close on Tuesday instead.
Nearby:
More Eats @ Chinatown:
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