Before dropping by Excelente Chinese Cooked Ham, we passed by Master Hopia Factory first. We were told that the hopia (Chinese bean-filled pastry) here had been toted as the “Krispy Kreme of hopia” by another blogger. That pretty much upped everybody’s expectations… which isn’t really a good idea because the higher they are the harder they fall should the product fail to deliver… :p
Anyhow there were huge trays of hopia everywhere. They set up one such tray in the middle of the store so everyone could get some and have a taste. There are numerous flavors available: Cheese, Condol (paste made from Chinese crystal sugar), Pineapple, Macapuno-Pandan, Baboy, etc. You identify the flavors by the colored dots on the surface of the pastry (see above). Orange dotted hopia are cheese-flavored, green dotted hopia are filled with condol, and so forth. No dots on your hopia? That means you got the traditional mung bean filled one. 🙂
I tried three different variants while I was there. I was lucky enough to score a cheese-flavored one on my first try since we were told there were only 2-3 pieces on the tray. Sadly, it wasn’t really cheesy. Yes I tasted hints of cheese but that was about it. Next up was a traditional mung bean hopia. It was okay, and I actually liked it best among the three I sampled. Last one I got was condol, which is the one in the photo above. Condol hopia is way too sweet. I ended up taking one bite and then disposing of it.
I’m thinking that these would’ve tasted a whole lot better freshly baked. The outer shell is very flaky and the amount of filling is quite generous. Price can be pegged around ₱15-P20 a piece.
Our stop at Master Hopia Factory was interesting to say the least. I hope they start selling these online.
Master Hopia Factory, Inc.
206 Villalobos cor. Carlos Palanca St.,
Quiapo, Manila
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