Dessert | Ziggy

No need to say much, everybody loves desserts! Local desserts are no different from those elsewhere. Eaten after food, sometimes, like a pan cake, it is a meal. It's a word that makes everyone smile with a sparkle in our eyes!

Jin Yu Man Tang

Kee's Goreng Pisang

Uggli Muffin

Granny's Pancake

Nyonya Chendol

Rich and Good

You Zha Kueh

75 Peanuts Soup

Xing Xing

My Granny

Dessert

Mar 2021

Undoubtedly the best pancakes in town!

With franchises all over, Granny’s Pancake proudly started here.

Next question, what type of pancake? This is the traditional “mee jian kueh”, used to be a simple road side dish made with flour, butter and peanut on top heated on a pan; it is then folded over so it’s a foldover or a turnover, with peanut embedded on the softer inner fold. This is similar to Apom in Malaysia.

Growing up eating the crispy apom made by a nearby roadside stall uncle, I never fancied the softer ones here and the apom is the first thing I head for whenever I go back home. Sadly, the uncle was forced into retirement, by his working daughters. Thankfully, the boss’s relatives stay near Ghim Moh and they introduced this as a replacement, it is a worthy replacement!

The choices here are simple, coconut, red bean, peanut, or peanut + peanut butter. If you go for the peanut, there is little reason not to go for the peanut butter, it gives the pancake a ten fold bounce. The peanut is only "nice", adding the peanut butter though, gives it a creamy rich and umami taste, the difference is a "sparkle in the eye" feel… The difference between the ones here and those in Malaysia is a nice piece of butter in it, the peanut butter here picks up the lack of butter quite well.

I could just stop here, the peanut + peanut butter is just the bombs. I don’t like the texture of coconut flakes so that doesn’t work for me, red bean is also never my favourite. Peanut always goes well with a Chinese pancake, go adding the peanut butter is just genius in simplicity.

To say that adding peanut butter was simply genius, is just too simple a commend. I am very sure the effort that went behind the recipe to come up with the pancake had been enormous too. The pancake's texture is nice and soft, especially when it’s fresh out of the oven, it practically melts in your mouth; tastes delicious by itself too. You also get the peanut butter slightly melted, which is heavenly.

Other outlets can be found in Hong Lim, Toa Payoh Lorong 7, Bendemeer, Bedok Reservoir Blk 630 and Teban Gardens.

Granny's Pancake @ Bendemeer

@ Hong Lim

Granny’s Pancake

20 Ghim Moh Road, #01-52 Ghim Moh Road Market & Food Centre , s270020

Daily 530am – 4pm

JYMT

Desserts, Milk Pudding, Chee Cheong Fun

Dec 2020

Excellent Chinese desserts, and the best chee cheong fun in town!

Tucked away along the side of The Flow@East Coast, facing the main entrance to Indigo Hotel and Holiday Inn, this place is invisible as you go through the main East Coast Road, which is a pity as it is quite a nice place.

Nice decorations, with a loft on top of the kitchen, this place screams cozy, furnished by old school sofas and Chinese wooden stools and table, it is nice despite the obvious replicas rather than real vintage stuff.

They serve an array of Chinese desserts like milk pudding, mango sago, herbal jelly, sagos, glass jelly, glutinous rice balls, some fruit milk teas and their signature milk + ginger dessert, and a scrumptuous chee cheong fun! The desserts come plain, or you can add some fruits or ginko nuts etc.

The milk pudding had a nice texture, smooth and soft, very easy to like, with a bit of a mily aftertaste (duh?), which I did not really like. The mango sago was rich and sweet, flavourful, when I had that, I just continued enjoying whilst my company chatted away complementing, no time to waste on good food!

The “clash milk’, or milk plus ginger, is something I believe one must try. Ginger has never been a personal favourite of mine so it took me a few visits before I took the plunge, despite friends and family raving about it. It’s actually no surprise that I found it brilliant! The ginger taste was subtle, as well the milk taste. It felt diluted yet rich, its texture a slight curdle of milk. After a few slurps with the tiny spoon provided, I decided to drink straight off the bowl! I think they should provide the Chinese soup spoon instead of the metal teaspoon… bigger gulps...

Despite the brilliance of their dessert, the best thing on offer here is actually their chee cheong fun! You have a choice of sweet or savoury ccf, savoury would be just soy sauce, oil and sesame seeds. The sweet version comes with a very tasty sweet sauce, and subtle chilli sauce with fragrant sesame oil. Being a big ccf fan, I find this the best I’ve tasted. The fragrance of the sesame oil goes very well with the sweet sauce, it is umami to the max too. This is the item I must order whenever I visit. In fact, whenever this place is mentioned, it’s the first thing I think about! 10/10 for the ccf, 9/10 for the rest…. Maybe it’s 11/10 for the ccf….

With such a variety of desserts on offer, there is bound to be something for everyone here, if it still does not fit your taste, go for the mighty ccf!

A new outlet has opened at Maxwell, good for a stopover while visiting Chinatown! We learned from the staff at this place that when the milk pudding is ready, the spoon would float on it!

Other items available on the below, photos below.

Sago Milk with Papya

Glutinous Balls in Ginger

Double Layered Milk Pudding with Almond

Jin Yu Man Tang Dessert Shop

66 East Coast Road, #01-03 The Flow@East Coast, s428778: Daily 1130am – 1030pm

291 South Bridge Road, s058836: 12 - 10pm, closed on Mondays

https://www.facebook.com/jinyumantangdessertshop/

Kee

Banana Fritters

May 2021

Marvellous banana fritters plus other vegetable fritters! Excellentest!

I remember I loved the banana fritters here, so been wanting to do a review, however, on recent visits, I haven’t seen them operating at all, and I have been here at all hours. Fortunately, I managed to catch them operating one day, found out that health issues meant that they only operate when they are feeling well; and they would update their facebook page on operating hours.

*March 2022 update, been here twice and they are open both days. Looks like operations have normalised.

The batter here is exceptional, very crispy and flaky, it makes an very nice crunchy sound when eaten. This texture I have been able to find elsewhere, but its flavour is something else. It has a very unique cereal flavour, goes very well with the texture, and feels like it is connected to the texture as it comes out with each crunch. The experience can be unique and the reason I love this so much.

The banana fritters here remain my favourite, they use ripened banana that is soft and sweet. They have bananas of 3-4 sizes to choose from most days.

Banana split....

Same batter is used on various other vegetables like sweet potato, tapioca, enoki mushrooms, green bean paste, rice cake, jack fruits and even cheese toasts.

I have not been able to choose one that I don’t really like, except for those where the basic fruit is not what I fancy like the jack fruit, or green bean. Somehow, I still like the ones here!

The wonderful taste of the batter being the common denominator, we can say that anything here is nice. Indeed, this batter mixes well with every item here.

Clockwise from left: sweet potato, enoki mushroom banana and banana

Kee’s Crispy Goreng Pisang

505 Beach Road, #B1-36 Golden Mile Food Centre, s199583

11am – 330pm, closed on Tues. For operating hours, please check FB

https://www.facebook.com/Kees-Crispy-Goreng-Pisang-2381809832045003/

Nyonya

Dessert

Aug 2020

Chendol specialist, sells just 4 different types of chendol. Seldom has a q but this stall moves its chendol! You can have plain chendol, or have it with red bean, sweet corn or durian.

The basic chendol has 4 ingredients, the coconut milk would not differ much amongst the various proprietors; this stall gives you the tastiest gula Melaka black coconut sugar), the softest shaved ice, and absolutely delicious chendol (green strips of flour jelly). You can feel the full bodied taste of the gula Melaka with the coconut milk, as you gently scoop spoonfuls out of the finely shaved ice, then you choose how much chendol you want with which spoonful of shaved ice….

The gula Melaka and chendol here are not easy to beat, so far they are heads above the rest.

Has another outlet at Redhill Market, and various other hawker centres (please refer to their FB for outlet details), please don’t be like my Malaysian cousin who loves this so much she travelled from Jurong, going past Redhill, to have her chendol fix at Old Airport…. And they ran out of gula Melaka earlier than usual that evening….

Nyonya Chendol

- 51 Old Airport Road, #01-115 Old Airport Road Hawker Centre

- 51 Upper Bukit Timah Road, #02-147 Bukit Timah Market & Hawker Centre, s588215

- 91 Whampoa Drive, #01-17 Whampoa Food Centre, s320091

- 85 Redhill Lane, #01-57 Redhill Food Centre, s150085 (closed at 730pm)

- 105 Yishun Ring Road, #01-162 Chong Pang Food Centre, s760105

10am – 10pm Closed on Thu (or when sold out, more reliable to refer to their timings below)

https://www.facebook.com/nonyachendol/

Branch and Opening Hours details: https://www.facebook.com/nonyachendol/posts/our-outlet-locations01-115-old-airport-road-food-centre1030am-10pm02-147-bukit-t/164274267559430/

Uggli

Dessert/Muffin

Aug 2020

Uggli but delicious!

Anton, the owner of the stall, is a friendly and cheerful guy, offering Muffins to queuing customers while we wait; and if he noticed that you have to give up, he’d offer you one too, one for each in the group if not alone! At least on the day I was there he did... Cheerful and talkative, he liked a banter or two, threatened to scald me with his fresh from oven hot tray, then said my reaction was fast, I told him the way he moved my pet turtle Freeze could have avoided it….

Some of his muffins are indeed ugly. Not saying dark is ugly (I personally prefer things of a darker shade, I’d stamp on my new shoes to add a bit of “age”, or edge, to it…), especially the Oreo muffin. With Oreos sticking out, it’s like it has teeth sticking out at the sides.

The muffins go in looking cheesy and buttery, but they all leave the oven dark. Initially I thought he made only chocolate muffins! This is his style, burnt just nice, the crust and top is crunchy but the inside is soft and buttery. Hence the joy of this uggli buggers!

Banana Walnut

I have not found a particular flavour that I like best, as his muffins are basically tastefully buttery… each flavour adds just the subtle difference and they are all good compliments to the muffin.

The Oreo

There can be a q waiting for your turn and it all depends on how much each one in the q orders. Each load into the Oven is about 100 muffins, and takes about 10 mins to bake.

Please pardon the pictures of him as he was not prepared, telling me he was not properly dressed. I promised to bring along a tie for him the next time I visit…

Left: Chocolate; Right: Free bite sample

Uggli Muffins

#02-34, 10am – 6pm, closed on Mon

https://ugglimuffins.com/

https://www.facebook.com/UggliMuffins/

Xing Xing

Dessert

Nov 2023

Probably, ok, the best dessert stall in Singapore, definitely best Ondeh Ondeh

Got to say what I just did, with the boss at home looking over my shoulder insisting that I write that…. She loves the ondeh ondeh here, and would not touch anyone else’s except theirs.

To be honest, I love the desserts here too. They sell a few types of local Nyonya desserts. Sweetness level here is decent, not too sweet but good enough, just like the one reading over my shoulder now… oh, she has left with a satisfied grin, what follows will be honest opinions!

If you're thinking the above photo is late at night, it's actually early in the morning. You've got to get here early sometimes for what you want. Just this morning (Sat), I was here at 1115am, headed here for my dessert after an early lunch, only to find them sold out at 1155. They were packed and cleaned sold out, before noon! Note to self: come straight here first before going for any food here (this has been on my mind but I thought 11 was very safe.... weekdays are better)

Ondeh ondeh, which is the original lava dessert, has liquid gula Melaka or brown palm sugar, wrapped in a ball of rice flour coated with coconut flakes. Usually the size of a big pin ball.

The ones here are fried whilst the typical ones are not. Pop the whole ball in and fill the sweet syrup burst out to hit your taste buds; or bite into half and enjoy the visual of the syrup within ooze out. Either would produce an immense amount of satisfaction!

Before knowing She who is currently the boss, I used to like the kueh kosui here. A jelly like dessert shaped like a volcano with a chopped off top, and covered in coconut flakes. Made up of gula melaka, coconut milk and tapioca flour. The ones here are good but you get a similar standard for this in most places.

A tapioca cake dessert would be another good product to try. To be honest, I don’t really know of anyone who likes this! Tried and believe the ones here are good quality, buy all 3 mentioned desserts to a group gathering and this would always be the last to be finished, if at all. Similarly covered in coconut flakes, they are not usually a rectangular block of smooth soft sticky chewy substance. Subtle sweet taste and nice texture.

The 3 mentioned above are not all they have, just the top 3 most popular, and together with the tapioca cakes (kotoh ubi, left) and soft rice cake (muah chee) photoed below, are the most readily available ones.

Recently, since around 2023, they have newer items, not too sure if these are factory ordered items, they don't look as self made as the above. All are very traditional Nyonya desserts, with the rainbow coloured layered jelly my childhood favourite. I would peel off each layer to slowly enjoy it, I don't take this much as it is just a coconut flavoured thick glutinous jelly to me and when I do, it'd be 2 mouthfuls now, but the ones sold here were so good, full of coconut fragrance, I couldn't stop at half... 😅 😅

Even if Heng Heng is not the best dessert stall, hands down the best ondeh ondeh is sold here, and the rest of their dessert are of high quality too. I may joke about it but I really do think this is a top dessert stall, if not the top. Mrs. Ziggy, and Freddy, agree... Actually, everyone agrees, the ondehs here are always the first to be sold out!

Heng Heng Ondeh Ondeh & Tapioca Cake

1 Kadayanallur Street, #01-31 Maxwell Food Centre, s069184

7am – 1pm, closed on Sunday (they can sell out by 1130 on weekends)

https://www.facebook.com/Maxwellhengheng/

Rich and Good

Dessert

Nov 2023

Superb cake rolls and chiffon cakes

This very popular shop sells just Swiss roll-like cakes of various flavours, and chiffon cakes. That’s it.

With the HQ at the Arab Street area and a branch at Jewel, they can be quite busy on weekends and peak hours, but totally empty off peak.

Fluffy and light, their Swiss rolls are brilliant, its flavouring likewise tastefully light, this combination of light with light, gentle taste and texture treated me well. Not too filling and also not compelling. I was not too eager to go for more despite it not stressing the tummy.

Pandan cheese is my favorite, with both pandan and cheese flavour light. A light pandan flavour was expected as this is usual with pandan desserts, the subtle cheese taste was a pleasant surprise. Expected something intense to be nice but this gentle taste turned out to compliment the pandan very well.

The pandan kaya roll was likewise subtle in flavour, soothing kaya taste.

The durian roll also a subtle delight, despite clearly filling the air with a subtle durian smell when it was taken out, it was mild in flavour; did not linger in the mouth for too long. Tested it out by getting close to the vehement anti-durian Mrs Ziggy and she didn’t even notice, didn’t karate kick me out of the way…

One thing to note: durian cakes may not be available in off seasons, as they use real durians to maintain quality, these are available only during durian seasons.

Asked the lady boss and she said their product is air travel friendly. I did not have any issues with it in my car, or fridge, it did smell like a threat in the fridge but it has been there for 24 hours and my fridge smells just like before now that it has been taken out.

I understand that the mango is also a favourite amongst customers, with loads of mango flavoured jam, likewise the strawberry flavour, both are pretty good.

I didn’t like the red velvet, slightly stronger in flavour to the point of some bitterness. Even Mrs. Ziggy who loves red velvet cakes, admitted that this would not be her first choice…. I love all kinds of chocolate dessert, but the chocolate roll wasn't too inspiring here either. Have yet to try the coffee but I heard it was a bit like the chocolate.

The pandan chiffons here was as good as any available. Light, fluffy, not too sweet with a subtle pandan flavour. I bought one intending to share it with my sister, in the end, I only gave her a quarter, and I was never a fan of chiffon cakes... 😅 😅

Nice products in nice packaging box, very good as a local gift, with local flavours like pandan and durian, or traditional flavours like red velvet and strawberry. Suitable for a range of international tastes. Only take aways available so it’s made for gifting as well as own consumption.

Rich and Good Cake Shop

24 Kandahar Street, s198887 - 9am – 5pm, closed on Sun

78 Airport Boulevard, #01-232 Jewel Singapore Changi Airport, s819666 – Daily 11am – 9pm

https://richngood.com/ (Shop online)

https://web.facebook.com/richngood/?_rdc=1&_rdr

https://www.instagram.com/richngood/?hl=en

Peanut

Dessert

Sept 2023

Sweet traditional local dessert soup

A very friendly uncle, Mr. Peh, runs this stall, he has been here for 50 years, selling just 3 types of local dessert that can be considered a “soup”. Red bean soup, green bean soup, and peanut soup. Without any fanfare, this is actually a “time honoured brand name”!

Curiously named “75” when its stall number is “57”, I wondered if Uncle Bai was humorous or superstitious with the number. It was simply because he was moved over from China Street where the coffee shop number was 75…

Despite the stall being named peanut soup, I feel that the most local of the three would be the green bean soup. Always served with fried fritters, or you zha kueh, it had a subtle grainy taste in addition to the sweetened soup.

The red bean paste had the more natural sweetness of the red bean, along with a mild grainy bean taste. You can ask for some additions of tang yuan, or glutinous rice balls, with sesame or peanut flavour.

The peanut soup would be my favourite here as I do not like the grainy taste, and prefer the rich peanut taste. Very sweet, goes very well of course with the addition of the above-mentioned tang yuan.

A very good and easy sample of some local dessert, especially for the sweet toothed.

75 China Street Peanuts Soup

1 Kadayanallur Street, #01-57 Maxwell Food Centre, s069184

630am – 2pm, closed on Sun

YZK

Dessert

Sept 2023

Delicious and crispy fritters, love at first bite

Every time we are at this Bedok North food centre (at Bedok Central….), jiak kaki Alan would ask if we want the fritters after our meal. We always declined, and we could see the slight disappointment in his face.

I had always declined as I saw another brand operating there, a chain I try to avoid from experience. One day, when the other jiak kaki was too curious and decided to extend our breakfast by joining a particularly long Q for coffee, Alan just insisted on getting the fritters despite similar disinterest…

He took a while to return, almost as long as Yao in the long coffee Q. Then immediately broke the fritters and passed to us, determined that we have a bite.

Thank you Alan! The you zha kueh were wonderful! Clean and crispy, it was not oily but had a good clean crisp, full of freshness! I couldn’t resist a second piece.

When we left, I had to take photos of the shop for this write up. I was shocked by the sight, this stall had a very long Q, it was terribly crowded. Understand from Alan the owners are very friendly too, the boss who does the frying would greet each customer as he fried.

Looking at their menu ☝, they offer 3 types of YZK, plain original, pandan and charcoal flavoured. The charcoal flavoured ones tasted “hollow” and bland, it was like you bite on it then there was just empty flavour of charcoal, a weird feeling. The sesame seeds added some flavour but they were so tiny it was like grappling flavour. Just weird.

The pandan flavour was aromatic, felt like it was crispier than the already very crispy original. It was a good added pandan flavour, plus the vast amount of sesame seed, it was great. The only thing that would stop me from buying more of this will be the calculative Scrooge in me. Pandan costs $0.50 more than the original ones ($1), is it worth paying 50% extra? I don’t think so… I definitely prefer the original anyways, even if they are priced the same, I would still buy 8 originals out of 10.

Sesame balls were a bit big, it would be better if they were smaller, like pop size. Nice fillings of sweetened peanuts or red beans. Peanut ones were very good! Butterfly buns were crispy and full of sesame goodness with a tinge of sweetness. In a lot of places, the butterflies could be the star as they are usually crispier (and everyone likes some sweet) here, the stall is named YZK for a reason, the crispiness of the YZK takes the shine off the butterflies here.

There are 3 types of salted buns, or ham chin pang (salted donut without a hole, HCP), usually soft and salty. The ones here had a glistening crisp to the softness, very nice. Amongst the 3, you can just pick what fancies you like picking donuts with fillings (there really wasn’t a lot of fillings, especially for the lotus paste). I rate the original best, followed by the glutinous rice, and finally the red bean paste.

I’m quite a traditionalist. Actually, I love the five-spice in the HCP. When you open it up, you can see some brown lines or dots, these are 5 spice powder, I love those parts! The glutinous rice ones tasted better then it sounded, the rice part was not a filling and was very soft, this could well be my second favourite item here.

They are by far the most impressive you zha kueh stall I have come across. Highly recommended, do note that they open only 3 days a week, and patience would be required…. If you’re lucky, the stall can be quite empty for a few moments now and then.

You Zha Kueh

216 Bedok North Street 1, #01-43, S 460216

330 – 1130am on Tues, Thurs and Sats