The Hopia Challenge, part 3: Hopia Emporia and the Smackdown of the Majors
In order to understand hopia we went to the motherlode: Binondo, Manila’s Chinatown.
It’s amusing to note that if we spot a fly buzzing around a restaurant in a shopping mall we question their sanitation standards, but if we see a rat in a restaurant in Chinatown we make jokes about what we’re eating. Adaptation.
We visited the major emporia of hopia: Eng Bee Tin, which has lots of stores and an impressive array of new hopia varieties and hybrids, including “mochipia”:
Ho-Land, which has responded to “mochipia” with “hoptikz” (hopia + tikoy)
Polland, whose new hopia flavors include durian
and Salazar, which offers special hopiang mongo with a slice of salted egg in it.
A reader posted a question that keeps her awake at night: Is hopiang baboy canonical? Or should we classify it with the new flavors such as ube and pandan? As far as we know hopiang babog has been around as long as hopiang mongo, we just never took to it. Can one of our hopia experts venture an answer?
We have wondered if hopiang baboy has got actual pork in it. We asked the sales staff at the different hopia emporia, and they all assured us that it does. However, many of the packages do not list pork among the ingredients. The hopiang baboy for export is called “Wintermelon” (kundol).
Today’s Hopia Challenge: Eng Bee Tin vs Salazar.
Eng Bee Tin comes in a loud, shiny foil package while Salazar is sold in the traditional waxed paper wrapping.
Eng Bee Tin looks pale, Salazar is browned.
Each contender has a dense mongo filling. Eng Bee Tin has a thinner, almost papery crust. Its mongo filling melts in your mouth, but we find it too sweet and creamy. Salazar has both a crumby crust and compact filling, which should satisfy both schools of thought regarding hopia essence. More importantly, it has a richer, more intense mongo taste. (EBT is to Salazar as creamy is to chunky peanut butter or Choc-Nut to chocolate.)
The winner of this round: Salazar.
All protests will be entertained in Comments.
Answers to questions you might be asking, unless you wandered onto this site purely by accident >>>
July 27th, 2011 at 10:56
Hardly would a local Chinese buy at EBT. He would go to Holland for mongo, and Polland for baboy; and to EBT only to buy hopia for his Pinoy friends.
July 27th, 2011 at 14:56
For me, it’s Salazar hands down. As to the baboy flavor, Fortune hopiang baboy (sold in Mercury Drugstores) is the best!
July 27th, 2011 at 17:22
In hopiang baboy, the wintermelon is cooked in lard.
July 27th, 2011 at 17:30
woohoo!! mas masarap talaga hopiang mongo ng salazar! paborito ko yun!
July 27th, 2011 at 20:01
Oh my. I’ve never tried Eng Bee Tin and Salazar and now I suddenly have the urge to venture out in the rain to replicate your experience. Of all the variants, hoptikz and mochipia and mongo with salted egg are calling out to me.
I don’t know why I never took a liking to hopiang baboy when salty-sweet is generally a winning taste combination. Perhaps it’s the texture– my mind anticipates a coarser mouth feel like the filling in empanada or siomai, and there’s a bit of a letdown when the ground pork-y texture is absent. Wintermelon (beautiful word)– I wonder how the kundol-as-pork-substitute came about.
July 27th, 2011 at 20:16
is salazar near ho-land store in binondo?
July 27th, 2011 at 20:57
I was told that the reason why hopiang baboy is called ‘Wintermelon” and that its packaging does not list pork as an ingredient, is because it is a means to subvert any regulations and standards of countries that ban or are suspicious of pork. Arab countries, especially Saudi Arabia, do not allow foreigners to bring in pork. Pinoys, who are very enterprising, have developed many numerous ways to sneak in pork disguised as other products. Arabian customs officers, who have no idea on the many wonderful ways pork can be used, often allow products that do not have physical manifestations of pork to enter their borders.
As to the most delicious hopiang baboy, I hereby declare that La Fortuna’s Pork Hopia is the best. It combines mongo filling with sweetened pork chunks. The pork fat assume the characteristics of candy. La Fortuna is one of the established pastry shops of Cebu City and has been around for some time.
July 27th, 2011 at 21:30
eng bee tin pa rin =)
July 27th, 2011 at 22:48
Polland vs Salazar. Let’s get it on!
July 27th, 2011 at 22:53
I’m in hopia heaven hehe! I have eaten Tipas hopia all week long :)
July 28th, 2011 at 01:36
I like the hopia baboy sold in a local bakery along P. Noval. Can’t remember the bakery’s name, though. T’was also a long time ago.
July 28th, 2011 at 02:32
I want to try Kim Chong Tin Hopia.
July 28th, 2011 at 06:36
Yeah brewhuh23! Tipas FTW! lol
July 28th, 2011 at 13:03
I stand by my EBT. I haven’t tried mochipia yet.
July 28th, 2011 at 14:19
Dammit now I have to get myself hopia! nearest place to get it is at 7-11. Grr.
July 28th, 2011 at 19:37
Salazar’s all the way, even the other products of this store tastes good.
July 29th, 2011 at 20:15
I want to try Salazar’s!!! do they have branches? I am and Eng bee tin hopia-natic, but I’m open to change.
Hop-tikz sounds… uncool. haha.