Mei Heong Yuen Dessert

A family that made its name in peanuts, now making Chinatown's afternoons bearable.

Mei Heong Yuen is the dessert shop to end a Chinatown afternoon at, and the order is one hot bowl and one cold, shared. It suits families and friends who have just done a lap of the Temple Street shophouses and need to sit down somewhere cooler than the pavement. The compromise is sugar: some bowls lean hard into it, so order with that in mind.

The menu splits in two, and both halves earn their place. On one side are the Cantonese pastes and sweet soups: almond paste, cheng tng, herbal jelly and the glutinous rice desserts. On the other is Taiwanese snow ice, shaved and piled high, in flavours such as soursop, mocha, sesame and milk tea. Hot paste and cold ice at the same table is the reason to come here rather than to a bubble tea counter.

The backstory is worth a paragraph because it explains the almond paste. The Lee family were in peanuts long before they were in pudding: the business traces its roots to 1940s Malaysia, came to Singapore in the 1950s and built the Farmer Brand peanuts. Second-generation sisters Connie and Clara Lee opened this Temple Street shop in 2002, and the Chinatown Business Association has since recognised it as a heritage brand. A family that has spent decades on nuts is a family we would trust with almond paste.

How to do it well. Order the almond paste on its own rather than paired with black glutinous rice; it is the dish the shop's history points to, and it needs no help. Add one snow ice for the table, since one between two is plenty, and pick a flavour you won't find at a mall dessert chain (soursop or sesame over milk tea, unless you came all the way to Chinatown for milk tea). Cheng tng is the classic that won't flatten you, and the mango roll is a sound add-on for anyone who wants something to hold. Skip the bubur cha cha if you dislike sweet desserts; it runs sweetest of the lot.

If the afternoon is drifting towards dinner, the menu also covers savoury snacks: steamed yam and carrot cakes, dumplings and chee cheong fun. That is enough to make a light meal of it rather than a detour. Go mid-afternoon on a weekday rather than at the weekend, bring cash or PayNow, and check the hours box first, because the shop shuts one day a week. It is about five minutes on foot from Chinatown MRT, which leaves nobody an excuse.

Good to know About five minutes' walk from Chinatown MRT. Cash or PayNow only, and not halal-certified. The shop closes one day a week; the day is in the hours box above.

Mei Heong Yuen Dessert | 63-67 Temple Street, Singapore 058611 | Nearest MRT: Chinatown