I love 糖水 (Cantonese sweet soups) of all sorts. I especially like all the 糊! 合桃糊 (walnut cream paste), 花生糊 (peanut cream paste)， 芝麻糊 (black sesame cream paste). The only one I don’t like is 杏仁糊 (almond cream paste). But I like walnut and peanut best.
The best ones I’ve had in Singapore are from 115 Dessert stall at Chinatown Hawker Centre. Yes, the dessert stall takes its name from its unit number. It’s run by a couple in their early 50s. The stall was started by the owner’s mother and has been around in Chinatown for many years. They grind the nuts by hand hence its smooth and thick consistency. Its rival stall is 二姑糖水 but I think 115 is better.
Recently, I’ve taken to buying 合桃糊 from the Taiwanese chain outlet 品乐. While it’s pretty good, it’s still not as good as 115’s. Plus it’s double the price! And 品乐 doesn’t even fill up the whole plastic container! I feel so cheated.
I just realised a couple of days ago that in Hong Kong, walnut is written as 合桃 whereas in China and Taiwan, it is written as 核桃. According to kuponuts, the latter is the correct written form. In Hong Kong, what started out as a mistake just stuck. So while I know the latter is correct, I’m sticking to 合桃糊 for this dessert as it is a dessert that’s mostly associated with Hong Kong.