Tong Sui

Tong sui is a generic term for any sweet, soupy item served at the end of a Cantonese meal.  It is also the namesake of a dessert shop in Sunnyvale.

Tong Sui doesn't have much of a web presence, besides their ordering site, so I wasn't able to learn much about it.  While I didn't visit myself in person, they do have a retail location, and delivery via basically every delivery service in the area.

I was drawn to Tong Sui due to the great lineup of interesting desserts, in particular, puddings, and strong Yelp reviews (4.5 stars? No red flags here at least!).

Delivery via Nextdish.

I ordered from Tong Sui via Nextdish, a platform featuring a slew of Asian chefs offering dishes for dinner (changing daily), plus partnerships with dim sum restaurants, bakeries, bubble tea shops, etc and hard to find Asian groceries, all in one delivery.  I was blown away by the selection.

Ordering was quite easy through their website, new menus published once a week for the week ahead (dinner dishes change daily, as do some desserts, grocery items are the same most days).  I ordered in advance, which I'm glad I did, as several items sold out quickly.  You can modify your order up until 1pm the day of delivery.  My delivery window was 2 hours, and I was sent a text the day of delivery to remind me, and a text when the order was 3 minutes away.  It arrived near the end of, but still inside, the delivery window.

Anyway, side note: Stuck doing a lot of takeout and delivery these days? Want to try some free food and new pickup or delivery services?  Here are some codes for free money!

• Nextdish: ($10 off your first order) [ Delivery only ]
• Door Dash ($15 off, $5 each of your first 3 orders) [ Delivery or pickup ]
• Caviar ($20 off, $10 off your first 2 orders) [ Delivery or pickup ]
• Ritual ($6 off) [ Pickup only ]
• Delivery.com ($10 off) [ Delivery or pickup ]
• Grub Hub ($10 off) [ Delivery or pickup ]
• Seamless ($10 off) [ Delivery or pickup ]
• Allset ($5 off) [ Pickup only ]

Packaging.

My items were packed nicely in a box lined with some crinkly brown paper.  Yet another label was inside, this one telling me how to recycle, or collect and redeem for a free pudding, my jars. 

My first order!

I opted to try two dishes, one classic coconut pudding (their signature dish) and one more exciting item: taro & ube sago!

Both came in branded glass jars, a nice size for re-purposing at home, if I don't end up collecting the 10 required to redeem for free pudding.

Coconut Pudding

Coconut pudding is the signature item from Tong Sui.

In addition to a plain version, they also make a "double layer" version with coconut jelly on top, a version served in a coconut shell, and versions topped with other flavored puddings (strawberry, matcha, sweet rice, chocolate), or other fun toppings (red bean mochi, oreo crumbs and mochi, mango and mango juice, even rosewater peach gum).

I tried the signature.

Signature Coconut Pudding in Glass Jar.  $7.95.
原味椰子凍玻璃瓶.

"Made with organic lactose-free milk and fresh coconut water. No additional sugar. It comes with homemade toasted coconut flakes. Please keep refrigerated and store for up to 5 days."

This signature pudding came with the coconut topping on the side.  Designed to be served chilled, can keep in the fridge a few days.

The toasted coconut topping was fine, small pieces of toasted coconut.  I appreciated the texture to add in, but I like bigger flakes.

Signature Coconut Pudding in Glass Jar: Top.

On top my jar had a bit of a film/skin, underneath which was a creamy coconut jelly, bursting with coconut flavor.  There was sweet coconut liquid in the jar as well.

The pudding had a lovely texture, strong coconut flavor, and was sweet but not too sweet.  Quite successful.

This reminded me exactly of the "coconut tofu" or "coconut jelly" that my favorite sushi restaurant used to serve as the complimentary dessert, and they always included a few tiny bits of fruit: strawberry, blueberry, grapes.  So I did the same, using cotton candy grapes and strawberries, and it was fabulous.

However, at $7.95 it struck me as pricey, considering I've seen similar dish on dessert menu for <$5 fairly commonly.

*** as served, ***+ with my additions.

Other Desserts

For my second item, I was pretty torn between the coco durian sago, the "mango fantasy" with mango, strawberry, and rice balls, the mango coco sago with pomelo and the ube/taro creation ...

Ok, who are we kidding, yes, I wanted several but there was one clear winner if I was only picking one.

Taro & Ube Sago with Taro Balls. $6.95. 
 芋香紫薯西米撈

"Made with coconut milk, fresh taro, and ube. It comes with 3 taro balls. For better taste, please leave it at room temperature and consume it within the purchase day."

I couldn't resist taro and ube in the same dessert.

This one was for consuming at room temp, not chilled.  I also tried it warmed up, and thought it was even better that way.

Taro & Ube Sago with Taro Balls: Top.

The taro/ube sago was entirely different from the coconut pudding, as it is not a pudding, but more like a drink.

Very liquid-y, but great coconut flavor, great taro flavor, great ube flavor.  Again sweet but not too sweet.

It had little bits of taro and ube inside, plus a few shreds of coconut, all of which added even more flavor and texture, and made it pretty clear that this was NOT made from powder.

Taro & Ube Sago with Taro Balls: Taro Balls & Sago!

Also inside of course was sago and taro balls.

The sago was ok, small size, but a bit softer than I like.  Decent amount of it, although it definitely could have benefited from even more.

Also inside, along with the obvious sago, was 3 good sized taro balls, soft, slight chew, mochi-like.  These were a great addition.

Overall a very tasty "soup", good balance of taro-ube-coconut, nice textures.  I did find myself wanting something more though, I'm not quite sure what.  I may have added whipped cream.  Sssh.  At $6.95 however it was a bit pricey for what it was - and I somewhat think a real taro or ube boba drink, with cheese foam, would be more satisfying.

***+.

Read More...

Peter's Ice Cream, Australia

Peter's vs Streets.  Which is technically "Australia's favourite ice cream"?  I think both claim to be.  Peter's at least seems slightly more authentic, as Streets is now owned by Unilever, and thus, has equivalent product lines worldwide (like Heartbrand in Europe, which I've reviewed before).  Peter's makes regular ice cream, but also assorted novelties like Drumsticks, and even has a partnership with Messina now, distributing gelato (yes, that Messina, Sydney darling ...)

Anyway, I am an ice cream lover, and travel frequently for work, and thus, discovering ice cream, even generic ice cream truck items, when I travel, is one of my past times.  Peter's is still relatively new to me, but I look forward to trying more of their treats.

Ice Cream

For foodservice, Peters offers 5 liter trays in a variety of flavors:  Vanilla, Choc Lovers, Rum & Raisin, Macadamia, Boysenberry, Choc Mint, Cookies & Cream, Violet Crumble, Hokey Pokey, Bubblegum, Passionfruit, O.E.T, Strawberry, Mango Tango, Triple Swirl, Banana, Honeycomb, Choc Chip.  Yeah, these are the generic mass distribution flavors, not exactly your standard lineup!

My office in Sydney recently switched to Peters as a supplier, so I was able to try several.

Boysenberry.

I started with the interesting sounding boysenberry.  

It was good, a vanilla base with the berry swirled in.  It was creamy, decent quality ice cream, good mouthfeel.

A bit too sweet for me, particularly in places where the berry swirl was over generous, but otherwise, good, and a fairly unique flavor, at least to me.

Mango Tango.

I don't generally go for such fruity flavors, but, the Mango Tango was a good one.  Great mango flavor, and the real winning element was the perfectly creamy texture.  Clearly a quality ice cream.

Best paired with some fruit, or perhaps coconut cream?

I was glad to get to try it, not one I'd normally seek out.

Novelties

As I mentioned, the office switched to Peters, not only for the ice cream by teh scoop, but for hte novelties that filled the ice cream freezers, switching from from Streets, which I've reviewed before.

I was of course excited just to try new things.

Super Choc Drumstick.

"Smooth Choc ice cream topped with lush chocolate sauce and crunchy peanuts all in a crispy wafer cone with delicious choc tip."

This was actually a pretty decent Drumstick. 

The ice cream was the best part, and the most surprising, as usually the ice cream quality in novelties like this isn't exactly the highest. It was very creamy, melted nicely, and has a good milk chocolate flavor.

The topping is fairly standard chocolate and nuts, but the amount was good and the quality reasonable.  I didn't love the toppings though.

Same with the cone, crispy, fine, but nothing special.  Bonus points for the chocolate tip though, very generously filled.  I liked that quite a bit.

I liked it enough to have another of these cones the next day.

Oreo Sandwich.

"Your favourite cookie just got a whole lot cooler! Tuck into this frozen OREO cookie sandwich with OREO cookie crumb throughout."

Not being an Oreo lover, I liked this far more than I expected.

The cookies were soft chocolate cookies, the ice cream was creamy, seemingly good quality, very "cookies & cream" flavored.

I'd have another.

Read More...