Eng Bee Tin

Eng Bee Tin is a Chinese bakery founded on Ongpin Street in 1912 by Chua Chiu Hong, a migrant from mainland China. More than a century later, its flagship store at UBE Towers on Ongpin Street is a regular stop on food walks through Manila's Chinatown.

The bakery's fortunes changed in 1987, when Gerry Chua, the founder's grandson, took over a business that was close to bankruptcy. He noticed that ube, the purple yam, was the best-selling ice cream flavour in a supermarket and developed an ube hopia, learning how to work with ube halaya in Pampanga. The product revived the company, and ube hopia remains the item most visitors come for. By 2013 the bakery was making 22 varieties of hopia, with ube and mongo, or mung bean, among the best sellers.

Beyond hopia, the shop sells tikoy, popular at Chinese New Year, mooncakes for the Mid-Autumn Festival, other Chinese pastries and Philippine native delicacies. Sugar-free versions of some products are also available, which is useful if you are buying for older relatives.

Treat it as a stop on a Binondo walk: buy a few pieces to eat as you go and a box or two to take home. It gets very busy before Chinese New Year and the Mid-Autumn Festival, when queues can stretch, so shop early in the day during those periods. Prices are modest, and carrying some cash speeds things up.

If you are buying gifts, mix a few flavours in one box so that friends can compare them, and include ube for the classic experience. Ask staff which items keep best if you have a long journey ahead. In the hot weather of Manila, keep pastries out of direct sun and eat filled varieties within a day or two of buying them, unless the label says otherwise. A small selection also makes a useful snack to carry while you walk the rest of Binondo, as the heat and the crowds can make sit-down stops slow.

Ongpin Street is the main food street of Binondo, so Eng Bee Tin sits among dim sum shops, tea houses and other bakeries. Binondo Church is a short walk away, and Escolta Street is to the east. The bakery suits anyone exploring Chinatown, families looking for an inexpensive treat and travellers who want edible gifts with a story behind them. Pastries travel reasonably well, but check labels for best-before dates if you are flying home.