Julie's Desserts and Bakery

Inside the Vinh-Hung Supermarket are several businesses...

Among them  is a Filipino fast food take out place, a travel agency, and this small dessert shop, Julie's Desserts and Bakery...

I believe this used to be another Filipino takeout place. This was the first time I've ventured past Vinh-Hung's quarters and this time Bert and I wanted to see what was there...

In addition to baked goods, they also sold fried chicharron, lechon and siapao (steamed pork buns).

There were baked goods and desserts all over the place - behind and on top of the counters (siapao, loaves of sweet bread, cookies, and suman).

I spied two big containers of freshly fried items - pork skinz and carioca (fried sweet rice balls with coconut).

We ended up getting four of the carioca balls for $1.00 total. My mom used to make that dessert, but she would spear them on a stick.

We also bought thre pieces of hopia, also for $1.00.

Some hopia was already packaged but I just wanted a trio of these flavors, ube (purple yam), pandan, and baboy (wintermelon with pork fat and onions).

The lady working there wasn't that friendly to us, as hard as I tried to be friendly to her. She was pretty monosyllabic to me.

Unfortunately, communication skills and customer service isn't a strong point here. I'm kind of used to it at some of these places.

Here are our desserts at home:

The carioca balls were still crisp yet chewy a few hours later. The sugar glaze was so good, but not as good as my mom's.

We enjoyed the crisp sugary exterior and the sweet rice/coconut within.

This sweet snack reminds me of childhood and the way my mom used to make almost everything by hand.

The hopia trio had the nice thin flaky crust on top that I like, but that's where the comparison to my dad's version ends. The pandan and ube (green and purple) are round while the hopiang baboy is a different shape (it is normally a circle that is folded over).

There was a lot of filling, even spilling out from the bottom where you can see where the dough got pinched. Unlike my dad's hopia, the crust was hard instead of tender and flaky. The fillings were also on the dry side.

I've been meaning to do it but have been putting it off, a post solely on the different hopias I've tried (store bought and homemade) all over San Diego. It's in the works, but I always get side tracked by my other posts.  I wouldn't go back for the hopia over here but I would definitely try their carioca again!  If anything, the hopia over at nearby Gemmae Bakeshop (next to Luong Hai Ky) is a close second to my dad's.

Julie's Desserts & Bakery (inside of Vinh-Hung supermarket)
10550 Camino Ruiz
San Diego,CA 92126

There is no website but there are some unintentionally hilarious "reviews" on that four lettered site where some folks refer to hopia as "hoopa" and spell Filipino with a fucking "PH"! WTF!!!!!!!That is a major pet peeve of mine! Those ignorami should get their asses kicked for that egregious spelling error!!!