Late 2013, I had the ambitious plan of doing a series of hopia posts...
asides from my dad's (which are the best of course), this quest took me to various Filipino bakeries throughout San Diego...
J & H Hopia & Filipino Desserts was one that was fairly new to me. Last year, they only had one yelp review. As of late this year, a whopping three. Talk about under the radar. I haven't been back since my first and only visit which was late December 2013 so I'm not sure if much has changed. The decor is bare bones. They offer savory items like embutido, lumpia plus baked items such as cheese rolls, and of course, hopia.
Pan de ube:
Cheese rolls, mamon (a type of sponge cake) and hopia...
One of my hesitations in resurrecting this post is that it is the first one in which a store owner/worker saw me taking photos and asked if I was a food blogger. I truthfully told her yes. I normally don't tell anyone what I do and it made me a bit uncomfortable when she asked for me to sit down and "sample" some of their items. You see,mMy "research" is fully funded by me and not given in exchange for what they may expect to be favorable comments.
So, like the good Filipina American that I am, dutifully sat down, not wanting to offend her hospitality. I was already planning to spend my money on a few things anyways.
along with hopiang ube and regular hopia (filled with yellow mung bean).
The hopia cakes were nice and flaky. They are best when eaten warm right out of the oven. The next day, the hopias were unfortunately, rock hard and the flaky top was not pleasant to bite into. Of the three fillings, I liked the ube the best.
The owner also gave me a slice of her chicken embutido. This was different from my mom's version which uses pork. This was also served cold (I found out later from my mom that this meatloaf can be served cold or warm) which I didn't like.
Those were the four items I got for "free", one of each of the three types of hopia plus the small slice of embutido. Of the many types of hopia I sampled from the various area bakeries, this place's versionwas decent but not the best. That honor would have to go to Gemmae Bakery in National City (as well as Mira Mesa); my dad's version not included.
The paid items were the cheese rolls, mamon and another trio of the hopia (for Bert and TC to try). The cheese roll was small and crusted with butter and sugar. I liked that it was a small size. Valerio's makes theirs a bit bigger and in longer oval shape. I still like the softness of Valerio's cheese roll.
Their mamon was not as light and fluffy as I expected it to be. I used to love the mamon at Valerio's. It used to be heart shaped then they switched it to the round shape. While the taste of mamom was certainly there, the texture was more dense and heavier than I would have liked it to be.
The owner was very nice but got a bit upset when I mentioned the article I saw in the SD Reader (linked below). Apparently, there was some misinformation in the article and she made sure to emphasize that the person named in the article was NOT the owner.
J & H Hopia
3403 East Plaza Blvd.
National City, CA 91950
(619) 479-0056
There is no website but here is a review by the SD Reader:
"J & H Hopia open in National City", Sept. 4, 2013
*note that the owner information is incorrect. Herbert is the son of the owner. The owners are Jun and Helen Gundram (hence "J & H")
and the sparse reviews from yelp
One of these days, I'll compile that Hopia "best of " post...
It was worth a shot trying this place and experiencing their style of Filipino baked goods. There's always room for variety in San Diego, but I always come back to my tried and true favorites from Valerio's and Gemmae's...
2 comments:
Oh no you got caught! Mostly I just don't like the "what in the world is that woman doing" looks I get when "caught" but as the years have gone on people tend to care less. I was at Blush Desserts this weekend and a girl was taking cell phone phones so I figured "okay, I'll do it, too. At least I'm not the only one". Haha.
Well, who knows if she even remembers me or even what my blog is. It's been more than a $%@ year.
I've learned to "not care" at this point when I take pix (mostly with my phone now).
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