A Surprise Find at Costco : Viet Nam Hopia Cake

Denver is a city that does not have decent Asian grocers. Luckily, Costco offers some consolation to many immigrants who miss their home food.  Moon festival is near. My shopping radar is on the look for mooncakes.

When I went shopping at Costco, I found two types of cakes side by side: one with expensive look packed in blue boxes,  traditional Cantonese style mooncake made in Taiwan priced at 16.99; another is cheap looking yellowish plastic bagged Vienam Hopia Cake, priced at 4.99. 

Checking out the ingredient of the Hopia Cake: it seems similar to other varieties of Chinese mooncake that are available only at Asian grocery stores: sugar, mung beans, wheat, south squash, durian. Durian is tropical fruit: giant with prickly thick skin. Its fruit is creamy and sweet, tasting like ice cream with strong odor.    Each bag has 12 cakes, less than 50cents a piece.  The risk of getting stuff I do not like is low, so I bought one home.

It’s tea time. I make a cup of Puer tea, and opened the Hopia Cake bag and took one piece out. Each cake is in a plastic container and wrapped separately.  “wow, it tastes exactly delicious durian without the oder that could be unpleasant for some,”  I had four pieces within one hour. 

This coming week, I will be less home sick indeed with the consolation from Hopia cakes.

Although you probably are not as homesick as me,  I  still strongly recommend you to try it instead of boring popcorns etc.

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