Over a month it has been since my friend suggested we go to this place at Funan Mall for hot desserts then going viral all over the socials.
Tell you honestly, I had been delighted with the suggestion.
So seldom is it that we go for bowls like these that every opportunity becomes a pleasant, even special one.
There is a fair bit of hot bowls here at Ruxu that one can choose from.
What makes this place unique isn't just the food they have to offer, but the proof of fact that Mainland food is now no longer restricted to just giant-sized crepe pancakes called shao bing, twisted flour sticks called ma hua, or (sometimes not very aesthetic-looking) dishes of the earthy, agricultural kind.
If anything, Ruxu shows that they these days are more than happy to export their aesthetic-rich looking foods too.
There have been several opinions about the bakes and pastries they have on offer.
Some people find them bland.
Others, however, find them disproportionate in size.
I'm not sure how one interprets whether a food is good or not.
But the bakes my friend got for us this evening were good.
There were two- a bun, and a tart. The bun was for him, the tart for me. It wasn't because I had chosen not to have the bun, but because tarts have always been a favorite of mine, and what better than a tart of this sort that has both caramel and custard.
Glistening beautifully under the lights, the custard, with its firm, buttery yet flaky pastry, hugged a filing that was at once rich and eggy with a distinctive milk pudding texture.
I loved the puff pastry of the tart shell.
Not only did it not crumble after the first bite, it made the tart very easy to hold, and to eat.
Best of all, it wasn't as sweet as I thought it might be.
Perhaps that be the way of some Cantonese-style, Mainland-style bakes. They can go all savory- no problem- but they hold back when it comes to the sweet.
It was the same for his bun with the matcha cream filling.
So the cream might look a little bit dark here in the picture, but really, I can assure you, it' wasn't. More of a dark green, really, and rich with the matcha taste that combines a hint of the bitter with a faint taste of sweet.
The way the cream got layered had it such that it felt silly to bite directly into the bun, so from both edges we picked at it with our fingers bit by bit before getting to the cream inside.
If the bakes were good, same too can be said for the hot desserts.
Originally I had thought we might share a bowl but my friend remembered my love for steamed milk desserts so he got one bowl of steamed milk custard, and another of the signature pistachio paste.
The milk custard didn't bring me back strong vibes of Hong Kong (which it should have- given how I'd eaten it twice before and have never forgotten it) but the smooth white surface did make me relish what was right now in front of me- a clean, shiny, smooth white custard pudding that bounced when my spoon pressed on it, and which slid gently onto my spoon when I carved into it.
I'm glad it wasn't one of those very sweet desserts that I sometimes get skeptical about.
It isn't because I don't like sugar.
If the dessert is meant to have lots of sweet- like chendol or ice kachang or iced cocktail jelly- then, of course, by all means, let's roll the sugar.
But in Cantonese-style tong shui desserts of this make, sugar masks the taste of milk, and the milk in this bowl was the very thing I wanted to have.
So I'm glad it wasn't leaning to the sweet.
Same thing it were too, thankfully, for the pistachio paste.
I would have been disappointed had the bowl of green paste turned out to have an artificial flavor to it masked generously with sugar.
But it wasn't.
The flavor of pistachio- nutty, slightly salty, with its distinctive taste- was obvious and strong. I didn't taste anything awkward on my tongue. Then the coloring too- it's lighter than what the picture shows, by the way- was natural, sitting somewhere between the pastel of green, and the depth of the real pistachio nut green. What's more, there was also the texture- thick and smooth like how a paste dessert ought to be.
I'm pretty sure there'll be more places offering such pistachio paste desserts here and there. It is a trending flavor after all, family-friendly for all ages, even elderly whose teeth and dentures no longer work well with the crunchiness of nuts.
But I think I might come back here to Ruxu.
They have an ambience that is, to me, reminiscent of a tea house- but less heavy, more minimalist- and an upheld quality in their desserts and bakes, which, at moments in life, I ought to learn to love, and appreciate.