When I was a kid, one of our favorite bakeshops was Eng Ho along T. Alonzo St. in Binondo. My grandmother’s favorite was the Chiffon Cake. We kids loved the Cream Puffs. Eng Ho is also known for their Almond Cakes. We haven’t bought any Eng Ho goodies for a long, long time, and it was great that one of my sisters remembered it after all these years and craved for the Eng Ho chiffon cake.
We found out that Eng Ho has a branch in Banawe Ave. now. I searched online but couldn’t find an exact address, except that it was in Banawe Ave. in the Sto. Domingo area. So we slowly drove through Banawe until we found Eng Ho. It’s across from the Teriyaki Boy / Serenitea area.
We bought a box of the vanilla chiffon cake, some almond cakes, some cream puffs, etc.. The guy who managed the store told us that the almond cakes had no preservatives and had to be consumed on the same day it was made. So we can’t bring it abroad as pasalubong. Too bad 🙁 But we bought some to eat ourselves haha! The almond cake is like a kutsinta, but almond-flavored. As far as I know, Eng Ho is the only place that makes these.
The chiffon cake was as good as I remembered. Do you see that toasted crust thing on the cake? That’s the best part of the cake. I don’t know why. It’s just the part I like best. The chiffon cake is moist and fluffy. You don’t need to put any fancy icing or other enhancements on it. It’s delicious on its own.
We also bought some chicken pie (P35 each). I like these because the crust is thin and it’s not filled with extenders. It’s actually very flavorful. Everything is just right and it’s delicious eaten warm.
Now that I know that there’s an accessible Eng Ho branch, we’ll be sure to go for chiffon cake once in a while. They also have other goodies that I’d like to try next time. Most of the food they sell taste home-made and fresh.
The Chiffon Cake is P220 per box. There is a smaller version of the chiffon cake, but the crust of the smaller chiffon cake doesn’t seem as brown. The Almond Cake is P10 per piece.
Their contact info is:
T. ALONZO: 630 T. Alonzo St., Sta. Cruz, Manila 7335232/7335241
BANAWE: 789 Banawe St., Bgy. St. Peter, QC 7421466
SAN JUAN: 351 C CM Recto St., corner P. Guevarra, SJ 8610288
