Indonesia-Born Hawker Sells Delish Jackfruit Chendol & ‘Commando’ Red Tea Jelly Longan

Her Singaporean husband Jeff Zhang, 41, helps her at their chendol stall. Jeff used to be a chicken rice hawker who had his own stall next to May’s yong tau foo unit at Ubi Ave 1. May also enthusiastically tells us that Edmund Chen and Xiang Yun have dropped by for her chendol (the celeb couple is also known to frequent nearby coffee stall Kopi More).

There are just four wallet-friendly desserts on the menu: Traditional Chendol, Jackfruit Chendol ($2.50), Stewed Peach Cheng Tng ($2.50) and Red Tea Jelly Longan ($3). “The chendol in Singapore usually has no jackfruit, it’s more common in Indonesia,” May explains.

She used to make her own chendol jelly, a laborious process that involves cooking pandan juice-infused mung bean flour over a stove before straining the sticky mixture through a sieve. But she has since outsourced the task to her Indonesian friend who owns a local factory making dessert ingredients. “We get so busy at the stall that we don’t have time to make the chendol ourselves, and you need to be very attentive when you’re cooking the mixture ’cos it burns easily,” she says.

Other than the basic combination of pandan jelly, red beans and coconut milk, you can also top up 50 cents to add attap seeds or cream-style corn to your chendol. May is also planning to introduce a mod “chendol for two” next month. “I will add ice cream, cookies, attap seeds and even durian pulp,” she enthuses.

For just $2, we get a big bowl of chendol. Instead of the coarsely-shaved ice that’s common at hawker dessert stalls, May’s ice is soft, fine and almost powdery, like the kind you’d find in pricier Korean bingsu. It glides down our throat on a hot day like a dream drenched in rich coconut milk.

She uses a mix of gula melaka and gula jawa — the latter Javanese palm sugar which has a slightly earthier profile than the Malaysian version — though we find the syrup serving too little and not quite earthy and caramelly enough. But it’s tasty when we ask for more; May adds gula melaka sparingly to cater to the mostly elderly crowd in the hawker centre. The large, sweet adzuki beans are also cooked down to a just-nice consistency, not too mushy with a bit of bite to them.

Also worth mentioning is the chendol — the fat jade-coloured worms are not as springy as the kind found in Singapore. Instead, they have a kueh-like texture with intense pandan flavour, almost like the chendol we ate at old-school shops in Indonesia. “It’s difficult to replicate the Indonesian flavours here, ’cos a lot of ingredients there can’t be imported into Singapore,” May shares.

Strips of sweet, pungent jackfruit are added to the traditional chendol for this pick. We like it better as a topping than gooey attap seeds and creamy corn; the sticky jackfruit goes well with the finely-shaved ice, soft chendol jelly and stewed red beans.

Regulars at Changi Village Hawker Centre dessert stall Mei Lin would be familiar with its unique Red Tea Jelly Longan with shaved ice and evaporated milk. It earned the nickname of “Commando Dessert” due to its popularity with the nearby SAF personnel. Incidentally, Indon Chendol is located right below the Beach Road Army Market, which is why May decided to sell a version of this using red tea jelly made by her friend’s factory.

Instead of the usual cubes, May serves her ruby-red jelly in neat rectangular sheets. You can taste more of its flavour this way, though we find the tea notes too muted. There’s also a whiff of artificial strawberry flavouring, which confuses our palate. Too bad, ’cos the melty, milky ice and canned longans combo in our bowl is shiok.

Contrary to its name, there’s no stewed peaches in this cheng tng, which you can order either hot or cold. The ‘peach’ in its moniker refers to peach gum, which has been cooked down to gelatinous blobs. May’s cheng tng also has jelly cubes, red dates, longans, dried persimmons, snow fungus and corn kernels. Not our favourite combination for cheng tng — we say save your tummy space for her yummier chendol instead.

Address: #B1-38 Golden Mile Food Centre, 505 Beach Rd, S199583.

Opening hours: Open daily Mon-Thu 11am-6pm, Fri-Sun 11am-8pm.

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Photos: Yip Jieying