- Siri, what's the best Asian dessert?
- Hmm, let me think.
Okay, I found this on the web for the best Asian desert.
- That's so, desert?
(lively music)
What Asian country makes the best desert?
I'm afraid of what the answer will be
because I'm Chinese and what if it's not Chinese?
Okay, so my friend Nastasia has told me that I must eat ube
which is a Filipino ingredient, it's a purple yam.
So we're gonna try and find to find a Filipino bakery
and eat some ube.
- [Abe] Where are we?
- We're at Leelin Bakery and Cafe.
My name's in it.
My name's Lynn not Lee.
Ube hopia, they call it hopia.
Hopia.
- [Lynn] Hopia?
- Yes.
- [Lynn] Like a pastry?
Hopia.
- [Cashier] Yes.
- Ube hopia.
- [Cashier] Yes.
- That's what I'm gonna get.
Still warm.
- [Cashier] Yeah, I like it warm.
- Mmm, it's 82 cents!
(laughing)
It's 82 cents!
Mmm, that's purple.
Inside, the texture is starchy, kinda like a potato,
and very sweet.
Doesn't taste purple at all.
I don't know what purple tastes like
but it doesn't taste purple.
Well done, Philippines, well done.
What dessert should I go get?
- [Man] From Korea, patbingsoo
- You think I should get the shaved ice, patbingsoo?
- [Man] Yeah, yeah, (mumbling) is the best place.
- [Lynn] Okay, let's do it.
- [Man] Okay.
- [Lynn] Let's do a one red bean shaved ice.
Patbingsoo.
I'm probably saying that wrong but I'm not Korean
so I'm allowed to.
I see kiwi, I see red bean,
I see mochi, I see banana,
I see mango, I see strawberry,
and I bet there's shaved ice under there.
Oh, look, Abe, there you are too.
Hashtag Asian Dessert Heritage Month
(singing) Snow.
Mmm, so cold!
This is really good.
And you think that you're just eating fruit and ice
so it's good for you.
But the truth is it's covered in sugar
and this is totally dessert.
When things are in bowls and they give you spoons,
it's really hard to stop eating.
So cold.
So comments are coming in on my Facebook.
And my cousin, who is Chinese, suggested I go get
dan ta which is a Chinese egg tart.
And I think that's a brilliant idea.
Back to the Mother Land, sort of, Chinatown.
Where I'm from.
- [Abe] You're from Chinatown?
- Yeah, I'm from Chinatown, no, I'm from China
and we are in Chinatown.
- [Abe] You're from New Jersey.
- Okay, stop that, I am Chinese American
and we're gonna get Chinese American pastries.
One egg tart.
- [Cashier] Yeah, okay.
- She's not listening to me.
Okay, so this is (speaking Chinese)
which is like a sugar spongy thing.
And these are sesame balls
and they're both delicious but today
I am focused on one thing and that is dan ta, an egg tart.
I grew up eating these quite regularly,
almost every weekend of my life.
My mom used to actually toast them in the toaster oven
and this oil would get quite hot.
I would eat it out with a spoon.
Mmm.
This cost 60 cents
which I think is a pretty good deal.
It actually costs more to sit at this meter and eat this.
Sunshine, you want some?
India Sweets & Spices.
I don't care about the spices today,
I'm just here for the sweets.
Boondi ladoo.
Ladoo are ball shaped sweets popular in India.
They're often served at very religious
and festive occasions.
It's made of chickpea,
it's vegan and I'm gonna eat it.
Very fragrant, what I just said was fragrant.
The texture's kinda like cous cous that's been packed
together really tight.
There's something perfumey about it.
Which you either like or you don't.
I think we just have one more country left
that my stomach can handle
and that will have to be Thailand.
Sticky rice with taro inside.
This is my last dessert of the day.
Hello, sticky rice.
Which is very similar to our first treat
from the Philippines, the ube.
I love it when a root vegetable is sweet.
It feels like a meal because it's rice and it's on a fork.
I hate to say this but it's Korea.
Korea is the winner.
The patbingsoo, it just had all these different elements.
It was cold and it was sweet and it had fruit
and it was creamy.
And I couldn't stop eating it.
Growing up when I thought of Asian food,
dessert was definitely not the first thing
that I thought of and it should be
because it's freaking delicious.
- [Abe] So in a way, all the countries won today.
- Yeah, we all won because we all got to eat dessert
and we all learned a valuable lesson.
That we should be eating more dessert
when we go into our Asian restaurants.
(laughing) Asian desert?
She never helps when it's important.