Found out about the new Duke Dessert 糖伯付 that had recently opened their doors at Fortune Centre recently — the choice for such a shop to open in the location being one that is rather odd especially for those whom are familiar with the building. Located at the second floor of the building, Duke Dessert takes over the former premises of the now-defunct Create Cafe; this makes them neighbours with other F&B tenants such as Ume San 100 and The Asia 2019 Korean Food. It seems that Duke Dessert had decided to went for a simple look for the establishment; there isn’t really a strong theme set in terms of the interior decor of the space. Rather, the interior design seems to be more focused on being functional rather than for style — there are some use of colours such as the pastel blue walls and red stools for a visual pop, though the other furniture and fittings mostly comprises of white, wooden and metallic elements. Being an establishment that is well-focused on their Chinese dessert offerings, it does seem that Duke Dessert emphasises a lot on their Tang Shui and Taiwanese-style beancurd offerings — the menu is being segregated into sections dedicated to Mango Specialties (also introduced to us as one of their signature offerings), Cold Desserts (mostly featuring yogurt-based desserts), Pudding / Jelly / Beancurd, Cold Desserts, Tapioca Balls and Hot Dessert sections. For those feeling peckish, Duke Dessert do also offer Small Bites such as the Vegetable Sushi Roll and the various variants of Chee Cheong Fun, while beverages available include a few herbal tea options, Original Almond Milk and Mineral Water.

Given the sheer number of dessert options which they have to offer on the menu, we were pretty much spoilt for choice on what to actually try here. That being said, we did notice that they do carry some items that are also being served at their neighbour that is located just a couple of doors away at Yat Ka Yan 一家人, which we found to be a little bit of a strange move especially considering that their neighbours themselves are also a pretty established name which we had also come to love in the local scene of Chinese-style Tang Shui. We eventually settled for some items which we thought we would not be able to find in the menu at the neighbour; this includes the Beancurd Grass Jelly with Oatmeal Tapioca Balls which seems to be an item that draws more inspiration from stalls such as Nine Fresh 九仙 with the use of taro balls, beancurd and grass jelly elements. For their Beancurd Grass Jelly with Oatmeal Tapioca Balls, one can find all the usual suspects as listed above; that being said, it also sees the addition of tapioca balls as a topping on top everything else that was mentioned earlier, whilst also coming with an interesting addition of instant oatmeal as well. On paper, the combination of instant oatmeal might sound rather odd considering how this was supposed to be a dessert item, but it does turn out to be a combination that absolutely worked in harmony since the combination of soy milk works with the instant oatmeal.

In fact, this does sound and feel a little more nutritious and meal-like as opposed to the usual variant of the item that comes only with taro balls and pearls; sure enough, the taro balls of various colours provided a chewy, qq texture that gave a good bite — all that while the silky beancurd and jiggly beancurd provides a smooth mouthfeel and a complimenting note of bean-y and earthy notes with a dash of sweetness. The instant oatmeal was the element that provided a bit of a denseness and heartiness for the item; provided a wheat-y note and having absorbed some notes of bean-iness and sweetness from the beancurd and soy milk itself, binding itself with all the other elements of the dessert together and wasn’t an overwhelming experience for those whom might have thought that adding oatmeal would have caused the item to feel unnecessarily “heavy”. Other dishes that we had tried from Duke Dessert during our visit included the Vegetarian Sushi Roll; an item seemingly comprising of seaweed laver, lettuce, carrot and beetroot — something which seemed rather reminiscent to what the now-defunct Create Cafe that Duke Dessert had replaced was serving up previously. It was pretty tasty and felt close to eating a sushi roll despite featuring an entire composition of vegetables; something great to have as a light bite. While it is rather odd to see a new entrant with a focus on Chinese-style Tang Shui in Fortune Centre, it does seem that Duke Dessert’s target audience is probably a little different from that of Yat Ka Yan’s. With some unique dishes to boast with good execution (like their Beancurd Grass Jelly with Oatmeal Tapioca Balls), perhaps there is some space in the building for Duke Dessert to exist after all.