[Mountain View] Eng's Zongzi 應媽媽粽子

Eng’s Zongzi has a small storefront next to an auto repair shop in Mountain View along El Camino. Madame Eng used to sell zongzis in out of a home in Fremont.

We got one of each of the zongzi last week- the meat zongzi, the red bean zongzi and the red date zongzi. I didn’t eat the red date zongzi but enjoyed the other two quite a bit. The meat zongzi had a generous amounts of pork, mushroom and peanut along with sticky rice. Flavors were on point and the pork was well marinated and tender.

The red bean zongzi was a sweet zongzi, with red bean paste along with whole red bean along with sticky rice. It was mildly sweet, and its enjoyable.

My wife liked the red date zongzi though I didn’t try.

We also got the chives, pork and shrimp dumpling. Thought the skin and the filling was not seasoned enough so they were bland. I prefer the dumplings from Dumpling City in Palo Alto more. Also got the shrimp and pork wonton. Made Jiangnan style. Those were okay. Though I personally would just focus on their zongzis.

Madame Eng came from Hangzhou in Zhejiang. The first time I came during dinner time on a Saturday, they already ran out of zongzi’s. She said zongzis ran out quicker during the weekend. And recommended that we just show up soon after their opening time at 1pm to get some. Weekdays their supplies last longer.

Its recommended that the zongzi be steamed for 15 minutes. I thought that may be more than needed but I microwaved myself. By default they don’t heat up the zongzis, though they do have a couple of small tables both inside and outside, that you can ask them to heat them up and eat at the place.

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No salted egg yolk or lop cheung? My favorite parts…

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Those I believe are ingredients more common in a Cantonese zongzi. Since Madame Eng is from Hangzhou, she’s doing it the Hangzhou way I think.

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You’re right! I just spoke with my friend Kathy who is Shanghainese & has tried them. She says they are more that style…

Does your friend like them?

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Yes, she does, but not their dumplings…

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Yeah. Where is the Mung bean too? Where?

Eng’s zongzi is as good as ever. While waiting for my kabobs to cook at Rose Market next door a week ago, I swung by Eng’s to pick up a couple of meat zongzi. Yum.

Note that there are two types of three types of meat zongzi- the mushroom pork peanut type (the Taiwanese type), the mushroom pork peanut plus egg yolk type, and the Hangzhou meat type, which uses pork belly as the meat. The Hangzhou version is more fatty, but the fat also gives it a lot of flavor. Can’t eat it every day, but its an occasional indulgence.

This is the Taiwanese type:

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Eng’s the store is closed. Called them recently, and said they sold the store. They are now going back to their home kitchen route. And they sell from time to time to Palo Alto, and probably areas around as well.

They are pretty low tech right now and literally call all their prospective customers and tell people they are coming in a few days. Wife is trying to convince them to start a WeChat group, for their own sanity.

Speaking of WeChat, lots of home kitchen offerings, grocery groups, and restaurant meal delivery groups on WeChat these days during the pandemic @hyperbowler . I probably should write a post about them.

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Oh that’s sad. I had just finally gotten down there twice in the last couple months.
Anyone know of a source closer to SF?

good news: I gave them a call and they’re not actually closing the shop! according to Mr. Eng.

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That’s a big change from selling the store and moving to a home kitchen operation. Are you sure they didn’t just mean that they were going to continue making/selling just not out of a store front?
I guess a lot can happen in 2 weeks.

On their Yelp page, it says, ‘"We will be closed 4/15-4/18 for vaccinations of our employees and staff. Thank you everyone for your support! We will resume regular business hours the following week.’

I guess they are open? In that case, I have no idea why they would sell out of a home kitchen. In fact, we just picked 4 up from them.

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We will be terribly sad if they close, we love their joong/zongzi! We buy 6 at a time, love to have them in the freezer! We get the one wirh the salted egg yolk…

We stopped at Eng’s today & picked up a supply of the ones with salted egg. My friend Kathy who speaks Shanghainese & Canto was able to talk to both ladies & the gentleman there about what is happening. They will close around the end of June. The bldg they are in is going to be demolished & a new bldg will be built. They are looking for a place to move, but havent found anything yet. They told Kathy their zongzi/joong are Taiwanese style. We like them a lot, the rice is very tasty. Sure hope they find a location!

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So Kathy called Thurs to order for pick up today. They told her the store is closed, but we could pick up in Fremont… The last time we were there about a month ago they told Kathy they would be closing the store the end of June because the bldg is going to be torn down & something new will be built. I guess the timetable got moved up… Sad :pensive:

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Just in time for the Zongzi/Dragon Boat Festival which falls on June 14 this year.

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My friend Kathy called today to order for pick up next week in Fremont, but they told her they are not doing that… They said they are still looking for a place to reopen. Does anyone know of any place in the SF Bay Area that does their style of zongzi/joong as opposed to the typical Cantonese/Toisanese style?

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I’d add on to your question- does anyone know of any place in the SF Bay Area that does their style of zongzi/joong, just as well, or better?

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Thanks, good point!