An East District legend loved by Jensen Huang! The water-free, cake-like treats at 同心圓水晶紅豆餅 (Tong Xin Yuan): a rookie office girl's weekend trend-chasing diary
I was lying in bed scrolling through my phone one weekend afternoon when a news story suddenly popped up. Oh my gosh! Even the famous Jensen Huang, CEO of NVIDIA, had made a point of coming to Taiwan and tucking into red bean cakes in the East District!
The moment I saw that the godfather of tech approved, my trend-loving rookie heart skipped a beat. As an office girl who prides herself on staying ahead of the curve, I had nothing going on that afternoon, so tonight's script wrote itself: “Follow in a tech giant's footsteps for an East District ladies-who-lunch afternoon tea (okay, it was really just red bean cakes).” I changed at once and rushed onto the MRT to Zhongxiao Fuxing (忠孝復興站).
Not long after leaving Exit 2, I found 同心圓水晶紅豆餅 near Civic Boulevard on the first section of Fuxing South Road. The shop was founded in 1999.
While I waited in line, I looked up the shop. Wow—there is a genuinely tear-jerking story behind it! The owner was hit by a financial crisis and ended up tens of millions in debt, but he refused to give up. Instead, he set out to elevate the humble street-stall red bean cake. Most versions mix flour with water; he developed a revolutionary recipe using “100% pure fresh milk + eggs,” without a single drop of water. It became a hit and eventually helped him clear his debts! He named the shop “Tong Xin Yuan,” or concentric circles, to thank his wife for standing by him and express the idea of a husband and wife united in purpose. Seriously, it is the kind of comeback story made for prime-time melodrama! Even after succeeding, he insisted on opening no branches and offering no franchises, all to protect the quality. That dedication deserves a round of applause!
Because these red bean cakes use pure fresh milk, they cost much more to make. Their shells are thicker than ordinary ones, with tiny pores on the surface, and look like delicate soufflé cakes. Apparently, they even taste fantastic after cooling down.
This office girl's favorite:Signature Custard
Naturally, the first one I unwrapped was the classic Signature Custard!
It arrived piping hot and felt satisfyingly hefty in my hand. One bite and—wow! This shell is no joke. Soft and dense, with just the right thickness, it honestly feels like eating sponge cake! The custard inside is unbelievably silky, with a rich milky aroma. Its proportion to the shell is absolutely spot-on, and best of all, it is not cloying in the slightest!
There may be plenty of flashier flavors out there, but the voice in my head immediately yelled, “Long live the classics!” It is the kind of comforting happiness that wins over grown-ups, kids, and even budget-conscious young professionals feeling the pressure of their first job in a second.
Chewy layers:Crystal Peanut
Since I had come all this way, of course I had to try their distinctive “Crystal Series”—Crystal Peanut!
This flavor is wild: there is a whole slab of bouncy mochi inside, and the mochi itself is filled with peanut paste.
Take a bite and you first meet the cake-like shell, then super-soft, springy crystal mochi, and finally fragrant peanut filling at the center. The peanut is not overly sweet and has a faint graininess along with a deep, old-fashioned roasted aroma. That chewy mochi makes its presence known, pairing perfectly with the peanut's sweet-savory flavor. There are so many layers that the imaginary Oscar jury in my head started applauding like crazy again!
So, after reading that story about eating like Jensen Huang, I came alone on the weekend for a blind taste test at 同心圓水晶紅豆餅—and it was a total success!
This shop has taken an everyday traditional snack as far as it can go. From the water-free, cake-like shell around the custard to the texture-boosting Crystal Peanut, the standard is sky-high and wholly lives up to its reputation as an East District legend of more than twenty years.
Office-girl wisdom: weekends after starting your first job do not have to mean spending a fortune on fancy hotel afternoon tea. Follow in Jensen Huang's footsteps, pay pocket change, sit along an East District street, and enjoy a story-filled, comforting fresh-milk red bean cake made without a drop of water. That is enough to leave a rookie's weekend afternoon feeling stylish and fully recharged!
Next time you pass through Zhongxiao Fuxing, remember to pick up a few and experience a cake-level red bean cake endorsed by the godfather of AI!
