Over the years, we’ve been systematically reducing our sugar intake, starting from cutting down on soft drinks, to drinking our coffee black, to increasing our brown-to-white-rice ratio.
It doesn’t mean that we’ve completely weaned off sugar though, because once-in-a-while, we indulge and eat cake. A lot of cake.
Recently, we discovered another guilty sweet treat, in the form of Turkish desserts. Our first experience was when we had a fantastic kunafa at Alaturka, a restaurant in Kampong Gelam, just down the street from Sultan Mosque.
But eating an entire kunafa, even occasionally, is overkill. So, I went searching online and discovered Shalaby Sweets, located at 54 Haji Lane, and we decided to drop by to sample their selection of sweets.
Despite being just one street within Kampong Gelam, Haji Lane is quite a famous location in Singapore, popular with both tourists and locals.
We’ve been there before a couple of times in the past (pre-Covid) and even during weekdays, it’s a bustling area with many small and unique eateries and retail shops.
If you’re not familiar with Haji Lane, and Kampong Gelam in general, there are helpful signs with QR codes that, when scanned, direct you to a small community-driven microsite that provides more information.
You can try scanning the QR code below with your mobile phone, or if you’re reading this on your mobile, you can click here.
This time though, the lane was quiet, and although there were still people strolling down the narrow street, they were outnumbered by the large green rubbish bins dotting the curbside.
We could also see quite a few empty stores, stripped of all signboards and showing only their cold granite-floored interiors through their clear glass shopfronts. Times are bad indeed, and it’s still unclear when they’ll get better in Singapore.
Counting down the even numbers as we walked down the street, we quickly reached 54 Haji Lane. It was a small and compact shop with many photos and posters advertising their wide range of sweets, from baklavas to kunafas to Turkish delights.
Peeking through the glass storefront, we didn’t see anyone inside and so we waited for a couple of minutes before cool air-conditioning lured us in.
There was a brass hand bell on top of the chiller, just behind the menu, but we weren’t in any particular rush and let it remain untouched as we browsed.
The two big display chillers took up most of the floor space, with additional shelves on the walls filled with pre-packaged goodies.
As we scanned the different trays within the chiller, the first thing that caught our attention was a full tray of what seemed to be filled exclusively with finely-crushed pistachio nuts.
It was quite mesmerising to look at, and so we looked at it for almost a full minute.
And in case you’re wondering, no, this is not one of those 3D photos where something magically appears after you stare at it for a while. But you’re welcome to give it a shot, and let me know if you actually do see something.
Cross-referencing the menu, the only item that it could have been was the Green Crush Pistachio Kunafa, and we knew that we had to get it. Not the entire tray of course, but at least a big chunky piece.
The menu on the counter helpfully provided captioned photos of each item, and so we happily played name-this-sweet while waiting for the store owner to appear.
Pricing for individual pieces seemed to be based on weight, and we could mix-and-match from their available selection and get charged S$17.50 for every 250gm, with discounts if we ordered more than 1kg.
We heard a rustling sound coming from the back and someone appeared and warmly greeted us. His name was Abdallah Shalaby, and he was obviously the owner of the shop.
He could clearly tell that we were overwhelmed by the choices available, and after finding out that it was our first time at his shop, he enthusiastically went through and explained all the items on display.
And there were a lot of items.
I asked which were his most popular items and failed miserably, because the answer I got was that everything was popular and it just depended on what I liked.
Changing tack, I tried a different approach and asked which were his personal favourites, and again, failed miserably. Because, and no surprises here, they were all his favourites.
We started chatting about his business, customers and where he got his sweets from. It turns out that they are imported from Turkey and air-flown regularly to Singapore, including the box of pistachio baklava that he proudly opened to show us.
After spending an enjoyable eternity comparing the relative merits of each dessert and picking and choosing, we ended up with a wide assortment of kunafa, baklava and delights, weighing a total of 500gm.
Actually, The Wife’s eagle eyes saw the actual weight on the digital scale and it was definitely more than 500gm, but Abdallah rounded it down and charged us just S$35.
Abdallah, if you’re reading this, thank you. Your generosity is appreciated, and may your business thrive and prosper.
Here’s what we bought that day. Don’t they look just so pretty sitting on a large white plate?
We definitely wouldn’t be able to finish everything in one sitting, but we wanted to make sure that we savoured at least a bite of each.
Our first piece was the one that we were anticipating the most — the Green Crush Pistachio Kunafa. The thick layer of pistachios on top, followed by sugar-soaked vermicelli pastry with a core of more pistachios looked so enticing.
We were expecting an explosion of pistachio flavour on our first bite, but for some reason, it was strangely missing. The flavour was clearly present, just not in the volume that our eyes led us to believe. It was nice, but not fantastic.
Feeling slightly disappointed, we moved on to the Bhurma Pistachio and were more than amply rewarded.
Despite having visibly less pistachio, the wonderfully nutty taste shone brightly and combined perfectly with the sweet floral-scented syrup and crunchy exterior. It was sweet, but not overpoweringly so.
This was hands down our favourite item. I would gladly wolf down a tray of this, if I could survive the heart palpitations that come along with it.
Moving on, we tried both the baklavas back-to-back, starting with the Baklava Pistachio.
Despite being generously doused with sweet syrup, the filo pastry still managed to retain its puffiness. The insides comprised both finely-crushed and whole pistachio nuts, providing an interesting contrast in textures.
The Baklava Walnut was similarly good, the only difference being the choice of nuts used in the filling.
Between the two, The Wife preferred the walnut whereas I had a bias for the pistachio. Either way, they were definitely worth buying again.
The Sobiyet Pistachio that we had next was soft, creamy and chewy. While it tasted similar to the baklava, it was flatter and more moist. I’m still undecided which I prefer more.
We found the Traditional Kunafa slightly underwhelming, probably because we were expecting cheese in the filling, like the one we had previously at Alaturka.
Or perhaps it was because we were starting to get desensitised to all the pistachio that we had consumed that evening.
After trying all the pastry-based sweets, we started on the soft and sticky Turkish delights. Unlike the usual single-coloured uncoated cubes, these looked fancy and premium.
I chose the Rose & Pomegranate Delights because one, I’m a big fan of anything rose flavoured, and two, because the coating of overlapping rose petals looked so alluring. It tasted exactly how it looked.
The Saffron Delights was so unique that we had to include it in our purchase. We’ve used saffron in our cooking before, but it’s always been infused in warm water first. This was our first time eating saffron strands raw, and they were complex and delicious.
The only problem was that both Turkish delights were so sinfully sweet. We had a piece each and that was all we could handle, especially after all the sugary kunafa and baklava that preceded.
I was starting to have heart palpitations and used my MiBand 5 to measure my pulse rate. Surprisingly it was within my normal baseline, proving that the effect was all in the mind.
Leftovers were cut into thin slices so that we could ration out our sugar consumption over the next few days. It was really tricky slicing them up with a paring knife and I quickly gave up and switched to our trusty kitchen scissors.
We thoroughly enjoyed the sugar overdose that day and would definitely make a return visit to Shalaby Sweets. Though it might take a while before we do so, to give our bodies enough time to normalise blood glucose levels.
