Mok Yi — Mok Yi: the namesake forebear of Macau's Mok Yi Kei dessert house on Rua do Cunha

Mok Yi: the namesake forebear of Macau's Mok Yi Kei dessert house on Rua do Cunha

Mok Yi is the namesake forebear of Mok Yi Kei (莫義記), a long-running dessert house on Rua do Cunha (官也街) in Taipa, Macau — the shop name is taken directly from his name, and he was the father of third-generation successor Mok Pem Kuen (莫炳權). The business traces back to a 1938 roving hawker stall near Rua dos Clérigos (果欄街) on the Macau Peninsula, opening its fixed Rua do Cunha shop in 1954, and is famous today for fully handmade agar jelly (大菜糕), serradura (木糠布甸) and Musang King durian ice cream. Per the Economic and Technological Development Bureau (DSEDT) heritage-shop record, it is now run by the third generation, Mok Pem Kuen and Leong Kuai-chi (枝姐), and is featured in the MICHELIN Guide street-food category. Because the 1938 and earlier Taipa stalls belong to earlier generations, no precise personal founding year can be assigned to Mok Yi himself, and this archive does not guess at one.

Mok Yi莫義

Namesake forebear and founding-family member of the Mok Yi Kei dessert house · Mok Yi KeiPublished Jan 1, 2026

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Brand: Mok Yi Kei (莫義記)

Founding stalls: 1938 (a roving hawker stall near Rua dos Clérigos on the Macau Peninsula); fixed shop on Rua do Cunha opened 1954

Earlier forerunner: a family hawker stall in Taipa is said to date to the 1920s

District: Rua do Cunha (官也街), Taipa

Signature: agar jelly (大菜糕), serradura (木糠布甸), Musang King durian ice cream

Background

"Mok Yi" is the origin of the shop name and the namesake forebear of the founding family — he was the father of the present third-generation successor, Mok Pem Kuen (莫炳權). Per the Economic and Technological Development Bureau (DSEDT) heritage-shop record, Mok Yi Kei is now run by the third generation, Mok Pem Kuen and his wife Leong Kuai-chi (梁葵枝, known as "Kei-tse"/枝姐). Kei-tse's own line has its own hawking roots: a stall run by her grandmother in Taipa is said to date as far back as the 1920s, an even earlier forerunner. Because the 1938 and earlier stalls belong to earlier generations, no precise personal founding year can be assigned to Mok Yi himself, and this archive does not guess at one.

The Brand & Its Legacy

The Mok Yi Kei story begins with a roving hawker stall. Per public sources, the family sold near Rua dos Clérigos (果欄街) on the Macau Peninsula from around 1938, and only opened a fixed shop on Rua do Cunha in Taipa in 1954, binding the brand to that flagstone lane ever since. The shop trades on being "fully handmade": ice cream is made without machines, agar jelly comes in more than ten flavours, and serradura and Musang King durian ice cream became the signatures that built its later fame. Across three generations, Mok Yi Kei grew from a street stall into a famous Rua do Cunha dessert house, carrying the name "Mok Yi" with it.

Key Achievements

Rua do Cunha dessert landmark: from a 1938 roving hawker and a 1954 fixed shop into a representative Taipa dessert house.

MICHELIN Guide street-food feature: listed in the MICHELIN Guide Macau street-food category for serradura and durian ice cream.

DSEDT heritage shop: recorded in the Economic and Technological Development Bureau heritage-shop listing, confirming third-generation operation by Mok Pem Kuen and Leong Kuai-chi.

Handmade craft, carried forward: more than ten handmade agar-jelly flavours and handmade ice cream remain the brand's core.

Information compiled from Macau Characteristic Old Shops (mcbrand.mo), the DSEDT heritage-shop record, Macau Memory and the MICHELIN Guide (Macau). Mok Yi's birth and death years are not reliably recorded and are omitted here; the earliest stalls belong to earlier generations, so no personal founding year is assigned to Mok Yi himself. If anything is inaccurate or needs updating, please contact us — we aim to respond within 48 hours.