The People Behind the Names
On Macau's map of flavours, some names almost everyone can recite: Mok Yi Kei, Lai Kei, Wing Kei, Tai Lei Loi Kei, Pun Veng Kei, Chui Heong, Hang Yau. Yet the founders behind those signboards are rarely remembered. This series moves the focus from the shopfront back to the person — the small Macau traders who began with a pushcart, a charcoal oven, or a pot of secret sauce.
Sweet and Cold
On Rua do Cunha in Taipa, Mok Yi Kei
莫義 · Mok YiMok 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.Read profile → is known for fully hand-made ice cream and more than ten kinds of agar jelly; the shop name comes from "Mok Yi," father of the third-generation successor Mok Pem Kuen, and the family's stalls trace back to 1938. was founded by Kwong Lai-keng in 1933 — Macau's oldest ice-cream parlour — and the "twin-braided girl" trademark, drawn by the founder, is still in use.
