![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/dzui-thai.jpg\")
The dessert shop\u2019s owner, Dzui Thai, poses with an assortment of pastries. (Luke Tsai\/KQED)<\/p>\nThe b\u00e1nh p\u00eda pastries are a legacy of Vietnam\u2019s Teochew (aka Chaozhou) people, an ethnic Chinese subgroup that mostly resettled in parts of Southeast Asia. Both sides of Thai\u2019s family are Teochew who moved to S\u00f3c Tr\u0103ng, Vietnam, two generations ago. Thai himself is fluent in Mandarin. He says even after immigrating to S\u00f3c Tr\u0103ng, his paternal grandparents didn\u2019t speak any Vietnamese at all.<\/p>\n
The dessert shop\u2019s owner, Dzui Thai, poses with an assortment of pastries. (Luke Tsai\/KQED)<\/p>\n
B\u00e1nh p\u00eda\u2019s Chinese roots help explain why the pastries most closely resemble the kind of flaky, thin-skinned mooncakes that you\u2019ll find in Chaozhou. In fact, Thai says, back in his hometown of S\u00f3c Tr\u0103ng, people were more likely to eat b\u00e1nh p\u00eda to celebrate the Moon Festival than traditional mooncakes. As a kid, he remembers going to help out at his auntie\u2019s factory each fall, right before the Moon Festival, and everyone would be exhausted from working almost nonstop for the whole month, making thousands upon thousands of b\u00e1nh p\u00eda.<\/p>\n
In fact, with his family\u2019s blessing, the b\u00e1nh p\u00eda at Dzui\u2019s are also stamped with the T\u00e2n H\u01b0ng brand name \u2014 even though he produces the pastries independently here in San Jos\u00e9, using the same laborious seven-step process that his family\u2019s factories in S\u00f3c Tr\u0103ng employ. The branding caused some confusion when Thai first started selling the b\u00e1nh p\u00eda, as some Vietnamese customers accused him of simply re-selling pastries he\u2019d bought frozen from Vietnam.<\/p>\n
\u201cI respect my family, so that\u2019s why I don\u2019t change it,\u201d Thai says of his decision to carry on the T\u00e2n H\u01b0ng name.<\/p>\n
![\"Overhead](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/dzui-banh-pia-labubu.jpg\")
Dzui\u2019s traditional durian b\u00e1nh p\u00eda, seen here alongside a container of Labubu-shaped rice pudding. (Luke Tsai\/KQED)<\/p>\n
Thai\u2019s own path to opening a food business was somewhat circuitous. Originally, he\u2019d moved to California in the late 2000s to attend film school at USC, but wound up dropping out when he was diagnosed with leukemia. Then, seven or eight years later, whiles living in San Jos\u00e9 with his sister, the cancer returned, and he had to drop everything again.<\/p>\n
\u201cOne day, I was lying in bed and didn\u2019t know what to do. I was so craving my family\u2019s [food], so I decided to make it,\u201d Thai recalls. \u201cAnd then I started to try and sell it at home.\u201d<\/p>\n
At first, Thai\u2019s nascent home bakery business only sold one item \u2014 a savory sponge cake topped with pork floss, Chinese sausage and salted egg yolk. It was a hit, and remains one of Dzui\u2019s best-selling items. Soon, he started selling b\u00e1nh p\u00eda too. At the time, he says, no one else was baking those fresh in San Jos\u00e9; you could only buy frozen p\u00eda cakes at Vietnamese markets.<\/p>\n
![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/dzui-savory-sponge-cake.jpg\")
The savory sponge cake remains one of the bakery\u2019s best-selling items. (Luke Tsai\/KQED)<\/p>\n
Thai says his family didn\u2019t initially support him getting into the food business; they were too worried about his health. But his little home baking venture was so successful that they eventually relented and gave their approval. In 2017, when Thai was fully cancer-free, he opened Dzui\u2019s Cakes & Desserts as a full-fledged Vietnamese bakery and snack shop. In the years since, Thai has expanded on his durian-forward beverage menu and added a cute cafe area bedecked with nostalgic, 1980s-era knicknacks, rebranding the shop as Dzui Cake & Tea.<\/p>\n
A paradise for durian lovers<\/p>\n
As Thai tells it, it\u2019s no coincidence that Dzui\u2019s wound up becoming the South Bay\u2019s go-to destination for durian desserts. That was the vision from the very beginning, he says. After all, even the store\u2019s logo is a jolly cartoon durian<\/a>.<\/p>\n
![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/dzui-drink.jpg\")
Dzui\u2019s potent durian milk tea. The slogan on the label speaks to the shop\u2019s overall ethos: \u201cYou can\u2019t buy happiness, but you can buy durian.\u201d (Luke Tsai\/KQED)<\/p>\n