For The Love Of Tarts

One of Singapore’s oldest pastry shops, Tong Heng Delicacies is revered for their traditional Chinese pastries and signature diamond-shaped egg tarts.

- Priyanka Elhence

Eggtarts, wife’s pastry, barbecued pork buns, mooncakes, baked pork crisps, coconut eggtarts and lotus salted eggpastry…these are just some of the regular baked delights that customers have been flocking to Tong Heng for generations for. Their famous eggtarts are irresistible with their perfectly balanced crumbly-buttery pastry cradling a smooth eggcustard filling. Also available are homemade kaya spreads and myriad Chinese desserts such as white fungus soup, red bean soup, black sesame dessert, ginger steamed egg, and the cooling longan orange soup.

But it’s the traditional baked goods that Tong Heng is best known for since it first set up shop in 1935. Today, the close-knit family business is helmed by Ana Fong, who is from the 4th generation of the family that runs the shop, and her two aunts, Rebecca and Constance Fong, from the 3rd generation. After a brief albeit major renovation hiatus in April to breathe new life into the 83-year-old Cantonese pastry shop in Chinatown, there are still no signs of this time-honoured pastry stalwart slowing down or giving way to the competition anytime soon.

A WALK DOWN MEMORY LANE

Ana’s great-grandfather, Fong Chee Heng, started Tong Heng in Pasir Panjang in the late 1920s as a humble streetside drinks stall. Says Ana, “He started street peddling in the late 1920s. Back then, he manned his mobile store with the help of his wife and two sons. It wasn’t until the mid-1930s that they managed to rent a shop unit along Smith Street near the iconic Majestic Theatre, and he had enough space to work on his real passion—pastry making.” And he lost no time in expanding his menu to include Cantonese pastries and other baked goods. Tong Heng moved once more in the mid1980s to its current Chinatown location, while also operating a takeaway kiosk in Jurong Point.