Tong Heng – Singapore’s famous egg custard tart shop – had very humble beginnings as a pushcart stall offering tea and coffee to customers. But this humble coffee stall has since come a long way. For today, they are a renowned pastry shop in Singapore, selling traditional Chinese pastries such as egg tarts, mini moon cakes, Asian-style sweets and snacks.
Tong Heng Confectionary
Their most famous item though, is their egg custard tarts – which are touted to be crispy on the outside, yet hot and fluffy on the inside.
I recently paid Tong Heng a visit to see if their pastries were really worth the hype.
A Wide Selection
There is a wide selection of Chinese pastries at Tong Heng. These range from the famous egg tarts, savoury curry chicken pastries and salty green bean paste pastries, to the sweet lotus paste and dry walnut biscuits. Puddings, with flavours such as red bean or sesame, are also available at the little shop house – located in the middle of Singapore’s Chinatown.
After looking at their selections, I decided to buy their famous egg tarts, as well as a salty green bean and a sweet lotus paste pastry, a traditional layered lapis kueh and a rainbow-coloured layered lapis version.
Egg Custard Tarts
The famous Tong Heng egg tarts.
These egg custard tarts are diamond shaped, which is Tong Heng’s trademark.
When I bit into one, I was completely gobsmacked by how good it was. The pastry outside had a slight crunch to it, but at the same time, it was flaky and completely melted in my mouth.
The egg custard was baked to perfection and the egg flavour was perfect and not too strong. At the same time, it was deliciously moist and combined very well with the flaky pastry shell.
In terms of flavour, this is definitely one of the best egg custard tarts that I have tasted. They definitely do live up to the hype and I would buy some again if I happen to be in the Chinatown area.
Salty Green Bean Chinese Pastry Snacks
Chinese pastry snacks. (Green bean on the right, lotus on the left).
The texture of this snack was light, flaky and crunchy at the same time and I absolutely loved it.
However, in terms of the salty green bean filling, I admit that I have tasted better versions. This one seemed to be both sweet and salty, which did not quite sit well with me. It was more paste-like texture, and not as solid as I would have preferred. Nevertheless, this was still a decent tasting snack.
Sweet Lotus Chinese Pastry Snacks
I have tasted better versions of this lotus paste pastry cake. The flavour of the lotus paste was a little too gooey and sticky for my liking and the dark colour was also not very pleasing to the eye either. But once again, the snack was really yummy and I had a field time scooping the pastry crumbs up from my plate.
Traditional Kueh Lapis
Traditional and Rainbow kueh lapis layered cakes.
The flavour of this kueh lapis was delicious. It was soft, moist and yummy and it packed enough flavour to tempt my taste buds. However, I must mention that the pastry layers broke off in my hand, when I was eating it.
Rainbow Kueh Lapis
Unlike the traditional kueh lapis, this version of the layered kueh was literally rainbow coloured. Moreover, when I took a mouthful of it, I was also pleasantly surprised to discover a pandan flavour – which the traditional version did not have. Besides this though, the texture was pretty similar to the traditional layered kueh.
Overall Comments
I would definitely buy the egg custard tarts from Tong Heng again as they are yummy and worth the hype. But perhaps it would taste much nicer if I warmed it up before eating it, as egg tarts always taste the best, when they have come straight out of the oven.
Tong Heng @ Chinatown
285 South Bridge Road
Singapore 058833
(+65) 6223 3649
Opens Daily, 9am to 10pm
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