Tong Heng’s pastries and 75 Ah Balling Peanut Soup’s tang yuan for a sweet taste of history

I don’t have a sweet tooth, so my knowledge is somewhat limited when it comes to such delicacies, but my Makan Kaki, Chef Melvyn Lee, wanted to rectify that with an introduction to two local brands that have made significant contributions to Singapore’s food heritage: Tong Heng and 75 Ah Balling Peanut Soup.

Our first stop was the former, for my crash course in traditional Cantonese pastries. The brand has been around since its beginnings as a tea house in 1935, selling snacks and beverages at various locations within Chinatown, before settling in its current South Bridge Road shophouse.

Sisters Constance and Rececca Fong had been running the family business first started by their grandfather for over 30 years before their niece Ana Fong took over operations in 2011.

The name Tong Heng speaks of who they are and where they come from. Tong refers to the Dongguan region in China’s Guangdong province and Heng refers to the founder (Ana’s great-grandfather) Fong Chee Heng. From third generation to fourth, Tong Heng has undergone quite a change to keep up with the times. After nearly 90 years, most of their pastries remain traditional, but post-revamp, the look and feel of the shop is decidedly more modern, thanks to Ana, who left her teaching career to continue her family’s legacy.

Chef Melvyn and I had the privilege of stepping beyond the shiny pastry displays, colourful takeaway boxes and shopfront diner into the sanctity of Tong Heng’s kitchen to learn more about the brand’s best-selling egg tarts. Ana’s brother Mark, the head baker, was there to show us how their signature diamond-shaped pastries are made by hand.

“In the early days, I believe it was in circular shapes, but the second generation changed the shape to a diamond shape. Actually, it’s easier to put in your mouth to eat it,” Mark explained. Eaten pointy end first, he was right – it was the perfect mouthful of crisp pastry shell and smooth egg filling. Each tart is painstakingly handmade and there is a clear division of labour in the Tong Heng kitchen.

“I'm in charge of the baking department because I still have other siblings, my sister and my brother. So they help in other ways,” said Mark. He and his team of eight are responsible for working the dough into well-worn metal moulds.

Chef Melvyn and I were no match for their nimble, lightning-fast fingers. The dough had to be handled with a speedy, light touch so that our warm fingers wouldn’t cause the lard to leech from it. Yes, lard. The secret to a crispy, flaky, melt-in-the mouth pastry.

Despite valiant efforts, getting the lardy dough to conform thinly and evenly to the moulds were beyond my skill level, so we moved on to the next step of egg tart making.

A large pot of fresh egg mixture magically appeared, prepared by Mark’s Aunty Constance. Therein lay the division of labour. He’s in charge of the dough moulding, but he doesn’t make the filling. He is responsible, however, for pouring it into each chilled dough-filled mould.

Only fresh eggs and sugar (plus some other secret ingredients) are used to make the filling, which is transferred from pot to battered, old metal tea pot for the task. Mark demonstrated with a quick flick of the wrist and the eggy mixture flowed into each pastry mould to the perfect level.

Between Chef Melvyn and I, our attempts were inaccurate at best, really highlighting the experience and practise needed to perform such deceptively simple tasks. Mark revealed that it took him six months to perfect his pastry moulding skills.

Perfection, however, is overrated when it comes to the look of the baked tarts. Fresh out of the oven, each golden-brown, sunny-centred pastry looked slightly different from the next, testament to their handmade quality.

Taste-wise, the tarts were faultless – probably the most delicious I’ve ever tried. The delicate pastry was shatteringly crisp, exceedingly light and flaky. The egg mixture had set in the oven to a glossy, jiggly consistency, with none of the rubberiness from artificial coagulants. That’s why the egg tarts must be eaten immediately and never kept overnight. Only fresh ingredients are used in their making, sans preservatives.

Besides the beautifully contrasting textures of the egg tarts, I especially appreciated how they were not too sweet. Ana, under strict instructions from her aunts to preserve their family’s traditional recipes, was allowed to tweak this one element.

“The whole purpose of tweaking is for healthier reasons. And also because the younger generation, they'd like to have it a little less sweet,” she said.

Even with less sugar, Tong Heng is still the gold standard of egg tarts and you can really taste the difference. No wonder according to Mark, they are made and sold in the thousands daily.

Another unique, eggy treat is their omelette kaya toast, which goes back to Tong Heng’s tea house days. Audiences attending performances at the Lai Chun Yuen Opera House at Smith Street would order it as a showtime snack.

Eager to give us a taste of their past, Aunty Constance whipped up a portion for Chef Melvyn and me. Neither of us had ever tried this dish before.“Now I’m making this omelette bread so that everyone will know of it,” she said.

First, eggs were fried in lard to create the omelette. While it was still runny, a slice of white bread was placed on top. Once cooked on one side, it was flipped bread side down to finish in the hot fat. Served egg side up, kaya was then spread generously all over the omelette.

Like French toast but given a Southeast Asian turbo boost, the omelette kaya toast was mind-blowingly, artery-cloggingly good. Fried egg with coconut egg jam made perfect egg-on-egg sense. Fluffy, golden-crusted omelette mingled with the sweet pandan caramel of smooth kaya, flavours tied together by the fragrant lard and bread.

Egg, kaya and bread are a familiar breakfast combo, but served in this format, it was a novel and thrilling experience. Delightful as it was, it is a dish so decadent, the calories must be shared.

But those keen for a taste may have to wait. When COVID-19 restrictions put a stop to dine-in services, the omelette kaya toast was taken off Tong Heng’s menu. Ana and Aunty Constance are still discussing the logistics of bringing their iconic dish back, so for now, pop by for your choice of other pastries, cold desserts and beverages.

I recommend their crumbly red bean shortbread cookies and chestnut cake, the genius result of age-old frugality. Dough scraps are baked around sponge cake with a chestnut filling for a unique pastry that’s also available in other flavours including kaya and black sesame. Newer additions to the Tong Heng range of sweets include black charcoal moon cakes and vegan Cantonese wedding cake box sets, as well as cold Yuzu Mango Peach Gum dessert with mango boba.

It hasn’t been easy for Ana to preserve their family’s time-honoured traditions whilst adapting to the evolving F&B landscape, but she has managed to endear her aunts to her new ideas, with one caveat. “My boss also did tell me whatever you do, make sure that all the ingredients are Chinese,” she disclosed.

Much pride has been taken in carrying the Fong family brand to new heights. With a colourful social media presence and a second outlet at Jurong Point, Ana’s passion and purpose is clear: “I want to share it and I see a continuity in it. I also hope that the younger generation, through food, they have a better understanding of the Chinese culture.”

Also hoping to win over a new generation of customers is Alvin Aw of 75 Ah Balling Peanut Soup, the second stop in our quest for local sweets. Started by his grandfather as a pushcart along Jalan Sultan in 1947 and continued by his father as a stall in Golden Mile Food Centre, Alvin took over nine years ago with the intention of expanding the business.

Meeting him at the family’s flagship Beach Road stall was no coincidence – it’s where 75 Ah Balling Peanut Soup gained their name and fame. The “75” refers to the year they moved into Golden Mile Food Centre as well as their unit number. The “peanut soup” was self-explanatory. But I was curious – how did tang yuan (glutinous rice balls) end up being known as “Ah Balling” in Singapore?

In Teochew, “ah” refers to duck. “My version of the story is the ah balling look like duck butts floating on a lake from a distance,” Alvin said. “Oh, when they dip down then the butts come up, looks like the glutinous rice ball,” Chef Melvyn continued helpfully. Historians may quibble with this origin story, but as long as they tasted good, I was willing to go with the whimsical images of duck derrieres in my mind.

Alvin suggested we taste his family’s signature peanut soup, made with “just peanut and water and a lot of preparation time”. Peanuts are seasonal ingredients, so for a more consistent product, he’s added a different variety to complement the original in his grandfather’s recipe. His parents’ contribution to updating the family legacy was introducing three new flavours of tang yuan to the lineup.

Faced with such variety, we ended up ordering a little bit of everything – a bowl of ginger soup for me, a bowl of peanut soup for Chef Melvyn and one of each ah balling flavour for both of us.

The colourful wu fu, or lucky five glutinous rice ball set consisted of the original peanut and black sesame fillings, plus the newer red bean, matcha and yam.

In a (pea)nutshell, traditional triumphed. The peanut and black sesame ah balling were nutty, textural delights – bouncy yet tender glutinous rice spheres contrasting with the creamy yet crunchy fillings.

As for the signature hot peanut soup, it was not the smooth puree I had expected, but rather, a chunky concoction of whole peanuts suspended in a gently sweetened broth. Fragrant but not too overpowering, the generous serving of peanuts disintegrated with a touch of the spoon, melting into the soup to give it a thicker consistency.

Spice lovers should go for the ginger soup, also served hot and powerfully concentrated. I loved the intense bite of my syrupy brew, but it proved a little too much for Chef Melvyn. It was sweet relief to discover that it could be diluted to taste with hot water.

Alvin is also no stranger to being in hot water, having cut his teeth operating one of the family’s stalls in Lorong Ah Soo while he was still in school. But succession was never his plan until 2015 when he was between jobs. Returning to the undertaking of his youth and helping his parents once again was the pivotal moment for him. Like most third-generation owners, Alvin didn’t want the family business to end when his father retired. “I felt it was a waste, so I decided to take over,” he explained.

Since then, Alvin has been working hard to introduce the next generation to the taste of grandpa’s traditional trade. Brought from China to Singapore almost eight decades ago, 75 Ah Balling Peanut Soup continues to grow with several outlets across the island, including in Chinatown and Punggol.

Tong Heng is located at 285 South Bridge Road, Singapore 058833. It’s open daily from 9am to 7pm.

75 Ah Balling Peanut Soup is located at #01-75, Golden Mile Food Centre, 505 Beach Road, Singapore 199583. It’s open daily from 11am to 8.15pm.

Catch Makan Kakis with Denise Tan every Thursday from 11am on Mediacorp GOLD 905.