But, take a closer look at the pastries — egg tarts, wife’s pastry, barbecued pork buns, mooncakes and lotus salted egg pastry — and one is reminded that this is actually a 83-year-old Cantonese pastry shop that is famed for its diamond-shaped egg tarts.
Tong Heng, a time-honoured name in Singapore’s traditional Chinese pastry scene, underwent its first major revamp in three decades at its Chinatown shophouse location.
First major revamp in 30 years
During the five-week-long renovation, which started in April, out went the no-frills cake counters, glass cabinets that stored paraphernalia and kopitiam-style chairs and tables. In came upholstered booth seats and a mirror that flanks one side of the shop with whimsical motifs of Chinese pastries.
In fact, the spruce-up was so drastic that some regulars could not recognise the shop any more and walked right past it.
Ana Fong, who is from the fourth generation of the family that runs the shop, says: “Some customers commented that the shop looks completely different when they returned to look for it after the revamp.”
She observes that the revamp has also attracted many first-timers who are in their 20s to 40s. “Some of them are attracted by the shop’s layout and packaging,” she says. “When we ask them if they would like an egg tart, they say no and look at other pastries.”
“"We want to build awareness to younger audience and millennials that our food linked to Chinese culture and have some form of continuity for our business." - Ana Fong”
A tale of two aunts
Over the past six years, Fong has been running Tong Heng with her aunts, Rebecca and Constance Fong, who are in their 70s and are semi-retired. For Ana Fong, the idea of an interior overhaul was seeded five years ago when she noticed that most of the shop’s customers were 40 years old and older.
She says: “Our shop is already well-established among the middle-aged and seniors, but we want to build awareness to younger audience and millennials that our food linked to Chinese culture. we want some form of continuity for our business.”
Getting the green light from her aunts, who have been the custodians of the family business for more than three decades, was not easy. She recalls that one of her aunts, Constance, was receptive to change. “She is very open, very Pop Arty and wears Converse shoes although she is her 70s. She likes the fresh and new feel of the shop.”
However, her other aunt, Rebecca, took some time to accept the revamp as she had designed much of the shop, from doing the Chinese calligraphy on the original packaging to setting up the shop’s layout. “When she found out that the logo was replaced, she cried,” Fong says. “She is quite sentimental as her touches were diluted and have become history but we have to let go a little and move on.”
Ana Fong ensures that traces of her aunts' hard work are incorporated in the shop’s new interiors. For example, the mirror wall bears imprints of the original logo and her handwritten Chinese words. Tong Heng’s packaging has also been updated to carry cute motifs and icons of the Cantonese pastries.
Despite the image overhaul, the pastry menu remains the same — about 30 types of traditional Cantonese pastries. Best-sellers include the egg tart, coconut egg tart and barbecued pork pastry. Prices of the pastries start from $1.30. Ana Fong says that prices are up by about 20 cents but the price hike was implemented before the revamp.
““When my aunt found out that the logo was replaced, she cried, She is quite sentimental as her touches were diluted and have become history but we have to let go a little and move on.””
Egg tarts shine bright like a diamond
How did the diamond-shaped egg tart, one of Tong Heng’s most recognised products, come about?
During the 1980s, the shop baked the egg tarts in various shapes — oval, circle, diamond and triangle to attract customers that was decked out at the shopfront. Ana Fong reveals: “It was rather confusing for customers to recognise the egg tarts so we decided to choose a type of mould that would make our tarts stand out.” These days, the shop sells 4,000 egg tarts daily.
Gradually, the menu expanded to Cantonese pastries as more space was available in the shop. In the mid 1980s, the government re-developed Chinatown and the shop moved to its current location in 285 South Bridge Road. Tong Heng also runs a takeaway kiosk in Jurong Point.
Devoted to drive the family business
Asked about how she got started in Tong Heng, Ana Fong reveals that she has a “love-hate relationship” with it. Before joining the family business full-time in 2012, Fong was a private tutor for 15 years. She got roped in to man the front counter when she was in her 20s and has helped out in the shop’s operations but she filtered in and out after working for short spells to pursue her studies and other jobs.
She shares candidly: “I would work there for two to three years, then quit. I came and went.” She took her family business for granted as “it didn’t matter if I came to work punctually or could did more that day. There wasn’t much meaning in working there.”
In 2012, it dawned upon her that her aunts were getting on in their years but not many family members in her generation could entirely devote themselves to run the family business. She decided to step up and commit herself wholeheartedly to running Tong Heng. Her younger brother has joined the business full-time a few months ago and is learning to be in-charge of baking the pastries.
Keeping Chinese culture alive
Despite the revamp, Fong has no plans to open more outlets. Instead, she prefers to spend more time to maintain the quality of the food. However, she is abound with ideas on promoting Chinese cultures through pastries.
Top on her list are plans to come up with souvenir boxes of pastries and tea sessions, in which diners can taste the pastries and learn about the traditions of making them.
She hopes to preserve a slice of Chinese culture through her pastry shop. She says: “I wish that more younger people don’t lose their roots. If some of them can’t speak fluent Mandarin, how would they understand their culture and keep our Chinese traditions alive?”
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