Tong Heng pastries and 75 Ah Balling Peanut Soup tang yuan for a sweet taste of Singapore food heritage

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.