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Telephone
6287 0198
Opening Hours
Today
09:00 - 22:00
Mon - Sun
09:00 - 22:00
Above information is for reference only. Please check details with the restaurant.
Signature Dishes
The shop was a flurry of activity on a Saturday afternoon - there was a queue in front of a lady standing at a rack of assorted pastries, another behind the lady solely in charge of doling out tau sar piah, and a third one at the cashier's. People were outside the shop working on adding the finishing touches to mooncakes whilst surrounded by trays of bean paste fillings that had been laid out to cool. It was a little chaotic, but everyone seemed to know what they were doing. As I made my way around trying to make sense of the way things were ran, a frazzled looking man emerged from the kitchen holding a tray of newborn mooncakes, moving swiftly to slot it into one of the holding racks outside the shop.What I loved about this shop was how unabashedly Teochew it was. I know this is Hougang and I know we're talkin' old school bakery here, but I was still caught off guard by the aunties speaking to me in dialect. Dude... that almost never happens in Singapore. The aunties didn't even seem to register my surprise, like it never crossed their minds that I might not be able to understand what they were saying. I was very pleased to be considered one of them. Never mind that I actually am. I then proceeded to flex my, ahem, linguistic muscles by replying in Teochew. A little stilted due to years of non-use, but perfectly comprehensible, if I may say so myself. Cue tears of pride and joy.Tau sar piah, $20.80 for a box of 10 - For all the humble and homely qualities that Soo Teck Lim so effortlessly embodies, it must be said that their pastries don't come cheap. At a little over $2.00 per piece (assuming you buy a box of 10), the price point places the tau sar piah here as one of the most expensive I've come across. Don't be a wuss and let that stop you; just think about how illogical it would be to willingly fork out $4.00 for that ridiculously tiny lavender bundt cake from Carpenter & Cook yet refuse to part with $2.00 for a notoriously hard to make tau sar piah.I got a mix of flavours for the 10 tau sar piah: Salty, sweet, pineapple and black sesame. Those flavours are listed in order of preference, post-tasting.Let's start with the not-as-good. Notice I didn't say not-so-good. That's because all the tau sar piah were, objectively speaking, brilliant. In spite of the conspicuous absence of lard in their Teochew pastries - I'm sure you see the word vegetarian in the shop name right - the tau sar piah crusts were both flaky and crisp. I didn't take very well to the black sesame flavour because it was quite peppery (??), and I would've preferred a pineapple filling with a chunkier texture as opposed to the smooth jam that was used here.The sweet and salty flavours were, on the other hand, faultless. The sugar level in the bean paste used for the sweet tau sar piah was nicely reined in, allowing for the texture of the freshly and finely ground bean paste to shine. As for the salty tau sar piah, the crumbly mung bean filling with its subtle notes of five spice powder and just the slightest dash of pepper, was so, friggin', amazing.Teochew yam mooncake, $11.30 each - The yam mooncake here was decent though not mindblowing. The filling, in line with Soo Teck Lim's philosophy of keeping things "not so sweet" (it's even printed on their paper bags), was where the absence of lard was keenly felt. It was devoid of the depth of flavour that the Eater Palace mooncakes possess, what with the latter's shallot-y orh nee fillings. Crust-wise it didn't fare so well either. Truth be told I was expecting quite a lot more for an eleven-dollar mooncake, but I suppose they've done as well as they can for vegetarian mooncakes. As you can tell I am a firm believer of the necessity of meat in one's diet.Would I go so far as to call the tau sar piah sold here the best tau sar piah in Singapore? I'd argue that it's definitely up there with the big boys in the Balestier area, but returning to Soo Teck Lim isn't going to stop me from craving the buttery tau sar piah from Loong Fatt. Them's apples and oranges, and sometimes a pig just wants to have it all.For complete review and pictures, please visit: http://theyummyyak.wordpress.com/2013/09/15/soo-teck-lim-vegetarian-confectionery/
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Hi ALL. You will not missed this shop when it come to Mid-Autumn Festive cos you will notice that the shop will have alot of mooncake and pastry. You can see trays of pastry place from inside the shop to outside the shop.Maybe you can't see the shop right now as the area over there is having Lift Upgrading. The shop is being block off.But you can notice the shop from the smell of the bake pastry... Bought their Green Beans Pastry. They come with salted and sweet.At $1.90 each, I got 5 numbers of the pastry. Ask the aunty seller which one is the nice one, guess you know the answer.Try the salted one, they have abit of spice inside. Like some chilli powder added in. Spice and salt ?? Goes well.The sweet one taste as the normal sweet but not very sweet. Just nice.The skin of the pastry, crispy on the outside, soft on the inside.Will try to get their mooncake when I happen to pass there again.
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