Pear tart @ Lian Hup Heng, Amoy Street Food Centre!
Lian Hup Heng's pear tart, the hawker bakery at Amoy Street Food Centre: buttery pastry, almond frangipane filling, poached pear slices and toasted flaked almonds.
The pear tart from Lian Hup Heng, the little bakery tucked into Amoy Street Food Centre. ππ
What we had:
- Pear tart Γ2
Lian Hup Heng is one of the nicer surprises in a hawker centre: a stall on the second floor of Amoy Street Food Centre turning out cafe-quality tarts and cake loaves at hawker prices. Most people know it for the orh nee tart, filled with Teochew yam paste, but the pear tart is the one baked tart on the board and it deserves the attention.
It comes as a neat round about the size of your palm. The pastry case is short and buttery, baked to a deep gold and holding its shape without any sogginess at the base, with a rim that stays crisp.
Inside is the good part: a frangipane, the almond cream filling that puffs up as it bakes into something between a cake and a custard, moist and fluffy and lightly sweet with that soft marzipan note. Fanned across the top are slices of poached pear, pale and juicy and gently sweet, pressed into the almond cream so they half-sink as it rises around them.
Over that go flaked almonds, toasted to a light brown for a bit of crunch, and the whole thing is finished with a glossy glaze that makes it look like something out of a patisserie window rather than a food centre.
For a tart of this quality at hawker-stall pricing, it is very hard to argue with. Buy two.
Overall: 4.5 / 5. πππΌ Buttery pastry, fluffy almond frangipane and sweet juicy pear. Would buy again.
