Tong Huat Traditional Confectionery (东发传统饼家) is a well-known, long-standing bakery in Kluang that offers mung bean biscuits or tau sar peah (豆沙饼) and a range of traditional Chinese pastries. A queue is always formed outside the shop on Saturdays and public holidays — Tong Huat is closed on Sundays — and it gets longer during Mid Autumn Festival.
Since the COVID-19 pandemic, the shop has been out of bound to anyone. However, there is no need to go into the shop as their products can be browsed from outside. Many customers are here mainly for two hot-selling items: Tong Huat’s savoury mung bean biscuits (咸豆沙饼) and sweet mung bean biscuits (甜豆沙饼). Tong Huat do make other traditional pastries, such as heong peah (香饼) and also traditional mooncakes during the Mid-Autumn Festival.
Of the two types of mung bean biscuits, the savoury version is the hottest favourite among local customers and tourists who learnt about the biscuits. As a result of high demand, each customer is limited to buying up to 10 packs (5 pieces in each pack) of their savoury mung bean biscuits. All their biscuits are freshly-baked in the shop twice daily and ready for sales at 9am and 2:30pm.
For first-timers to Tong Huat, it will be better to go on a weekday, or go early before the stipulated sales time to queue on Saturdays / Johor pubic holidays / festive seasons. Get both the Sweet Mung Bean Biscuit (甜豆沙 / Kacang Kuih Manis) and Savoury Mung Bean Biscuit (咸豆沙 / Kuih Kacang Masin) to try, instead of just the savoury version.
The Savoury Mung Bean Biscuit features a harder, crispier crust and darker in colour. The Sweet Mung Bean Biscuit is slightly smaller in size and has a softer, flaky crust topped with white sesame seeds.
The Savoury Mung Bean Biscuit has savoury-sweet dry mung bean filling in the crispy, smooth crust that emits a subtle roasty aroma. The crust remains crispy up to 2 weeks without turning soft — in air-tight container. It is hard to stop after eating just one piece of the biscuits. No wonder they are so popular.
In stark contrast, the Sweet Mung Bean Biscuit has unsalted sweet mung bean paste filling and appears slightly moist — it’s naturally, as salt makes salted filling dryer. The biscuit is mildly sweet, not too dry and the taste is not bad too. The soft crust of the biscuit turns flakier after heating up a little — which I usually do for baked goods. I like both the sweet and savoury versions of the tau sar peah as they are polar opposites of one another.
Two months leading to Mid-Autumn Day (15th day of the eighth month on the Chinese Lunar calendar), Tong Huat Confectionery will start selling traditional pastries related to the festive season. Their popular savoury mung bean biscuits will only be available in either 8-piece longer tubes or boxes of 8 individual packs instead of the usual 5-piece tube. The sweet mung bean biscuits will be suspended during the period and the bigger Teochew la piah (潮州朥饼) featuring similar sweet mung bean fillings will take its place.
The protagonist for the Mid-Autumn festive season is their traditional mooncakes with different fillings and with/without single/double salted egg yolks. Each of the mooncakes are individually vacuum-packed to retain their freshness for several weeks (expiry date behind packaging).
The pandan-infused lotus-filling mooncake with salted egg yolk (丹青) — or without yolk (金翡翠) — has low sweetness with a pleasant pandan and salted egg yolk flavours. The salted egg yolk does not have a strong taste that makes it stands out and blends well with the pandan flavour. These mooncakes have light tastes and I don’t feel like I have consumed a lot of calories after eating one piece.
Don’t miss Tong Huat Confectionery’s savoury and sweet mung bean biscuits when visiting Kluang and their traditional mooncakes during the Mid-Autumn Festival.
Address:
28, Jalan Cantik, Kampung Masjid Lama, 86000 Kluang, Johor, Malaysia
Opening Hours:
9am to 6pm | Closed on Sunday
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