Balestier is locally famous for three things when it comes to food: the flaky bean jam pastry tau sar piah, fish head steamboat and the pork rib soup bak kut teh.
As for myself, I never had a thing for tau sar piah until I tasted
Loong Fatt Eating House & Confectionary's, arguably the original tau sar piah shop along Balestier Road. The crust has a crispy buttery taste and I bought 4 fresh out of the oven!
Photo Credit: Hyacinthus @ MyHomeTown.sgIf you are in for some sweet or salty tau sar piah, head down to this old shop, tucked at the corner of the street of shops. You can find workers hand-making each of this tau sar piah non-stop at the back of the shop, where the oven will churn out trays of hot piping piahs. Whenever I have a chance to peep through the shopfront in the day time, the probability of seeing a queue is high.
Photo Credit: atetoomuch.blogspot.com 
The auntie promptly serving tau sar piahs to a snake of queue.
Sweet or salty tau sar piah at $0.60 each.
I prefer the salty ones (I am not a big fan of sweet pastries). The shop itself is also a 'coffeeshop', you can sit down and have tea with your tau sar piah. So nostalgic!
My 2nd favourite Tau Sar Piah shop goes to
631 Balestier Tau Sar Piah Deli!
631 Balestier Tau Sar Piah Deli is a few steps down from Loong Fatt. A plain-looking shop front with a simple partition to fence off the baking area and minimal range of tar sar piahs on display, expect only the freshest from its oven!
631 Balestier Tau Sar Piah - Sweet and salty ones.
Lovely warm and crusty - I couldn't stop savouring it.Next up, head over to
603 Tau Sar Piah. Another few steps down.
A bit more shelving space for all its display. I've counted, they have about 11 flavours of tau sar piahs here - like Durian, Peanut, Sesame, Pineapple etc. Oh gosh, the variety of tau sar piahs available here reminds me of mooncakes!
The sweet and salty of 603. The pastries are more "hollow" than the first 2 tau sar piah shops mentioned above and this is also less flaky - aka less crusty. See the big lobang in the above picture. Didn't make it to my 5-star list.
The last tau sar piah shop in this stretch -
House of Tau Sar Piah 529.
From the outside, this tau sar piah shop looks attractive with big colourful posters and a detailed explanation of its tau sar piahs on an A4 note, "It specializes in tau sar piah, a flakey biscuits filled traditionally with lotus paste or mashed beans. But here, you find a lot more variety of fillings, all enveloped in a thin, delicate crust which is very cripsy. Fillings include yam, durian lotus, and green tea-flavoured lotus paste. My favourite is the salty tau sar piah, which is cheapest at 50 cents each. The rest range from 60 to 70 cents. The shop opens from 8am to 6pm daily."
Inside, it looks most traditional with its retro glass casing. Has the largest range of tau sar piahs here.
There is probably another unknown confectionery on the opposite side of this stretch all the way at Quality Hotel's end. Its building has a fin-like signboard that shouts 永蕐豆沙饼。 However, the tau sar piahs here are pre-packed from somewhere else and of course, can't beat the shiok feeling of tasting it fresh!
What are your Tau Sar Piah options in Balestier?
If you want to be acquainted (and eventually be in love) with Tau Sar Piah in Balestier, you need to remember these few numbers: 639, 631, 611, 603, 529.
639 - Loong Fatt 龙发餐室西果店 the original one at the junction of Thomson and Balestier Road (More insights here - http://ishootieatipost.com/loong-fatt-tau-sar-piah) My favourite.
631 - Balestier Tau Sar Piah Deli. My 2nd - only because its atmosphere can't match Loong Fatt.
603 Tau Sar Piah. Hollow tau sar piah, nothing to shout about.
529 - House of Tau Sar Piah. Widest selection.
Yong Hua Dou Sha Bing 永蕐豆沙饼. Not bad tasting but pre-packed.
In case you have heard of this missing tau sar piah shop (611 - Tau Sar Piah Cake Shop), they have already left Balestier after 14 years of operations and have moved upmarket to Vivocity and Sembawang Shopping Centre in 2007. Rebranded as Little Red Shop.
Good luck for your Balestier tau sar piah snack trail!
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