TAIPING, Feb 7 — Much has been said about the famed Aulong Biscuit and Confectioner on the outskirts of the small town of Taiping but few people know that when the owner first started the business, it was something he decided to do just to make ends meet.

Ng Keh You was working in Singapore for many years before he decided to come back to his hometown with his new bride sometime in the 1980s.

Ng Keh You with the different types of heo pia he makes

Jobless and needing a source of income to support his wife and family, he decided to try out baking heo pia to sell right from the kitchen of his wooden house in Aulong.

That was the beginning of Aulong Biscuit and Confectioner and soon Ng’s fragrant heo pia, crispy biscuits filled with sticky sweet maltose, attracted  a following.

Extensions of zinc and wood were built at the back and side of his small wooden house; the extra space was turned into the bakery and biscuit shop.

Brushing wheat molasses on the surface of the biscuits before it was baked to give it a crunchy texture

Ng taking out trays of the biscuits

“I used to work in several other bakeries here when I was young and I remembered how to make heo pia so I thought I’d try making it to sell when I first came back,” he said.

The 61-year-old was working in an unrelated field in Singapore and wanted to try something else when he came home.

Initially, Ng started out making small batches and as demand for his heo pia grew, he started making variations, and introduced the plain salty heo pia and the plain sweet heo pia.

“Some of my customers asked for plain heo pia, as some of them don’t like the sticky maltose filling so I came up with two other variations, the salty heo pia and a plain heo pia,” he said.

One of Ng’s sons preparing the dough at the small kitchen at the bakery.

The confectionery also takes in biscuits from other suppliers to sell to walk-in customers

The salty heo pia is a flat round crunchy biscuit with thin layers of flaky crust and a slight saltiness to give it an extra flavour. The plain sweet heo pia is also a similar flat round crunchy biscuit but instead of saltiness, this one has a slight sweetness to the flaky layers of crust.

“A lot of our customers like the plain heo pia because these are best eaten with a nice hot cup of coffee, especially when dipped in the coffee,” Ng said, adding that those who needed to cut out sugar from their diets also opted for these plain versions of heo pia.

Ng’s normal heo pia, with the sticky maltose filling, is already a high-demand product, especially during holidays and festive seasons and with the addition of the two varieties, the small bakery more or less have their hands full. This is why they don’t produce any other types of biscuits.

Ng said since it is a small business venture, it was only him, his sons, his wife and a worker helping out in the preparation, baking and packing of the biscuits.

The flaky crispy plain heo pia

He believes in focusing on making good quality and tasty heo pia instead of dividing his attention into making many other biscuits which may not be as good as his heo pia.

The bakery and shop is located deep within a quiet residential area of Aulong, off Taiping town, with only a small Chinese sign on its gate as the only signage. Yet Ng gets a steady stream of walk-in customers especially during the weekends, public holidays and on school holidays.

Soon, other small home-based bakeries started dropping off their baked products at Ng’s small shop so his shop now offers a variety of other baked goods.

Ng said it is better to help other small bakeries while adding to the variety of biscuits available in his shop than having to make new varieties on his own.

The heo pia being packed after it has cooled

Despite the shop and bakery’s location, the shop does not deliver its own biscuits or distribute it to other retailers.

The making of the heo pia

“We don’t deliver our products to any suppliers, anyone wants to sell our biscuits will have to come and buy it in bulk from us because we don’t have enough manpower to deliver the biscuits every day,” Ng said.

The shop is open most days from 7am onwards.

Aulong Biscuit and Confectioner

768, Lorong 29, Aulong Baru, Taiping, Perak.

Tel : +605-808 7608