KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 29 ― The humble Malaysian pineapple tart, a local favourite during festive seasons, has now been offered in the luxury department store chain Lane Crawford in Hong Kong.
It all started when Malaysian-born Wei Roberts's Hong Kong colleagues repeatedly asked for more of his mother’s pineapple tarts which he had brought to work.
“There were quite a few occasions when they asked, ‘Can we please order some?’ But they couldn’t, because my mum just makes them for sharing,” he was quoted in a report by South China Morning Post's Post Magazine.
“It got me thinking about whether it could be a viable business,” said Roberts, who grew up in the United Kingdom and settled down in Hong Kong around two years ago.
“I realised that Malaysian food was really under-represented in Hong Kong. On top of that, even if it were available, it didn’t quite do it justice,” he added.
Roberts, who is now the co-founder of the Hong Kong-based firm Moreish that churns out the Malaysian pineapple tarts, said the pastry is a favourite with Malaysians during their festive celebrations such as for Chinese New Year and Hari Raya.
“As far as we know, no one else is making this product locally, which is quite surprising to me, because they were such a hit when I was growing up,” he said.
His co-founder Fontaine Cheng said people are still unsure and assume that Moreish's pineapple tarts are the Taiwanese version ― which typically has strained fruit fillings and a crust that is drier and more firm.
According to the Post Magazine, the Malaysian variant has a wetter fruit filling consisting of pineapple that has been cooked down.
Cheng said Moreish sought to perfect the Malaysian pineapple tarts based on his mother's recipe and using the co-founders' Western background, while Roberts said however that the company sought to do justice to the pastry product.
“You can’t just change things for the sake of changing things. We reduced the amount of ingredients for the pastry to six ― sugar, salt, milk powder, flour, eggs and butter.
“We had to think where we’d get the best ingredients. The French make the highest quality butters, so we get ours from Normandy,” he said.
Roberts also said Moreish found pineapple fillings from Malaysia and Singapore to be too sweet with about 20 per cent sugar content, and Post Magazine said the company later found a suitable pineapple filling from a Thai farm that used less sugar.
As for how Moreish managed to get its product selected to be sold at Lane Crawford, a retail chain, selling designer label luxury goods in Hong Kong and Greater China, the company had to pitch the pineapple tart in several sessions.
Roberts confessed to being “pretty intimidated” in one of the sessions involving judges, adding that he then offered to let them try out the tarts.
“I was running through the spiel and I could see it’d been a long day for those guys and gals, and their interest was waning. So I thought, ‘You know what, let’s cut to the chase, I’ll let you taste it.’
“Their faces immediately lit up. One of the judges actually said, ‘Can we keep the rest of the box?’” he was quoted saying.
According to the report, Moreish was the sole food brand picked to be sold at Lane Crawford in that open call.
The Moreish website describes its reinvented pineapple shortcake as a gourmet treat that has an “original Malaysian recipe at its heart” and handmade in Hong Kong.
