So which is worth the calories?
Photos: Weekender
With Chinese New Year bounding in like an enthusiastic puppy, it's time to splash your abode in shades of auspicious red with bulbous silk lanterns, blinking firecrackers, spring couplets, and of course, an array of red lid-touting containers filled with your favourite festive goodies. From perennial favourites of crunchy arrowhead chips and smoky bak kwa squares to trendy ones such as salted egg yolk chips and fried fish skin, these addictive snacks will leave the fingers all dusty and crusty with sugar and spice during this joyous occasion.
Out of the lot, we zeroed in on our personal favourite CNY goodie: The pineapple tart.
A delicious staple during the festive shenanigans, the pineapple tart is flaunted like a prized pig by bakeries from around the nation, each vying for your attention with promises that their buttery creation is the best.
We'll be the judge of that, after eating our way through 10 brands of pineapple tarts.
7. Baked Pineapple Pastry in Dog Shape from Paradise Group, $26.80 for a box of 18
The superb craftsmanship of The Fullerton Hotels’ bulldog-terrier pineapple tarts has made Canton Paradise Group’s canine offerings look as though they bear the face of Ghostbuster’s Stay Puft Marshmallow Man. If it’s any consolation, you can tell each tart is…um, lovingly made by hand just by the differing placement of the beaded chocolate eyeballs and the fluctuating sizes of what-looks-like the tongue. With that saying, the tart fared better in taste: Distinctly sweet pineapple flavours and melt-in-the-mouth buttery pastry. The chocolate touches (see floppy ears and chocolate eyes) also give the pineapple tarts a unique twist that we order to cease and desist.
Available at Taste Paradise, Paradise Teochew Restaurant, Seafood Paradise and Canton Paradise only
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