My elder brother was the only one who exclaimed that the pineapple tarts I made (together with great help from both my parents) were superb! On the other hand, my two other siblings only commented that the tarts tasted okay, like other tarts sold in the market. Therefore, when my elder brother wanted to give our very one and only bottle of these golden treats (pineapple tarts) to his girlfriend, I readily agreed. He also “placed an order” of five bottles of pineapple tarts for the kids he tutors. My mum gladly promised to deliver. Lol.
With that order of five bottles, both my doting parents and I slogged our way to 3am in the morning just to get it baked and ready for my brother the next day! It was only till then that I realised how tough and how hard other people worked to bake so many more bottles of various CNY goodies. I really take my hat off to them! For me, I think I would not be baking pineapple tarts in a while now. *scarred temporarily*
I wanted to buy really pretty stickers just to stick on the plain bottles before giving them away. However, I did not buy them as my mother, being practical, felt that those stickers do not serve much purpose and hence, there is no need to spend additional money for them. My father though, was on my side as he felt that those stickers do not cost much yet just a simple one is enough to add to the festive mood. Therefore, he went to buy the stickers by himself. I had initially thought of just sticking a small round sticker that reads 福，旺，满，发 etc but my father bought (in my opinion) ultra large stickers for the small containers! My first thought was they look so orh biang aka old-fashioned, just like a typical uncle’s taste. However, the more I look at them, the more I feel that they look great on the bottles! I feel so happy just looking at the stickers on my bottles containing the golden treats! Thankfully, my father went to buy these stickers on his own without telling anyone. Hehe.
I really thank both of my parents from the bottom of my heart for those pineapple tarts, especially my father, who usually does not cook at all! Both of them worked tirelessly till the wee hours of the night without a single word of complaint! My father did complain that his back ache after so many hours of sitting though. Haha. We made a total of 0.5 (on the first day) + 1 + 1.5 (on another separate day) batches of pineapple tarts. This is a picture of all our hard work:
Update: I went to Sunshine’s house and I tasted one of the pineapple tarts he bought from his colleague, who brought them in from Malaysia. The pineapple tarts I made definitely tasted better! Those he bought were harder, as compared to mine which were softer and maybe, just maybe, melt so ever slightly in one’s mouth. I gave a few of the pineapple tarts to Sunshine for tasting and he also agreed that mine taste better! *happy!*
I also tried the pineapple tarts from a well known soya bean company and seriously, I realised why people are raving about the recipe I tried online! The store bought ones are hard and I cannot really taste much pineapple filling. Perhaps tasting not-so-tasty pineapple tarts was one of the reasons for me not being interested in pineapple tarts before this year. Eeekkk…
