Every day throngs of customers follow the smell of fresh cookies down Tainan City’s 300-year-old Chongan Street to Leng Tih Tong.
Nestled among a former barbershop, a smithy and a cake shop, Leng Tih Tong was established early in the Japanese colonial period (1895-1945). It specializes in what are known as fried cookies, a Japanese-style treat cooked in old-fashioned contact grills atop a round gas oven.
According to Tsai Wei-chung, fourth-generation owner of Leng Tih Tong, who gave up his position as director of a securities firm to take over the shop due to his father’s health, the family business can be traced back to his great-grandfather Tsai Ching-lien and great-granduncle Tsai Ching-der.
“My ancestors learned how to make the cookies from the Japanese, and opened their own store while still in their teens,” Tsai said. “In the colonial society of the time, just like many others who founded businesses along this street, they had to master a trade so they could make a living.”
In the beginning, the shop sold only miso, seaweed and sesame flavored cookies, all made from the same basic ingredients: flour, sugar and water. Later peanut cookies were added. Then 60 years ago egg-flavored cookies appeared on the shelves.
“This cookie requires eggs and milk, which in earlier times were too precious to use in snacks,” Tsai said. His wife Chiang Yi-ting added that her grandfather-in-law came across egg cookies by I-mei Foods Co. Ltd. one day and decided to develop the flavor.
“Our egg cookies stand out from our counterparts because we do not add a single drop of water, just milk, so they have a very mellow taste,” Chiang said.
In the 1960s, to promote their cookies to U.S. soldiers stationed in Tainan, the store decided to stamp an English logo on its products. “Searing the logo onto the other flavors results in dark burns, affecting the appearance of the cookies, but the logo stands out well on the egg cookies, with their flat surface without sesame seeds or seaweed,” Tsai explained.
According to Tsai, the logo is the Romanized Taiwanese pronunciation of the last characters of his ancestors’ names, with tone diacritics on top of the letters. The modeling master, however, did not understand the symbols and thought they represented mountains, which is why Leng Tih Tong’s logo consists of mountains at the top, the shop’s Romanized name in the middle and grass at the bottom.
Business at the store faced many challenges, especially during the 1980s when Western snacks were imported into Taiwan, and in 1989, Tsai’s father decided to close the store. However, the Zhen Bei Fang Cultural Festival in 2001 helped Leng Tih Tong make a comeback, as it was an event showcasing traditional ways of making a living 50 years ago, with products such as steamed sponge cake, soybean pudding, rice cakes and forged iron items from blacksmiths.
“We thought we’d just demonstrate how to make fried cookies for the three-day event,” Tsai recalled. “We never imagined that they’d be so popular that we were completely sold out the second day, and had to ask people to take numbers to line up the third day.
“We’ve adopted this take-a-number system ever since,” Tsai said, adding that customers can place orders by phone or purchase at most two packs of cookies per person at the shop, regardless of how far they have traveled to get there.
“We have no choice but to set up restrictions because our cookies are all handmade, and no matter how hard we work, we can’t make more than 100 packs a day. If we didn’t set limits, latecomers would never have a chance to buy any cookies.”
According to Tsai’s wife Chiang, Leng Tih Tong operates all year round, even on Lunar New Year’s Eve and Lunar New Year’s Day. It only closes for family weddings or funerals. “This is like a promise to our customers, which began in my father-in-law’s generation,” she said.
“People often come a long way to buy our cookies. We’re embarrassed if we have to tell them we’re sold out for the day, and see them leave with disappointment.”
Despite its 12-year hiatus in the 1990s, Leng Tih Tong has regained its position in the cookie market. While many neighboring traditional businesses have declined with the changing economy, the shop has stuck with the five flavors developed in previous generations. The only notable change is that the cookies are not as sweet as they used to be, because people nowadays are more health conscious.
Tsai said he might consider developing new flavors in the future, but hopes their time-honored five flavors can continue to be passed on for a long time.
“The main objective now is to think of ways for the store to survive another century,” Tsai stressed. “Customers are fickle, so it is important to observe the market and try to identify flavors that would be popular over long periods.”
To Tsai, Leng Tih Tong is more than just a shop—it is a place for family connections, where relatives can drop by for a chat any time of the day. “The store has strengthened our bonds,” Tsai said—and with this strength he carries on the family business. (THN)
Write to Grace Kuo at morningk@mail.gio.gov.tw