I love egg tarts!

Egg tarts or egg custard tarts are also known as dan tah (in Cantonese) and in Australia, we find them in dim sum restaurants and some Asian bakeries. From small eateries, to bakeries to restaurants, Hong Kong has egg tarts everywhere! I was very happy going around sampling the array of egg tarts available. I think I had an average of one a day, and when Honey was going through the photos of my Hong Kong trip, she kept going “More egg tarts?!!” Here are some pictures of what I tasted.

There are two main types of egg tarts, one with a shortcrust pastry (also known as cookie pastry in Hong Kong) and the other with a flaky puff pastry. The crust is normally made with lard rather than butter or shortening… but hey, we were on a holiday. Flaky crust egg tarts are normally held in higher regard due to their multi layered crust and usually requires more skill to make the flaky crust perfect. I tend to prefer the shortcrust pastry egg tart as it crumbles in my mouth and provides an excellent compliment to the sweet soft egg custard. It also does not taste as rich, hence tends not to over power the egg custard.

Most Hong Kongers have an egg tart for morning or afternoon tea and I was very eager to immerse myself in their egg tart eating culture. After sampling a total of 13 egg tarts (I take my research very seriously),  I feel that the best two are from Tai Cheong Bakery and Tsui Wah Restaurant (the Jaffe Road branch).

Going to Tai Cheong Bakery is like a pilgrimage for any egg tart lover. Many have blogged about egg tarts from Tai Cheong Bakery and even the ex Governor of Hong Kong, Chris Patten reportedly loves them! They are so famous that a group of Japanese tourists were frantically taking pictures of themselves eating their egg tarts.

The filling of Tai Cheong’s egg tarts are extremely smooth, not too sweet  and cooked to perfection. Their shortcrust pasty is not too rich and very crumbly. Together, the taste sensation is amazing and I could not get enough of them. What I do love about Tai Cheong is how they seem to maintain their consistency because I went back on  2 different days and the egg tarts tasted as good. They also pack their egg tarts in foil moulds, so that the egg tarts won’t fall apart during transportation. How’s that for maintaining the integrity of their egg tarts?! I hope you get to try their egg tarts and love them as much as I do.

Tsui Wah Restaurant’s flaky pastry egg tarts is really good, but only from the Jaffe St outlet! I sampled egg tarts from a different outlet and was quite disappointed that they were quite different. The Jaffe St outlet’s pastry was flaky, buttery, was not oily and the custard was smooth, just delectable!

Which egg tart pastry do you prefer?

Shortcrust pastry:

Tai Cheong Bakery

35 Lydhurst Terrace, Central, Hong Kong

+85225443475

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Flaky pastry:

Tsui Wah Restaurant (Jaffe Road branch)

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Tags: Asian dessert, hong kong