The egg tart (; ) is a kind of custard tart found in

Chinese cuisine Chinese cuisine comprises cuisines originating from Greater China, China, as well as from Overseas Chinese, Chinese people from other parts of the world. Because of the Chinese diaspora and the historical power of the country, Chinese cuisine ...

, derived from the English custard tart and Portuguese pastel de nata. The dish consists of an outer pastry crust filled with egg

custard Custard is a variety of culinary preparations based on sweetened milk, cheese, or cream cooked with Eggs as food, egg or egg yolk to thicken it, and sometimes also flour, corn starch, or gelatin. Depending on the recipe, custard may vary in con ...

. Egg tarts are often served at dim sum restaurants, Chinese bakeries and '' cha chaan tengs'' (Hong Kong–style cafes).

History

The egg tart started being sold in the early 20th century in

Guangzhou Guangzhou, Chinese postal romanization, previously romanized as Canton or Kwangchow, is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Guangdong Provinces of China, province in South China, southern China. Located on the Pearl River about nor ...

(Canton),

Guangdong ) means "wide" or "vast", and has been associated with the region since the creation of Guang Prefecture in AD 226. The name "''Guang''" ultimately came from Guangxin ( zh, labels=no, first=t, t= , s=广信), an outpost established in Han dynasty ...

province, inspired by the English custard tarts. Guangzhou's status as the only port accessible to European foreign traders led to the development of Cantonese cuisine, which had many outside influences. As Guangzhou's economy grew from trade and interaction with European powers, pastry chefs at the Western-style department stores in the city were “pressured to come up with new and exciting items to attract customers”. So egg tart varieties, inspired by those from England, featuring a lard-based puff pastry crust and a filling similar to steamed egg pudding ( 燉蛋), were then created by department stores and appeared as a "Weekly Special". Nowadays, there are two main varieties of egg tart in China. The one that appeared around 1927 in Guangzhou’s Zhen Guang Restaurant (真光酒樓) is close to the egg tarts popular in

and

Hong Kong Hong Kong)., Legally Hong Kong, China in international treaties and organizations. is a special administrative region of China. With 7.5 million residents in a territory, Hong Kong is the fourth most densely populated region in the wor ...

today. The other variety is from

Macau Macau or Macao is a special administrative regions of China, special administrative region of the People's Republic of China (PRC). With a population of about people and a land area of , it is the most List of countries and dependencies by p ...

and is a Macanese take on the pastel de nata, as Macau was then a Portuguese colony.

Variations

Hong Kong

Hong Kong egg tarts can trace their roots back to Guangzhou, and are a Chinese adaptation of the English custard tart. Egg tarts were introduced to Hong Kong via Guangzhou in the 1940s but initially could only be found in higher-end Western-style restaurants. In the 1960s, '' cha chaan tengs'' began to serve egg tarts, popularizing the pastry with the working-class Hong Kong population. Hong Kong egg tarts are typically smaller and served in twos or threes, in contrast to the original Guangzhou egg tarts which were larger and could be served as a single item. Variations on the custard filling have included

chocolate Chocolate is a food made from roasted and ground cocoa beans that can be a liquid, solid, or paste, either by itself or to flavoring, flavor other foods. Cocoa beans are the processed seeds of the cacao tree (''Theobroma cacao''); unprocesse ...

green tea Green tea is a type of tea made from the leaves and buds of the '' Camellia sinensis'' that have not undergone the withering and oxidation process that creates oolong teas and black teas. Green tea originated in China in the late 1st millenn ...

, or bird's nest as flavourings, and the outer shell may be made with either a

shortbread Shortbread or shortie is a traditional Scottish biscuit usually made from one part sugar, white sugar, two parts butter and three to four parts plain flour, plain wheat flour. Shortbread does not contain leavening, such as baking powder or bakin ...

-type crust or with

puff pastry Puff pastry, also known as , is a light, flaky pastry, its base dough () composed of wheat flour and water. Butter or other solid fat () is then layered into the dough. The dough is repeatedly rolled and folded, rested, re-rolled and folded, encas ...

made from butter, lard, or vegetable shortening. In June 2014, the technique of egg tart production was formally included in the Intangible Cultural Heritage Inventory of Hong Kong. Egg tarts can be found in Cha chaan tengs, dim sum parlours, and bakery shops.

Macau

In 1989, British pharmacist Andrew Stow and his wife Margaret Wong opened Lord Stow's Bakery in Coloane, where they sold Portuguese tarts that copied the pastel de nata. This variation is a Portuguese tart ( zh, t=葡撻, cy=poùh tāat, labels=no). In 1999, Wong sold the recipe to KFC, which then introduced the Macau-style pastel de nata to other parts of Asia, including Singapore and Taiwan. In contrast to the Hong Kong–style egg tart, the Macau-style egg tart features a caramelized browned top.

References

External links