Egg tarts, custard tarts, or egg custard tarts are a kind of pastry popular in many parts of the world but particularly in Chinese and Western European cuisines. The tarts consist of an outer pastry crust, filled with egg custard and baked. Traditional Chinese characters refers to one of two standard sets of printed Chinese characters. ... Simplified Chinese character (Simplified Chinese: or ; traditional Chinese: or ; pinyin: or ) is one of two standard sets of Chinese characters of the contemporary Chinese written language. ... Map of eastern China and Taiwan, showing the historic distribution of Mandarin Chinese in light brown. ... Pinyin, more formally called Hanyu Pinyin (Simplified Chinese: ; Traditional Chinese: ; Pinyin: ), is the most common variant of Standard Mandarin romanization system in use. ... This article is about all of the Cantonese (Yue) dialects. ... Jyutping (sometimes spelled Jyutpin) is a romanization system for Standard Cantonese developed by the Linguistic Society of Hong Kong (LSHK) in 1993. ... Basket of western-style pastries, for breakfast Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Pastries For the Pastry Distributed Hash Table, see Pastry (DHT). ... Chicken egg (left) and quail eggs (right), the types of egg commonly used as food An egg is a body consisting of an ovum surrounded by layers of membranes and an outer casing of some type, which acts to nourish and protect a developing embryo. ... This article focuses on egg-thickened custards. ...

History

The earliest record of egg tart in the East is at a royal banquet for the Kangxi Emperor as part of the Manchu Han Imperial Feast.^{[citation needed]} For other uses, see Kangxi (disambiguation) The Kangxi Emperor (Chinese: ; pinyin: ; Wade-Giles: Kang-hsi; May 4, 1654 – December 20, 1722) was an Emperor of the Manchu Qing dynasty,[1] and the second Qing emperor to rule over China proper, from 1661 to 1722. ... Japanese name Kanji: Manchu Han Imperial Feast or Qing Han Imperial Feast was one of the grandest meals ever documented in Manchuria and Chinese history. ...

Custard tarts were introduced in Hong Kong in the 1940s by cha chaan tengs and western cafes and bakeries to compete with dim sum restaurants particularly for yum cha. It later evolved to become egg tarts today.^[1] At the time, egg tarts were twice the size of today's tarts. During the 1950s and 1960s when the economy started taking off, Luk Jyu (陸羽) took the lead with the mini-egg tart.^[1] Cha chaan teng is a type of Chinese tea restaurant commonly found in Hong Kong, known for its eclectic and affordable menus which include many dishes from Hong Kong cuisine and localised Hong Kong-style Western cuisine. ... Chinese bakeries in big cities like Hong Kong, Guangzhou, Shanghai, and across the world in Chinatowns, serve delicate pastries and delicious buns as well as tea, coffee and other drinks. ... Dim sum (Chinese: 點心; Cantonese IPA: dɪm2sɐm1; Pinyin: diǎnxīn; Wade-Giles: tien-hsin; literally dot heart or order heart, meaning order to ones hearts content; also commonly translated as touch the heart, dotted heart, or snack), a Cantonese term, is usually a light meal or brunch, eaten sometime... Lung Mun, an old-styled Cantonese restaurant in Wan Chai, Hong Kong Yum cha (Cantonese:飲茶; Japanese: ヤムチャ, kanji:喫茶), literally translated as drinking tea, refers to the Cantonsese custom of eating tiny tastes of many different foods while sipping a well-brewed Chinese cuppa. ...

One theory suggests Chinese egg tarts are a Chinese adaption of English tarts with custard filling. Guangdong had long been the region in China with most frequent contact with the West, in particular Britain. As a former British colony, British food naturally assimilated to local Hong Kong tastes. Another suggests that they are evolved from the very similar Portuguese egg tart pastries, possible through the influence of Portuguese Macau. This article focuses on egg-thickened custards. ... Not to be confused with the former Kwantung Leased Territory in north-eastern China. ...

Hong Kong-style egg tarts

Today egg tarts come in many variations within Hong Kong cuisine. These include egg white tarts, milk tarts, honey-egg tarts, ginger-flavoured egg tarts (the two aforementioned variations were a take upon traditional milk custard and egg custard, which was usually served in cha chaan tengs, chocolate tarts, green-tea-flavoured tarts and even bird's nest tarts. The cuisine in Hong Kong can best be described as a fusion of eastern and western style cuisine. ... Cha chaan teng is a type of Chinese tea restaurant commonly found in Hong Kong, known for its eclectic and affordable menus which include many dishes from Hong Kong cuisine and localised Hong Kong-style Western cuisine. ... See: Nest Birds nest soup This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists pages that might otherwise share the same title. ...

Overall, Hong Kong-style egg tarts have two main types of outer casings: shortcrust pastry, and puff pastry made with lard rather than butter or shortening. Most Hong Kong Chinese food purists hold the egg tarts made with puff pastry in higher regard. Shortcrust pastry is a type of pastry often used for the base of a tart or a pie. ... Wikibooks Cookbook has an article on Puff pastry Apple turnover, made with puff pastry In baking, a puff pastry (French: pâte feuilletée; Spanish: hojaldre) is a light, flaky pastry made from dough of the same name. ... This article is about the fat. ... For other uses, see Butter (disambiguation). ...

Unlike in English custard tarts, milk is normally not added to the egg custard, and the tart is not sprinkled with ground nutmeg or cinnamon before serving. It is also sometimes (though not always) served piping hot rather than at room temperature as per English custard tarts. For other uses, see Nutmeg (disambiguation). ... Binomial name J.Presl Cassia (Chinese cinnamon) is also commonly called (and sometimes sold as) cinnamon. ...

Cultural reference

• Chris Patten, the last British Governor of Hong Kong before the transition to China in 1997, was known in Hong Kong popular culture to be fond of this pastry. He particularly enjoyed the egg tarts sold at Tai Cheong Bakery (TC:泰昌餅家; see external links below), and thus the eggs tarts sold at the bakery became known as "Fei-Paang egg tarts" (肥彭蛋撻; literally "Fat Patten's Egg Tart", "Fat Patten" being the governor's nickname in Cantonese). The story still remains popular among Hong Kong citizens. In subsequent visits he makes a routine stop to help himself to his favourite Hong Kong speciality.

Pastéis de nata (cream custards) sold in Portugal

Christopher Francis Patten, Baron Patten of Barnes, CH, PC (born 12 May 1944 in Bath, Somerset) is a prominent British Conservative politician and a Patron of the Tory Reform Group. ... Flag of the Governor of Hong Kong, 1959–1997 The Governor of Hong Kong (Traditional Chinese: ; abbreviated 港督) was a British official who ruled Hong Kong during the colonial period between 1841 and 1997 and was ex-officio Commander-in-Chief and Vice-Admiral of Hong Kong. ... Image File history File links Pasteis. ... Image File history File links Pasteis. ...

Portuguese-style

Portuguese-style egg tarts were evolved from "pastel de nata", a traditional Portuguese custard pastry that consists of custard in a crème brûlée-like consistency caramelized fashion in a puff pastry case. It was created more than 200 years ago by Catholic Sisters at Jerónimos Monastery (Portuguese: Mosteiro dos Jerónimos) at Belém in Lisbon ^[2]. Casa Pastéis de Belém was the first pastry shop outside of the convent to sell this pastry in 1837, and it is now a popular pastry in every pastry shop around the world owned by Portuguese descendants. Pastel de Nata or Pastel de Belém is a small cream tart found throughout Portugals pastry shops or cafés. ... The Hieronymites Monastery (Mosteiro dos Jerónimos, pron. ... Belém (or Santa Maria De Belém) is an old quarter of Lisbon, Portugal, located 6km west of the present city centre (Baixa) and 2km west of Ponte 25 de Abril (The 25th of April Bridge). ... For other uses, see Lisbon (disambiguation). ...

The Portuguese-style egg tarts known in Macau (Chinese: 葡式蛋撻, more commonly simply as 葡撻) originated from Lord Stow's Café in Coloane, owned by a Briton named Andrew Stow. Stow modified the recipe of pastel de nata using techniques of making English custard tarts ^[3]. It has since become available at numerous bakeries, as well as Macau-style restaurants and Chinese, Hong Kong and Taiwan branches of the KFC restaurant chain. There was a craze in Singapore and Taiwan in the late 1990s. Coloane (Traditional Chinese: 路環島; Simplified Chinese: 路环岛; Pinyin: Lùhuán DÇŽo; Jyutping: Lou6-waan4 Dou2, literally Road Ring Island) is one of the two main islands of Macau in the Peoples Republic of China. ... KFC, also known as Kentucky Fried Chicken, is a food chain based in Louisville, Kentucky, known mainly for its fried chicken. ... For the band, see 1990s (band). ...

See also

• Pastry
• Pastel de nata
• Put chai ko
• Dim sum

Basket of western-style pastries, for breakfast Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Pastries For the Pastry Distributed Hash Table, see Pastry (DHT). ... Pastel de Nata or Pastel de Belém is a small cream tart found throughout Portugals pastry shops or cafés. ... Dim sum (Chinese: 點心; Cantonese IPA: dɪm2sɐm1; Pinyin: diǎnxīn; Wade-Giles: tien-hsin; literally dot heart or order heart, meaning order to ones hearts content; also commonly translated as touch the heart, dotted heart, or snack), a Cantonese term, is usually a light meal or brunch, eaten sometime...

References

External links

• Pictures of egg tarts being made, with text in Chinese including its history in Hong Kong
• A simple recipe for egg tarts
• Recipe of traditional English-style custard tart which inspired the Chinese version
• History and recipe of the custard/egg tart in the UK and Europe
• AVBuzz.com, a Hong Kong-based online photographic society, has its photographs capturing the crowds around Tai Cheong's Bakery.
• There's history - and a secret - in every bite
• Lord Stow's Bakery
• Plate Of The Day Food Blog
• Egg Tarts in a Malaysian Food Blog - Tham Jiak