When I was in Sydney last November, Chris Tan of Foodfella.com was raving about tasting some freshly made Portuguese egg tarts that a local Portuguese baker had made. He showed me a food porn-type of photo he’d taken to whet my appetite, and explained that it was a Macau specialty. That makes the little sweet kinda like a Portuguese Chinese egg tart, seeing how they’re very very similar to Cantonese egg tarts that you find at dim sum joints and bakeries.
I let the notion of that tart simmer in the back of my Asian dumpling brain. I even saw a recipe in a new book coicidentally by Chris’s dad, Terry Tan, called The Food and Cooking of South China. It’s hard for me to make something I’ve never tasted. How was I going to get my hands on one? Portuguese egg tarts are not a commonly found item in the United States at Chinese restaurants, or so I thought.
A few weeks ago, during dim sum service at Dynasty Restaurant in Cupertino (take the Wolfe exit off the 280 freeway and head for the mall; it’s near Macy’s on the ground floor), a gal working the baked dessert cart wheeled what looked like burnt egg tarts past me. Were they burnt egg tarts or were they something else?
“Um goy, xiaojie,” I cried, combining my Cantonese and Mandarin to call to the young woman. She put the cart in reverse and stopped at our table. My husband and I examined her wares and it dawned upon me that the burnt egg tarts were actually made extra brown on purpose. “What are these?” I asked.
“Poh-tAHt,” she said. “Poh-tAHt [a very long pause] Macau!”
Ah, right. Poh = Portuguese. Taht = tart. They’re from Macau — a former Portuguese outpost across from Hong Kong.
Of course, I got an order of 4 on a plate. The crust was more like a short crust, not as layered and flaky like regular Cantonese egg tarts (called dan taht). The filling was also not as greasy as the Chinese ones are either. The filling was rich with dairy, egg and sugar. Not too sweet, as most Asian sweets are. I was smitten and waited for the gal to come back around and took an order as takeaway.
That’s them at the top of this post. I plan to replicate them and hope you can help.
What do you know of them? Their history, how they should ideally taste, the perfect texture, what goes into the filling of a Portuguese egg tart? Are the ones in the photo above representative? Should they be more burnt? Have you eaten one? Where?
For reference, see Bee Yin Low’s Portuguese egg tart recipe on Rasamalaysia from a few years back.
Thanks in advance for your assistance!
Update on 1/17/10: I figured out how to make them and posted a Portuguese egg tart recipe for you to try. They’re sensational and easy.
I blogged about them in Portugal. I believe the Portuguese brought them to Macau and that is how they got to China, especially Hong Kong.
Here’s a link to my post: http://cookingwithamy.blogspot.com/2008/09/pasteis-de-belem-lisbon-portugal.html
I think I still prefer the flaky ones, a la Golden Gate Bakery in SF
http://chezannies.blogspot.com/2008/12/egg-tarts-from-golden-gate-bakery-san.html
Next time you’re in Hong Kong, go to the nearest Kentucky Fried Chicken and order the po-taht there. They’re rich, sweet, yummy deliciousness. Worth getting scolded by a hotel employee for eating the the lobby of the Intercontinental Hotel overlooking the harbor. (We were waiting for friends and decided to start snacking. How were we to know you weren’t allowed to eat in the lobby?)
Every visit to Hong Kong we make, hubby and I will visit KFC at least once for the Potugese egg tarts!
@twitter.com/cookingwithamy: So maybe the Chinese egg tart was inspired by the Portuguese version?
@Nate — thanks for the tip on the flaky ones.
@Cyndy: Love it that Kentucky Fried Chicken has them in HK. I missed that when I was there last year. In Hong Kong there’s a tiny shop on Hong Kong island that specializes in Cantonese egg tarts. I used to line up with the locals. They are at their peak warm. Oye, the calories are worth it.
Some of the Chinese bakeries sell these. I can’t remember off the top of my head which, but I have seen them (here in the Bay Area). Will make note the next time I’m buying Chinese pastries.
If I recall correctly, the bakery by 99 Ranch at Milpitas sells them. Kee Wah bakery I think–if facing 99 Ranch, it’s to your right. I’m not sure if Sheng Kee has them too but if you’re at Sheng Kee, be sure to pick up their taro mooncakes (they’re really super flaky pastry spirals with taro filling AND a little nugget of mochi inside which is simply amazing!). Sorry, that was off topic but thinking about their bakery brought back that memory.
Oh, and the picture above doesn’t quite look like most Portuguese Egg Tarts that I’ve seen. Normally they have more blistering than that and the pastry doesn’t look quite right either. But then again, it’s been a long time since I had one. I guess it’s time to go hunt one down.
Hmmm… I love Portugese egg tarts and the ones in the picture don’t look so hot, very “dan tat” like 🙂
The best ones I’ve had (Montreal, Portugese bakery on Duluth near St Laurent) were more burnt on top and had a sheen to them. The pastry was flaky in the sense of a puff pastry. You could ask for the more or less burnt ones. The filling was somewhere in between the Cantonese dan tat and a crème brûlée. Neither as bland as the former nor as rich as the latter.
Here is a photo from a local blog:
http://foodosophy.wordpress.com/2009/11/16/universal-bakery-vancouver-bc/
Now THAT is an egg tart!!
The ones in Macau are very similar to the ones in the link but less burnt. They skimp out a bit on the filling which means not as rich, but also means lighter. I would avoid Chinese bakeries if what you want is the Portugese version.
In my experience this egg tart stuff is a Cantonese thing more than a Chinese thing, the only time I’ve seen them (outside of KFC) in the north were in Shanghai, when they were from a newly opened shop called “Macao Egg Tart Shop” or something like that. KFC in Mainland China has flavoured egg tarts (taro, mango, etc..) that are not half bad.
If you make it to Vancouver, Sun Sui Wah has one of the best dan tat I’ve ever tasted in my entire somewhat young yet dim sum obsessed life. No joke.
Whoa — thanks everyone. I will get to Milpitas soon to check out the bakery that @Annie mentioned. Carl Chu shared a similar tip via Facebook too.
@Mike and everyone — seems like what these need for them to be truly Portuguese is the burnt/caramelized top. They need color. I’ve read that sometimes a little cheese goes inside too.
Have any of you tasted the cheesiness in the eggy filling?
When I was in Macau several years ago, I tasted a few different egg tarts from different places. Those from a traditional Portuguese bakery were by far the sweetest, and had the darkest burnt spots – almost identical to ones I’ve had in a traditional Portuguese bakery in London. The famous Lord Stow’s egg tarts, which he says he adapted to his own taste, were richer (from cream, I think) and slightly less sweet. The ones I had at Pastelaria Caravela in Bondi Junction when we were in Sydney had by far the most delicate, thinnest-layered crusts of all the Portuguese egg tarts I’ve ever eaten, and a very well-balanced filling. As for cheesiness – to me, this is the most noticeable in lesser egg tarts I’ve had in Singapore and Macau…perhaps it’s got to do with how they treat the dairy produce, or how long they keep the made-up filling in the fridge!
For the best Portuguese/Macanese egg tart in the world…you must got to Coloane in Macau and look for Lord Stow’s http://www.lordstow.com/ I think he “invented” the Macanese version.
It was inspired by Pasteis de Nata. In the US, the South African Chain, Nandos also offer Naughty Nata’s which is also quite good, but they are only in DC right now.
The KFC one really isn’t quite good. Excelsior Hotel in HK also offer Lord’s Stows eggtart, it’s better than KFC but still not as good as the one from Coloane!
I am not sure if they sell egg tarts, but there is a Macau restaurant on Irving in the Outer Sunset. They may be another source of inspiration, but I’m not sure if you need it.
Chris — look what you’ve started when you showed me that beauty shot in Sydney?! So the cheesyness maybe has to do with the diary spoiling. Very good.
MYM — I’ve heard of the legendary Lord Stow’s as part of my ‘research.’ You’ve definitely got the low-down. Thanks for sharing your Portuguese egg tart intel!
Oyster Culture — There’s a Macau restaurant on Irving? WOW.
Sorry, but the pastries in your photo look nothing like the pasteis de belem that I had in Lisbon, Portugal in 2005. The surface should carmelized “burnt” but maintains a silky sheen and the consistency is smooth, just like Chinese egg tarts we know here in the SF Bay Area.
I had tarts looking like that in Lissbon, where they were called Pasteis de Belem (and the most famous ones come from a bakery in the Belem suburb), Nicki of delicoius days has posted a recipy for those.
Thanks for the tips, Ginto and Esther. The ones at the top of the page are not 100% authentically pastel de nata/pasteis de belem.
I first had them in a Portugese food stall in Toronto! I love them and get them in Chinatown here but the Chinese version are not quite as caramelized in flavor. I discovered it’s probably the sweetened condensed milk and possibly coconut used in them? Here’s a picture and post I did on our Boston C’town Potat.
http://jacquelinechurch.com/ldg/1733-po-tat-and-dan-tat-great-taste-bakery-is-well-great
Jacqueline — Nice photos on your post. Looks like the bakery cut rounds of puff pastry then filled them, hence the ruffled edges at the top. I wonder if they took a torch to the tops for the poh taht? Nice that you had them warm. Delish.
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The surface should carmelized “burnt” but maintains a silky sheen and the consistency is smooth, just like Chinese egg tarts we know here in the SF Bay Area.
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