Egg tart review: Les Châteaux bakery

(I thought I had done this before, but it turns out I'm going senile.)

This will be the first in my series of egg tart reviews. As a self-professed egg-tart-aholic, I attribute some of my girth to my love of egg-tarts, and the rest of it, I blame my mother.

I start off with a review of a Portuguese egg tart (i.e. not a Canto-style plain egg tart, daan-taat 蛋撻). Portuguese egg tarts (called nata or pastel de nata in their native tongue, and bastardized by us Cantos as po-taat 葡挞) are the cream of the crop.

My auntie Kay from Tdot (also my personal Santa Claus*) always brings me egg tarts when she visits. This time, they were from some place called Les Châteaux (oooh c'est du faux français! [translation: the name is French so it must be fancy]).

[Deformed po-tat from Les Châteaux]

I've never been to this bakery, and frankly, I would probably not go out of my way to go there, especially because it's 5.5 hours away from my place. And also because my review leaves more to be desired...

Shell
Texture: Puff-pastry flaky
Flavour: Bland, and crisco-like

Filling
Texture: Good and perfectly eggy
Flavour: Unspectacular but not too sweet. Maybe good for diabetics, but I don't have any to test this theory on.

Temperature
N/A. They arrived in a crushed carton, 6 hours after they were baked. The baker did make an effort to eliminate steam by cutting off two corners of the carton. Yay on him.

Price
No clue. My auntie didn't accept any monetary compensation for them. I will presume she paid upwards of $1 brazillion dollars because she loves me that much.

Final grade
2.75/4. At least they were edible.

Les Chateaux Bakery
3229 Hwy 7
Markham, ON

* Only parents can love these kids singing so off-key. They would all have been fired otherwise.

so long 2009... hello 2010!

as the days of 2009 finally disappear, i look back at the past year with cheerful reflection and a rotund belly... props go out to the wonderful things i've eaten this year (to name a few):

- apples from quebec.
- the best egg tarts/po-tats ever (from royal garden*).

- hot pot with lamb intestines.

- mango butter from the bohol bee farm.
- fresh oysters on the half shell from the union oyster house.

- fresh chocolate banana doughnuts from the sparrow.

- dandan noodles from wing lai yuen (詠藜園).
- the best porkchops in the world (tonkatsu from tonkichi).

- soup dumplings with amazing beijing chili oil (北京水餃店 beijing shui gau shop).

and to everyone who has given their time of day to this blog, have a happy and healthy 2010!

*note to royal garden management: continue to make these things and your patrons will die in bliss of heavy coronary blockage. be forwarned.

a discussion on egg tarts

those who know me know that i am an egg tart fiend (the likely culprit behind my "extra luggage" from my expeditions in the far east).


["chieu-pei" or "flaky crust" egg tart. actually this one tasted kind of gross and lardy, like eating a spoonful of tenderflake.]

egg tarts ("dan-tat") abound in hong kong and macau, where they were popularized around WWII by "cha-chaan tengs" (tea and food restaurants). in north america, you can find egg tarts in chinese bakeries and also in "cha-laus" where dim sum is served.

story goes either the british brought custard pies to hong kong (from which the chinese eggier version was adapted), and/or they were influenced by the portuguese egg tarts (see below).

the basic ingredients are simple: a buttload of eggs, milk and sugar, and sometimes food colouring. ginger, chocolate, papaya or other stuff (like bird's nest) can be added, but make them weird-flavoured.

[milk tarts, weaklings of the egg tart family.]

there are two main types of tart crusts:
- shortcrust. butter-based, more flavourful, and slightly denser.
- puff-pastry. lard-based, flakier, considered more genuine ("chieu-pei").

portuguese egg tarts ("po-tat" as my chinese kinfolk call them) are by far my favourite. called pastel de nata in their native portugal, the macanese ones delicate eggy cups of heaven, topped with slightly burned deliciousness... best. thing. ever.

(you can even get them right here in montreal, on the plateau.)

[macanese po-tart: flaky, eggy, and slightly burned... just like the way i like my boys.]


[a half dozen of po-tarts (minus one) from macau that quickly disappeared as soon as they were boxed... and no, i did not share.]

in hong kong however, the best one i had was from kfc, i kid you not. and do not judge me lest ye be judged.

let's begin with macanese almond cookies

i'm a little unsure as to how to start off this food blogging thing, but as i flipped through the 2000+ photos i took while in hong kong, i came across these ones of almond cookies in macau.


these macanese delectables are one of macau's more famous exports, along with eat jerky, and the best egg tarts i've ever had in the world (though i've never been to portugal so i might be mistaken... humour me for now).

the main street leading up to the remains of st. paul's church in macau are lined with shops that sell these cookies. barkers for the stores literally shove them in your hands to lure you into buying more. i think i got slightly ripped off ($100 MOP for 4 boxes) but i didn't really care cause this was the real deal. there are a few major competitors on that strip but the one i went to was pastelaria koi kei.


made of mung bean powder, sugar, almonds, vegetable oil, peanut butter, milk powder and water, they're slightly toasted on that big round toaster plate thing when they hand them to you.


[that's the ominous hand of mr. frawley who likes to ruin pictures i take].

imagine a light, slightly sweet, dry and crumbly biscuit, flavoured with almonds. and sometimes mixed with walnuts, coconuts, or whole almonds... and imagine sipping some hot tea or almond milk with one of these suckers and you're soaking in it!

though some liken these cookies to eating chalk, i say, to each his own... and i like chalk.