Egg Tart Crawl
April Wu
explored with Michael Chen, Sangita Vasikaran, and Feli Xiao
It’s a common saying that the highest compliment Asians can give a dessert is that it’s “not too sweet”. This rings true for the egg tart, where its most valuable asset is the rich flavor of egg yolks and jiggly center, with the sugar only serving to round out the savoriness of the custard. A cheap pastry and good representation of the quality of a Hong Kong bakery, the egg tart is a humble yet iconic food. It’s the Asian take on the classic Portuguese egg tart. The Hong Kong version is a shortbread crust or Chinese puff pastry (which uses oil, shortening, or lard instead of butter) with a smooth egg-heavy custard, whereas the Portuguese version has a sweeter creamier custard and is baked at a higher temperature to caramelize the top.
Egg tarts are a staple of my childhood, and I’m sure I’m not alone. I associate the warm smell of sweet custard with afternoons grocery shopping with my mom and tugging on her sleeve, begging for one at the Asian market. In the midst of adultingTM myself in college, it occurred to me that, in fact, I could spend a whole morning walking around Chinatown eating egg tarts, and no one could stop me. Together, Sangita, Feli and I embarked on a mission to find the best egg tart in Boston Chinatown.
1. 180°C Cafe
As we entered this cafe, I felt respectfully out of place. The bakery was full of seniors huddled around a large table enjoying their you tiao (a traditional fried dough) and hot soymilk. The servers barked rapid-fire Cantonese, disregarding us as we hovered awkwardly in front of the cashier until they had caught up with the bustling customers demanding attention. I stumbled through the exchange with my mediocre Mandarin, fumbled for some cash, and received a beautiful egg tart in return.
The custard was stunning, perfectly jiggly and creamy. It was the only one that wasn’t quite set—perhaps from a higher ratio of egg yolks, because we could taste more egg flavor rather than the bland milkiness some other egg tarts had.
It also had the richest color–both in the filling and the crust. The crust was evenly browned on both the top and bottom, which is difficult to achieve since the weight of the custard often makes the bottom crust doughy and pale. It shattered between our teeth, yet crumbled, a perfect example of the hybrid shortbread and puff pastry method that Chinese bakeries use. We could also taste some butter in the crust, which is rare, and it added more richness to the tart.
2. Hing Shing Bakery
The crust on this one was the most impressive by far, perfectly laminated (even on the bottom!). If the crust becomes weighed down by the custard, it becomes doughy and tough rather than flaky and crisp, like this one is. The texture of the custard was smooth and the rich egg flavor shone through. When it comes to egg tarts, though, the custard is more important than the crust. While this one was solid, the egg tart custard from 180°C Cafe blew us away, so it ranked slightly above Hing Shing.
3. Corner Cafe Bakery
They were out of normal egg tarts so we got a Portuguese egg tart instead, but it…definitely was still a Hong Kong style egg tart. With only a spot of blistering on the custard surface and the traditional Chinese puff pastry, it seemed close enough to still be on the list. It came neck and neck with Hing Shing and 180°C, but was edged out by Hing Shing’s crust and 180°C’s velvety custard.
4. Top Bread
We were impressed by the crust in the Top Bread egg tart, though it lacked the slight butter flavor of the egg tarts above. This one felt like the most standard, good-quality egg tart!
5. Great Taste Bakery
This egg tart was on the sweeter side, which covered up its lack of egg flavor. Feli said that while it wasn’t bad, it felt lacking in depth. The crust was definitely a little doughy although there was some flakiness.
6. Taiwan Bakery
The custard tasted more like milk than egg, and the crust had a shortbready texture, inching towards being dense and doughy.
7. Bao Bao Bakery & Cafe
This was our first egg tart, so we came into it with high hopes and rated it higher initially, but later bumped it down as it didn’t hold up to our standards. As shown in the photo, the custard was pale, it had bubbles, and the custard to crust ratio was off. The crust merges with the custard a little, offering little flakiness, though it had even browning.
8. Ho Yuen Bakery Inc
The custard had a promising golden color, and while it had some egg flavor, it tasted like gelatin. The crust was even paler than the custard (red flag), and was so flexible it nearly fell apart as we were trying to take it out of the tart shell.
9. Mei Sum Bakery
This was the last spot we hit, and the results were…disappointing. The crust was pale, collapsing under the weight of the custard, and tasted like a soggy cracker with no flavor. It had a chew to it, because it was so dense that it had baked into an oily bread. The custard had no egg flavor and also had a gelatinous texture rather than the silky creaminess we were looking for.
Overall these egg tarts were quite good from #5 and up! I definitely want to revisit these bakeries to try their other goods.
