Wednesday, December 19, 2007











Best Egg Tart Ever?


Try and start another fire by discussing the best egg tart ever? I'm from Ipoh (if you do not know that by now) and the dim sum places make pretty good tarts, be it Ming Kok or Fohsun. I even think the Tong Kee ones are pretty good, right up there with the best. When I was in Singapore, the ones at Tong Heng was an adequate substitute (better than nothing). Had the ones with the flaky pastry or fluff pastry and the other one with the butter flavoured shortcrust pastry. I prefer the flaky ones as it is "soong chooi" (loose bitey) and when you reach the wobbling creamy egg tart center, it gives a very good contrast.


I have also patronised Patten's favourite Tai Cheong Bakery's egg tarts in Central, HK, before and after they moved locations - they are pretty damn good too. A few steps away in Wellington Street is another place for very delicious egg tart as well, the Lok Heung Yuen - they come in tiny bite size. For this exercise, let's not talk about Portuguese tart - its a separate matter.


Hence, I always thought that such delicate stuff like egg tarts can only come from a dedicated kitchen, and never from a franchise. How wrong was I! For those who have visited The Pavillion KL, you may have walked past the silly sounding pastry place called John King, supposedly from HK and established since 1965. Am quite familiar with HK but I have never come across John King. But with such a weird sounding English name as a brand, it does resembles a HK invention (ala Kim Gary).
They sell possibly the best ever egg tarts I have ever eaten. Some may say that their crust is a bit rich, hey, egg tarts should be an indulgence , not a health/diet food! Enjoy la.

Surprisingly, the butter shortbread pastry is even better than the flaky ones, and I thought I would never like the shortbread pastry types.
Forget about the durian egg tart, its a lie and con job. Go for the original or the even-better seoung-pei lai egg tart (whitish egg tart, double-skin-milk egg tart).

Its a lot saying they possibly make the best egg tarts, especially having tried so many good ones in so many places. Is it better than sex???... well, you will be making the same noises and exclamations though - "OMG"! Go John King or whatever your name is, its the best thing that I can afford after shopping at The Pavillion!!!


7 comments:

Jomaropol said...

Their durian egg tarts a con job? That seriously cannot be! I think that their durian tarts are a hidden gem! I spend RM6 on 3 tarts each time to get one of 'em boxes all the time!!

I don't think you really know anything about egg tarts *fanning fire*. Maybe you have to go and do some proper research about it, or go and get a degree in ET. *throwing a bucket of petrol into fire*.

lol.

SalvadorDali said...

jom,
look at their durian tarts, its just tarts with durian paste on it... its not so much u like the durian tarts, u just like durian paste, go buy durian, very cheap outside Lucky Garden TMC.. lol

I really need to learn about egg tarts and find the ONE TRUE WAY of egg tart making before I can comment on egg tarts, there is just too many "God Sticks" of egg tarts walking around... my bad... ; )

Jomaropol said...

haha quite true, I saw how they made it through that glassy bakery of theirs, I'm just eating it with one eye closed for now..! lol. Time to really give their egg tarts a try instead of their durian tarts.

doraiddd said...

no dali, john king's tarts are not better than sex but then its better than no sex at all...

took a chance to try the trad flaky ones. But at a dollar sixty each plus tax, these are among the most ex in town if not the most.

looks wise, i prefaer my egg tarts the color of egg yolks, these are anemic and pale... Here was a question similar to us always choosing brown shelled eggs over the paler white varieties. and they all looked too uniformed and factory machined. Visually it lacked the warm hand gifted touch..

eating it required dexterity too. one had to peel the foil away from the tart rather than peel the delicate tart away from the foil and risk flaking it... and it oozing thru your fingers..

using foil instead of the trad baking paper on the base left a layer of clear oil on your fingers and thus maybe the 'rich' comment.. I would have prefered paper but maybe due to its larger than average size, paper would not have held.

textually rating is high on both the pastry and egg custard.. pastry was as flaky as they come and the custard just the right running consistency..

BUT more importantly, TASTE was lacking. It lacked the eggy edge that come with the best tarts. These were almost bland. Wolfing it down produced the greastest irony as your buds struggled to capture that non-existent jump on the tongue that the texture and the fluidity promised...

Interestingly, for a high turnover egg tart stall, it was severely lacking in good smells. famous amos this is not...

In summary, the brand john king egg tarts may perhaps said it all and perhaps since 1965 was 4 decades ago, the eggness of the tarts has watered down and away since then...

i hope i would not live to see Mat Salleh nasi lemak and satay, since 2007, for my last meal... however i will always look forward to tong kee egg tarts or the dimsum tarts from imbi palace.

doraiddd said...

AND dont even get me started on that donut shop with the huge queues...

reminded me of the faithful in jonestown all queuing up for their happy peace brew from jim...

come on people!!!!

makes me wanna give up stock trading and wanna just get out there and create queues... blardy hell...

SalvadorDali said...

dor,

u r quite rite, John King does not make the best tarts, they r pretty good, ... yes the eggy taste is better and coloring better at Tong Kee and Tai Cheong, I think its the "type" of egg selection... whereas its more industrialised at John King, where got time to select eggs?? But they r still pretty good, yes its a bother to eat them cos they are so flaky and crust-breaking good, I need to eat from the box , with the box...

slea said...

do anyone think mlay will like egg tart(halal)? will they ever walk into a shop to buy egg tart?