Tai Cheong Bakery and Central Wanderings

Like many, many residents here, SB and I love dan tats (egg tarts). Our favorite Happy Valley neighborhood provider is the Cheung Sing Cafe. Their tarts have the best custard taste with a flaky pastry crust. Dan tats come in two basic containers: the flaky pastry crust or the shortbread crust. King's Bakery makes a close runner up to favorite dan tat in a shortbread crust. I prefer King's Bakery in the afternoon because I know that they have a batch of freshly baked dan tat coming out of the oven right before 4pm.

I had heard that the most famous purveyor of dan tat is the Tai Cheong Bakery. Apparently Governor Chris Patten was smitten with the tarts baked up by Au Yeung and there are plenty of hilariously unflattering newspaper images of him scarfing down multiples of dan tats posted in the front of the bakery.

SB and I winded down the stone path of Lyndhurst Terrace, looking for this famous bakery. We didn't have to look very hard because there was one storefront near the end of the block that had a queue of people outside. SB peeked inside to make sure and then informed me in a shocked voice that the tarts were $5 HKD as opposed to $3.5o at Cheung Sing and $3 at King's. I brushed off his protests and pushed him into the line.

A few moments later he emerged with a bag containing four very warm tarts, not so long ago removed from an oven. I took a bite...and it was heavenly. The custard was light and creamy; I almost expected it to ooze out of the tart because it was so luscious but it held its shape. The crust was a combination of the two typologies, both lightly pastry-like and chock full of buttery goodness. It was so good that I fought off SB to eat my second one that he was reaching for, having inhaled his share.

wolfing it down

At this point another mass of people had arrived to make the line even longer but SB had no choice: he was hooked. He stood in line again for a couple more tarts. These, he could not eat immediately because they had literally just been removed from the oven and were scorchingly hot. He wolfed them down as soon as they cooled slightly.

We then walked about the neighborhood, making our way up and down the winding streets to look at historic buildings and temples. We made our yearly visit to Man Mo Temple on Hollywood and Ladder Streets, which is one of Hong Kong's oldest temples (built in 1847) and dedicated to the god of literature and the god of war. A long time ago the temple was utilized similarly to a court of law with people going there to have an arbitrator resolve differences.