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Portuguese Egg Tarts
Sunday, 1 March 2020 22:44The story of Portuguese Egg Tarts in Macau...
Nowadays, in Macau, the famous egg tarts are from Lord Stow. Their marketing is great and they do a lot of interviews recounting how things came to be.
In the beginning, they did tell the story as it is. More recently, they cut out some credit. Specifically, credit to my Dad.
My Dad is an Austrian chef who came to Macau some 40+ years ago. He worked in a hotel back then and got to work with a certain Portuguese celebrity chef. I'm not too sure about that part of the story because I wasn't born yet.
Anyway, he learnt Portuguese cuisine from this Portuguese chef and then he even opened his own restaurant, called the Restaurant 1999. Not sure how the name came to be, but at that time (1980's-early 1990's) the "upcoming big thing" was 1999 when Macau would be returned to China (long story short, Macau was a Portuguese colony, though I read it wasn't exactly that, but anyway).
The restaurant was located in a super lovely "countryside" and I think would have been a great restaurant nowadays, but back then, the location probably wasn't the best place; not everyone had a car. Eventually the restaurant had to close down. Again, I don't know the full story, the short "child-friendly" story I got was: "You Dad just isn't made to run a business." Okay.
During his restaurant years, I distinctly remember his Portuguese Egg Tarts. They were delicious. So this Stow guy wanted to start a bakery/pastry business making these Egg Tarts to supply to hotels. My Dad taught him how to make it. This English guy tweaks the recipe and starts his own business. Next thing you know he is selling these "Famous Portuguese Egg Tarts."
To this day, Mom is absolutely irritated that Dad just taught the guy how to make them egg tarts for free. And he now has a good business. I guess the story "Your Dad just isn't made to run a business" is true LOL. No wonder they say, a true Macanese person will bring their recipes into their graves. That is so true. That is so so so so sooooooooooo true. (I have a "Midnight Cake" recipe from Mom that I'm explicitly told to never ever share to anyone EVER. Duh. Life of a Macanese). Imagine, if it were my Dad that had that business, I could have been living the good life LOL LOL LOL. Just joking. I like my life as it is now.
Anyway, Stow guy then, I don't know, divorces his wife or doesn't or whatever, all I know that there is some kind of rife, and his wife opens another pastry business, Margaret's. Again, Portuguese egg tarts, but something different as well. So there are 2 egg tart business similar to each other (I know one is sweeter than the other, I don't recall which is which).
Now, many small bakeries sell their own egg tarts as well, but the better ones are still these from Lord Stow and Margaret's.
Fast forward to recently, since my friend opened her own French pastry shop down by our street, I had been egging Dad to start making his egg tarts again. They were his specialty when he had his restaurant! My friend even helped to egg him on by offering free reign of her pastry kitchen if he wanted.
Three weeks ago, he made his first batch at home. It was a failure. The egg tart shells didn't come out right. But the stuffing was delicious. Give Dad some slack, it has been some 20 years since he last made his egg tarts. No photos because the egg tarts didn't even look like an egg tart LOL.
Then last week he made his second batch. The shells came out well, but the stuffing lacked a bit of oompf. Maybe cream? Maybe milk? It just felt very airy and light. But by looks they came out well
Today he made his third batch. They looked good and tasted good. Yay. Dad made his egg tarts again!
So, I now have what I know as the true story of how Portuguese Egg Tarts came to be a Macau thing written down. I'm going to eat another egg tart. Bye.
Nowadays, in Macau, the famous egg tarts are from Lord Stow. Their marketing is great and they do a lot of interviews recounting how things came to be.
In the beginning, they did tell the story as it is. More recently, they cut out some credit. Specifically, credit to my Dad.
My Dad is an Austrian chef who came to Macau some 40+ years ago. He worked in a hotel back then and got to work with a certain Portuguese celebrity chef. I'm not too sure about that part of the story because I wasn't born yet.
Anyway, he learnt Portuguese cuisine from this Portuguese chef and then he even opened his own restaurant, called the Restaurant 1999. Not sure how the name came to be, but at that time (1980's-early 1990's) the "upcoming big thing" was 1999 when Macau would be returned to China (long story short, Macau was a Portuguese colony, though I read it wasn't exactly that, but anyway).
The restaurant was located in a super lovely "countryside" and I think would have been a great restaurant nowadays, but back then, the location probably wasn't the best place; not everyone had a car. Eventually the restaurant had to close down. Again, I don't know the full story, the short "child-friendly" story I got was: "You Dad just isn't made to run a business." Okay.
During his restaurant years, I distinctly remember his Portuguese Egg Tarts. They were delicious. So this Stow guy wanted to start a bakery/pastry business making these Egg Tarts to supply to hotels. My Dad taught him how to make it. This English guy tweaks the recipe and starts his own business. Next thing you know he is selling these "Famous Portuguese Egg Tarts."
To this day, Mom is absolutely irritated that Dad just taught the guy how to make them egg tarts for free. And he now has a good business. I guess the story "Your Dad just isn't made to run a business" is true LOL. No wonder they say, a true Macanese person will bring their recipes into their graves. That is so true. That is so so so so sooooooooooo true. (I have a "Midnight Cake" recipe from Mom that I'm explicitly told to never ever share to anyone EVER. Duh. Life of a Macanese). Imagine, if it were my Dad that had that business, I could have been living the good life LOL LOL LOL. Just joking. I like my life as it is now.
Anyway, Stow guy then, I don't know, divorces his wife or doesn't or whatever, all I know that there is some kind of rife, and his wife opens another pastry business, Margaret's. Again, Portuguese egg tarts, but something different as well. So there are 2 egg tart business similar to each other (I know one is sweeter than the other, I don't recall which is which).
Now, many small bakeries sell their own egg tarts as well, but the better ones are still these from Lord Stow and Margaret's.
Fast forward to recently, since my friend opened her own French pastry shop down by our street, I had been egging Dad to start making his egg tarts again. They were his specialty when he had his restaurant! My friend even helped to egg him on by offering free reign of her pastry kitchen if he wanted.
Three weeks ago, he made his first batch at home. It was a failure. The egg tart shells didn't come out right. But the stuffing was delicious. Give Dad some slack, it has been some 20 years since he last made his egg tarts. No photos because the egg tarts didn't even look like an egg tart LOL.
Then last week he made his second batch. The shells came out well, but the stuffing lacked a bit of oompf. Maybe cream? Maybe milk? It just felt very airy and light. But by looks they came out well
Today he made his third batch. They looked good and tasted good. Yay. Dad made his egg tarts again!
So, I now have what I know as the true story of how Portuguese Egg Tarts came to be a Macau thing written down. I'm going to eat another egg tart. Bye.
