AFP, HONG KONGWith their flaky pastry casing, creamy custard filling and brulee topping, Macau’s Portuguese egg tarts are as much a part of the Chinese enclave’s fabric as its casinos — but their origin is surprisingly British. But the current craze for Portuguese-style egg tarts — which has spread across China and parts of Asia in recent years — owes much of its success to a Briton who blundered into the business. The creation initially raised a few eyebrows among Andrew’s Portuguese friends in Macau, but the local Chinese community became hooked. “To differentiate it from what they recognized in dim sum, a dan tat [egg tart in Cantonese,] they call it a po tat,” meaning Portuguese egg tart, Eileen said. She sold her recipe to KFC, which now offers Portuguese egg tarts at outlets across China, a move that has introduced Macau’s Portuguese-British hybrid to hundreds of millions more hungry mouths.

Source: Taipei Times June 09, 2019 15:56 UTC