We Tried Hong Kong’s #1 Egg Tart Spot

[yolks sploshing]

[cookie cutter thudding]

[liquid burbling]

[pastry crunching]

[person speaks in foreign language]

Good morning, first thing in the morning

here in Cheung Sha Wan in Hong Kong.

We're looking at egg tarts

at [speaks in foreign language] Gold Garden.

This is one of the most iconic egg tarts in Hong Kong,

also one of my personal favorites.

Sifu is starting to make the egg tarts right now,

let's see what's happening.

This place opens at 6:30 in the morning.

They're one of the few [speaks in foreign language]

left to have a full bakery program,

including things like egg tarts

that come out fresh every single day.

[people chattering] [food sizzling]

Welcome to the back of the [speaks in foreign language].

So this is I would say,

a pretty typical [speaks in foreign language] bakery set up.

You have your chillers,

you have your mixers, dough dividers,

this old school oven,

and benches for working the dough.

Hong Kong salad egg tarts.

There are two primary types of dough.

The first is called a [speaks in foreign language].

Dough that's primarily flour,

a little bit of milk, a little bit of eggs,

it's kind of like a pie crust dough.

The second dough is the [speaks in foreign language],

so that's the fat dough.

That fat dough in this case is a lard dough,

despite being called a dough, it's primarily lard.

Both are based off of low gluten, low protein flour.

So what we're looking at here is the lard dough.

It starts with flour, low gluten, low protein flour.

You don't want a lot of gluten development

'cause you don't want chewiness,

you want flakiness, you want crumbiness.

And now an important addition is milk powder

for that milky flavor.

Milk powder also is going

to caramelize really quite nicely.

And when the egg tart is finished baking,

it's going to be a nice deep golden brown.

And here's a lard render offsite,

nice and clean, bright white.

Lard, unlike butter, is lower in moisture content

and has a higher melting point.

As a result, it disperses itself throughout the dough.

In combination with the lamination technique,

you don't get distinct layers the way you would,

let's say in the croissant.

And here's a little bit of vanilla extract,

which is a personal preference.

Give it a little bit of that western flavor.

The end result is going to be a relatively stiff dough.

Chef has to work quite quickly

because once this is done,

he needs to portion them out into the trays,

which are going to be chilled overnight

before they're used tomorrow.

You might be familiar with lamination

via [speaks in foreign language]

or like pastries, like croissants and so on and so forth.

But lamination in Cantonese baking

is a little bit different.

Obviously there's a European antecedent to some degree,

but the way it's happened and that way we achieve

that flakiness is significantly different.

First things first is when we're looking at the dough,

it's actually two types of dough.

This on the top is called [speaks in foreign language]

which translates to water crust.

On the bottom is the [speaks in foreign language]

which translates to oil crust.

You can see that after it's been chilled, it's quite hard.

After this has been made the day before,

Chef is now rolling out and slowly laminating the dough.

He's adding a little bit more flour.

He's rolling it out just to get it into an even shape.

[rolling pin thuds]

And then he's gonna book fold it.

So the right and the left meet in the middle

and the whole book is closed.

He's rolling out one more time.

He's gonna do the book fold three times.

One, [hand thuds]

two. [hand thuds]

That comes over the top.

[rolling pin thuds]

So that's one simple fold and three book folds.

That's 128 layers.

Whenever people talk about pastry on the internet,

they like talking about how many layers,

blah, blah, blah, blah, thing is.

That's not the right way to understand

and taste the Hong Kong egg tart.

Its flakiness is not by separation

of distinct layers by oil,

but it's a little bit more of an integrated dough.

And I think it's not only just flaky, but it's also crumbly.

That's what makes [speaks in foreign language] so good.

You can see that after the dough has been rested

and with all of this rolling,

the wet dough is now almost fully incorporated

into the lard dough.

He's dusting a good enough of flour

over the top to make sure

that it doesn't stick to the rolling pin.

And once it's nice and even with a little bit of force

and the cookie cutter, key portion of the dough

for each egg tart.

[cookie cutter thuds]

Chef's cookie cutter is ridge on the side

which is pretty typical of the flaky crust egg tarts.

[hand thuds]

[cookie cutter thuds]

That little bit of texture on the side is going

to prevent the egg tart from cracking when it bakes.

But it also is kind of like a cultural expectation.

And the dough goes back into the freezer just to chill,

just to rest before it gets shrimped. [indistinct]

[over thuds]

The center component of the egg tart

obviously is the egg filling.

The number one ingredient is whole eggs.

Unlike the Portuguese egg tarts, it's full eggs.

One egg yolk per egg white.

First thing is the egg,

and second, a simple syrup of white sugar and water.

And finally, a little bit of evaporated milk.

Eight cans per bucket. That's the recipe.

The addition of the evaporated milk is a little bit thicker,

a little bit creamier and consistency than regular milk.

And as you can tell, it's slightly brown,

giving it a little bit of that lick

of caramelized milk flavor.

Chef is whisking it together to bring it together.

The emulsifiers are in the egg itself

which mean that this is going to be one homogenous mixture.

That mixture is going to rest

and hopefully it is going to feed all of the egg tarts

that he needs to make throughout the day.

And now is the time to line the mold to set that tart shell.

These stainless steel molds have been used

for a really long time.

So the first step is Chef uses a bit of extra dough just

to clean them out from the last bake

and places that pretty thick tart shell

into the center of the mold.

Using his thumbs moving clockwise,

he presses out the air from the bottom of the mold,

leaving a little bit of a higher wall

that reaches over the top of the side.

The shape of the tartella,

pretty important for the final texture of the egg tart.

It needs to be thin towards the bottom.

It needs to be light and fluffy and it needs to be tall.

And without this technique,

the egg filling won't cook properly

and it won't be flaky, crusty, and crumbly.

And the last step, the chef is going to fill the egg tarts

with a little bit of that egg filling

before it goes into the oven.

It makes for about 20 minutes,

but it really depends on the day

and the temperature of the oven.

[over thuds]

[speaks in foreign language] It's coming out.

[food reviewer speaks in foreign language]

[chef and food reviewer speak in foreign language]

[food reviewer speaks in foreign language]

[chef speaks in foreign language]

When it comes out, you can see that there's a little bit

of a dome shape because that water vapor is pushing up.

So it's like it's going to depress a little bit

after it comes out. [speaks in foreign language]

[chef and food reviewer speak in foreign language]

[people chattering in foreign language]

[food reviewer and chef speak in foreign language]

[person speaks in foreign language]

[food reviewer speaks in foreign language]

Dude, it looks so good.

[person speaks in foreign language]

So I think part of the ceremony

of this [speaks in foreign language]

is that it comes out every like 15, 20, 30 minutes

whenever it's busy.

Whenever they're running out

of egg tarts here in the front,

they tell in the back and they bake another one.

So when it comes out, the ceremony of egg tarts,

of the smell, of everyone watching what's going on,

that's part of what makes it so charming.

You can see the consistency,

but all these part of the Hong Kong thing, I suppose

with bakeries is picking your favorite one.

For me, I'd probably pick this one.

You see that separation of those layers

and you see that a little bit of dome,

a little bit of caramelization.

It's a consistent color.

Okay, I'm gonna sit down, go in, sit down, get a milk tea,

get an egg tart, see what the deal is.

[food reviewer speaks in foreign language]

[seller speaks in foreign language]

[food reviewer speaks in foreign language]

We're cheating you a little bit

'cause now it's the morning.

But I think [speaks in foreign language]

this kind of tradition translates

to have a cup of tea, have a little bread.

That little bit of a bread or a pastry

with a drink is a very [speaks in foreign language]

3:15 afternoon tea type of thing for us Hong Kong people.

It's a good place to chat

with people when the restaurant is less busy.

And it's also a really good time

to just take a little bit of a moment to yourself.

[food reviewer speaks in foreign language]

[people chattering in foreign language]

Quick pastry analysis.

I'm not a pastry chef, I'm just like happy to be here.

So sides, here, a little bit thick.

That's where a lot of that crumb is coming.

The bottom, it's thinnest around the edge here.

You can see the layers of the lamination.

But unlike a croissant, unlike a puff,

a true 100% puff pastry dough-

[person speaks in foreign language]

the entire dough is a little bit more brought together.

So I mean, you can tell like all over the plate,

all over the table already.

It's just coming apart.

[person speaks in foreign language]

Let's go.

[people chattering in foreign language]

[giggles] So good.

[people chattering in foreign language]

Actually so good.

The outside is so flaky.

By the way, lard doesn't really taste

like pork in this context.

It's sweetened. It's like it powderize.

It's all over your fingers.

So nice and warm. Gently sweet. [slurps]

[people chattering in foreign language]

Here at Gold Garden, they've been doing this

for so, so, so many years.

This iconic placement within the neighborhood,

like Cheung Sha Wan is so residential,

the fact that they're selling out in the front

and still making it in the back.

Finally, it's so fresh.

That's what makes Gold Garden's egg tarts so special.

[people chattering in foreign language]

And this is the type of egg tart you can only get here

in Hong Kong at Gold Garden in Cheung Sha Wan.

There's a lot more to eat in Hong Kong.

So onto the next.

[people chattering in foreign language]