Friday, May 19, 2006

What a tart















I was just sitting innocently at my desk, on the phone to a client, when a member of my team crept into my office with a box of still-warm egg tarts and offered me one.

It's a classic dilemma, not unlike the office cake conundrum described below by Fatfighter2. I say dilemma, but in reality it took me a nano-second to decide to have one.

Egg tarts... mmm. Crispy, flaky, delicate pastry encasing a warm sweet egg custard. Even though these tarts were just from a local bakery and somewhat inferior to the original Portuguese version from which they are cribbed, they are still wonderful, especially at 5.30pm on a Friday.

I first had them at the Lisboa Patisserie in London, but the best I've ever tasted were from Lord Stow's Bakery in Coloane, Macau. It's an unassuming little shop off the village square with trays and trays of warm tarts. We bought six, planning to take some away, but they were so delicious we ate the lot, sitting on a bench in the afternoon heat right outside the bakery.

I guess I have to add egg tarts to my list of things I shouldn't be eating. Sigh. As Gwyneth Paltrow's mother apparently advised her when she asked how to lose weight: "Don't eat anything that tastes nice".

1 comment:

Claire said...

The best thing about Macau, I thought. Which is perhaps not the highest recommendation for a place!