Custard Tarts, Dan Tat, Pasteis De Nata

I was on the phone at work and one of my work colleagues walked in with a yellow sticky note and waved it in front of me; ‘Yum cha’.  You had me at yum!

Three of us headed down to Shark Fin Inn at 50 Little Bourke St (Shark Fin have another restaurant, Shark Fin House at 131 Little Bourke St).  All the usual yum cha suspects were there, but one little treat I’ve never seen before was a ball of minced prawns wrapped with some bacon or bacon type product and fried.  Now that was a taste sensation. 

On to more important matters…dessert.  Whenever I have yum cha I always make sure there is room left for some mango pudding.... 

...........and egg tart.  Warm tart, flaky, flaky pastry.  Delicious!

Asian custard Tart (dan tat)

I was convinced the egg tarts at yum cha were my favourite.  Later in the day I remembered the custard tart shockers that were in the caf at school or cake shops and sandwich shops around town.  If they had enough nutmeg sprinkled on top then they were tolerable.  I found one at a sandwich/cake/fried food joint in the city the next day.  But for a complete picture I needed a Portuguese tart to complete my comparison.  I headed off to Casa Iberica in my break and bought one.  $2 each or 3 for $5.  At this stage I was still sure that the Asian egg tart would be the winner. 

I got back to my desk and took a bite of the generic custard tart, as expected it was underwhelming.  

Custard tart

I took a bite from the Portuguese tart.  My goodness! Chewy flakey pastry with a rich sweet custard filling.  

Portuguese custard tart (pasteis de nata)

Now I was torn.  Okay, so now I love two different custard tarts.  Actually there are two sorts of Chinese egg tarts.  Maxims sell them with a shortcrust pastry, the filling is good.  But I’ve discovered that the egg tarts with the flaky pastry are my first choice.

Over at Baking for Britain there is some interesting information on the history of the custard tart.


Wikipedia has info on the Portuguese custard tart and the Asian custard tart.


If you want to make Portuguese tarts, there is this recipe from The Age or Bill Granger's recipe.


You might want to try making the Chinese egg tarts, there is a recipe here or here.


Or maybe making an old school custard tart but tastier than the commercial varieties.  Lynne Mullins has a recipe here or Brian Turner here.  One of my favourite quirky TV chefs is Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall and he has a recipe in The Guardian.