Hello From one foodie to another

Today, my family and I went to East Manor Restaurant to celebrate the new year and what a spectacular meal it was!

The custard tarts at East Manor deserve an entire paragraph to themselves because people go crazy for them. Custard tarts are very popular at dim sum restaurants, but are actually not Chinese in origin. They were introduced first through the Portuguese colony of Macau and adopted from the Portuguese tart-pastel de nata. The pastel de nata and the english custard tart influenced the creation of these egg tarts famous in Hong Kong. One man is responsible for the baking of these tarts at East Manor. He sets up his tray with the little tart tins already lined with the dough for the crust and pours in the custard filling. Eager eyes watch him as he puts the tray in the oven. He’s a tough guy and altogether not very friendly, but you have to give him credit for dealing with all the shouting Chinese men and women that push and shove each other for their dessert. The beautiful, shiny yellow custards come out of the oven with the custard rising above the top of the crust. He sets them down and waits until they all flatten before hurriedly plating them, trying not to burn his hands in the process. If he didn’t plate them as soon as they flattened, I’m almost certain that the Chinese mothers would take it upon themselves to do their own plating. By the way, he wears thin latex gloves while handling the tarts right out of the oven, so I must be a wimp for using my thickly lined, half-arm length oven mitts at home. The taste is unbelievable, the crust is warm and flaky and the custard is soft and dissolves in your mouth. It. smells. like. heaven.