New Hong Kong Style Bakery - 336 Spadina(? if my memory serves me correct)

[Chocaholic]

Has anyone gone there yet? I walked by and noticed the new bakery only today.

Their egg tarts look good.

Any comments?

[hippotatomus]

The egg tarts looked burnt and unappealing when I went...
Don't really care to go back again.

[Chocaholic]

I had an old wife cake 'lo pau beng' last week and it was really good. There were no egg tarts left when I was there.

Hey anyone know where to get portugese custard tarts downtown?

[instantnoodle]

The place across from the dinner at St. Lawrence market has the Portuguese custard tarts. Forget the name of the place.

[TorontoJo]

Any of the Portuguese bakeries along College St. has them. Nova Era is a chain with multiple locations, so maybe one is more convenient for you. Addictive little things, aren't they?

[pinstripeprincess]

could you be more descriptive of the old wife cake? a good version downtown is fairly elusive and the best experience i've had thus far was a bakery in chinatown east on broadview and i think it was the first one with a long hallway as the pastry picking area and bahn mi and bubble tea at the front. it actually had crunchy pieces of melon in it! still a bit strong on the banana essence but much better than the gelatenous goo i often get instead.

my fave portuguese style custard tarts are at brazil bakery on dundas with venezia coming in close second on ossington. it all depends on how sweet or chewy you want the crust!

[gegtik]

You can get portuguese tarts at My Market Bakery in Kensington Market

[Teep]

Burnt? perhaps they are Portuguese tarts, which are supposed to have scorch marks on them?

http://manggy.blogspot.com/2008/12/po...

[num nums]

I walked in just as they were closing today. Obviously not very much was left out. But noticed something that was labeled "pork cookie". There were a couple left so I took one. The regular price is only 35 cents. When I went to pay for it the lady laughed at me and just waved me to go. I have never seen this before so immediately gobbled down my free treat.

It's was a very thin cookie, that looks more like a crisp. Although I didn't see any pieces of pork product, it definitely had a strong porky-sweet-savoury flavour. The flavour is so strong, almost an hour later, the flavour still lingers. I neither hate it nor love it. I'm guessing the cookie is made with pork fat? Does anyone know more about this mysterious snack?

[pinkprimp]

Was it kind of chewy?

[num nums]

Yes it was a bit. The closest thing I can think of, in terms of texture and appearance, is a parmesan cheese tuile that has sit a while so isn't that crispy. I'm not sure if this cookie is normally this way, since it must have been sitting around for a while.

[Teep]

In Cantonese it is called "gai jai beng" 雞仔餅 or "little chickie cookie". Ingredients vary, but usually pork fat (i.e. the actual fatty tissue, not rendered fat), five spice powder, and preserved red bean curd, which is the strongest flavour. It can be either crispy or chewy, depends on the recipe, humidity and age. (Really crispy means it's dried out though.)

Here is a recipe in Chinese to make your own, calls for garlic, sesame and peanuts:
http://special.dayoo.com/meal/special...
(looks a lot darker than the commercially made version.)

[pinkprimp]

Ah, yes. That is what I was thinking of. I like the chewier ones though- the really crispy ones make me feel like I'm breaking my teeth.

[gegtik]

I had a flaky egg tart there on friday and it was pretty good