16 Jun
Tai Cheong Bakery & Chan Yi Zai @ Central, Hong Kong
For our travel itinerary, please click here. Continuing from Hong Kong Day 3 – Lin Heung Tea House @ Central
After a rather disappointing dim sum meal in Hong Kong, we proceeded to our second stop – Tai Cheong Bakery. The store front was exceptionally quiet on a Saturday morning but we have no complaints. The thought of having to queue up and wait endlessly for food sends shivers down our spine.
We got ourselves two egg tarts and another two of those much raved about donuts. In our humble opinion, while the wobbly egg centre was silky smooth, the short crust pastry shell was lackluster when compared to the flaky puff pastry version that is widely available in most dim sum joint.
Apparently, Chris Patten, the last British Governor of HK was particularly fond of Tai Cheong’s egg tart. Thus Tai Cheong was made famous and the eggs tarts sold at the bakery are known as “Fei-Patten egg tarts” 肥彭蛋撻.
But we found our new love at Tai Cheong bakery – the sugar coated donuts 沙翁! They were still warm before we shoved them into our mouths. Our eyes opened wide the moment after we took a bite of it. Unlike its light and fluffy western counterparts, Tai Cheong’s donuts were eggy, milky and creamy with crepe like layers beneath. You have to try it to tell the difference!
The next destination was Chan Yi Zai, an 82 year old establishment that sells traditional home made snacks like almond cookies, bird’s nest cake, barley cookies, sour plum etc.
We got ourselves a box of bird’s nest cake 燕窩糕 (HKD 45) with six thin slices and all of them were individually packaged. Since the cakes were freshly made, they do not last long and must be consumed within three days. The cakes were smooth and chewy (reminds me of glutinous rice cake) with bits and strands of bird’s nest here and there but you know lar, healthier food usually taste bland. So, you can just delete this off from your makan list 
陳意齋 CHAN YEE JAI
Shop D, G/F, 176 Queen’s Road Central (Central)
香港皇后大道中176D號
Open from Monday to Saturday 10am-730pm, Sunday 10am to 630pm
Tai Cheong Bakery 泰昌餅家
35 Lyndhurst Terrace, Central, Hong Kong
中環擺花街 35 號地下
Opens daily 730am to 9pm
Posted by Round Up: 6D5N at Hong Kong & Macau | KAMPUNGBOYCITYGAL on June 16, 2009 at 11:44 am
[...] 3: 蓮香樓 Lin Heung Tea House @ Central, 陳意齋Chan Yi Zai @ Central, 泰昌餅家 Tai Cheong @ Central, 蘭芳園 Lan Fong Yuen @ Central, H&M @ Central, H&M @ Tsim Tsa Tsui, Honeymoon Dessert @ [...]
Posted by ai wei on June 16, 2009 at 12:56 pm
marked this down. next time gonna have a try if i am able to fly over there! ~
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Posted by cumidanciki on June 16, 2009 at 3:15 pm
wa.. iv never seen it so thinly packed!
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Posted by J2Kfm on June 16, 2009 at 5:05 pm
eh never knew the donuts can exceed the egg tarts!!1
true, most HK egg tarts unlike M’sia’s version which are flaky and crispy.
but the cookie crust also tasty ma, no meh?
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Posted by Precious Pea on June 16, 2009 at 8:23 pm
So the bird nest cake no-no?? Wanted to try that but didn’t have the chance to visit the shop.
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Posted by Sugar Bean on June 16, 2009 at 10:06 pm
Interesting story about the name of the egg tart. But is the donut really that good? So tempted to try it out. And the bird nest cake, haven’t seen anything like that before.
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Posted by thenomadGourmand on June 16, 2009 at 10:22 pm
eggy, milky and creamy with crepe like layers beneath?? aiyoo..ya should hv took a pic of the crossed-section of it~!!
ahhh..now i got to wait til i get to HK to taste it!! cannot cannot…torture!!
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Posted by jason on June 17, 2009 at 1:22 pm
Aha… thanks for the tip! Shall put the donut in my makan list.
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Posted by mimid3vils on June 17, 2009 at 4:02 pm
Never heard abt the bird nest cake or the barley cake ~.~
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Posted by cariso on June 17, 2009 at 6:59 pm
Must mark it down already the Sar Ung! I like milky creamy not dry-dry food.
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Posted by taufulou on June 18, 2009 at 1:41 pm
aiks..seems that i miss alot of good food there, surely will read your blog again for my next trip~
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Posted by Jean on June 18, 2009 at 3:24 pm
沙翁!! I love it when I’m a kid.. Only can taste it if I go back to my grandmother house..
But already many years never eat it already, because the uncle who sell the thing moved away from the town d.. So sad!
I cannot find it anywhere in KL.. next time if I go HK, sure will visit dis shop!
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Posted by YilingL on June 19, 2009 at 7:56 am
Wah birds nest cake… so lavish hehehe.
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Posted by eiling on June 19, 2009 at 12:19 pm
Ooh birds’ nest cakes! That interests me!
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Posted by Christine on June 21, 2009 at 11:15 pm
I prefer flaky puff pastry
and of course with the wobbly soft egg custard!
the ‘ang moh’ egg custards here are some big NO NOs… lol
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Posted by Lan Fong Yuen @ Central, Hong Kong | KAMPUNGBOYCITYGAL on July 8, 2009 at 5:30 pm
[...] For our travel itinerary, please click here. Continuing from Hong Kong Day 3 -Tai Cheong Bakery & Chan Yi Zai, Central [...]
Posted by Egg Tarts @ Honolulu Coffee Shop, Wanchai | KAMPUNGBOYCITYGAL on December 1, 2010 at 9:29 am
[...] from our Tai Cheong [...]