A Chinese Baking Affair

Unlike unrequited crushes, Steven Tam’s one-sided affair with the egg custard tart has blossomed into a full-blown spectacle. Today, the 33-year-old baker is the proprietor of two Egg Custard King Cafe shops in New York's Manhattan Chinatown. His yellow storefront signs are loud and clear: he is conqueror of the egg custard tart.

The yellow egg custard tart, with its flaky crust and silken filling, is a traditional Chinese pastry offered at dim sum, served at the end of banquets, and eaten as a snack. At Tam's cafes, its modern incarnations include the low-cholesterol, egg white version; a strawberry tart; and a lime green variety. However, pastries are not the only items on the menu.

“We’re like a traditional Hong Kong canteen,” says Tam.“We serve a little bit of everything: buns, noodle soup, hot pot, and rice dishes for lunch and dinner. We open until very late."

Egg Custard King Cafe is in fact a melting pot-- of cultures, generations, and geographical locations. With 16 years of baking experience that began in Hong Kong, once the second bread and pastry mecca in the world, Tam is attuned to his customers' preferences.

“Here in the U.S., people are more concerned with flavor, not presentation. In Hong Kong, breads and pastries are closer to the Japanese style, where each individual pastry is like a work of art. Also, Chinese pastries are not so sweet. They are close to the Italian style.”

Marda Stoliar, director of International School of Baking, and former baking consultant to U.S. Wheat Associates, agrees: “The Chinese palate is much more aligned to European baking. They don’t like the intense sugar rush of the American palate.”

“However, there is a dichotomy,” says Stoliar, who taught the Chinese to make their own marzipan when none was available. “Chinese white bread is sweeter than ours. For many years, people could not afford to put jam and butter on their bread, so they made their bread slightly sweet. They’d add yellow food coloring, perceived to be egg. Eggs were hard to come by.”

Stoliar’s work experiences in China during the ‘80s and ‘90s are a long way from the abundances of modern day China. The Chinese are now consuming less wheatstuffs and diversifying their diet with more fresh produce. But changing habits have not dampened their creative resourcefulness.

“The Chinese like innovation,” says Tam. “That’s why we offer new and different products. Hong Kong and mainland Chinese move much more quickly than people in America. More speed.”

While invention is the stuff of dreams, in reality it is more convenient to reheat a baked bun in the microwave oven than to reheat a steamed bun, best done by steaming. But Tam is a dreamer. He hopes to get young people to eat egg custard tarts for dessert, a course not traditionally eaten in China.

In spite of his success, Tam is an independent baker. All baking at Egg Custard King Cafe is done on the premises. At the other end of the business is Fei Da Bakery, a family-run franchise with three stores in Manhattan, six in Queens, and two in New Jersey. Most baking is done in the stores, but cakes and pastries are manufactured in the company-owned factory.

Twenty-six-year-old Victor Tsung, a Fei Da Bakery manager, also emphasizes newness. Traditional items like the roast pork bun and hot dog bun are staples, he says, but original concoctions keep the franchise's image fresh. The Fei Da team meets once a month to brainstorm and test out new ideas. Their green tea cake, a seasonal item, has been a success.

Fei Da does not offer a full lunch and dinner menu; it sells quick lunch items that can be eaten as snacks any time of the day. In addition, croissants and made-to-order breads are churned out in the factory for airline groups and independent Italian establishments. A lightened version of the tiramisu cake is offered in stores, but the Italians have not placed orders for Fei Da desserts—yet.

“It’s not just the Chinese who like lighter pastries, but all our customers…People from all over the world prefer Chinese baked goods,” says Tsung.

The Egg Custard King is out romancing his customers as well. He sells Italian-type cookies, cannolis, tiramisu, and cream puffs alongside everything else on his extensive menu. -AN

copyright 2006 (ridgeway / ng)