tai cheong bakery, takashimaya.

there is seriously a tart craze going around- first cheese tarts, and now egg tarts. while i'm not about to queue two to three hours for cheese tarts (i have better things to do) i didn't mind braving the queue for egg tarts, given that it was reportedly about half an hour. especially for awesome egg tarts! these are the ones that C hand carries back from hong kong for me, so i was interested to see if they were as good as those she brought back.



the queue looked deceptively short when i first reached takashimaya's basement, but i knew better. poked my head around and saw that it looked short only because it was separated into sections so as not to disrupt traffic. still, it wasn't too bad, though, so i joined it. time actually passed fairly quickly because... i was entertained by people who thought that the queue ended there, but then were taken aback when they were notified by a staff member posted there to join the queue behind. (and then there were people who got curious because of the snaking queue, and poked their head around wondering what it was for.)



the system was, thankfully, a pretty efficient one. the staff posted at the sectioned off part also did double duty as order taker. payment would be made later along the queue (cash only- which i thankfully had) with collection after that.





i spent the time being fascinated by them making egg tarts. they were making them right on the spot- filling the tarts with egg mixture, baking them, and taking them out of the tart case. (i never knew that the tarts weren't baked with the disposable aluminium casing- they had to take them out of the baking cases and then put them into the aluminium casing. all while piping hot.) they worked really quickly and efficiently- pretty impressive.



the tarts were literally fresh out of the oven when i got my hands on them, but i didn't have time to eat it on the spot. i brought it home and heated it up in the toaster later that evening, and it was just as good as the ones C brought back! i especially love the tart base- buttery, slightly milky, and crisp. totally worth the queue, given that i only waited slightly more than half an hour. (then again i went at an off peak timing- and was still surprised by the number of people there. don't people have to work?! okay, i know the same could be said of me.)

tai cheong bakery
pop-up, takashimaya food hall