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[rating: 4]

New Town Bakery in Chinatown is a Chinese/Filipino bakery that also doubles as a restaurant. They’re well known for their steamed buns, especially the house special bola bola — a  Filipino version of a steamed pork bun (except with more meat, and egg too). But it wasn’t the buns we were seeking, we were here for their egg tarts and egg twists.

There are a few key components when looking for a good egg tart. One is the crust. And the other is the custard. The egg custard has to have the right sweetness and the right texture. The pastry shell should be light and flaky (that is, unless you prefer the non-flaky kind). We’ve had our share of egg tarts over the years, and New Town Bakery pretty much has this one in the bag, although St. Germaine’s Bakery is a close runner up. New Town Bakery’s egg tarts custard has a semi firm texture with a nice balance of sweetness. The crust is nice and flaky but is a touch on the firmer side.

(Left to Right: 1. House specialty steamed buns, in old-school over-sized bamboo steamers. 2. Coconut Rice Balls)

Tre likes the egg twists, a strange, twisted dough that is made up mostly from eggs, fried and then glazed with some sort of sticky substance — very likely corn syrup. It can be quite messy eating this and probably isn’t the healthiest choice on the menu. Regardless, New Town Bakery’s egg tarts and egg twists pretty much rock the house.

(Clockwise: 1. Egg Tarts. 2. Egg Twist & Coconut Bun. 2. New Town celebrates 30 years in the biz in 2010.)

At just under $1 a piece for each item, what could initially seem like a bargain can quickly add up if you start walking out with boxes of this stuff. If you don’t mange to get them straight out of the oven from New Town, try this at home: Put the egg tarts in the toaster oven at  35o degrees for 10-15 minutes and it’ll taste like you just bought them fresh straight from the bakery.

Perfect For: sweet eggy delight

158 East Pender Street, Vancouver
604.681.1828

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