Not Really King of Egg Tarts

Well I have read about the supposedly great Hong Kong egg tarts from John King so when opportunity presented itself after lunch at Pavilion's Food Republic, I took the chance of sampling the egg tarts on offer. Well since you cannot really appreciate the tarts from such small sample pieces and they were offering a free tart or siew pau with each order of six pieces, how can I pass up the chance to bring some home. In this case I took home a pair each of the regular egg tart, egg white tart and durian flavoured tart and took a piece of siew pau as the freebie.

Now my comments on the regular egg tarts are that they are just that, regular whereby you can find comparable stuff at any decent bakery or even night market if you are lucky or look hard enough. The taste was nothing fantastic and to me does not deserve the fantastic review some people have given to the tart. And this from me, someone who needs to find only halal establishment tarts to compare. So I am sure there are non-halal establishments' offering that can better theirs, especially if lard has a major role in the taste since John King may be handicapped here as they are unable to use this ingredient in order to become a halal item for the Malaysian public.

As for the egg white tarts, this come off better not only for its novelty but also for its light taste and texture, very smooth. This is something that I can eat many pieces of in one sitting without any guilt, as it is just like eating tau fu fa tarts if ever there was such a thing. A winner in its own right and should be something to be tried by everybody at least once just to appreciate its difference. Trust me on this.

However the grand price winner is definitely the durian flavoured egg tart that needs to be savoured. Sadly the wife and myself only managed a small nibble as the elder one polished off the rest. Now if such a nit picky eater, even with durian, cannot stop herself from finishing off two egg tarts at one sitting, then you must know the tart must be very good especially since she abhors egg tarts in general and do not really like to eat durian unless they are very sweet and creamy. The reason for this is because the durian taste is perfect where you can get the pleasure of eating sweet durian without any jelak taste. So this is a real durian custard suitable for durian eating beginners. Anyway now I know which egg tarts to buy the next time I am around the location.

Sadly I cannot say the same about the siew pau. I thought their siew pau would end my search for good halal siew paus ever since my regular bakery stop carrying such an item. As you can see even though the pastry was quite good and not so crumbly, the taste was however not there. Then you have a dry tasteless filling of unidentifiable meat even though it is supposed to be chicken, then you know it is a dissapointment. Luckily this was a freebie because I am sure I will not pay the price that is already more expensive than elsewhere. Definitely a non-purchase item the next time I am there. Thus John King is definitely a hit and miss affair for me. I will definitely go for the the specialty egg tarts but the regular items will be given a miss instead. And with it I can forget about joining the queue of supposedly trendy people for overated donuts, I can get better pastries here.