Hong Kong

Menu: Milk tea and dan tat (egg tarts) | Recipe Source: The Woks of Life

Technically, Hong Kong is not a country. The former British colony is a Special Administrative Region of China, and while it has different laws, currency, and border policies than the mainland, it’s legally and unquestionably a Chinese territory. That said, 150 years of British possession are hard to erase. UK culture has irrevocably steeped into nearly every facet of Hong Kong, and overt English influences can be seen in the city’s architecture, driving rules, and cuisine. Given how different Hong Kong is when compared to the rest of China, I thought it was worth tackling as a separate entity for Cooking Around the World. And appropriately enough, one of the recipes I picked features the most British ingredient of them all: Earl Gray tea!

Thoughts: This was the most delightful little afternoon snack. The milk tea tasted like a warm and slightly simpler (but just as delicious) version of Thai iced tea, and the egg tarts were lightly sweet, custardy, and rich. I had a little trouble with dan tat pastry (it was a bit too crumbly and had trouble sticking together until I added some evaporated milk to bind it) but the end result tasted delicious, even if the dough wasn’t textbook-perfect.

Ready to cook?

Milk tea (link): I followed this recipe exactly aside from swapping evaporated whole milk for evaporated oatmilk to reduce the amount of dairy!

Dan tat (link): Like I mentioned above, the dough simply would not come together for me (and I made sure I fluffed the flour, used a scale instead of a measuring cup, etc!) until I added about 2 tbsp of evaporated milk mixed with water. I’ve had trouble with doughs in the past though and usually adding in a little liquid, a little flour, a little liquid, a little flour, and so on until you get the consistency that you want seems to work.