TIMEasia.com | Travel Watch 10/05/98

TIMEasia.com | Travel Watch 10/05/98: "SHORT CUTS MAKE TARTS, NOT WAR: Macau's egg tarts are tickling palates across Asia. A dozen Macanese-style bakeries opened in Taipei this past summer, selling up to 60,000 of the creamy pasteis de nata daily, sparking three-hour long queues and sending Taiwan's egg prices soaring to $1.68 a kg, up from $0.32 in January. Hong Kong's nata fans have also been jamming sidewalks since its first egg-tarts-only bakery opened in December. Three rival bakeries are now competing in the daan tat (as they're called locally) sweepstakes, plus the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Kowloon--which sells up to 1,200 tarts a day--and select KFC branches. When and where did the fad start? Depends on whom you believe. Lord Stow's Bakery, started by Andrew Stow, a British pharmacist, has been selling nata in Macau's Coloane Village since 1989; his ex-wife now runs two rival egg-tart bakeries. But local pastry chef Elias da Silva claims he brought the recipe to Macau first. Meanwhile, the tarts continue to sell like hot cakes."