Lord Stow – Andrew’s Egg Tart
Whilst custard tarts have been reported to have been introduced into Hong Kong as early as the mid 1940s, it seems that these owed more to an English than a Portuguese heritage. 
Wikipedia tells us that:
Portuguese egg tarts evolved from “pastel de nata”, a traditional Portuguese custard pastry that consists of a crème brûlée-like custard caramelized in a crust, as created over 200 years ago by Catholic Sisters at Jerónimos Monastery at Belém in Lisbon.
An Englishman by the name of Andrew Stow arrived in Macau in the late 1970s as a pharmacist. However he was most unhappy about the quality of baked goods available in the colony at the time.
It didn’t take long for the locals to bestow upon Andrew his notional knighthood. As an Englishman who let people know who was boss, the title of “Lord Stow” seemed quite appropriate.
During a visit to Portugal in the mid 1980s, Andrew came across the traditional Pastéis de nata and immediately became obsessed with the texture and flavour of this traditional delicacy.
His pharmaceutical training led Andrew to develop his own particular interpretation of the Portuguese product based on his access to suitable raw materials. He was always a stickler for ensuring that a good recipe results in consistent products.
During the boom time of the late 1980s, Andrew decided that the time had arrived to introduce quality baked goods into the Coloane village area of Macau. This was the origin of Lord Stow’s Bakery. Whilst he had originally considered his egg tarts as just another product, he took the opportunity to fine tune his recipe based on the feedback from customers.
After a few years, Andrew’s egg tarts became the signature item of his bakery, as described on the Lord Stow website:
Lord Stow’s Bakery suddenly became famous for one item – Andrew’s Egg Tart. Journalists started writing about Andrew and his little bakery found itself on Macau’s list of tourist attractions. Andrew’s original recipe Egg Tarts became well known beyond their territorial confines, attracting a faithful following and becoming a visible export, almost a trademark of Macau.
We felt the need to visit this iconic bakery so that we could sample for ourselves how Andrew’s egg tarts compared with the original Portuguese tarts.
Our evaluation was that the tarts that we tried in Lisbon were very similar, but with a slight difference in the texture of the custard and of the level of sweetness.
Whilst Andrew continued to deny that his product was a traditional Portuguese style, we nevertheless felt that he had achieved what many other bakeries around the world had failed to do – replicate the flavour, style and “mouth feel” of the Pastéis de Belém
