Many items common in China were historically inspired by the original ones from Europe. This includes desserts.

In the UK, people enjoy the custard tart, or the flans pâtissier in France. Whichever variation from Western countries,it usually has a pastry shell and is filled with a custard made with milk, sugar and eggs and then baked. Optional flavours include cinnamon and nutmeg. In the past, rich folk even replaced the milk with almond milk, during periods of fasting, so they could still eat sweet food if they gave up dairy.

If this dessert sounds familiar, it is because Chinese cooks in Guangzhou took this custard tart and made their own version, which you see in Hong Kong as the egg tart. Unlike the European version, the filling is just sweet steamed egg, and no extra ingredients are added. The Chinese further changed the recipe by altering the crust, to make it more flaky or crumbly, depending on which crust you buy.

In 1989, another variation of the egg tart appeared in shops. In Portugal, the pastel de nata is an egg tart sprinkled with cinnamon, and has a sugary glaze on top to give it brown marks after it is baked. Two Britons who lived in Macau at the time tried to copy the recipe, and created a Chinese egg tart with the Portuguese-style glaze. They called this brown-topped version the “Portuguese Egg Tart”, but because it is so common in Macau, locals call it the Macau-style egg tart.

Credits: Issue 06, 3 November 2022 (Thursday) by Quest from hkej

1. variation (n) 變體

2. fasting (n) 禁食

3. steamed (adj) 蒸的

4. recipe (n) 食譜

5. alter (v) 修改

6. glaze (n) 漿

SOME English words are a nightmare for learners, because they look so similar but stand for completely different things. Probably the best example is “desert” and “dessert”, which sound a bit similar, apart from the second syllables.

A desert is a vast, sandy place with little water, while a dessert is a sweet food you have after dinner. No one likes to be in a desert, but everyone loves to have dessert after a meal. How do you tell the difference? A simple expression helps: “Remember that a dessert has two ‘s’s because everyone wants seconds of it!”

Credits: Issue 06, 3 November 2022 (Thursday) by Quest from hkej

Homonyms are words pronounced and spelled the same way but with a different meaning.

1. Ate / eight – Past tense for “eat” or you have just eaten something / a number

2. Jam – To force or block something / a type of jelly, mostly fruit-flavoured

3. Tender – Easy to cut or chew / showing kindness and gentleness

4. Bean / been – a type of vegetable / past tense of “be”

5. Leek / leak – a type of vegetable / when something escapes

Below are links to free English Language Learning Materials:

BBC English

Speak Street Worksheet

British Council Learn English

Caro Kowanz English