Silky smooth milk pudding

There is never enough custard in my life. Crème brûlée, éclairs, or an ordinary pudding bun, I love them all equally.

Contributing editor Emma de Thouars has booked a one-way ticket to Asia and will see when she returns to the Netherlands. For FavorFlav, she spends hours queuing for local favorites. This time, she eats steamed milk pudding in Hong Kong. 

Hong Kong is bursting with custard treats. There’s the famous egg tart, for example, which you can buy on every street corner. This little puff pastry shell is delicious, but the steamed milk pudding at Yee Shun is my absolute favorite.

As soon as you pierce it with your spoon, you discover the most perfect, creamy, soft pudding you have ever eaten.

The dessert is a kind of cross between panna cotta and custard, silky smooth yet with a little bite. In fact, it is nothing more than milk, egg white, and sugar. That may sound very easy, but steaming the pudding is a fairly precise job. Nothing is more disappointing than a custard that tastes of egg or has a grainy texture.

Piercing

There is a small layer on top of the pudding (yes, that familiar skin), and it actually makes it even more delicious. As soon as you pierce it with your spoon, you discover the most perfect, creamy, soft pudding you have ever eaten. The classic and most famous version is the milk pudding without any additional flavors, but the chocolate version is actually even better. There is also a ginger version on the menu, and they serve super-crispy French toast here. So, essentially, you can eat desserts here all day long.

You can do that in many more places in Hong Kong, by the way. Do you have an intense craving for a huge lava cake at four in the morning? There are countless late-night dessert restaurants where you can satisfy your sugar fix until deep into the night.

Image: Flickr