Xiao long bao

The Shanghai version of the xiao long bao was originally from a town called Nanxiang, a suburb of Shanghai in the Jiading District. The inventor of xiaolongbao originally sold them in his first storein Nanxiang next to the town's famous park, Guqi Garden. From there on it has expanded into downtown Shanghai and outwards. Two specialist Xiaolongbao restaurants are traditionally regarded as themost authentic. One is the Nanxiang Bun Shop (Nanxiang Mantou Dian), which derives from the original store in Nanxiang but now located in the City God Temple precinct, is famed for its crab meat-filledbuns. Nanxiang Bun Shop has at least 105 years of history and has divisions opened in Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea and Singapore. The other is Gulong Restaurant, at the original site next to GuqiGarden in Nanxiang.

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Custard tarts were introduced in Hong Kong in the 1940s by cha chaan tengs and western cafes and bakeries to compete with dim sum restaurants particularly for yum cha. Itlater evolved to become egg tarts today. At the time, egg tarts were twice the size of today's tarts. During the 1950s and 1960s when the economy started taking off, Luk Jyu (陸羽) took the lead with themini-egg tart.
One theory suggests Chinese egg tarts are a Chinese adaption of English tarts with custard filling. Guangdong had long been the region in China with most frequent contact with the West,in particular Britain. As a former British colony, British food naturally assimilated to local Hong Kong tastes. Another suggests that they are evolved from the very similar Portuguese egg tartpastries, possible through the influence of Portuguese Macau.

During the Chinese Song Dynasty (960–1279) noodle shops were very popular in the cities, and remained open all night. Around the 3rd centuryBC, when the Roman Empire began trading with the Chinese Han Empire in China, merchants and nomads carried the grindstone from oasis to oasis along the Silk Roads. For the first time, the Chinese...