World Pie Recipe: Egg Pie

Woman’s overskirt, nai leki Makalero peoples, Iliomar Subdistrict, Lautém District, Timor-Leste, probably post-1975 Cotton; supplementary warp; 116 x 61 cm, two panels Collection of David and Maxine Hicks Courtesy Fowler Museum at UCLA

Good Food’s Annual Pie Contest will hit the Fowler Museum at UCLA this year, and given the museum’s focus on world culture, they’ve provided us with a few recipe ideas inspired from objects on display at the museum.

Kathy Pham is a summer intern at the Fowler this year and a geography undergraduate at UCLA. When she was a little girl, one of her favorite desserts was egg pie. At the New Year, her family would treat the kids to a box filled with little egg pies, which are creamy, yellow egg custards in small pie crusts. Kathy always assumed egg pies were a traditional Chinese dessert. However, she recently discovered that the recipe travelled to Hong Kong from Portugal, where it is known as pastel de nata. Due to Portugal’s colonial history, pastel de nata is found in many part of the world, including in Timor-Este (Timor East), which was a colony of Portugal until a revolution toppled the Portuguese dictatorship in 1974. During the 6th will be presenting Textiles of Timor, Island in the Woven Sea, which showcases nearly fifty beautifully dyed and intricately patterned cloths, including many from the Fowler Museum, which maintains one of the world’s most complete and best-documented collections of Timorese textiles.

Try this recipe for egg pie from Food.com.