Undisputed king of pastries in Portugal is the Pastéis de nata – basically an egg custard tart dreamt up by Catholic monks.  So the story goes (there’s always a story!):

..” the 1820 revolution forced all of the country’s convents to close and by 1833 the Mosteiro dos Jerónimos ( a huge monastery – separate posting)  was closed down too.  Desperate to find a way to earn a living, the monks began to bake and sell the pastries out of the monastery to travelers. Why custard? Well at the time Portugal  was one of the biggest egg producers in Europe. The whites were used for things like wine purification (port wine, which comes from Portugal) and starching clothes. The leftover yokes were perfect for making custard.  A sugar cane refinery right beside the monastery sealed the deal.

The pastries sold by the monks quickly became known as Pastéis de Belém, and in 1837 the shop opened up next to the monastery was dedicated to baking up the sweet treat. Just about every café in Portugal serves a similar egg tart –– but only the Pastéis de Belém café makes the dessert using the original recipe which has been kept secret and passed down from generation to generation.”

That shop is in the photo above – under the blue awning.  It’s not far from where we’re staying and there is always a line.  We’ve had several of these yummy tarts but, not one to follow the crowd 🙂 we haven’t queued up to try theirs.  We will before our visit is over because everyone notes they are so much better.  Will see!

Not the only sweet in town,  these were spotted just before Easter.

These windows scream out on every block! Yes – those are eggs baked into those sweet rolls.

Also typical are meats (specialty salamis and hams) baked into bread/pastry dough – below.You can’t beat their chocolate cake!  This was at Landau Chocolate shop, reviewed to have the best chocolate cake in town.  It’s very rich, with a cocoa dusting over a mousse layer.  I’d give it a 3.5 out of 5.   I’d like more cake and less mousse.

We were in their shop on the right in this website – http://landeau.pt/

Thankfully the walking we’re doing has balanced out the extra sweets we’ve been ‘testing’.  I’ve yet to find a winning cookie, but I will persist.  – Laura