Pastel de Nata: Eating Portuguese Egg Tarts from Pastéis de Belém in Lisbon, Portugal

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• published: 31 Dec 2015
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Having sampled egg tarts for the first time in Hong Kong and Macau we were thrilled to be visiting Lisbon, Portugal where the egg tart originated from. Heading over to Jerónimos Monastery, where monks first perfected this recipe, we grabbed two egg tarts and headed to the park. Come join us as we share the story of how these Portuguese egg tarts became such a staple of the local cuisine. Eating Pastel de Nata (Portuguese Egg Tarts) from Pastéis de Belém in Lisbon, Portugal Travel Video Transcript: Well good morning from Lisbon. We made it to Portugal and today is our first day out sightseeing. And our first order of business had to be food of course. So today we're actually trying this. And this is called Pastéis De Nata or Pastéis De Belém. And it is basically an egg custard tart and it looks absolutely delicious. These actually originated over at the Jerónimos Monastery which is just over there. And it was a recipe created by the monks. So it looks like they were good bakers guys. Pretty tasty looking. We picked these up from the original store where they were first produced. And it was absolutely chaos inside. And something that is really cool is that the first time we ever tried these was actually in Asia when we were in Macau. A former Portuguese settlement. Yes, and you can find these in Brazil and Hong Kong. Anywhere where the Portuguese went. Yeah, exactly. But now it is time to add this to our little tarts. Alright, so what we have here is we have a pack of cinnamon and icing sugar. Yes. So that is going to give it an extra sweet kick. Let's sprinkle that on. I've had these before but never with icing sugar and cinnamon so I think it is going to be extra special. The winning combo. Mmmm hmmmm. That's nice. Wow! It's still warm. Fresh out of the oven. And it is really nice. Have a look. I really like this because sometimes when you have an egg tart it tastes like cooked egg. And that is just wrong. Dessert should not taste like egg. But this is like a really nice creamy custard. Very sweet. It tastes like a proper dessert. I'm happy. So in terms of ingredients it is made with egg yolks, milk flour and sugar and it is time for my first bite here. It's a pretty simple recipe but it's 'oh so good.' Mmmm. Oh, that is just amazing. It's so creamy and love the crunchiness on the outside as well. And you're absolutely right. Like this is as freshly baked as it gets. So like I mentioned earlier this recipe originated in the Jerónimos Monastery and this is because apparently monasteries and convents used a lot of egg whites in order to starch their clothes. Don't ask me how this is done because I've never used egg whites to starch my clothes. But apparently this meant that they had a lot of egg yolks leftover and that is how they started baking and created this wonderful recipe which was eventually sold to the pastry shop where we picked up our egg tarts. So we are having the original recipe that the monks came up with here. And price point? So in terms of price point this is about as reasonable as it gets. It was only 1 Euro and 5 cents. And if you want to pick one up you can pretty much go to any bakery in Lisbon or anywhere else in Portugal. And they are addictive. Yeah. So I think you may need to get more than one. Because we gobbled those up in seconds. I probably could have had about 4 or 5 to be honest. This is part of our Travel in Portugal series. We're making a series of videos showcasing Portuguese culture, Portuguese arts, Portuguese foods, Portuguese religion, Portuguese cuisine and Portuguese people. Proudly presented by: http://nomadicsamuel.com & http://thatbackpacker.com All photos and video taken by Samuel Jeffery (Nomadic Samuel) and Audrey Bergner (That Backpacker). Music in this video courtesy of Audio Network