Pasteis de Nata em Portugal: A Food-venture

I did a quick 3 day solo trip to Lisbon, Portugal earlier in the year and entered with only one goal: eat a pastel de nata (aka “custard tart”). Well, needless to say, I very much accomplished that. I even went above and beyond and had not one, not two, but 14 custard tarts. That’s right. In the 3 days and 2 nights that I was there, I managed to eat 14 custard tarts. To paint a better picture for you, I am a ~90lb., tiny asian female who had to fill basically 48 hours (arrived in the afternoon and left in the early afternoon) in Portugal alone, and decided to visit every pastry shop I passed. Not including hours spent sleeping, I was pretty much eating half a custard tart every hour (putting my grad. school smarts to use with that math). I learned the very important lesson that I’m not adult enough to properly feed myself when I’m alone and in a foreign country.

But, of course, I’m always thinking about my followers when I travel. I patiently went through a multitude of pastry shops in Lisbon (and one in Sintra) so that y’all wouldn’t have to. Which is why this blog post is dedicated to lovers of all things baked and sweet (and totally not to justify having about 2 custard tarts per meal).

 

 

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The first of many.
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Because most people only come in for a custard tart, there are no chairs or tables in the cafe. I rated this one four stars because I wasn’t sure how it should taste, but it left a weird feeling in my mouth.
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An out of focus picture of a mini custard tart. Also four stars because 2 mini custard tarts didn’t feel as bad as eating 1 normal sized one, but I still wasn’t satisfied.
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Walking back to the hostel and I had to stop and get one here. Delicious, but the crust wasn’t super flakey. Three stars.
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Apparently you’re suppose to eat it with some cinnamon and powdered sugar. This one was way too eggy for my liking. Also I was already incredibly full from paella dinner. Three stars.
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The Starbucks in Portugal really stepped up their baked goods game.
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But, unfortunately their custard tart was too sweet and tasted artificial. Two stars to the global coffee shop.
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The only custard tart from Sintra, Portugal. It tasted like home. I don’t know how, but maybe eating it on a train while it was raining and I was by myself made me think that. Therefore, five stars from me.
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You know a bakery is serious about their custard tarts when they give you cinnamon and powdered sugar to take with you to-go.
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And finally, a trip to Lisbon wouldn’t be complete without a visit to Pasteis de Belem, appropriately pictured in front of the Padrao dos Descobrimentos.

So, there you have it folks. An entire blog dedicated solely to showing you guys that it is possible to eat all the custard tarts in the world and not get tired of them. Granted, I was only there for 3 days, but even now as I look back at these pictures, I long for the sweet and flakey crust, encasing that smooth, vanilla and caramel-y egg custard.

 

Cheers!

One Comment Add yours

  1. Found your blog through insta! Haha, I love that out-of-focus shot of the custard tart. Wow, that’s a lot of tarts! I’m 10 pounds more than you and I don’t think I can eat all that! Haha. Bravo!

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