A friend and I found this delicacy at a local cafe. These delicious treats have a flaky pasty shell filled with custard. I didn't see how the pastel was prepared, but I can confirm that these delicacies live up to the hype! They are so popular that you can find Pastel de Nada in many places around the world, but there's something special about eating one in the country where they were invented. I heard that these treats were invented in the 1700s by Catholic monks in Lisbon who used to use egg whites to starch their clothes. They didn't want to waste the leftover egg yolks, so they turned them into (amongst other things) a custard that become the centerpiece of this pastry. Cool story, right?
Porto is a port city, right on the Atlantic Ocean, so it's not surprising that seafood is a big part of many restaurant menus. Plus, being a port, it's easy to see that a lot of goods (including food, a special regional wine and much more) comie and g from Porto to other parts of the country and the world all the time. There was so much to see, smell, and taste, here. I didn't have to look far for distinctly Portuguese dishes like Pastel de Nada, though!
