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My Escapes Portugal Another Lovely Trip to Portugal! Belém Belém Day Trip Munch 'n' Brunch: Pastéis [...]

Munch 'n' Brunch: Pastéis de Belém and Pastéis de Bacalhau

September 11, 2014
[...]

Astonishing Belém consumed a lot of time and energy, but thankfully my favourite Portuguese food speciality actually originates from this town. So, I felt an urge to munch a few Pastéis de Belém!

I wasked further from the Jerónimos Monastery and I reached the place called Casa Pastéis de Belém, famous for producing the Pastéis de Belém, which are essentially the Pastéis de Nata.

Sweets came first...

But then I ordered a Pastéis de Bacalhau-base meal at a fast food restaurant, just a short walk further. The Pastéis de Bacalhau are essentially pastry with codfish.




Pastéis de Belém



At the Casa Pastéis de Belém I waited in line for 15-20 minutes just to get my fingers on my 3 delicious little egg tarts.

There were so many people waiting in line - even on the street!


Casa de Pastéis de Belém

The Casa de Pastéis de Belém...

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The Casa Pastéis de Belém website shows off the egg tarts on their website as well.

They made it into the travel guidebooks and pretty much everyone who writes about the pastéis de belém or pastéis de nata, mentions this shop.


Waiting for my egg tarts

It took a long time to get to the counter and grab my egg tarts.
But there were no more seats, no more tables available. The entire place was jam-packed.

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I already wrote about my first experience of eating pastel de nata - that was back in Lisbon, a few days before. And those were cheaper!

Not much difference, honestly. But the ones in Belém had a finer taste. But, perhaps that was because they were more fresh.
Mine were still warm.


Pastéis de Belém

3 Pastéis de Belém cost me a staggering 3.90 EUR

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Paying 1.30 EUR for a pastel de nata is expensive.
A single one is around 1 EUR in Lisbon, but you can even find at 0.80 EUR.

But the Casa Pastéis de Belém is a famous place and they're attracting large crowds of foreign visitors due to their excellent location.


Cash register

Back then, the currency of Portugal was the escudo

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Making pastéis de nata (or de Belém, whatever...) is an industrial process. They mass-produce them on the conveyor belt.

Owning a pastry shop/café like this is like having a gold mine. It must be a great business.

The place was jam-packed with clients. Hundreds of people in multiple rooms. Everyone munchin' like hamsters!


Pastéis de Belém on the conveyor belt

This is how the egg tarts are "born"

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It's elegant, looks nice and let's not forget, these egg tarts originate from this town. Although, they're famous in then entire country and they're even popular in former Portuguese colonies like Macau, Taiwan, Brazil...


Casa Pastéis de Belém company name

At the entrance...

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Pastéis de Bacalhau



These are totally different, but still pastry products.

Salty and they contain fish. codfish.

I ordered the meal for 6 EUR at the local Burger Ranch: 4 pastéis de bacalhau, a beer and a mixed salad.


Pastéis de bacalhau

Pastéis de bacalhau with a mixed salad and a beer

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I must say, they didn't warm the pastéis up adequately. Prolly they just put them into the microwave...

One of them had a slightly crunchy icy interior. It was so weird: ice inside, but quite warm outside. The other 3 were just lukewarm.

These are essentially codfish pastry containing potatoes, codfish, eggs, parsley and sometimes other ingredients.


Interior of a pastel de bacalhau

The interior of a pastel de bacalhau

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Escape Hunter

About the Author:

Escape Hunter, the young solo traveler in his early 30's explores the World driven by curiosity, thirst for adventure, deep passion for beauty, love for freedom and diversity.
With a nuanced, even humorous approach to travel, an obsession for art and design, Escape Hunter prefers to travel slowly, in order to learn and "soak up" the local atmosphere...



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