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After a week of non-stop egg-based pastries in Portugal this past summer, we (we weren't even Delicacheena, yet) wondered if we'd ever have natas again. Pasteis de natas are literally cream pastries. They are like little egg custard pies or the Chinese dan tats, but much less eggy than both. They were found in every corner bakery and snack shop. The best were our first in the Belem district of Lisbon, warm from the oven at Casa Pasteis de Belem. (While in Belem, be sure to check out the Coach Museum--the simple to ostentatious carriages, not handbags, are fascinating.)
Would Natas Pastries, a bakery in the valley (might as well fly to Europe), recreate our summer of custard? Unfortunately, a hoard of Portuguese ex-pats via San Diego bought out all the bacalhau, fried salt cod cakes--they're better than they sound. But we tried just about every other baked and fried tidbit.
Alas the natas were not as we remembered. Is anything ever? The crust was crisper instead of tender, flaky layers. The custard we couldn't agree on. JM thought it was too eggy. The queijadas, always touted as mini cheesecakes, but nothing like we envision in the States, contained much more cinnamon than the ones we purchased in beautiful Sintra. The quite ugly ground beef and chorizo croquetes were tasty but half of one was enough. The malasadas, basically a sugar doughnut minus the hole, was dry--not like the ones INK had in Hawaii. The best offering was the morgado, a not-too-sweet crumbley almond dough filling in a crust.
Perhaps we'll return to Portugal someday, but until then, we'll just have to imagine standing at the pastry case, sipping something cool and biting into a warm nata.
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