no matter how much vla i ate in the netherlands, there were still no natas anywhere to be seen — and i missed them dearly.

so, the last time i was in lisbon, to take care of the passport/visa issues, i made a point in going to belém and eating a “nata” with an expresso. my little ritual consists of taking the coffee spoon, dipping it into the nata filling and slowly eating it, while drinking the coffee. only in the end i eat the shell that is left. natas go well with coffee: both are hardwired in my brain as “portuguese flavours”.

little did i know by then that the chinese are great fans of these “egg tarts”, as they call them! some of them know these are portuguese (some think they are from macau) and they enjoy them just as much as we do. of course, they don’t taste exactly the same – the filling is more pudding-like, i would say. but still, we’re quite pleased. :)