Name: A Loja Portugese Delicatessen Haarlem
Address: Anegang 5, Haarlem, 2011 HR, NL
Telephone: 06 31952161
Rating: 4.3

Netherlands

Haarlem

A Loja Portugese Delicatessen Haarlem

Portugal

A thin cup of laminated pastry holding an egg-yolk custard, baked so hot that the top blisters black in spots while the inside stays loose: the pastel de nata is Lisbon's pastry, and the city still eats it warm, standing up, with cinnamon shaken over it. It began in Belém, at the Jerónimos monastery, where monks used egg yolks left over from starching habits with the whites; when the religious orders were dissolved in 1834 the recipe passed to a nearby sugar refinery, and the shop that opened there in 1837 still sells the original under the name pastel de Belém, from a recipe it has never published. Everywhere else the same tart is a pastel de nata. The Macau egg tart and its Hong Kong descendants are the same idea carried east; the English custard tart is a shortcrust cousin with no blistering.

The pastry is the difficult part. A lean dough is rolled thin, spread with soft butter or lard, rolled into a tight log and chilled; slices are pressed with a wet thumb into small tin moulds so the spiral of layers runs up the sides, which is what gives the baked shell its concentric, shattering rings. The filling is a cooked cream: milk infused with lemon peel and a cinnamon stick, thickened with a little flour, combined with a sugar syrup taken to about 105°C and then with egg yolks, strained and cooled. The moulds are filled three-quarters full and baked in the hottest oven available, ideally 280 to 300°C, for ten to twelve minutes, so the pastry crisps before the custard sets hard. The dark spots on top are caramelised sugar, not a mistake. They are eaten within hours; a pastel de nata does not keep.

Judge the shell first: it should be crisp enough to crack audibly, with visible layers, and the base should be dry, not soggy from the custard. The custard should be soft and slightly wobbly at the centre, with a thin, blistered skin, and should taste of egg and caramel with a background of lemon and cinnamon rather than of vanilla or cornflour. Mark down a pale top, which means the oven was too cool; a custard set firm all the way through or split and grainy; a shell that bends instead of breaking; and any tart served cold from a refrigerated case, which dulls both texture and flavour. Size is small by design, roughly two or three bites. Sugar and cinnamon are offered at the counter and the choice is the customer's, so do not score a plain one down for arriving undusted.

Pastel de nata


I think it’s even more delicious than the ones I had in Portugal. The pastry is very crunchy, and the cream is perfect, it is not eggy-smelling and not too sweet. Just be careful when it’s very hot; you can burn your mouth.

A Loja Portugese Delicatessen Haarlem

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