Thank you for your delightful video about our country: it was very good to watch it. I think you capture de essencial, the true heart of the land, even... with the pastéis de nata! 😊 Hope you could come back more times to explore other parts: there is much more to see and to taste. Merry Christmas to your beautiful family.
This comment means the world to us - thank you for taking the time to let us know you enjoyed it! ❤️ Portugal is a very important, special place to our family, and nothing makes us happier than to hear you believe we did it a bit of justice with this video. We will doubtlessly be back many more times and would love any suggestions of what to experience next trip. Merry Christmas to you, too; we’re happy to have connected!
Thank you for your delightful video. Yes, Portuguese love tradition. You see it all over Portugal. From the formal, polite style of its people to the architecture, the centuries old festivals, the music, the folk -dancing, the traditional Portuguese guitar as well as the accordion. A proud nation, proud of its achievements and its people.
Thank YOU for watching! 🙏🏼 Couldn’t agree with you more. The modern tendency to constantly be cycling in “the new” is exhausting, so it’s so refreshing to see a country who values its beautiful traditions - and is thriving! Nothing “backwards” about Portugal, just a widespread celebration of all the things they do so well.
Lovely video, brought many smiles to myself. Merry Christmas and many blessings to you all. I hope you come again and film yourself trying other stuff 🎉
Thank you for your kind words, you just made us smile, too! ❤️ Portugal is so dear to us; we’re already looking forward to another trip back, so any suggestions you have, we’ll happily take. Hope you had a merry Christmas with your loved ones, cheers!
@pearsonescapes - black pig ribs and everything black pig related. - all types of rissois - percebes is a must try. - bacalhau a bras - arroz De marisco - cataplana any kind you prefer. - porco alentejana - leitâo a bairrada ( roasted piglet ) - caldo verde soup and fresh chouricou bread. - different types of chouricou sausage ( artisanal ) - fresh sardines - octopus cooked on a roof tile. - Piri Piri chicken. There is more I'm sure haha 🤣 My advice is to go to the hinterland ( back country ) For some of the things I said. . Thank you for your words as well and have a nice family holiday period 💘
Once in a while, I have these cravings for Portuguese canned sardines. I usually served them with pickled red onions and olives, with some good boiled potatoes on the side... Lovely video.
They’re a favorite in our house, too - just added them to our big family Christmas menu, so glad we’re not alone in the cravings! 😆 Our littlest loves pickled onions… we’ve gotta try that pairing next time. Thank you for your kind words; we appreciate you!
I'm an Azorean, been living in Aveiro for the last 10 years, Costa Nova is lovely and the fish market has been my go-to place for fresh fish. Next you you gotta try the Azores, the fish there is something else.
We’re so glad we stumbled upon the right place, then! The fish truly was fantastic, and the friendliness of the people working there was second to none. We’re dying to visit the Azores! We’ve almost booked a trip a couple of times in the past few years - hopefully 2025 will be the time for it. We’ve heard such incredible things!
Beautiful video... The best thing about cooking is the love that goes into making it. Portugal does this very well. It was beautiful to see the family together in this work
We LOVE how much the Portuguese value family! 😍 We agree: you can really feel it in the air (and the food!) and it’s a huge reason why it’s one of our favorite places. Thank you so much for watching, and for your kind words!
"Manteigas" is a smaller shop whose natas I prefer to the Belém ones, also easier to get cause less tourists. The fish was beautiful, I was thinking you were going to grill it and thats probably what the fish seller was thinking too cause grilled squid is amazing and no bones so kids eat it very easily. I never understood Kosher salt and all that, all I've ever known was sea salt so I thought that was what everyone used. Love you showing the tiles, a heretance from the muslims we still maintain ❤️
Is that distinct from Manteigaria? We’ve got to track your rec down; we truly can never try enough natas! Yes, we wish we had access to a grill in Costa Nova, because that would’ve made the seafood that much better! The girls still loved the squid, though. You’re so lucky to have access to sea salt! All of ours is imported, and it was interesting to see it so easily-accessible in Portugal (that said, we’ll go professionally-produced next time - ours was SO salty! 😅) And yes, how beautiful are the azulejos? It’s fascinating how the technique has evolved from Moorish and Spanish styles to what it is today. All so beautiful. Thank you for watching and taking the time to write to us; it means so much! 💚
@@pearsonescapes Hi. Merry Christmas to you and your family and Good Morning. Yes, it's the "Manteigaria", I misremembered the name (I typed from memory). I personally prefer their "nata" to the belém one, I always have them with cinnamon myself (I don't like powered sugar). Loved the highlight on the culture from your video, it was great. I'm not sure if you guys still around here, but if you are I hope you enjoyed Christmas here with us. I know the dishes are weird, Cod and Octopus, but the Octopus is extremely good (And so is the Cod but I'm guess salted Cod is a bit weirder and more traditional. Best wishes and again, Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year (Or Happy Hanika or Eid or whatever you guys celebrate XD I don't know the dates sorry)
We’re so happy to hear you feel we highlighted a bit of your incredible Portuguese culture! Portugal is a special country to our family, so it was a treat to finally tell a couple of its stories. Manteigaria was our 1st-ever pastel de nata years ago and we still have a sweet spot for it! We agree with you: cinnamon’s the best topper on those (though we’ve had many say otherwise, haha.) Please go enjoy one for us this holiday season! A very merry Christmas to you and your loved ones, too! ❤️🎄
We wish we’d had access to a proper grill! 😩 We love cooking when we travel, but we often are limited by whatever equipment our stay happens to stock. We’ve heard legends of your fresh-grilled sardines, though, and pray we can make it back one summer to experience the festivals. Thank you so much for taking the time to let us know you enjoyed the video - it means the world to us! ❤️
@@pearsonescapes, it is true…our grilled sardines are a must treat but they are only good in the summer when they are “fat”. Wishing you all the best 😊
congratulations for the pasteis de nata!! the video is great and your family is amazing! PS: don't be offended, but I never saw any one drinking milk while eating sardines. 😄
Aww, thank you, Jose, your comment made our day! 🥰 Hahaha, no offense taken at all! Connor is one in a billion in that he believes milk goes with EVERYTHING, even things that are very, very wrong. 🤣 Not sure if you’ve caught any of our other videos, but this year, in particular, was an ode to milk. It was truly the driving factor behind our trip to Rwanda this fall. 🙈 Happy holidays to you and your loved ones!
We love adding both! 😋 Wish we’d had some ground cinnamon at the apartment to top our homemade ones, but on every nata we’ve grabbed from somewhere else, we’ve pretty liberally shaken some on. Thanks for watching, we appreciate you!
Natas were eaten always without sugar and cinnamon just the last decade people started adding stuff to it now they add chocolate and other stuff, it's like adding pineapple to a pizza an abomination to the Italians xD
No way! Cinnamon wasn’t always a staple? 🤯 Every local we’ve ever met really pushes it (not so much the sugar), so that surprises us. Do you know who popularized the cinnamon topper?
@@pearsonescapes like you said probably people in Lisbon starting adding cinnamon so tourist think it looks more fancier to enjoy pastel de nata you don't need to add anything else
I'm Portuguese American, eating natas with any kind of add on topping has always been an abomination. Traditionally they have always been eaten just as they come out of the oven. After allowing for cooling enjoy one of the simplest and most delicious desserts in the world.
it's common to think they all are very similar if you're not used to them, until you eat so many of them that you realize pasteis de belem are special and no other comes close
We agree: that crust is definitely something special! 😋 We didn’t think they were leaps and bounds ahead of the others we’ve tried, but delicious, for sure!
We agree! We’re those people who use all the condiments on the table, but a lot of the natas were so sweet they definitely didn’t need sugar. That’s part of why we liked our homemade ones: they tasted great as they were.
Thank you for giving your seal of approval! 👌🏼 The 1st couple we took out of the oven were shaped by the girls, so the crust was a little thick, but subsequent attempts got better, and Connor actually preferred ours by the end (but admitted it might’ve been because they were the freshest we sampled - you can’t beat fresh-out.) Merry Christmas to you and your family, we’re happy to have connected!
Hey, i am sure your homemade pasteis de nata were fabulous. But, there is actually a lot more to them than you showed us. Starting with the dough, it has to be specially condimented and the laminating tecnhique is special to it, and yes lots and lots of butter are used in the dough. Spreading dough on the tin is also a special skill that takes years to master. Spreading dough thin with enough support is tricky. Lastly your custard is very simple. Real belem custard is a secret really well kept. But it involves a certain tecnhique when incorporaring the simple syrup at a "bumé" temperature of 32 degrees and incorporate eggs in this mixture at those temperatures. Portuguese bakers have long been trying to uncover all.the secrets, some are out and there are some serious good pasteis de nata. But, pasteis de belem are still unique!
Without a doubt, you hit the nail on the head: making Pastéis de Nata is an art! 👌🏼 We’re fascinated by how, despite being so popular, Belém has managed to keep their secrets under wraps. Such a great strategy - they definitely have a crust unlike any we’ve seen. We’re admittedly far from bakers, but always assumed we’d never in a million years be able to recreate our favorite Portuguese dessert at home. We were excited to learn that it’s doable! Thanks for taking the time to watch and write to us, it means a ton!
@pearsonescapes we do really love our pasteis de belem! There are so few little things that unite people to their cores, in Portugal pasteis de belem are core to being portuguese.
Salt production you should go Rio Maior in portugal to the Salinas is a good day spend with family there's commerce food and you see where the salt is produced
We had plans to visit Rio Maior, but when we reached out, they told us that the salt season had just ended and there wouldn’t be active production to see. So next time we’ll definitely visit in the warmer months to get the full picture - we’ve heard great things, and your positive endorsement makes us want to visit even more. We appreciate you watching; merry Christmas to you! 💚
@pearsonescapes I honestly just found your videos but you got a sub, I would also recommend visiting Obidos and the silver Coast in general. I live in the UK now, but I'm grateful of the region I'm from, is a good excuse for a holiday. Thank you for your reply! I'm sure other portuguese people have mentioned a lot more places for you to visit. Regional foods are always a must fyi. I'll keep watching 🙂
We’re so happy to have connected! Thanks for your support, it means a ton; we hope you enjoy what‘s already on our channel, and the videos to come. 🙏🏼 Fingers crossed we’ll be back to Portugal (and the UK) soon!
Great video. But as a person that was in the restaurant\hotel business for a decade, i never got it why american people find it soooooo weird to eat a fish with bones, i get is cultural or whatever, you are not used to it, but even though maybe is not very common in a lot of places of the US, you struggle soo much to deal with it and to use more the knife, you just do a mess on the plate, like you just killed the fish xD We just split the fish in 2 and you can take almost all bones out with the fork and knife at the same time, put on the side of the plate and then you have a clean fish ahah
Thank you for letting us know you liked it! Yes, you hit the nail on the head: most Americans have absolutely no clue how to eat a fish that hasn’t been deboned. Fillets are widely the norm both sold and consumed in our state, and we’ve long wanted to experiment with cooking a whole fish, bones or not. So this was a 1st for us! The fishmonger could tell how green we were and did us a solid by cleaning the sea bream well, but we definitely still had some hairpin bones in there (which we still struggled with, haha.) Especially when feeding young kids, we still try to avoid them whenever we can, but maybe with practice we’ll improve. 🤞🏼
@@pearsonescapes I didnt said in a mean way, im sorry if it sounded rude or something like that, because i loved americans on the table, really nice people to talk and amazing Tips haha Eating the fish whole its really typical in Portugal, because its easier to cook and prep at simple fresh food restaurants, same at our houses we do it like that, its a family, ready to go meal, most of the time at our house we dont have the skill or the time to fillet fresh fish, but we get the whole fresh fish from the store anyway. Best thing to do its always asking to the staff if is possible to get it without bones, if not, explain that you are not used to it, so they understand why u did a mess on the plate ahah not that you were playing with the food or that you didnt like it, etc. Bless you all!
Not mean at all - we do agree with you! We actually went to Costa Nova with the express purpose of trying to cook & eat a whole fish, as funny as that sounds. It was a bit of a “bucket list eat,” if you will. 😅 Consider us converts now, though… that flavor!! We finally understand why so many cultures cook fish whole. If we could get access to such affordable, fresh fish at home, I don’t know that we’d cook it any other way now.
Haha, the ultimate showdown! 😅 We’d love to taste others’ homemade natas next time because if we thought ours turned out well, we can’t imagine those of Portuguese families who make them on the regular.
Hahaha, something you should know about Connor: in his mind, milk goes with everything. 🤣 Our channel has become a mini ode to milk. He wondered if anyone else would notice - this comment funnily enough made his day!
É, há registos com mais de 5 mil anos de um tipo de pesca de arrasto no Egipto semelhante à arte xávega mas isso não quer dizer que ela tenha tido origem lá. Mas temos de ser sinceros, ele disse "supposedly". 😉
Exactly! Our whole point was that so many of Portugal’s famous trades and arts have origins in very old practices. Of course, Xávega is distinctly Portuguese, but we think one of the coolest things about Portugal is that their history as explorers and traders connected them with so many distinct cultures far before many others in the area. They made the most of the cultural melting pot they had access to, and got beautiful things like Arte Xávega as a result. Thank you for watching! 😃
Your "mistake" was to eat a lot of Pastéis de Nata thinking they we're the same as the Pastéis de Belém, when they're not. As you said in the video, no one except the owners of the bakery know the recipe, so the Pastéis de Nata and the Pastéis de Belém are inherently different and can't be compared. Also, the fact that there are thousands of bakeries selling Pastéis de Nata and only one selling Pastéis de Belém should be a dead giveaway. 😉 You found out the "hard way" that "Flor de Sal" is less salty than the salt itself. 😄 Making salt at home the way you did kind of works but it's lacking the most important agent in the whole process: the Sun. You pronounced "azulejos" is a very spanish way. The "j" has the same sound as the "ge" in sponge, for example.
As we understand it, no one else is allowed to use the name “pastéis de Belém,” which seems reasonable to us. It was interesting to try both the original and its many copies. Belém’s are definitely distinct, but we think others are doing a pretty great job, too (that said, we’re yet to meet a nata we spit out. 😅) And dude… SO salty!! We were bummed to have missed sea salt season by 1-2 weeks, so this worked in a pinch, but we’ll definitely have to book our next trip during the summertime (much to our chagrin.) Thanks for teaching us a little Portuguese, too! Portuguese definitely is a hard one for us to pronounce - we’ve never quite had the ear for it - but we try our best and enjoy hearing locals speak it beautifully. Cheers to you! ❤️
@@pearsonescapes - Yes, the Pastéis de Belém brand is trademarked, that's why whoever created the Pastel de Nata had to give it a different name. The reason why they look so similar is because at one point the Pastéis de Belém became so famous that the other bakeries in Lisbon wanted to cash in on that fame, making people believe they were eating Pastéis de Belém. Both Aveiro and Figueira da Foz (the main sea salt producers) have mild weather in mid to late August, so it's the best time to come. 🙂
We loved the Aveiro region and would welcome any excuse to return! Maybe some of the crowds will have dissipated a little by late August? 🤞🏼 Either way, I think we have no choice but to visit then - so much to see that we missed in the off-season!
Loving family, congratulations on your excellent video that testifies to your curiosity and interest in delving a little deeper into some of our traditions that are part of our cultural and gastronomic DNA :) In relation to the superior quality of our canned fish; I'm going to leave a link to a video here to help you understand why it's so fresh and delicious: "Why This Portuguese Sardine Cannery Swears By Its 100-Year-Old Method | Regional Eats" ua-cam.com/video/jpTwHAt0Zxw/v-deo.html
Thank you so much for watching, and for sharing this with us! 💚 We barely scratched the surface of sardines, and are dying to return in the summertime to experience them at their peak (as we noted, we don’t like traveling mid-summer, but for sardines, we’d make an exception. 😅) We will for sure check this out!
Thank you for your delightful video about our country: it was very good to watch it. I think you capture de essencial, the true heart of the land, even... with the pastéis de nata! 😊 Hope you could come back more times to explore other parts: there is much more to see and to taste. Merry Christmas to your beautiful family.
This comment means the world to us - thank you for taking the time to let us know you enjoyed it! ❤️ Portugal is a very important, special place to our family, and nothing makes us happier than to hear you believe we did it a bit of justice with this video. We will doubtlessly be back many more times and would love any suggestions of what to experience next trip. Merry Christmas to you, too; we’re happy to have connected!
Thank you for your delightful video. Yes, Portuguese love tradition. You see it all over Portugal. From the formal, polite style of its people to the architecture, the centuries old festivals, the music, the folk -dancing, the traditional Portuguese guitar as well as the accordion. A proud nation, proud of its achievements and its people.
Thank YOU for watching! 🙏🏼 Couldn’t agree with you more. The modern tendency to constantly be cycling in “the new” is exhausting, so it’s so refreshing to see a country who values its beautiful traditions - and is thriving! Nothing “backwards” about Portugal, just a widespread celebration of all the things they do so well.
Gosh, Costa Nova, my hometown, good memories there, thank you for the time travel.
We LOVED Costa Nova!! 😍 What a place to grow up! We’d go back tomorrow if we could.
Lovely video, brought many smiles to myself. Merry Christmas and many blessings to you all. I hope you come again and film yourself trying other stuff 🎉
Thank you for your kind words, you just made us smile, too! ❤️ Portugal is so dear to us; we’re already looking forward to another trip back, so any suggestions you have, we’ll happily take. Hope you had a merry Christmas with your loved ones, cheers!
@pearsonescapes
- black pig ribs and everything black pig related.
- all types of rissois
- percebes is a must try.
- bacalhau a bras
- arroz De marisco
- cataplana any kind you prefer.
- porco alentejana
- leitâo a bairrada ( roasted piglet )
- caldo verde soup and fresh chouricou bread.
- different types of chouricou sausage ( artisanal )
- fresh sardines
- octopus cooked on a roof tile.
- Piri Piri chicken.
There is more I'm sure haha 🤣
My advice is to go to the hinterland ( back country ) For some of the things I said. . Thank you for your words as well and have a nice family holiday period 💘
Woah, these are amazing recs - thank you so much! 🤩 Can’t wait to start researching all of these… getting hungry already!
@@pearsonescapes if you have any questions or need more recs. Let me know 😁
Once in a while, I have these cravings for Portuguese canned sardines. I usually served them with pickled red onions and olives, with some good boiled potatoes on the side... Lovely video.
They’re a favorite in our house, too - just added them to our big family Christmas menu, so glad we’re not alone in the cravings! 😆 Our littlest loves pickled onions… we’ve gotta try that pairing next time. Thank you for your kind words; we appreciate you!
My Uncle was the original importer of Marie Elizabeth to the UK.
That’s so cool! 🙌🏼 Does your family keep a steady supply around to this day, or not so much?
I'm an Azorean, been living in Aveiro for the last 10 years, Costa Nova is lovely and the fish market has been my go-to place for fresh fish. Next you you gotta try the Azores, the fish there is something else.
We’re so glad we stumbled upon the right place, then! The fish truly was fantastic, and the friendliness of the people working there was second to none. We’re dying to visit the Azores! We’ve almost booked a trip a couple of times in the past few years - hopefully 2025 will be the time for it. We’ve heard such incredible things!
Beautiful video... The best thing about cooking is the love that goes into making it. Portugal does this very well. It was beautiful to see the family together in this work
We LOVE how much the Portuguese value family! 😍 We agree: you can really feel it in the air (and the food!) and it’s a huge reason why it’s one of our favorite places. Thank you so much for watching, and for your kind words!
"Manteigas" is a smaller shop whose natas I prefer to the Belém ones, also easier to get cause less tourists.
The fish was beautiful, I was thinking you were going to grill it and thats probably what the fish seller was thinking too cause grilled squid is amazing and no bones so kids eat it very easily.
I never understood Kosher salt and all that, all I've ever known was sea salt so I thought that was what everyone used.
Love you showing the tiles, a heretance from the muslims we still maintain ❤️
Is that distinct from Manteigaria? We’ve got to track your rec down; we truly can never try enough natas! Yes, we wish we had access to a grill in Costa Nova, because that would’ve made the seafood that much better! The girls still loved the squid, though. You’re so lucky to have access to sea salt! All of ours is imported, and it was interesting to see it so easily-accessible in Portugal (that said, we’ll go professionally-produced next time - ours was SO salty! 😅) And yes, how beautiful are the azulejos? It’s fascinating how the technique has evolved from Moorish and Spanish styles to what it is today. All so beautiful. Thank you for watching and taking the time to write to us; it means so much! 💚
@@pearsonescapes Hi. Merry Christmas to you and your family and Good Morning.
Yes, it's the "Manteigaria", I misremembered the name (I typed from memory). I personally prefer their "nata" to the belém one, I always have them with cinnamon myself (I don't like powered sugar).
Loved the highlight on the culture from your video, it was great. I'm not sure if you guys still around here, but if you are I hope you enjoyed Christmas here with us.
I know the dishes are weird, Cod and Octopus, but the Octopus is extremely good (And so is the Cod but I'm guess salted Cod is a bit weirder and more traditional.
Best wishes and again, Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year (Or Happy Hanika or Eid or whatever you guys celebrate XD I don't know the dates sorry)
We’re so happy to hear you feel we highlighted a bit of your incredible Portuguese culture! Portugal is a special country to our family, so it was a treat to finally tell a couple of its stories. Manteigaria was our 1st-ever pastel de nata years ago and we still have a sweet spot for it! We agree with you: cinnamon’s the best topper on those (though we’ve had many say otherwise, haha.) Please go enjoy one for us this holiday season! A very merry Christmas to you and your loved ones, too! ❤️🎄
Hi…in our country, butterflied fish is usually grilled. But of course you do it the way you prefer. Loved your video..and your family is fabulous ❤️
We wish we’d had access to a proper grill! 😩 We love cooking when we travel, but we often are limited by whatever equipment our stay happens to stock. We’ve heard legends of your fresh-grilled sardines, though, and pray we can make it back one summer to experience the festivals. Thank you so much for taking the time to let us know you enjoyed the video - it means the world to us! ❤️
@@pearsonescapes, it is true…our grilled sardines are a must treat but they are only good in the summer when they are “fat”. Wishing you all the best 😊
congratulations for the pasteis de nata!! the video is great and your family is amazing! PS: don't be offended, but I never saw any one drinking milk while eating sardines. 😄
Aww, thank you, Jose, your comment made our day! 🥰 Hahaha, no offense taken at all! Connor is one in a billion in that he believes milk goes with EVERYTHING, even things that are very, very wrong. 🤣 Not sure if you’ve caught any of our other videos, but this year, in particular, was an ode to milk. It was truly the driving factor behind our trip to Rwanda this fall. 🙈 Happy holidays to you and your loved ones!
Pastel de nata are eaten with cinnamon, for those who like it very sweet you can add powdered sugar
We love adding both! 😋 Wish we’d had some ground cinnamon at the apartment to top our homemade ones, but on every nata we’ve grabbed from somewhere else, we’ve pretty liberally shaken some on. Thanks for watching, we appreciate you!
Natas were eaten always without sugar and cinnamon just the last decade people started adding stuff to it now they add chocolate and other stuff, it's like adding pineapple to a pizza an abomination to the Italians xD
No way! Cinnamon wasn’t always a staple? 🤯 Every local we’ve ever met really pushes it (not so much the sugar), so that surprises us. Do you know who popularized the cinnamon topper?
@@pearsonescapes like you said probably people in Lisbon starting adding cinnamon so tourist think it looks more fancier to enjoy pastel de nata you don't need to add anything else
I'm Portuguese American, eating natas with any kind of add on topping has always been an abomination. Traditionally they have always been eaten just as they come out of the oven. After allowing for cooling enjoy one of the simplest and most delicious desserts in the world.
Thank you for the lovely video!
Thank YOU for watching, we’re so happy you enjoyed it! ❤️
Nice video, thanks
Thank you so much for letting us know you enjoyed it, Jose! 🙏🏼 Merry Christmas!
"almost anything you eat can be replicated" uau what a conclusion... nobel prize right there!!! :)
Haha, not sure what kind, but we’ll take it! 😂 Thanks for watching, we appreciate it!
it's common to think they all are very similar if you're not used to them, until you eat so many of them that you realize pasteis de belem are special and no other comes close
We agree: that crust is definitely something special! 😋 We didn’t think they were leaps and bounds ahead of the others we’ve tried, but delicious, for sure!
Skip the sugar and use only cinnamon on the pastel de nata
We agree! We’re those people who use all the condiments on the table, but a lot of the natas were so sweet they definitely didn’t need sugar. That’s part of why we liked our homemade ones: they tasted great as they were.
Congratulations! Your 'pastéis de nata' seem the originals. Just sad not to be able to have a bite from one of those you baked and showed us👍🎅
Thank you for giving your seal of approval! 👌🏼 The 1st couple we took out of the oven were shaped by the girls, so the crust was a little thick, but subsequent attempts got better, and Connor actually preferred ours by the end (but admitted it might’ve been because they were the freshest we sampled - you can’t beat fresh-out.) Merry Christmas to you and your family, we’re happy to have connected!
Hey, i am sure your homemade pasteis de nata were fabulous. But, there is actually a lot more to them than you showed us. Starting with the dough, it has to be specially condimented and the laminating tecnhique is special to it, and yes lots and lots of butter are used in the dough. Spreading dough on the tin is also a special skill that takes years to master. Spreading dough thin with enough support is tricky. Lastly your custard is very simple. Real belem custard is a secret really well kept. But it involves a certain tecnhique when incorporaring the simple syrup at a "bumé" temperature of 32 degrees and incorporate eggs in this mixture at those temperatures. Portuguese bakers have long been trying to uncover all.the secrets, some are out and there are some serious good pasteis de nata. But, pasteis de belem are still unique!
Without a doubt, you hit the nail on the head: making Pastéis de Nata is an art! 👌🏼 We’re fascinated by how, despite being so popular, Belém has managed to keep their secrets under wraps. Such a great strategy - they definitely have a crust unlike any we’ve seen. We’re admittedly far from bakers, but always assumed we’d never in a million years be able to recreate our favorite Portuguese dessert at home. We were excited to learn that it’s doable! Thanks for taking the time to watch and write to us, it means a ton!
@pearsonescapes we do really love our pasteis de belem! There are so few little things that unite people to their cores, in Portugal pasteis de belem are core to being portuguese.
We love that! It was nice to see so many locals - not just tourists - enjoying them, too. That’s when you know it’s something good! 😃
Salt production you should go Rio Maior in portugal to the Salinas is a good day spend with family there's commerce food and you see where the salt is produced
We had plans to visit Rio Maior, but when we reached out, they told us that the salt season had just ended and there wouldn’t be active production to see. So next time we’ll definitely visit in the warmer months to get the full picture - we’ve heard great things, and your positive endorsement makes us want to visit even more. We appreciate you watching; merry Christmas to you! 💚
@pearsonescapes I honestly just found your videos but you got a sub, I would also recommend visiting Obidos and the silver Coast in general. I live in the UK now, but I'm grateful of the region I'm from, is a good excuse for a holiday. Thank you for your reply! I'm sure other portuguese people have mentioned a lot more places for you to visit. Regional foods are always a must fyi. I'll keep watching 🙂
We’re so happy to have connected! Thanks for your support, it means a ton; we hope you enjoy what‘s already on our channel, and the videos to come. 🙏🏼 Fingers crossed we’ll be back to Portugal (and the UK) soon!
Great video. But as a person that was in the restaurant\hotel business for a decade, i never got it why american people find it soooooo weird to eat a fish with bones, i get is cultural or whatever, you are not used to it, but even though maybe is not very common in a lot of places of the US, you struggle soo much to deal with it and to use more the knife, you just do a mess on the plate, like you just killed the fish xD We just split the fish in 2 and you can take almost all bones out with the fork and knife at the same time, put on the side of the plate and then you have a clean fish ahah
Thank you for letting us know you liked it! Yes, you hit the nail on the head: most Americans have absolutely no clue how to eat a fish that hasn’t been deboned. Fillets are widely the norm both sold and consumed in our state, and we’ve long wanted to experiment with cooking a whole fish, bones or not. So this was a 1st for us! The fishmonger could tell how green we were and did us a solid by cleaning the sea bream well, but we definitely still had some hairpin bones in there (which we still struggled with, haha.) Especially when feeding young kids, we still try to avoid them whenever we can, but maybe with practice we’ll improve. 🤞🏼
@@pearsonescapes I didnt said in a mean way, im sorry if it sounded rude or something like that, because i loved americans on the table, really nice people to talk and amazing Tips haha
Eating the fish whole its really typical in Portugal, because its easier to cook and prep at simple fresh food restaurants, same at our houses we do it like that, its a family, ready to go meal, most of the time at our house we dont have the skill or the time to fillet fresh fish, but we get the whole fresh fish from the store anyway.
Best thing to do its always asking to the staff if is possible to get it without bones, if not, explain that you are not used to it, so they understand why u did a mess on the plate ahah not that you were playing with the food or that you didnt like it, etc. Bless you all!
Not mean at all - we do agree with you! We actually went to Costa Nova with the express purpose of trying to cook & eat a whole fish, as funny as that sounds. It was a bit of a “bucket list eat,” if you will. 😅 Consider us converts now, though… that flavor!! We finally understand why so many cultures cook fish whole. If we could get access to such affordable, fresh fish at home, I don’t know that we’d cook it any other way now.
get your pasteis de nata out there for a free sample and we will tell you if the originals are "overhyped" or not! 😆😆
Haha, the ultimate showdown! 😅 We’d love to taste others’ homemade natas next time because if we thought ours turned out well, we can’t imagine those of Portuguese families who make them on the regular.
os melhores natas são os gourmet do pingo doce :x
Really? We’ve actually never shopped at a Pingo Doce, but now you’ve given us a reason to stop in!
Leite com sardinha? fds 😂😂
Hahaha, something you should know about Connor: in his mind, milk goes with everything. 🤣 Our channel has become a mini ode to milk. He wondered if anyone else would notice - this comment funnily enough made his day!
Arte Xávega... do Egipto... lol... mas quem é que inventa estas coisas?!? imagino os arqueólogos e historiadores deste país se virem esta coisa!!!
É, há registos com mais de 5 mil anos de um tipo de pesca de arrasto no Egipto semelhante à arte xávega mas isso não quer dizer que ela tenha tido origem lá. Mas temos de ser sinceros, ele disse "supposedly". 😉
Exactly! Our whole point was that so many of Portugal’s famous trades and arts have origins in very old practices. Of course, Xávega is distinctly Portuguese, but we think one of the coolest things about Portugal is that their history as explorers and traders connected them with so many distinct cultures far before many others in the area. They made the most of the cultural melting pot they had access to, and got beautiful things like Arte Xávega as a result. Thank you for watching! 😃
Your "mistake" was to eat a lot of Pastéis de Nata thinking they we're the same as the Pastéis de Belém, when they're not. As you said in the video, no one except the owners of the bakery know the recipe, so the Pastéis de Nata and the Pastéis de Belém are inherently different and can't be compared. Also, the fact that there are thousands of bakeries selling Pastéis de Nata and only one selling Pastéis de Belém should be a dead giveaway. 😉
You found out the "hard way" that "Flor de Sal" is less salty than the salt itself. 😄
Making salt at home the way you did kind of works but it's lacking the most important agent in the whole process: the Sun.
You pronounced "azulejos" is a very spanish way. The "j" has the same sound as the "ge" in sponge, for example.
As we understand it, no one else is allowed to use the name “pastéis de Belém,” which seems reasonable to us. It was interesting to try both the original and its many copies. Belém’s are definitely distinct, but we think others are doing a pretty great job, too (that said, we’re yet to meet a nata we spit out. 😅) And dude… SO salty!! We were bummed to have missed sea salt season by 1-2 weeks, so this worked in a pinch, but we’ll definitely have to book our next trip during the summertime (much to our chagrin.) Thanks for teaching us a little Portuguese, too! Portuguese definitely is a hard one for us to pronounce - we’ve never quite had the ear for it - but we try our best and enjoy hearing locals speak it beautifully. Cheers to you! ❤️
@@pearsonescapes - Yes, the Pastéis de Belém brand is trademarked, that's why whoever created the Pastel de Nata had to give it a different name. The reason why they look so similar is because at one point the Pastéis de Belém became so famous that the other bakeries in Lisbon wanted to cash in on that fame, making people believe they were eating Pastéis de Belém.
Both Aveiro and Figueira da Foz (the main sea salt producers) have mild weather in mid to late August, so it's the best time to come. 🙂
We loved the Aveiro region and would welcome any excuse to return! Maybe some of the crowds will have dissipated a little by late August? 🤞🏼 Either way, I think we have no choice but to visit then - so much to see that we missed in the off-season!
Loving family, congratulations on your excellent video that testifies to your curiosity and interest in delving a little deeper into some of our traditions that are part of our cultural and gastronomic DNA :)
In relation to the superior quality of our canned fish; I'm going to leave a link to a video here to help you understand why it's so fresh and delicious:
"Why This Portuguese Sardine Cannery Swears By Its 100-Year-Old Method | Regional Eats"
ua-cam.com/video/jpTwHAt0Zxw/v-deo.html
Thank you so much for watching, and for sharing this with us! 💚 We barely scratched the surface of sardines, and are dying to return in the summertime to experience them at their peak (as we noted, we don’t like traveling mid-summer, but for sardines, we’d make an exception. 😅) We will for sure check this out!
Canned fish with milk???? 🤢🤢🤮🤮🤮
Hahahaha, only in Connor’s world! 😂😳 Definitely not a combo for the light of heart… or stomach!