Illegal pastries.
Get your minds out of the gutter! I wasn’t in Amsterdam this
weekend, I was just eating delicious bakery treats that happened to be criminal
on the streets of Lisbon!
I place complete blame on our tour guide, Bruno of “We Hate
Tourism Tours”, for inspiring 6 girls to break the law in the name of sugar. It
all began as he whipped us around the steep streets of his hometown in a
convertible Jeep. Besides giving us a truly local perspective of the city,
Bruno also gave us the inside foodie scoop for the weekend.
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| Bruno! |
His first “must eat” took us to the neighborhood of Belém
(literally, he drove us there after the typical end of the tour because he was
just that nice!) Here, Bruno dropped us off at the best spot for pastéis de Belém,
the bakery treat we just couldn’t leave Lisbon without tasting. Taking our little
cream pies to go, we sat down in the adjoining park to see what all the fuss
was about in Belém.
¡Joder! The
Portuguese know their pastries! Perfectly sweet, slightly warm custard cupped
in a phyllo dough like shell that delicately flaked with each bite.
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| Pasteis de Belem |
The wild success of Bruno’s first suggestion prompted a
group decision to follow his advice for the rest of the weekend. After kebobs
and plenty of delicious seafood, we were hunting a pastry that’s deemed
“illegal” because of an ordinance prohibiting bakeries from operating past
midnight in Lisbon.
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| Seafood lunch on the waterfront |
The gist of Bruno’s directions were to go to a street he
pointed out on the tour, bar hop our way up, and at about 2 a.m sniff the air
for the smell that could only come from fresh treats being pulled from an oven.
He warned though that if the police were around the window would be closed, so
some patience could be needed.
We tried the first night and failed, never being able to
stumble upon the shop. Totally bummed, we saw Bruno the next day at the market
and got better instructions. Determined, we hit the street again and found the
unmarked window of the bakery open for business.
Money passed, brown bags were handed out, and we quickly
found a spot to eat these incredibly worked up pastries.
Being bad has never been so sweet. We sat there passing gorgeous
and delectable pastries back and forth, completely satisfied.
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| The bakery shop pumping out pastries |
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| One of the "illegal pastries" |
Lisbon, you are beautiful, unpretentious, and delicious.
Thanks for the great weekend, I’m heading to the gym now…
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