The Magnificent Delight of Belém!
It was around 6 or 7 years ago, my family and I had ventured out for a tour to visit some of the Holy sites and important landmarks in and around Europe. Some of them as I had covered in my previous writeup were the holy sites of Fatima and Lourdes, where we got the opportunity to see the places where Mother Mary had made her respective apparitions to St. Fransico, St. Jacinta, Lucia and to St. Bernadette. It was during our visit to Fatima that we had come across a really interesting encounter which I just thought of sharing it, since it is quite fresh in my memory and I also happen to be following an emerging Italian content creator- 'Franco Dubini' who has just tried it out on his recent visit to Portugal. It was by far the beloved dessert of 'Belém pastry' or 'Pastel de Nata' as it is known in the local language of the country.
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| With my mum and sister at the Tagus River |
As far as I remember that morning, we had just boarded the bus to take us to the sites and places in around the capital of Lisbon or 'Lisboa' as I would love to recall about in my memory. As we were going around on our short bus tour, we got to see one of the branches of my father's company, very distinctly located or placed at the heart of the city, with a brownish or beige façade to complement it's looks with the architecture of the neighboring buildings. As we proceeded as far as I remember, if it was the same place, we also happened to come across some really interesting and captivating 'grafitti' on some of the street walls in areas out of the realms of the capital or outskirts of Portugal, which gave us an idea of the 'art and cultural' scene in Portugal as well as the ways in which people expressed themselves as well as their ideas, with the 'wall' like their 'masterpiece' which was something really fascinating to come across as we went on our trip across the sites of Portugal.
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| The tomb of Vasco da Gama |
As our bus went further, we approached what was known as the 'Tagus River', a very calm stream of water that passed through the bridge that we had just gone across, and as we kept going further we approached what was known as the 'Jeronimos Monastery' which houses what was known as the 'graves' or the 'burial sites' of two important explorers in the history of Portugal being a part of the 'Spanish Empire' in the medieval era- 'Vasco de Gama' and 'Christopher Columbus'. After we visited those sites, we were just about to head to our bus, when we suddenly bumped into some locals nearby who were selling what I would describe as very attractive and enticing 'tarts', with that very flaky texture and mouth-watering 'custard' to leave your taste pallets grasping for more of it. It was indeed the delicious and scrumptious 'Pastel de Nata' or the 'Bélem pastry' as mentioned earlier.
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| Jeronimos Monastery |
With their heavy Portuguese accent and pronunciation, the locals went about to describe how the pastry has occupied a place in the hearts of the people living in that area. One of them, a man spoke about how the name of the area which strikingly or by coincidence also happens to be the nickname of the delicacy, when translated in the local language, means Bethlehem which is as we know in the Christian tradition, the birth place of Jesus Christ in the Holy Bible according to the 'New Testament'. This fact really amazed us, as we just couldn't believe how this site could be named after a place, very much significant in the Bible, and also houses the tombs to the two famous explorers that we know in history- one known to have discovered the 'Americas', and the other known to have discovered 'a sea route to India'. At that moment, we felt really blessed to have visited this site, and treated the dessert like a 'heavenly delight' offered to us by the loving and generous locals of the area. The dessert was so delicious, that after we had finished our tour to the sites of Europe, the first thing that my mother did as she planned for what she would do on a particular day, was to learn how to prepare this very 'delectable dessert', and indeed she was able to achieve the exact same result in both the 'texture and flavour' of the dessert.
This was one of the most captivating memories that I have ever had of my trip to Portugal which I just thought of sharing it out on my travel blog- 'Bryce's Corner' to inspire you all to do give a try on this dessert if at all you might get a chance to visit Portugal or if not, to try your hands on this lovely dessert!!!
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| A family picture outside the Jeronimos Monastery |
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| A picture of my mum and dad outside the Belem Tower |
PS: The Instagram Reel that you can see below of 'Franco Dubini' is what motivated me to write this new blog :)
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