The Old Tart House - a tasty Lisbon Landmark (Antiga Casa dos Pastéis de Belém (Lisbon))

Member Name: koshkha

Product:	Antiga Casa dos Pastéis de Belém (Lisbon)
Date:	13/10/06 (502 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Probably the best custard tarts in the world - bar none

Disadvantages: It's a long way to go for elevenses

When I was a child my confectionery tastes leant towards the towering heaps of chocolate, whipped cream and nuts. I would inevitably plump (appropriate word that) for the biggest, naughtiest cake in the shop. The one you didn't know whether to eat or climb.

But as I've got older and - questionably - more sophisticated, I've come to see that there's little in life that beats a really good custard tart in any of its many manifestations. As an ex-fatty I am, like an alcoholic, only ever one or two tarts away from heading back down the slippery slope of over-indulgence. Cue the support group …. "Hello everyone, my name is Koshkha and I am a cakeoholic".

Most of the time the battle with temptation is one I win. But there's always one good excuse succomb. This is the 'travelling in a foreign country, don't like to say 'no' for fear of giving offence' gambit and, within the rules of diplomacy, you have to grin and swallow.

In May this year my husband and I went to Lisbon and stay with my friend Theresa, whom I met many moons ago in a youth hostel in Stockholm. We inter-railed together for a while and I was long overdue for paying her a visit on home ground. Our friend and hostess whizzed us around all over the place but insisted that the highlight of the weekend would be a trip to the Antiga Casa dos Pasteis de Belem - or, to translate roughly, the Old Tart House of Belem. As we drove back and forth she would point out of the window at an unprepossessing little shop with a blue and white awning and a very long queue outside and murmur in hushed tones about the delights still to come.

So Where is This Remarkable Shop?
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Belem is the river-side area at the heart of the tourist map of Lisbon. It has the Monastery of Jeronimos and several state museums just along the road. On the other side of the road is a lovely park with cheap restaurants and a MacDonalds on the corner - small irrelevant fact, McDonalds in Portugal does soup! On a Sunday morning there is a big flea market just across from the shop. Further along the coast, a few minutes walk is the Monument to the Discoveries. Pass the Cultural Centre of Belem and head down the road and you will reach the defensive Belem Tower overlooking the waterside.

In short - with all these attractions, there are plenty of excuses to make sure you find yourself within sniffing distance of the Antiga Casa.

Take Care
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Crossing the road in front of the shop whilst thinking about tarts could be dangerous to your health. The traffic is shocking and you will need your wits about you.

The Casa Itself
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The building is a rabbit warren of rooms, mostly tiled in traditional Lisbon blue and white. There must be a dozen different rooms, each filled to bursting with little tables and chairs and consumers paying homage to their Pasteis over a coffee. Even if you are planning to take away, be sure to have a wander around and look at the building. Everyone is so busy stuffing their faces that they won't wonder what you are up to.

Back in the entrance hall, there is a shiny old counter and display cupboards full of goodies. Most of the people standing three or four deep at the counter are there for just one thing - a pack (or better still several) of custard tarts. These are sold still warm in a cardboard tube containing six tarts. You will also get a small pack of icing sugar and another of cinnamon.

I'm sorry that I can't tell you what these little delights cost - my friend was deeply offended that we should even consider to offer to pay for something so important. I suspect that they would probably cost somewhere between 2 and 3 Euros for a pack of 6 but quite honestly, if they charged 10 times that you'd still want to buy them.

Eating them
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Walk out of the shop - stop thinking about the tarts, you need to pay attention to that traffic again. Cross over to the park and find a bench.

Slide open the end of the box and pull out the first two tarts. They will be sitting face to face, still warm and inviting. The tarts are approximately two and a half inches in diameter and one and a half in depth. The golden brown pastry is the flakiest I have ever seen. The skin on the custard will be blackened in places and golden in other. Take a good sniff.

Open up the sachets of cinnamon and icing sugar. If the wind is blowing, check which way before you cover yourself in powder (yep, I ended up wearing most of it). Sprinkle them on top and then sink your teeth in.

A local will probably put one away in 3 or 4 bites. I stretched mine out to a dozen or so nibbles. The custard was sweet, creamy and smooth. The flakes of pastry melt in your mouth and the grateful sparrows will take any crumbs you miss.

The nuns in the kitchens at the nearby Jeronimos Monastery allegedly developed the recipe for these tarts more than 200 years ago. It seems in Portugal that a life of religious devotion has its little compensations - a bit like the monks elsewhere with their Benedictine and Belgian beers. It is alleged that only 4 people know the secret recipe for these tarts.

So how good are they?
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In my old job working for a bakery ingredients supplier I travelled the world and ate the local speciality cakes and pastries in every different continent. Each was claimed by the locals to be the best cake in the known universe but I actually believe that in the case of the Pasteis de Belem, I can stop my search and die happy knowing I really have had the ultimate custard tart. If these were served up every day, it might even be worth forsaking all other worldly vices and joining the monastery.

Summary: If it rained all weekend and you had a nasty hotel it would STILL be worth a visit just for tarts