© fabricoproprio.netPastel de Nata (plural: Pastéis de Nata) or Pastel de Belém (plural: Pastéis de Belém) is a small custard tart found throughout Portugal’s pastry shops or cafés. It is believed that it was created before the 18th century by Catholic Sisters at the Jerónimos Monastery (Portuguese Mosteiro dos Jerónimos) of Belém, in Lisbon. Casa Pastéis de Belém in Lisbon was the first place outside the convent selling this creamy dessert, and there they are called Pastéis de Belém, after the name of the area. Since 1837, locals have gone there to get them warm out of the oven and sprinkled with the cinnamon and powdered sugar. These are very tasty, with tourists waiting in excess of 3 hours for them.
It was the sweet chosen to represent Portugal in the Café Europe initiative of the Austrian presidency of the European Union, on Europe Day 2006.
It has since become available at numerous bakeries, as well as Macau-style restaurants and Hong Kong branches of the KFC restaurant chain. Portuguese-style egg tarts became popular in Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong and Taiwan in the late 1990s.
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