Portuguese egg tarts and other cakes

Living in Malaysia I've eaten many egg tarts. And they certainly vary from shop to shop. They originally came to Malaysia with the Portuguese. Floor map in Lisbon showing Portuguese discoveries -

So when I was in Portugal, I was interested to go to the bakery where these egg tarts originated.

The tarts originated from Belem which is just outside Lisbon. The Belem egg tart shop is near the Jerónimos Monastery and was established in 1837.

The Portuguese egg tart, Pastel de nata, Pastéis de nata (plural) were created before the 18th century by Catholic monks at the Jerónimos Monastery. During that time, convents and monasteries used large quantities of egg-whites for starching clothes, in particular the nuns' habits. So the monks and nuns started using the leftover egg yolks to make cakes and pastries, resulting in the proliferation of sweet pastry recipes throughout the country.

Nowadays there is always a queue to get into the Belem shop. There is a dine in cafe as well as a take away counter -

I bought 2, you sprinkle icing sugar and cinnamon on top, and should eat them warm -

During my stay in Portugal, small egg tarts were sometimes available in the bakery section at the hotel breakfast.

Pastelaria or bakery shops are everywhere, either as cafes or just take away shops. I tried a few during my stay. Quite often for lunch I would just have a cake and coffee.
This was a crispy pastry case filled with a sweet custard -

This one was really nice, a filo pastry with a sweet filling -

I also had a couple of 'cream slices' without the cream. They are flatter but much wider than the English cream slices -

I saw these meringues in a shop in Coimbra, Pastelaria Briosa. They were huge, the size of a tea plate, pity the photo doesn't really show the size -

They are described by travellers on Trip Advisor as the world's biggest meringues. They would feed a whole family!

Another Portuguese cake is the pao de lo or sponge cake. Interestingly, in Malaysia (& Chinese countries) a pao is a steamed dumpling (sweet or savoury). I only tried this in the hotel buffet -

Apart from some of the cakes, I wasn't over impressed with food in Portugal.

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The death of Ipoh's Ipoh tree

Ipoh's iconic Ipoh tree that stood in front of the railway station was uprooted in a storm on 28 April 2017. The tree had been planted there in 1980.

The tree in 2010 -

The tree, antiaris toxicaria, had given Ipoh its name. The poisonous latex of Ipoh trees is used by the orang asli (aborigines) for their blowpipes. 

There used to be very attractive gardens in front of the station but those were all removed in recent years and the area was turned to concrete, leaving the Ipoh tree all alone. And now that is gone.

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Magpie softening bread in water

Magpies are birds of the crow family and are rather intelligent. This one found some hard bread and flew to a water barrel and dunked the bread in the water to soften it.

I've also seen crows dunking hard bread in puddles of water.

Magpies are omnivores and scavengers. This year I have frequently seen one hanging around as it knows that people put out food for the foxes and squirrels. Like the foxes, it recognises the sound of a window being opened, which could mean food is on its way.

I normally only see one at a time, despite the children's nursery rhyme :
One for sorrow,
Two for joy,
Three for a girl,
Four for a boy,
Five for silver,
Six for gold,
Seven for a secret,
Never to be told.
Eight for a wish,
Nine for a kiss,
Ten for a bird,
You must not miss

I've frequently seen crows going through the rubbish bins outside Sainsbury's and McDonalds. They methodically take out each bag, checking it for food.

Malta - catacombs and WW2 shelters

I made my first visit to Malta in January 2015 but only did a blog on the "limestone and caves" as well as "The Limestone Heritage". I didn't get round to any other posts, probably because I took so many photos I couldn't be bothered to decide what to choose!! I really liked Malta, so went back again in March 2017. In 2015 I didn't go to the neigbouring island of Gozo, so intended to go in 2017, and wanted to see the famous rock arch, the Azure Window. However this collapsed just one week before I went to Malta! I did a blog of before and after.

On both trips to Malta, I bought a week's bus pass and spent the time going round on the buses. So I covered a lot of ground and saw a lot of things. In 2017 I concentrated more on underground sites such as WW2 shelters and catacombs.

The first of these was at Mellieha in the west of the island, where I went into the World War II Mellieha shelters. €2.40 entry.

During the war, Malta was one of the most bombed places on earth. In Mellieha people hid in natural caves until the government organised the digging of shelters in the soft limestone. The largest complex was opened to the public in 2004. Here there are 500 m of tunnels.

Families could apply for a permit to dig small private rooms. See more on the Times of Malta.

Across the road is Our Lady of the Grotto, a little chapel in a dug out grotto

 

My next underground excursion was to St Pauls Grotto at Rabat. St Paul supposedly lived in this cave for 3 months after being shipwrecked on the way from Crete to Rome, around AD 60.

There is also a complex of tunnels and catacombs at St Pauls.

Above is the Wignacourt Museum, formerly the baroque residence of the Chaplains of the Knights of St. John.

Nearby is the St Catald Church and catacombs, entry by donation. This is only a small complex.

Further up the road is the Museum Department St Paul's Catacombs. I guess this is St Paul pointing the way -

It was only later that I realised these are the main ones, not the one at the Wignacourt Museum that I had already visited. So a couple of days later I went back to visit those. They are located on the outskirts of the old Roman capital Melite (today’s Mdina). They are under the care of Heritage Malta. The tour starts in the exhibition hall, then you can walk around the grounds visiting the 21 (?) tombs plus explanation rooms. St Pauls' Catacombs - Gateway to the Underworld -

The site was first a quarry, the stone was used for the construction of buildings in Melite.  When the quarry was abandoned the site was turned into a large cemetery, outside the city walls. There were hundreds of shaft and chamber tombs used circa 4th c. BC - 2nd c. AD. There was also a section for cremation urns and amphorae burials. Sometime around or after the 2nd c. AD the area was quarried again and some of the burials were lost and buried.

I was very impressed by the way Heritage Malta have constructed the walkways etc.

 Rows of tombs -

Each numbered catacomb has an info board describing what is inside and how many steps there are down into the catacomb -

Menorah -

The complex is quite narrow -

See more on Heritage Malta St Paul's Catacombs.