Sunday 28 July 2013

Souvenirs from Portugal

Happy Sunday,

Although I am arriving later in good old Europe today, I prefer giving you a last prepared post before I can finally share my East Asia experiences.

Instead I dedicate this post to fashion (believe it or not) and food (easier to believe).

What I don't like about a globalized world is that you find nowadays the same things everywhere: A McDonalds in Shanghai and New York, an H&M in Stockholm and Dubai, Vodafone in South Africa and India. It's no wonder that shopping avenues resemble the same. Only few items are truly traditional and can be called "unique".
The Spanish company Inditex (Zara, Bershka, Stradivarius, Pull & Bear) could at least limit its multinational presence: Most of the brands are only available on the Iberian Peninsula (except Zara and only until now). Obviously, they were my target when I went to Lisbon and heureka! - I was successful.
Jeans shirt (Stradivarius)
Floral summer dress (Blanco)
Light shirt (Bershka)
What do you think about the new items in my closet?

When all my friends packed their suitcases before departure they quickly went to the next bakery in order to import the famous and delicious Pastel de Nata. Well, I wasn't too avaricious to buy them. I'd rather said that I want to try them at home by myself. In the beginning I was really skeptical whether they would turn out with the same traditional taste but I was then surprised positively. The fluffy pastry with the mildness of the vanilla filling are exactly the right snack for a Sunday afternoon.
Pastel de Nata
Ingredients (for 12):
  • Puffed pastry
  • 0.5l milk
  • 250g sugar
  • 35g flour
  • 1 pinch of salt
  • 1 tsp. butter
  • 1 egg
  • 5 yellows of eggs
  • 1 package vanilla sugar
Roll out the puffed pastry and stamp out circles with a diameter of about 10 cm. Those pastry circles are put into a buttered muffin tin and then set aside. For the filling bring the milk and butter to a boil in a pot. Then add sugar, salt and flour while stirring constantly. Boil up the liquid and then set aside. Now add the egg, the yellows and the vanilla sugar to the filling. Fill it then into the prepared pastry tarts and bake it in a 235°C oven for about 10 minutes. Normally they should turn out quite dark, in my case our oven wasn't in the right regulation. Bon appétit!
A glass helps to cut out circles
Before the oven
Thank you so much for reading.

Next week - finally - the report about four weeks in Asia will be the topic!

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