In April I wrote three posts about confections from my local bakery: their bolo de nozes and tarte de nata, then pastel de chila com amêndoa, followed by mini bola de berlim. It was then I realized this food research was getting out of hand because the bakery is far too handy… if you saw how many different kinds of pastries and desserts are made across the street from my home, you’ll know why I need a willpower of steel!
I’ve written before that desserts aren’t at the top of my eating list, but if they’re around I’ll choose ones with fresh fruit, or baked fruit like fruit pies. I spotted this confection in the display case and I thought it might be made with peaches. I asked and listened for fruit words, but all I could understand was the word “ambrosia”. I decided to try it, anyway, and if it turned out to be too sweet or the filling too egg cream-heavy, I’d give it to the resident Sweet Tooth.
Once home, I did an image search for “ambrosia” and a dizzying array of desserts showed up. There are a million ambrosias (Greek: food of the gods) and this is just one of them. Most of them don’t have pastry, and it seems none of them look like this, either.
But it was very good, and lighter than I’d expected — a surprise, considering Portuguese desserts are on the heavier side. (Chocolate mousse here, for example, is much heavier than the name mousse implies. It’s more like cake batter.) I still don’t know what’s mixed in with the fresh cream. If it’s custard, it’s a very mild one, because all I could taste in one pillowy bite was the cream and cinnamon.
It went down very easily. Probably a little too easily. The resident Sweet Tooth didn’t even get a chance to taste it, he’ll have to go across the street and get his own. Willpower!
August 31, 2016
Album: Portugal [Summer 2016]
