You Can Now Taste Portugal’s Most Iconic Snack

In the 15^th and 16^th centuries, Portugal’s rulers helped to kickstart the Age of Discovery by sending fleets of caravels across the vast oceans towards unknown lands. In the process, they also helped to embed the idea of saudade – a melancholy yearning for something or someone that is absent – in the national psyche.

It’s a feeling that Carla Alemao knows well, having left behind homes in Mozambique, Brazil and Portugal before moving to Australia in 2006. As she made her new life here, this feeling of loss was compounded by an increasing number of Australian friends who returned from holidays in Portugal raving about the destination. “When they came back, many of them were talking about the famous custard tarts,” she recalls. “And my husband and I had the idea that they were such a popular treat, why not bring them to Adelaide?”

Despite a background in law and human resources, Carla signed up for a baking course at TAFE before reaching out to several chefs in her homeland for tips on how to make the perfect pastel de nata, or Portuguese custard tart. Slight differences in local ingredients meant there was a long period of trial and error before she was ready to launch them publicly, and even after opening the first Saudade store in Mitcham in 2018, she continued to tinker with the recipe. But now, she says with a laugh, “after six years, the recipe is finally settled.”

These parcels of silken custard wrapped in deliciously flaky pastry quickly developed an enviable reputation, and within a few years Carla was also selling them from the Central Market. Then just before Easter this year, she opened her third location in Norwood Place. A slightly smaller footprint means that the pastry is delivered from the other stores rather than being made onsite, but Carla was adamant that every tart had to be cooked instore.

“The secret is to bake very hot and very quickly,” she explains, and she uses an imported Portuguese oven specifically designed for the job. It goes up to 400 degrees, “so the pastry can cook and expand, while the custard stays creamy and is not completely cooked.” The rapid baking process also makes it easy for staff to bring out fresh batches throughout the day. “That’s really important,” says Carla. “It means that clients can see them coming out and even though the tarts will obviously last until the following day, they are so much better when they’re fresh out of the oven.”

A commitment to mastering the perfect pastel de nata means that there’s still only one item on the menu at Saudade, though the staff are also kept busy pouring shots from the coffee machine. “Here we make lattes and cappuccinos but the coffee in Portugal is very different,” says Carla. “We don’t have all this variety; it’s basically just an espresso, which can be full or half full… But funnily enough, the brand that we use is Segafredo red label, which is a very popular brand in Portugal.”

And the proud business owner hints that change may be on the way, as her husband is keen to double the menu by introducing a savoury product based on a traditional Portuguese recipe. For now, though, both of them are thrilled to have a taste of home whenever they want it. “Saudade is a feeling; it's something that you had and lost. Sometimes you can get it back, sometimes you cannot. But in this situation, we're very happy because now we don't have to travel to Portugal to have a Portuguese custard tart.”