Explorando bolos tradicionais de Portugal

What is the difference between “pastel de nata” and “pastel de Belém”?

Pastel de nata is Portugal’s custard tart: flaky pastry, egg cream, cinnamon and sugar. Nata is cream, and the plural shifts the stress — pastéis de nata. The near-identical tart sold beside the Jerónimos monastery in Lisbon is a pastel de Belém, and that name is a registered trademark: only the Antiga Confeitaria de Belém, working from an 1837 recipe, is entitled to use it.

So every pastel de Belém is a pastel de nata, and almost no pastel de nata is a pastel de Belém. Worth knowing before you order in the other hemisphere, too: in Brazil a pastel is a savoury deep-fried turnover from a market stall, not a pastry at all. The clip walks the rest of the Portuguese cake shelf as well — torta de amêndoa and bolo de laranja.