📍 A tarte de nata mais famosa do mundo - uma massa folhada estaladiça com creme de ovos caramelizado, polvilhada com canela. O símbolo comestível de Portugal. 🎂 Nasceu nas cozinhas do Mosteiro dos Jerónimos, em Belém, no início do século XIX. Os monges usavam as claras dos ovos para engomar as roupas - e aproveitavam as gemas para fazer doces. Em 1834, quando os mosteiros foram encerrados, os monges venderam a receita secreta a um comerciante local. Em 1837, abriu a lendária Fábrica dos Pastéis de Belém - que ainda hoje usa a receita original. 💡 Há uma diferença importante que todo o português conhece: pastel de Belém é o original, feito apenas numa loja em Belém desde 1837. Pastel de nata é o nome genérico - encontra-se em qualquer café do país, mas a receita não é a mesma. A receita original é um segredo guardado por apenas alguns mestres pasteleiros, que trabalham numa sala separada, longe dos olhares curiosos. Os monges que inventaram esta maravilha não fizeram fortuna - mas deram ao mundo um dos melhores doces de sempre. 🍽️ Vá à Antiga Confeitaria de Belém, em Lisboa - fila incluída, vale sempre a pena. Coma quente, com canela e açúcar em pó. E não aceite imitações. 🗣️ Vocabulário: - a massa folhada - puff pastry - o creme - the custard - a canela - cinnamon - engomar - to starch / to iron clothes 💬 "Um pastel de nata quente com canela é uma das melhores coisas do mundo." ❓ Hora do quiz: Onde foi inventado o pastel de nata?

Thank you to the VIPs who turned up yesterday. Sorry it was so difficult for me to connect from my car in Lisbon. Had a fabulous time in Lisbon yesterday, including the Estrela Gardens (see video below). Great work, well done on your progress @Lori Wong, @Peter Haglund, @Brian Mathers, @Vivian Shuemake & @Bob Wenger 🙏Certainly a lot to say about the power of setting targets and goals and the intentionality and pressure that comes from them. So "muito bem" to you all and anyone who made an effort and got stuck in last week. Have a great weekend with the plans as discussed and see you on Monday to hatch more plans and have more success next week. Special mention to Cadet of the Week, @Lori Wong. It looked like maybe newcomer @Anna Konde or @Matthias Lanuschny were going to get the top spot! Check out the Leaderboards, which reflect participation here in this Speak Portuguese in 90 Days community - you've got to be in this to win this!! Bom fim de semana a todos, it's a hot one here. I'm off to a wedding in Central Portugal. If you're serious, switch up to Premium, which I will extend to VIP so that you can join us for the Monday briefing - putting in the work does get results, just ask the guys above 👆 (All PREMIUM members are welcome to join us on Mondays & Fridays to participate, commiserate and celebrate! My personal successes included speaking to my neighbour (in Portuguese, of course) about witnessing bureaucratic papers, choosing a karaoke song (which I'm threatening to sing you one day). I've started teaching my kids in a much more effective and powerful way, which was one of my tasks that I was taking on. I've also got the go ahead to set up a Speak and Drink Portuguese event that's coming in September at my local wine bar.

***You'll be seeing some BIG changes with this community, and here's why*** The best time to learn Portuguese was twenty years ago. The next best time is now. If you think you’ve heard that formula before, it was originally about trees, but I’ve seconded it for my purposes today, as I wish I’d started learning this country’s language a couple of decades ago, when I was just about to visit for a recce, and ended up falling in love with the place. Back then, on my first 'deployment', I remember getting a briefing from my host, which had me learning “Olá!” and “Superbock”, as well as surprised (and warned about) the Spanish similarity, and preferring Sagres anyway in my Central Portuguese location. There, I managed to get by, having a haircut and wet shave based entirely on mime, trust and hope - a formula that has done me proud to this day. That fact-finding, curiosity-satisfying and bond-creating trip was a great success and come this September, I’ll have lived in Portugal for nine years. I'm staggered by how quickly that time has flown by, which is of course what happens, when you are having fun. But I’m also shocked by my poor grasp of the Portuguese language after all this time. I live side-by-side with the lovely people of Portugal, and on the kind of reflection that big anniversaries bring about, I poignantly note that I have made so little linguistic progress. It’s embarrassing, frankly. At this point, the excuses can begin. “It’s a difficult language, even the Portuguese themselves admit this,” say other awkward expats when asked the “how is your Portuguese question”. “I’m too old, and I’ve always been rubbish at languages,” replies another, when the subject comes up as it invariably and eventually does. And, worst of all, as if we were not embarrassed enough already, “everyone speaks English here anyway!”. If we live here, and haven’t in reasonable time at least grasped some of the basics (hello, how are you?, thank you and goodbye), we might and probably should feel a pang of shame or awkwardness. These basic courtesies are what people might learn for a city-break or two-week vacation, and certainly not overlooked if actually resident somewhere, anywhere. Knowing your name, ordering basics in a restaurant, counting, the days of the week, and asking for help, all for example, could also be seen as basics for anyone with longer-term intentions to remain.