Pleasure Palate Portuguese Pastry Tasting at Natas Pastries October 28, 2007

Time to tempt your palate with all the pleasurable flavors that Los Angeles has to offer. Join us as we do some culinary exploring of restaurants (both high-end and holes in the walls), various food and beverage tastings, cooking classes, potlucks and so much more. From savory to sweet, from salty to sour, from spicy to tangy, from exotic to All-American, we'll taste it all, so come along and take your taste buds on the ride of their life. Today's event is all about sampling delicious Portuguese pastries at Natas Pastries!

excerpts taken from LA Times review by Linda Burum

In Sherman Oaks, there exists L.A.'s only Portuguese bakery, Natas Pastries, which opened about a year ago in Sherman Oaks. Owner Fatima Marques, a Portuguese native and longtime Los Angeles resident, probably could have taken shortcuts in developing the recipes for the pastries, desserts and savories that fill her cases. Instead, the former marketing director was meticulous in authentically reproducing the sweets she grew up loving — apprenticing in Portugal, retrofitting an oven to heat to the necessary 750 degrees, acquiring special pans and importing ingredients.

The bakery's location in a nondescript minimall across from a car wash belies the old-world warmth of its interior. Dark woods and blue and white Portuguese tiles cover the walls. An espresso machine sits at the ready and the aroma of small savories in their warming boxes scents the air. There are rissois, delicate shrimp and crab turnovers, heartier meat and chorizo croquettes and pasteis de bacalhau, Portugal's answer to crab cakes made with dried codfish.
Sweet pastries include their famous egg custard natas which are tiny custard tarts, that are renowned in Portugal for the way its egg-rich crème brûlée-like filling contrasts with the sumptuous crackle of a parchment-textured shell. These are the originals, but the shop also makes the tarts with an intense dark chocolate custard sprinkled with nuts, sweet shredded coconut and double custard (soft over baked) topped with coconut. There's also a version with a crushed almond and caramel filling called pasteis de feijão.

The nata's close relative, queijada, has a subtly sweet, cheesecake-like ricotta filling lightly flavored with cinnamon. And the confection of choice in southern Portugal, a morgado, or almond pastry, is wonderful here, not too sweet, its buttery short crust filled with light, fragrant almond paste, redolent of freshly crushed nuts.

As you can see, Nata's Pastries offers many delicious treats and for only $15, we will be having our own private tasting event at Nata's with owner Fatima Marques, herself. The event will include:

a savory tasting of:

1 Croquetes - Seasoned ground beef and Portuguese chorizo
1 Rissois - Shrimp and Crab turnover
1 Pasteis de bacalhau - Cod cakes (Portuguese version of crab cakes)

a sweet tasting of:

1 nata - Portugal's signature pastry. Creme brulee type filling in puff pastry

1 malassada - Portuguese donut/sugar ball

1 filhos - banana squash orange fritter, a favorite for the Holidays

1 bolo rei - Portuguese fruit cake made with sweet bread dough, dried fruit, nuts and sweet Port wine

Your choice of:

House blend regular coffee, waters or sodas

Discount:

a 15% general discount on items and will have specials just for the group

Throughout the tasting, Fatima will talk about the various pastries that we are sampling as well as answer any questions.

This is definitely going to be a delicious time well-spent so hopefully, you'll come out and join us!

Please purchase tickets at the link below:

http://www.localwineevents.com/Los-Angeles-Wine/event-145673.html

Official Website: http://www.localwineevents.com/Los-Angeles-Wine/event-145673.html