Jun 19, 2009 by David Leite photos by David Leite
Look lower to alter radio stations station while driving west on Route N111 in central Portugal, also it’s easy to buzz through the small, nearly empty village of Tentgal. Made up of small cluster of roads, Tentgal (population 2,275) is suffering exactly the same fate as numerous rural Portuguese towns. In the past half-century, it's hemorrhaged residents, as more youthful generations, too restless to invest their lives round the tree-dotted town square his or her parents did, relocated towards the metropolitan areas of Lisbon, Porto, or Coimbra. One resident, though, came back, going to revive Tentgal’s wealthy gastronomic past—one pastry at any given time.
Olga Alexandre Gonalves Cavaleiro, 36, has O Afonso, a regional pastry shop focused on preserving the pastl de Tentgal—a finger-lengthy, crispy log full of doce de ovos, a cooked egg-yolk-and-sugar mixture. The traditional sweet was initially produced behind the now-crumbling walls from the town’s Convento do Nossa Senhora do Carmo within the 16th century.
Portugal includes a wealthy tradition, in the religious and caloric sense, with regards to desserts. &"Since everybody had chickens,&" states Cavaleiro, &"eggs were offered like a dzimo [tithe] to convents and monasteries through the country, plus they had to behave using the yolks.&" (Legend has it the whites were utilised with the idea to starch nuns’ wimples in order to clarify wine.) It makes sense an impressive variety of egg-laden doce conventuais, like the pastis de Tentgal.
&"Why is pastis de Tentgal so interesting,&" Cavaleiro adds, &"is when they’re made, which hasn’t altered in almost five centuries.&" An eight-pound lump of dough, made from only flour and water, is plopped lower in the center of a white-colored cotton-covered platform, inside a white-colored room, presided over by three white-colored-clad women. Then an unpredictable dance ensues based on humidity, temperature, and season. One lady grabs an advantage from the dough and flops it, which makes it slightly oblong. Another circles another clump, finds the best place, and will the same. This pavane of pulling and flopping leads to the dough being extended to some diameter as high as 15 ft. It might be so sheer, a newspaper could be go through it, that is frequently the exam Cavaleiro uses to keep quality. The ladies then wait for a precise moment within the drying tactic to cut the frittery sheets into fan shapes which will envelope the doce de ovos.
The pastries, though, are greater than a local sweet. They’ve arrived at define not just the city, nevertheless its people, their ethics, and identity. These, too, Cavaleiro has labored tirelessly to uphold. To that particular finish, she grew to become obama from the Associao dos Pasteleiros de Tentgal, an activity pressure that, amongst other things, helps to ensure that the eponymous pastries can be created only in Tentgal. Cavaleiro and company also have just finished petitioning the Ministrio da Agricultura in Lisbon to get the coveted Indicao Geogrfica Protegida, a governmental certification that guarantees the indisputable outcomes of an area and it is products. When the IGP insignia adorns the boxes in the five shops permitted to help make the pastis, Cavaleiro hopes Tentgal will once more be into the spotlight. Literally.
Photos 2007 David Leite. All legal rights reserved.
