Pastel de nataPastel de nata is a Portuguese egg tart pastry, common in Portugal, the Lusosphere countries and regions (which include Brazil, Angola, Mozambique, Cape Verde, So Tom and Prncipe, Guinea-Bissau, Timor-Leste, Goa, Malacca and Macau, introducing them later in Mainland China), and countries with significant Portuguese immigrant populations, such as Canada, Australia, Luxembourg, the United States, and France, among others. Pastis de nata were created before the 18th century by Catholic monks at the Jernimos Monastery (Portuguese: Mosteiro dos Jernimos) in the civil parish of Santa Maria de Belm, in Lisbon. At the time, convents and monasteries used large quantities of egg-whites for starching of clothes, such as nuns' habits. It was quite common for monasteries and convents to use the leftover egg yolks to make cakes and pastries, resulting in the proliferation of sweet pastry recipes throughout the country.Following the extinction of the religious orders and in the face of the impending closing of many of the convents and monasteries in the aftermath of the Liberal Revolution of 1820, the monks started selling pastis de nata at a nearby sugar refinery to secure some revenue. In 1834 the monastery was closed and the recipe was sold to the sugar refinery, whose owners in 1837 opened the Fbrica de Pastis de Belm. The descendents own the business to this day.[1]Since 1837, locals and visitors to Lisbon have visited the bakery to purchase fresh from the oven pastis, sprinkled with cinnamon and powdered sugar. Their popularity normally results in long lines at the take-away counters, in addition to waiting lines for sit-down service.Now, they can be purchased in many places all over the world, in bakeries, and sold in many hotels etc.