Joaquim Braz de Oliveira arrived in Brussels at the age of 19. He was a political refugee fleeing from repression in Portugal. He taught himself to cook, and opened a little Portuguese restaurant on the Chaussée de Charleroi in 1982.
Several decades later, he launched a traditional Portuguese pastelaria after learning how to cook the delicious custard tarts called pastéis de nata.
You can pick up authentic Portuguese pastries in Forcado’s beautiful tea room and bakery near the Horta Museum. There is also a second tea room in Uccle. As well as the classic pastéis, there are versions spiced with coffee, chai, chocolate and speculoos.
It’s easy now to pick up pastéis all over Belgium, but Joachim was the first to introduce us to this distinctive taste of Portugal.
Derek Blyth’s hidden secret of the day: Derek Blyth is the author of the bestselling “The 500 Hidden Secrets of Belgium”. He picks out one of his favourite hidden secrets for The Brussels Times every day.
