Mini palmiers. Sweet!!!

Today, I had a job interview in Birmingham. Since it didn't take more than an hour, and today the day was really lovely, I decided to stroll around a bit, although I had to move around quickly because I couldn't afford to do any shopping, despite the extremely temptive low prices in stores. I really need to start working as soon as possible.

Shortly after, I found myself near Coronation Street (no, it's not the soap opera), and decided to try to look for a Portuguese café someone had recommended me in a previous interview (didn't get the job but got the tip). When I'm about to give up on this small search, and preparing to return to New Street train station, I find myself at Bull Street (which is close to the Priory Square Shopping Centre), and after a few steps, I notice some plaques indicating the name of some restaurants located in a sort of internal patio, just up the stairs on the left. In one of the plaques was written: Nata - Portuguese Pastelaria. I thought, this must be it.

Nata - Portuguese Pastelaria
Unit 25 Martineau Place, Birmingham, B2 4UB

I took some time to get inside, because I wanted to check the quality of the products and the prices too. Finally, I decided to get inside. I was about to greet the guy in Portuguese, but not very confidently because I had the feeling he wasn't Portuguese, and I was right. I don't know if there was any Portuguese there. The music on air was brazilian, and I even thought one of the girls might be Brazilian, but couldn't be sure. I asked if the brand of the expresso was Delta. Unfortunately, it wasn't. The guy mumbled the name of some other brand, and assured me it was also Portuguese and that it was very good. That it WAS Portuguese coffee. Well - I thought to myself -, if you put things that way, you have just bought me. I decided to give it a shot. One could not compare it to our beloved Delta, but surely it was the best coffee I had in a long time. Although I have a coffee machine at home, it's not the same thing. And besides, for the moment, I do not have any Delta café - just a Brazilian one which I mix with the very weak Lavazza coffee I managed to buy a while ago at Tesco (supermarket). Even more than an hour after getting home, the nice bittersweet falour of that coffee remained in my palate. Divine!

Besides coffee, Nata also offers nice meals (looked very fresh and healthy), and some Portuguese products like Nestum, Gallo olive oil, piri-piri, Compal beans and juices, Luso still water, Ucal chocolate milk (how much I love this!!!) etc. And cakes. I managed to see some "pasteis de nata" and "bolos de arroz", but they didn't look fresh enough to me, so I decided not to buy any of them. Instead, I decided to surprise my dear husband with something he really enjoys: mini palmiers. They looked nice and fresh. Nice choice! A homemade latte and a few palmiers made - today's special treat for tea.

Inspired by it, at dinner, I decided to make for the second time, my signature dish (I'm seeing way too many Food shows on TV!) I called "Scalops on a bed of pasta", in other words, "Massada de vieiras". Delicious!! Maybe one of these days, if you ask really really nicely, I'll post the recipe here along with pictures. :) I promise.

Meanwhile, the 3 litre olive oil packaging we managed to buy once at ASDA, from their own brand, finally came to an end. With so many Food shows on TV, where Chefs use olive oil all the time, I still don't understand why is it so difficult to find large packages of olive oil at the supermaket. In this country, people just love to increase garbage, that's what I think. So, one can only seem to be able to buy 750 ml or 1 lt packages. And worse of all... no Portugese olive oil... Greek, Italian and Spanish yes, but nothing from Portugal. It's not fair. The good thing is that I know this Portuguese store, in London, that sells it, along with many more wonderful Portuguese products. Meanwhile, I'll keep saving the one I brought from Portugal this year, the Azeite DOP Moura. Simply the best!