ABOUT ME
Fernando Pessoa bronze statue, near A Brasileira coffeeshop, Lisbon
To be great, be whole;
Exclude nothing, exaggerate nothing that is not you.
Be whole in everything. Put all you are
Into the smallest thing you do.
So, in each lake the moon shines with splendor
Because it blooms up above.
Fernando Pessoa (1933)
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Hi, everyone! My name is Sónia Vieira. I am the single owner of The Creamy Crow, a food business that creates Portuguese custard tarts (known in Portugal as pastéis de nata).
After moving from Lisbon to Seattle more than a decade ago, it was interesting to see the food scene here but also witness some Portuguese influences at the bakery shops. For example, it is believed that the famous malasada (a Portuguese fried dough pastry) was brought by the Portuguese workers to Hawaii in around 1878. The Portuguese custard tarts, however, are pretty hard to find in the West Coast since they have a distinct taste that sets them apart from similar versions found elsewhere. In 2017, when in Lisbon, I decided to attend a workshop on how to make pastéis de nata. It was a great decision since baking them here in Seattle for myself, family and friends helped mitigate some homesickness. Six years and a pandemic later, I am so happy to expand my circle of "customers" and offer to all of you not only the traditional Portuguese pastel de nata but also different variants.
Our famous Portuguese poet Fernando Pessoa described so well in the poem above what is like to put your all into a small business. So, I hope you can enjoy these flaky, melt-in-your-mouth pastries as much as I love making them.
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