salt tooth

I do not have a sweet tooth. While I do occasionally enjoy a dessert or some very dark chocolate, I much prefer salty things— give me a pickled herring over a slice of cake any day! Portugal has incredible sweets that usually involve dozens of egg yolks and loads of sugar. While in Aveiro, Pedro suggested that I try the local Ovos Moles, a traditional sweet originally concocted by nuns in the 19th century. Apparently the nuns ran laundries, and used egg whites to stiffen the collars of priests— this led to an abundance of yolks. Rather than waste these yolks, the resourceful nuns began to whip up belly-widening confections, many of which are still enjoyed today and have become a staple of Portuguese cuisine. Ovos Moles, are essentially crispy communion wafer crusts formed into the shapes of shells or barrels, and filled with a yolk and sugar paste.

Eager to try something new, I took a bite.



When it comes to food, there's very little that I don't like— I've enjoyed offal in Turkey, water rats in Vietnam... Unfortunately Ovos Moles has made my 'No Thank You' list, right next to lamprey and melon. They're so pretty and I wanted to like them, but my goodness the sugar made my head spin— I'm not kidding. We tried to walk it off, but I had to sit on a park bench for a little while lest they made a reappearance.

Later around lunch time, I figured the best way to rid myself of this unpleasantness was to counter the sweetness with some salt. And beer.



Dinner needed lemon and garlic— lots of garlic.