Bola the Berlim is fried sweet dough, filled with egg
cream that became part of the Portuguese culinary tradition. Our favourite
place to it, is on the beach!
The Portuguese recipe is an adaptation of the original
Berliner. The original was brought to Portugal during WWII, when Jewish German
families took refuge in Portugal. The originals were filled with red berries
jam.
But the Portuguese most popular version is filled with
egg cream, more in line with our taste and traditions. We love egg sweets in
Portugal.
We also use just normal sugar to dust it, rather than
powder sugar.
There are plenty of versions around the world, but I
love the Portuguese recipe.
You can find this Bolas
de Berlim in any pastelaria
(bakery with coffee shop), but our favourite place to eat them, no doubt, is on
the beach. That’s when they taste out of this world.
It is a Portuguese tradition and I don't know any
portuguese who doesn't have memories eating them on the beach. When the sales
man, all dressed in white, crosses the sand, carrying the magic white box and
chants: Olha a bola de Berlin!!(Look at the Berlin ball), you start seeing a
sudden movement of people that surround him and, for around €1.20, buy happiness, you just need to tell the
seller if you want with or without cream, but most of us, obviously, will have
it with cream.
In recent years, new versions have been showing up,
like chocolate and carob and all sort of combinations, but nothing like the
original!
So if you go the beach in Portugal, make sure you eat
one!!As we like to say, going to the beach without having eaten a Bola de
Berlin is like not having gone to the beach. Ah, don’t think about sharing one,
you will regret it, and by that time, the sales man might have gone!