Pastéis de Belém

This guide to Pastéis de Belém in Lisbon starts behind the metal door marked "secret," where three bakers arrive before dawn to make custard and dough for twenty thousand pastries a day, following a recipe that once belonged to the monks of the nearby Jerónimos Monastery. It traces how the recipe survived Portugal's 1834 shutdown of every monastery, passing from expelled monks to a local businessman and then to the family now running the shop across five generations. Notice the queue outside — it is part of the story too.