🥧 Castella do Paulo

Just beside Kitano Tenmangu's great torii gate, is Castella do Paulo or where Portugal's 16th-century confectionery history and Kyoto's come together to make beautiful tasty pastries (I really loved their Pastel de Nata!).

Paulo Duarte, a Lisbon-born pastry chef who started in the trade at age 12 was the first non-Japanese person to learn castella-making from Shokoken in Nagasaki, and later opened up this Kyoto spot with his wife in 2014! For a little bit of a history lesson, the Portuguese actually originally introduced the pão de ló that became castella in the mid-to-late 16th century.