Tarts of Rio

Life on the road has peaks and troughs, just when you think you´re down on your luck a cake emporium changes the course of your day.
After a morning of being turned away by every tourist agency in downtown Rio de Janeiro I bump into a Brazilian girl who offers to act as a translator as we go to the airport. Erica spends 20 minutes trying to help me buy a flight before I decide that I can´t afford it. I offer to buy her a coffee by means of thanks, instead she offers to take me to a cafe where she needs to buy a tea cup for her husband in Canada. I´m sold when she mentions something about Portuguese pastries.
So, flights missed long forgotten, I arrive at Confeiteria Colombo. I´ve visited more than a few cake cafes in my time, but even my jaw thuds against the tiled floor on entering the enormous tea room. The high walls open into a balconied second floor with stained glass ceiling. The walls are all covered with grandiose mirrors that remind me of Parisian cafes. The whole building seems preserved in its decadent art noveau style from the late 19th Century. I fear my apparel of shorts and vest may be out of place among the starched-collar waiters.
At the entrance, in front of rows of round table tops, two glass fronted cake counters are laden with intricate and diabetes-inducing delicacies. There are tarts with carefully blowtorched meringue toppings, brigadeiro (sweet made from condensed milk) and gateux of various fillings, but the specialties here are the traditional Portuguese pastries and flans.
We sit down and Erica points out some traditional treats for me to try and we share a pot of coffee. I order the Pastel de Belem and a flan. The Pastel de Belem is essentially a custard tart, but it is far removed in sophistry from the rubber-middled eggy kind you find at Gregg´s the bakers. The pastry is a light crispy almost puff almost filo - I don´t know how they achieve this but it´s lighter than air. The custard centre, burnt slightly on top, is a confectioner style custard. It´s smooth and creamy with a velvet-vanillery warmth that coats the mouth. There´s also a barely perceptible hint of cinnamon. The tart disappears with alarmming speed.
The flan is a mini tower of custardy cake, although quite similar it´s firmer than a creme caramel. It has a grainier almost cake consistency with a nutty-almond flavour. It sits in a light, thin moat of caramel.
In the auspicious room with it´s serious waiters, marble table tops and ornate decor, I´m transported to an era of European splendour. Where furniture and decorations were shipped across the seas from Belgium to bring the best and latest styles to the cultural heart of Rio.
The cakes reduced to crumbs, I´m sad that I´ll probably never eat a Pastel de Belem here again and I bemoan the stodgy ineptitude of Gregg´s gelatinous custard offering. On second thoughts, it´s probably for the best - I´m not sure they´ve developed a pastry-gorgers anonymous yet.