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Train-Station Sweet · Egg Yolk Candy

Ovos Moles de Aveiro

Ovos Moles de Aveiro — street food from Centro, Portugal
Photo: Rodrigo.Argenton / Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 3.0

The sweet egg-yolk filling exists because convent nuns used only egg whites to starch their habits, and needed somewhere to put the leftover yolks.

A sweet egg-yolk-and-sugar paste is sealed inside a thin wafer shell shaped like shells, barrels or fish. Traditionally sold in small wooden barrels from Aveiro's train station and market stalls to travelers passing through.

Why it's made this way: Nuns at Aveiro's Convent of Jesus developed the recipe to raise money for their community, and after Portugal shut down its convents in 1910, local women carried the tradition into the market and train-station trade.
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Part of World of Street Food — 690 dishes from 118 countries. Something wrong here? Tell us in the comments below. Photo credits.