I am writing this from my overnight lodging at Coimbra, Portugal. I am on my fifth camino, the Camino Portuguese from Lisbon to Santiago. Next weekend I hope to be in Porto.
I add to the above comments that, the Portuguese have been exploring the world by sea for nearly 800 years. Many of the greatest early discoveries and incredible navigational feats were accomplished by Portuguese sailors. In fact, Portuguese navigators were so skilled and proficient that they were in demand by other world powers of the time, like the English, Dutch and Spanish.
Many Portuguese navigators possessed closely held navigational books called "rutters." Portuguese navigators of the 16th century called it a
roteiro. Foreign companies seeking new trading routes would hire Portuguese navigators with these "guides." This made the Portuguese navigator a very highly skilled and sought after expert.
From your school years, and assuming you are old enough where they actually taught you about real stuff, like early global exploration and discovery, do you remember the explorations and discoveries of:
- Ferdinand Magellan
- Vasco da Gama
- Bartholomeu Dias
- Pedro Alvares Cabral
Among others...
The point being that Portuguese explorers visited Asia hundred of years ago, and likely brought interesting goods, spices, and recipes home with them.
Portugal was also a global colonial power for a few hundred years. Though not as powerful as Spain, Portugal did have a presence in South America (Brazil), Africa (Mozambique,etc.) and Asia (Macau).
So finding "Portuguese" pastries in Malaysia is not out of context. They learned about them somewhere.
I recall from my visits to Malaysia that their cuisine does include a lot of sweet dishes, including tarts with sugar and coconut as essential recipes.
I hope this helps.
