Standing in her kitchen in Richmond’s Marina Bay in May, Paula Pasquini prepared batches and batches of queijadinhas. She had baked the popular Brazilian coconut tart many times before, but this was different.
Paula, 60, was preparing to sell dozens of them at the local Marina Bay farmers market for the first time. She checked on her tarts in the oven, noticing them become “a little more brown” and then “a little more brown.”
Then, to her horror, she realized some of the queijadinhas had burned.
Her husband, 68-year-old Sergio Pasquini, suggested they cancel their premier at the farmers market and try again the next weekend.
“I said, ‘Nope, I have to do it,’” Paula said. The adrenaline kicked in.
She waited for Sergio to fall asleep, and then she got up, went to the kitchen and started fresh. She baked dozens of queijadinhas through the morning until she was satisfied.
“I was like, ‘Okay, now that’s it,’” Paula said. “I was confident that things were perfect.”
That decision paid off. Once they set up their stand at the farmers market to launch their small pastry enterprise, Pingo Doce, everything fell into place. Pingo Doce means sweet drop, and it turned out the farmers market customers of Richmond were hungry for sweet drops. Pingo Doce sold out within two hours.
“We packed up early because we didn’t have anything else to sell,” Paula said. “And then I crashed.”
Ever since then, Paula and Sergio have been back at the Marina Bay farmers market each Sunday morning to sell their goods. Paula fills her treats with fruits and sweets, like goiabada (guava paste), banana, dulce de leche, and nutella. In addition to queijadinhas, Paula also bakes pão de queijo (cheese bread), brigadeiros (chocolate truffles), and beijinhos (coconut truffles). Kids often love or hate coconuts, and so she bakes mini carrot cake muffins for them, too.
Pingo Doce:
Find Pingo Doce at the Marina Bay farmers market on Sundays, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., and on Instagram @thepingodoce.
Paula naturally considers kids’ tastes — when she’s not baking, she’s a busy preschool teacher. She enjoys watching cooking videos and shows about entrepreneurs starting small businesses. Paula and Sergio have now obtained a cottage food operation permit to make and sell food at home. After decades of baking for her family, Paula is baking for an audience she never anticipated, and the experience has given her new energy.
“Making something that is from your roots is so nice,” Paula said. “A lot of people come and say, ‘Tell me about this. What is this?’ And I tell them a little bit of the history and what it is. It’s fun.”
A Brazilian sweet finds a home in Richmond
Queijadinhas, popular in Brazil, are made mostly from coconut and sweetened condensed milk. A version of queijadinhas was brought to Brazil after the Portugese colonized the country.
“They wanted to keep the recipe in Brazil, but cheese did not exist at the time,” Paula said. “Slaves tried to make the recipe with coconut, because that’s what we have in abundance.”
Queijo means cheese in Portuguese, and the name queijadinha – meaning little cheese – stuck in spite of the coconut emphasis.
In Brazil, Paula’s grandmother and her sisters would cater for weddings, baking very fine treats. Her grandmother would make a coconut truffle baked in caramel and then crystalized. Paula loved to watch her family bake and eat their food, and once she got married she “really had to go to the kitchen and learn.”
“I would go to a public phone, call my mom, and get all the instructions,” Paula said. “That was the only way when we were not together.”
Sergio makes a banana jam filling for the queijadinhas, and he is in charge of inventory, orders, and other logistics of managing the enterprise.
Paula and Sergio, concerned about the direction of Brazilian politics, moved to the United States in June 1986, when their daughter was 14 months old.
“We came to stay, probably a maximum of three years. And we left everything behind, our jobs, apartment, without knowing,” Sergio said.
Now they have three kids and two grandchildren living in the Bay Area, and are settled in Marina Bay. Paula is a preschool teacher at a home-based preschool her daughter founded, located by Civic Center in Richmond.
During a visit to Brazil “a long, long time ago” Paula tried queijadinhas with a twist; the treats she tasted had filling inside.
“And I fell in love with that,” Paula said. “I said, ‘Oh my gosh, how can I eat this in the U.S.?’ We don’t have it here. I research and research, and I tried many recipes until I finally got it. And I’ve been doing it for family and friends and everybody.”
The farmers market opened up at a parking lot in their neighborhood in April. When they saw a sign about the farmers market coming to Marina Bay, Paula joked about selling baked goods there. The whole family supported the idea, and the farmers market was on board. The joke became a successful pastry venture.
Getting into the routine
Sergio is mostly retired but still works part-time at the nearby CVS. And now he also spends his time taking care of Pingo Doce, buying supplies, and preparing for Sundays at the farmers market.
“My week is busy that way, it’s a good busy,” Sergio said.
After about two months at the farmers market, the pair have settled into a routine. During the week, Sergio, the planner and record keeper, reviews the inventory. He double checks they have enough boxes, condensed milk, cheese, and other ingredients. Four days a week, Paula is at the preschool, leading toddlers in music sessions and circle time. She plays the ukulele, and her puppet, a bird known as Pepeu from Brazil, has found a dedicated following among the preschoolers.
On her days off, Paula goes on roughly five-hour baking marathon for the queijadinhas. She makes dozens of each flavor, in addition to other treats. Much of her time in the kitchen is about experimenting. For example, she recently tried out a recipe for pão de queijo that incorporated garlic and herbs, including rosemary from their garden.
“I put in some dry garlic, and when I tasted it, I was just like, ‘This is so good!’ And Sergio suggested, ‘Why don’t you do it with guava?’ A little savory and sweet. It was very good too,” Paula said.
Baking for pleasure and perfection
After all these decades, Paula and Sergio know how to look after each other. They only want to keep the pastry enterprise going if it brings them joy. They are careful not to do too much, and stay small at the farmers market.
“You can feel the energy,” Sergio said. “She feels so good doing all of this.”
They’ve been putting together boxes so people can purchase multiple items at a discount, and are preparing to roll out a new logo with a design created by their son-in-law. They love seeing reactions from customers. Recently, a family stopped by and everyone got a little treat. Some had cheese bread, others queijadinhas.
“Their reactions were so sweet,” Paula said. “They kept looking, and they said, ‘This is so good!’ And they came back for more.”
And when customers come back to the Marina Bay farmers market for more, they may soon have the chance to try Paula’s passion fruit truffles. She’s been experimenting with different methods, but they are not quite perfect yet.
Paula is determined to get them just right.
