Mouthwatering Macau
BEHIND MACAU’S GLITTERING NEW CASINOS AND UPSCALE HOTELS, HELEN DALLEY DIGS A LITTLE DEEPER TO SAMPLE THE TRADITIONAL FLAVOR OF THE REGION. PHOTOGRAPHY BY NANA CHEN
There is an old saying that the Macanese eat their steak with chopsticks and their rice with a fork and spoon. Although this is not actually the case, it reflects a certain culinary truth. Thanks to its cultural melting pot heritage, Macanese food is a fusion of traditional Portuguese cooking (it’s a former colony), with dishes and ingredients from all over the world including China, Mexico, Goa and Africa – some of which were destinations in the early days of the spice trade thanks to the ocean-faring colonialists and Macau’s role as a vital port in the late 16th century. The food is typically accompanied with imported wine (chilled vinho verde, a light fruity wine, is the most popular choice) then chased down with some Portuguese port, or a good quality brandy. Anyone who has ever visited the city will know the Macanese are not exactly famous for their hospitality and service in restaurants can be curt, particularly in the more basic establishments. The eating and drinking on offer however, certainly helps compensate for such brusqueness.
The Portuguese may have handed Macau back to the Chinese in 1999, but many of their staple dishes such as caldo verde (a hearty green soup), pastéis de balchao (croquettes of cod and mashed potato) and sardinhas grelhadas (grilled sardines) remain perennially popular. Portuguese sailors and their wives also bought back dishes like African chicken, which is baked in coconut milk for a sweet, toasty taste then brought to life with some garlic and chilli.
Other dishes that you’ll find in many cafés throughout the region include Spanish baked chicken and rice, and chorizo and macaroni soup (accompanied by chicken, beef or ham). Slow-cooked to perfection, the soft macaroni is perfectly accompanied by the tender juicy chunks of sumptuous meat and the chorizo adds a spicy, chewy twist. Despite being wholly embraced by the Macanese, these dishes have all retained their traditional Western style across the years and become part of what’s known as Macanese food. Given Macau’s proximity to Hong Kong, you are never too far away from Cantonese cuisine in the city either, whether it’s a dim sum restaurant or a skewer of fish balls from a street vendor.
One of the best places to get an authentic taste of Portugal is Fernando’s, which has built up a substantial following over the years. Serving only Portuguese food and wine from its laid-back location on Hac Sa beach in Coloane, the seafood is outstanding – try the admirably simple clams, crabs, mussels and cod, seasoned to perfection – and spicy tomato chorizo dishes. With the price of an average main starting at around MOP60 (USD7.50/PHP300), it’s reasonably priced too, compared to other sit-down restaurants in Macau. If you’re a seafood fan, track down Ming Hong Café near the AMa temple with its award-winning garlic butter baked cod, the flaky cod slowly releases its juice in the oven to mix with the creamy garlic sauce. Another legendary eatery in these parts is Manuel Cozinha Portuguesa which, like Fernando’s, is a family-run business – try the freshly caught grilled squid or eel.
While Macau has many fine restaurants, it also boasts a lively street food culture, and you’ll find hawker stalls and open-air cafés in several corners of the city. Originating from Hong Kong, sticky pork chop buns are a Macanese favorite and can be purchased on the street or in small traditional cafés. The succulent chop is pan-fried and served sizzling and steaming with the flavors of crushed black pepper and garlic (in some places, they remove the bone and dip it in batter), then squashed between two halves of a bun fresh from the oven, much like a mini-baguette with a crispy shell. One of the most popular places to try it is Café Tai Lei Loi Kei in Taipa on the Rua Direitia Carlos Eugenio, where the meat – quite literally a whole pork chop on the bone – is tender, juicy and flavoured with garlic, while the buns are soft and chewy.
The café’s regular customers accompany it with Hong Kong-style milk tea, a creamy cup of char made with evaporated milk.
Arguably Macau’s biggest culinary export is the Portuguese egg tart, and Lord Stow’s is the most famous producer. This variation on egg custard is sweet and yellow, caramelized to a crispy glaze with a blowtorch and encased in a flaky pastry shell. While they are spectacularly tasty – think double cream mixed with custard – they are also very sweet, and one will usually suffice. Stow’s is acclaimed throughout the region and demand was so great from neighboring Hong Kong that they opened an outlet in the Excelsior Hotel in Hong Kong’s Causeway Bay. Head over to sleepy island of Coloane, which is just 15 minutes away from town in a taxi, and you’ll find the Lord Stow Garden Café. The atmosphere is relaxed and friendly, and fresh batches of tarts are baked regularly to accommodate the significant demand for these flaky delights. The tarts are also available at the bakery if you want to grab-and-go and cost MOP6 (USD0.75/ PHP30) each. If you’re not planning to leave the centre of Macau, you can always check out Margaret’s café e nata (it’s near the Hotel Sintra), or any of the Portuguese-style bakeries dotted around town, which also serve coconut tarts, a popular Portuguese pastry with an egg tart base then topped off with flakes of coconut. Like the egg tart, these mini delights are also super sweet. For a little taste of England, Bookachino, tucked behind the Dynasty Plaza, is the first dedicated English language bookshop and café and makes for a pleasant pit stop with an impressive selection of British cakes, coffees, magazines and books, with a touch of American influence.
Another legendary Macanese dessert is the surprisingly light and refreshing milk pudding, a subtly-flavored dessert that’s simply milk in solid form; while it may look white and unappetizing, it’s very moreish, and a great comfort food. Sample it at Leitaria I Son – easy to find by the huge neon cow outside (it’s situated near Senado Square). Alternatively, pull up a chair at the Yi Shun Milk Company, which not only prides itself on its milk pudding, but also the steamed ginger and milk pudding, the ginger infusing the milk pudding with a slightly spicy taste.
Yi Shun’s interesting variations on the milk pudding theme make it the best place to go for an introduction to this local delicacy. It’s opposite the General Post Office at Senado square, and to sample this sweet treat will cost you around MOP15 (USD1.90/PHP76).
For more Macanese culinary delights, walk away from Macau’s epicentre, Senado Square, and head up the hill to St Paul’s façade, where you’ll be confronted by street food vendors at every turn, all trying to tempt you with samples of dried meats, biscuits and other traditional candy. Delicious dried strips of sweet pork and other meats are a fresh favorite in Macau as in Hong Kong and China, and most traders will snip you off a piece or two with a pair of heavy duty scissors so you can try them. You’ll also see traditional street stalls selling hand-pressed egg biscuits, where the mixture is poured onto a griddle then cooked before being deftly rolled out into a circle and served up hot. Crumbly enough to melt in the mouth, this is one Chinese treat is one you won’t want to miss.
Come nighttime, the place to be is Rua de Felicidade to pick up cheap eats from street vendors, such as juicy squid, chewy cuttlefish and hotdogs served on wooden skewers, and other snacks taken from the streets of Hong Kong. Another street-eat option if you’re here on the weekend is San Kio nightmarket outside Lin Kai temple, where the usual array of street food snacks are sandwiched between stalls selling cut price clothing. The market is open from 5-11pm on Fridays and Saturdays.
SWEET TREATS TO TAKE HOME
In addition to its celebrated egg tarts, Macau is also renowned for its sweets, the most famous being chewy nougat, spicy ginger candy and crumbly cookies dusted with rough granules of sugar for long-lasting sweetness. Outside some shops, you can even watch them shaping the cookie dough and candy mixture cooking them there-and-then, while inhaling the delicious aromas to excite your taste buds.
Locals maintain that all the cookie flavors are best accompanied with a cup of oolong tea. You should taste as much as you can as it’s free and representatives from every single shop will stand in the street proffering samples. The Koi Kei bakery is one of the most respected in town with eight branches selling candy and cookies, go to www.koikei.com for more details.
WHERE TO FIND THEM…
Fernando’s, Praia de Hac Sa, 9, tel 853 2888 2264
Manuel Cozinha Portuguesa, Fernao Mendes Pinto, 90, Taipa, tel 853 2882 7571
Bookachino, Rua Cidade de Santarem, tel 853 2872 3362, www.bookachino.com
Café Tai Lei Loi Kei, Rua Direitia Carlos Eugenio, Taipa, tel 853 2882 7150
Lord Stow’s, Tassara 1, Coloane, tel 853 882 534, www.lordstow.com
Margaret’s café e nata, Rua Commandate Mata e Oliveria (between Av Dom Joao IV and Rua PJ Lobo), tel 853 2852 7791
Yi Shun Milk Company, Largo do Leal Senado (opposite the Post offi ce)
Leitaria I Son, Largo do Leal Senado 7, tel 853 2837 3104
Koi Kei Bakery, Rua de S. Paulo, No 24A-24B Floor GF, Edf Heng Va, Macau, tel 853 358 515
Rua S Paulo, No 23AA-23AB R/C Edf Meng Fung, Macau, tel 853 358 230 www.koikei.com
HOW TO GET THERE
Fly to Macau on Cebu Pacific Air. Flights are four times a week from Manila and twice a week from Cebu. From 8 May, they will increase to four times a week from Cebu and from 30 June there will be daily flights from Manila
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