The Unique Cuisine of Macau

Macau, the gambling capital of the world since 2006, dwarfs Las Vegas thanks to millions of mainland Chinese gamblers. Each year, millions of visitors, rich and poor, make the pilgrimage from Hong Kong and the Chinese mainland. The wealthy elite are helicoptered in while factory workers arrive on cramped coaches. The last few times I was in Hong Kong, I’ve planned on boarding the high speed ferry to Macau to explore and experience, not the grandiose casino hotels that lure Chinese gamblers, but the unique cuisine of Macau – the legacy of its Portuguese heritage.

Serradura

My predisposition for seasickness makes me very particular about weather conditions and, in the past, the wind and sea have not cooperated. It was serendipity that a tweet about traveling to Hong Kong garnered a reply from Macau’s Tourism Office (@macauusa) and David Wong (@davidwong1966). With that as a jumping off point, we were able to coordinate our schedules for me to visit the Educational Restaurant on the campus of the Institute for Tourism Studies. And, thankfully, Mother Nature cooperated with calm seas.

Walking up the hill to the Educational Restaurant I meandered in the semi-tropical beauty of the campus which spreads below the site of Mong Há Fort,  a newer fortress, built in anticipation of a Chinese invasion following the Anglo-Chinese War in 1841. Gentle breezes relieved the humidity of brief on-and-off showers and surrounded by verdant foliage and  exotic flowers recalled the steamy serenity of living in the Hawaiian islands.

Macanese cuisine is cooked with many ingredients that recall the unique history of Macau and its Portuguese maritime culture. During the 16^th and 17^th Century, Portugal energetically established a sea route to the East, paving the way for merchants engaged in the spice trade in Africa, India and the coast of Malacca, bringing, in turn, these spices and food cultures to Macau. Portuguese seamen and merchants married women from these regions as well as local Chinese in Macau resulting in an amalgamation of different foreign and Chinese ingredients and cooking styles which were gradually incorporated into traditional Portuguese dishes cooked by Macanese families over the past centuries.

Based on Portuguese cuisine, these spices and ingredients from Africa, Southeast Asia and India – including curry, coconut milk, cloves and cinnamon – are combined using Chinese culinary skills in a wonderful potpourri of tastes and aromas, giving birth to the uniquely delicious Macanese cuisine of today.

My host David Wong, Executive Assistant Manager of Food & Beverage at the Institute for Tourism Studies, Macau, made sure I tasted an array of Macanese specialties beginning with Lacassá Soup, a delicate shrimp soup that, because no meat is used in its preparation was traditionally eaten on Christmas Eve, a day of abstinence for Catholics. The dish lives on and still makes a wonderful Lenten or Fish Friday appetizer or entree.

Any discussion of historical food culture includes curing meat and Macanese enjoy Jamón ibérico, Iberian ham, a type of cured ham produced mostly in Spain, but also in some Portuguese regions where it is called presunto ibérico or pata negra (black ham). Made from from black Iberian pigs, Jamón ibérico is prized for its smooth texture and rich, savory taste.

Naturally, wine was consumed – David is quite the wine connoisseur – and at a midday meal a refreshing and refined Soalheiro Alvarinho 2013 from northern Portugal (Spain’s albariño, whose natural home, Galicia, is just over Portugal’s northern border with Spain) was perfect with the cured meat as well as the rich trio of savory dishes coming up.

The best minchi is supposedly made by chopping the meat by hand using two cleavers (or parangs), but ground beef and pork is perfectly acceptable for the home cook. Served here with a soft quail egg, the savory minchi was perfectly seasoned and obviously hand-chopped.

Minchi

Essentially, the Macanese version of hash, it was a tie for favorite between the Minchi and the saucy Galinha à Africana (African Chicken) with exotic curry and coconut milk flavors, a dish that personifies the confluence of cuisines and cultures of Macau: pimenta comes from the Portuguese side, the peanut from the African, the spice from the Chinese, and the coconut from India.

Galinha à Africana (African Chicken)

To round out our Macanese taste adventure, we were presented a trio of desserts: a cute mini Portuguese Egg Tart – a popular local and street food favorite in Macau; a sophisticated layered rendition of Serradura (pictured above) –  serradura means “sawdust” in Portuguese and key to this bakery staple is a topping of crushed Maria cookies resembling sawdust; rounding out the trio was my fave – the luscious, velvety and tangy Mango Pudding.

The Educational Restaurant serves Macanese cuisine at very reasonable prices and is open to the public for lunch, high tea, and dinner. If you’re spending a day or two in Macau, I urge you to make a reservation and explore the exotic blend of flavor profiles that come together in the dishes that are unique to Macau. Most of what you see here is available on the menu and I’m happy to share the recipe for Lacassá Soup , courtesy of the  Macau Government Tourist Office, for you to make at home.

“Exploring the best places to sample authentic local cuisine is an essential part of what makes a trip memorable. Gastronomic experiences – the taste, smells, colors, and textures of dishes you’ve savored – woven into the fabric of a culture and its people stay with you long after returning home.” {David Wong}