<\/a><\/p>\nPortuguese Influence on Macanese Cuisine<\/h2>\n
Macanese cuisine is cooked with many ingredients that recall the unique history of Macau and its Portuguese maritime culture. During the 16th<\/sup> and 17th<\/sup> 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.<\/p>\nBased 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.<\/p>\n
Macanese Specialities:<\/h2>\nLacass\u00e1 Soup on Christmas Eve<\/h3>\n
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 Lacass\u00e1 Soup<\/em>, 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.<\/p>\nMacanese Lacass\u00e1 soup is a traditional Christmas Eve dish for Catholics.<\/p><\/div>\n
Jam\u00f3n Ib\u00e9rico (or Pata Negra)<\/h3>\n
Any discussion of historical food culture includes curing meat and Macanese enjoy Jam\u00f3n ib\u00e9rico<\/em>, Iberian ham, a type of cured ham produced mostly in Spain, but also in some Portuguese regions where it is called presunto ib\u00e9rico<\/em> or pata\u00a0negra<\/em>\u00a0(black ham). Made from black Iberian pigs,\u00a0Jam\u00f3n ib\u00e9rico<\/em>\u00a0is prized for its smooth texture and rich, savory taste.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Naturally, wine was consumed – David is quite the wine connoisseur – and at a midday meal a refreshing and refined\u00a0Soalheiro\u00a0Alvarinho 2013<\/em>\u00a0from northern Portugal (Spain’s albari\u00f1o, 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.<\/p>\nMinchi – the expression of \u00a0Portuguese, African, and Indian cultural influences<\/h3>\n
The best minchi<\/em> is supposedly made by chopping the meat by hand using two cleavers (or parangs<\/em>),\u00a0but ground beef and pork is perfectly acceptable for the home cook. Served here with a soft quail egg, the savory minchi<\/em> was perfectly seasoned and obviously hand-chopped.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Minchi<\/em><\/p>\nEssentially, the Macanese version of hash, it was a tie for favorite between the Minchi<\/em>\u00a0and the saucy Galinha \u00e0 Africana\u00a0<\/em>(African Chicken)\u00a0with exotic curry and coconut milk flavors, a dish that personifies the confluence of cuisines and cultures of Macau: pimenta<\/em> comes from the Portuguese side, the peanut from the African, the spice from the Chinese, and the coconut from India.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Galinha \u00e0 Africana\u00a0<\/em>(African Chicken)<\/p>\n