editorial

Words by Mark Parren Taylor Photographs by Mark Parren Taylor October 6, 2024
A cultural crossroads for centuries, Macau boasts a distinctive cuisine that blends Portuguese and Chinese influences with spices collected on the Portuguese sea voyages along the coasts of Africa, India, and Southeast Asia. From humble egg tarts to Macanese classics like minchi and African chicken, this is a culinary destination that cries out for exploration.
<figure id="attachment_141073" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-141073" style="width: 1200px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="wp-image-141073 size-full" src="https://staging.destinasian.com/wp-content/uploads/Macau-Food-Feature-7.jpg" alt="Minchi (minced-meat hash) as served at La Famiglia restaurant in Taipa Village; a jogger on Rua da Felicidade, Macau’s onetime red-light district." width="1200" height="894" srcset="https://staging.destinasian.com/wp-content/uploads/Macau-Food-Feature-7.jpg 1200w, https://staging.destinasian.com/wp-content/uploads/Macau-Food-Feature-7-300x224.jpg 300w, https://staging.destinasian.com/wp-content/uploads/Macau-Food-Feature-7-1024x763.jpg 1024w, https://staging.destinasian.com/wp-content/uploads/Macau-Food-Feature-7-768x572.jpg 768w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px" /><figcaption id="caption-attachment-141073" class="wp-caption-text">Left to right: Minchi (minced-meat hash) as served at La Famiglia restaurant in Taipa Village; a jogger on Rua da Felicidade, Macau’s onetime red-light district.</figcaption></figure>
Macau’s defining qualities are inseparable and yet poles apart, like night and day, or sweet and sour. The compact territory is home to both a UNESCO World Heritage site and the largest concentration of casinos in Asia. Its densely populated and ever-upgraded cityscape stands in contrast to back alleys that evoke 1980s Hong Kong. And after being a Portuguese trading post for over four centuries, Macau still offers a compelling interplay of Asian and European cultures.
Nowhere is this more evident than in the culinary heritage of the Macanese community, which emerged from generations of intermarriage among the enclave’s Portuguese, Chinese, and Southeast Asian residents. Though many Macanese left Macau before it was handed back to China in 1999, some 8,000 remain, preserving their unique legacy for future generations. “Simply put,” says Vitor Alves, “we have Asian faces but are called by Portuguese names. We have mixed blood, a resolute Catholic faith … and a comforting attachment to our Chinese inheritance too.”
His wife, Florita Alves, heads the kitchen at the family’s terra-cotta-hued restaurant in Taipa Village. Located near the popular food street of Rua do Cunha, <a href="https://www.facebook.com/famiglia.macau?destinasian" target="_blank" rel="noopener">La Famiglia</a> focuses on the kinds of dishes that Florita learned to cook from her Chinese grandmother and Macanese mother-in-law.
“Of course, to be Macanese is to enjoy our culture, to celebrate it,” the chef says. “But like everything, a lot of it is lost.”
<figure id="attachment_141072" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-141072" style="width: 1200px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="wp-image-141072 size-full" src="https://staging.destinasian.com/wp-content/uploads/Macau-Food-Feature-5.jpg" alt="African Chicken at Henri’s Galley; inside century-old pastelaria Fong Kei." width="1200" height="894" srcset="https://staging.destinasian.com/wp-content/uploads/Macau-Food-Feature-5.jpg 1200w, https://staging.destinasian.com/wp-content/uploads/Macau-Food-Feature-5-300x224.jpg 300w, https://staging.destinasian.com/wp-content/uploads/Macau-Food-Feature-5-1024x763.jpg 1024w, https://staging.destinasian.com/wp-content/uploads/Macau-Food-Feature-5-768x572.jpg 768w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px" /><figcaption id="caption-attachment-141072" class="wp-caption-text">Left to right: African Chicken at Henri’s Galley; inside century-old pastelaria Fong Kei.</figcaption></figure>
<figure id="attachment_141071" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-141071" style="width: 1200px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="size-full wp-image-141071" src="https://staging.destinasian.com/wp-content/uploads/Macau-Food-Feature-4.jpg" alt="A traditional house in Taipa Village; fish at the historic Red Market." width="1200" height="894" /><figcaption id="caption-attachment-141071" class="wp-caption-text">Left to right: A traditional house in Taipa Village; fish at the historic Red Market.</figcaption></figure>
A century ago, Macanese women were commonly seen in black mantilha shawls or lace veils. They exchanged recipes and gossip in Patuá, their creole language, and on holidays broke bread over a festive meal. And to some extent that still happens. On Christmas Eve, Macanese families typically gather around a bowl of tacho, a hearty stew of duck, Chinese sausage, cloud-ear mushrooms, and olives. On Good Friday friends share a dinner of bacalhau (salted cod), which is either boiled or baked. And Epiphany sees Christmas leftovers used up in a stew called diabo, in which the remnants of roast meats are made “devilish” with spoons of vinegar, English mustard, and Chinese pickles.
In Patuá, the Macanese refer to themselves as Maquistas. “We also jokingly call ourselves Balichão,” Florita says, referencing a ubiquitous Macanese condiment made from fermented krill. An adaptation of the Malay shrimp paste belacan but with added brandy, clove, and rice wine, it’s also key to one of La Famiglia’s most resonant Macanese dishes, porco balichão tamarindo—pork slow-stewed in tart tamarind water and the umami-dripping krill paste.
Over four and a half centuries, Macanese cuisine was quietly cobbled together in local kitchens using ingredients from both Portugal (salted cod, wines, olive oil) and its colonial possessions elsewhere in the region: cashew and coconut from Mozambique; pepper and cinnamon collected in Goa; nutmeg and ginger from Melaka. Other old-world staples were substituted with items from the local Chinese larder: lap cheong sausage in lieu of chouriço, for example. This was fusion food long before the concept became fashionable.
<figure id="attachment_141070" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-141070" style="width: 1200px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="wp-image-141070 size-full" src="https://staging.destinasian.com/wp-content/uploads/Macau-Food-Feature-6.jpg" alt="Bacalhau (salted cod) with potatoes and turnip tops at a Portuguese restaurant in Taipa; long-serving waiter John Yeung at Henri’s Galley." width="1200" height="894" /><figcaption id="caption-attachment-141070" class="wp-caption-text">Left to right: Bacalhau (salted cod) with potatoes and turnip tops at a Portuguese restaurant in Taipa; long-serving waiter John Yeung at Henri’s Galley.</figcaption></figure>
<figure id="attachment_141069" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-141069" style="width: 1200px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="wp-image-141069 size-full" src="https://staging.destinasian.com/wp-content/uploads/Macau-Food-Feature-9.jpg" alt="Inside the Macao Tea Culture Museum; tacho stew at Nga Tim Café." width="1200" height="894" srcset="https://staging.destinasian.com/wp-content/uploads/Macau-Food-Feature-9.jpg 1200w, https://staging.destinasian.com/wp-content/uploads/Macau-Food-Feature-9-300x224.jpg 300w, https://staging.destinasian.com/wp-content/uploads/Macau-Food-Feature-9-1024x763.jpg 1024w, https://staging.destinasian.com/wp-content/uploads/Macau-Food-Feature-9-768x572.jpg 768w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px" /><figcaption id="caption-attachment-141069" class="wp-caption-text">Left to right: Inside the Macao Tea Culture Museum; tacho stew at Nga Tim Café.</figcaption></figure>
At Riquexó (69 Avenida de Sidónio Pais), a long-standing eatery as legendary for its no-frills decor as for its authentic Macanese fare, several dishes tell the story of how this unique cuisine evolved. There’s minchi, a ground beef–and-potato hash likely acquired from colonial neighbor Hong Kong; and feijoada, the Brazilian favorite made Macanese with kidney beans and Chinese sausage. The proprietor is prouder still of their galinha à africana, or African chicken, which has been on the menu since Riquexó’s original owner, Aida de Jesus, first opened the restaurant in the 1980s. It’s said to be the original recipe, one that dates back to the mid-20th century when the aromatic dish was made famous at the Hotel Pousada de Macau by chef Américo Angelo, from whom de Jesus learned it. Fried in a peri-peri style marinade, the chicken is then stewed in a thick sauce combining butter, onions, garlic, peanut butter, and coconut milk. The complexity of flavor is astounding.
Across town at nautically themed Henri’s Galley (4 Avenida da República), owner Raymond Vong is similarly proud of his father’s version of the dish, so much so that the recipe is printed on the paper place mats for customers to take home. It’s a lovely idea, though mine is soon made illegible by dribbles of the spicy brown sauce.
Perhaps even more comforting are the pork chop buns at Tai Lei Loi Kei (35 Rua Correia da Silva), a family-run fixture in Taipa Village. An adaptation of the Portuguese bifana, this popular street snack sees slabs of juicy grilled meat as big as your hand sandwiched in freshly baked papo seco rolls. It’s extra delicious when drizzled with the local-style laat ziu jau chili oil.
<figure id="attachment_141068" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-141068" style="width: 1200px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="wp-image-141068 size-full" src="https://staging.destinasian.com/wp-content/uploads/Macau-Food-Feature-1.jpg" alt="Family-run Tai Lei Loi Kei specializes in pork chop buns." width="1200" height="800" /><figcaption id="caption-attachment-141068" class="wp-caption-text">Family-run Tai Lei Loi Kei specializes in pork chop buns.</figcaption></figure>
<figure id="attachment_141067" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-141067" style="width: 1200px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="size-full wp-image-141067" src="https://staging.destinasian.com/wp-content/uploads/Macau-Food-Feature-3.jpg" alt="Portuguese caldo verde at the UTM Educational Restaurant; chef-owner Florita Alves of La Famiglia restaurant." width="1200" height="894" /><figcaption id="caption-attachment-141067" class="wp-caption-text">Left to right: Portuguese caldo verde at the UTM Educational Restaurant; chef-owner Florita Alves of La Famiglia restaurant.</figcaption></figure>
Also worth seeking out is the <a href="https://www2.utm.edu.mo/RESTAURANT/index.php/en?destinasian" target="_blank" rel="noopener">UTM Educational Restaurant</a> at the hilltop Pousada de Mong-Há, a training hotel in northern Macau operated by the Macao University of Tourism. Apart from its teaching mission, the establishment grows most of its own vegetables and converts any food waste into fertilizer, which has earned it a Michelin Green Star for sustainability. And the well-priced food is terrific, whether it be a sublime Portuguese caldo verde (potato and kale soup) or capela, a comforting Macanese meatloaf topped with breadcrumbs and cheese. For a full range of local specialties, head there on Saturday, when an extensive Macanese buffet is available for lunch and dinner.
On the sweet side, Macau’s most successful bakery is <a href="https://www.lordstow.com?destinasian" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Lord Stow’s</a>, with seven outlets across the city. Founded in 1989 by British pharmacist Andrew Stow and his then-wife Margaret Wong, the enterprise lays claim to making Macau’s tastiest egg tarts—creamy dollops of caramelized custard contained by flaky puff pastry. Thousands are sold every day. Egg tarts are also the draw at Margaret’s Café e Nata (17B Rua do Comandante Mata e Oliveira), a much-Instagrammed spot in downtown Macau. If there’s any rivalry between the two bakeries it’s definitely a family affair: Margaret opened her store following the separation from Andrew, and their daughter Audrey now runs the show at Lord Stow’s.
<figure id="attachment_141066" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-141066" style="width: 1200px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="wp-image-141066 size-full" src="https://staging.destinasian.com/wp-content/uploads/Macau-Food-Feature-8.jpg" alt="Preparing walnut dim sum; a fresh batch of egg tarts at Lord Stow’s Bakery." width="1200" height="894" /><figcaption id="caption-attachment-141066" class="wp-caption-text">Left to right: Preparing walnut dim sum; a fresh batch of egg tarts at Lord Stow’s Bakery.</figcaption></figure>
<figure id="attachment_141065" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-141065" style="width: 1380px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="wp-image-141065 size-full" src="https://staging.destinasian.com/wp-content/uploads/Macau-Food-Feature-Featured-Image.jpg" alt="Bakery workers making alua, a Macanese Christmas candy." width="1380" height="920" /><figcaption id="caption-attachment-141065" class="wp-caption-text">Bakery workers making alua, a Macanese Christmas candy.</figcaption></figure>
More classic Macanese treats await me at <a href="http://kaminportfood.com?destinasian" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Alua e Comidas Portuguesa Kam In</a>. Located just downhill from the mint-green neoclassical facade of the Dom Pedro V Theatre, the shop draws on recipes passed down by a Macanese woman named Celeste Araújo de Rodrigues, whose fragile notebook contains old recipes for a range of confectioneries including “baby Jesus pillows” (coconut and pine nut cookies), bicho-bicho (vanilla biscuits), and alua, a caramel-cum-nougat sweetmeat of Arab origin that made its way to Macau via Goa.
Alua is a traditional Christmas treat that owner Ho Kam In makes year-round. The process starts with a night’s worth of sweat-busting toil over an open fire in the shop’s upstairs room. Coconut milk, butter, and sugar (plus chopped almonds and pine nuts) bubble over the flame, continuously stirred with wooden paddles until the color and consistency meet with Ho’s approval, typically for eight hours.
“The ingredients meet in the pot,” she says, “and over time, eventually, they become one.” A delicious, moreish, melded one, much like Macanese cuisine itself.
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This article originally appeared in the <a href="https://subscription.destinasian.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">October/November 2024</a> print issue of DestinAsian magazine (“A Fusion of Flavors”).

Bakery workers making alua, a Macanese Christmas candy.

Savor the Melting-Pot Flavors of Macau