History and Culture in Macau Cuisine

Macao's gastronomic culture is "a study of the East and the West", "a blend of the ancient and the modern", with unparalleled dishes, "native Portuguese food" is a masterpiece, a place of culinary excellence that is desirable

The old saying goes: "Food is the God of the people". But the Chinese people have never been so favorably disposed to food as they are today. Chinese food culture and fashion has swept the world! In the streets and lanes of Macau, in addition to the Cantonese restaurants that can be seen everywhere, you can also taste the Beijing cuisine, Sichuan cuisine, Huaiyang cuisine, French cuisine, Portuguese cuisine and other Chinese and foreign expensive dishes, especially by the Macanese people to improve the "native Portuguese cuisine", which can be called a masterpiece. Macanese cuisine has become the most culturally inclusive cuisine, and has become a tourist specialty that attracts a large number of Chinese and foreign tourists.

Gathering of Chinese, Western, Northern and Southern specialties

Many outsiders have a comment on Macanese people called "Macanese people are not afraid of treating guests", meaning that Macanese people invite guests to dinner and never worry about what kind of meal to invite them to eat, and guarantee that they will allow you to eat unique and unique dishes not found elsewhere. Because Macau can be said to be a collection of Chinese, Western and Northern cuisine, where you can not only taste the authentic Portuguese cuisine, but also Macanese, Cantonese, Shanghainese, Japanese, Korean and Thai food. For those who prefer Chinese food, many restaurants in Macau offer everything from traditional roast chicken and steamed fish to specialty dishes such as Peking duck, shark's fin soup and roast suckling pig, as well as snacks such as shrimp dumplings, siu mai and vermicelli. The Chinese restaurants along Frye Street near Avenida Almeida Ribeiro are the most famous. For an affordable change of pace, try the congee, noodles, wonton dumplings, ginger milk and more at the eateries for a small price. Vegetarians can also visit the Bodhi Zen Temple for a light vegetarian meal. At night, the Old Town area of the Macau Peninsula is abuzz with flavorful restaurants and barbecue joints. Aromatic beef soup, chicken legs, beef ribs, quail and mutton soup are all available. A few days ago, at the invitation of Mr. Lu Bo, the executive deputy editor-in-chief of Macau Daily News, I went to Rua da Cao Ribeiro Genji Hui Sheng Wild Taste Hot Pot Shop specifically to taste the mutton hot pot. This store with a history of more than 20 years is very simple, but the diners gathered. Its mutton hot pot is unique, with Hainan Province's east goat as material, with black mushrooms, garlic, garlic cloves, etc., meat tender, soup more and more want to drink, even I ate mutton grew up is the first time I tasted no comparable to the United States can be tasty. In recent years, the very popular Taiwanese-style tea houses are mostly concentrated in the "Xinqiao District" and "the new port of the Imperial Court District". The Thai restaurants concentrated in a street called Erma Road near the Royal Capital Hotel featured dishes such as rich fish, marinated chicken feet and fried shrimp cakes. Eat to your heart's content, when you go back and still want to bring some to the family, you can in the Central District, New Road to the Qingping straight street area of the bakery, buy some wonton dumplings, almond cake, egg rolls, thin crisp, peanut candy, chicken cakes, jerky and other snacks, do not underestimate them, these are more than half a century of history of the old bakery products, is the ancestors of the craft, sweet and salty glue, sweet and crisp, people's teeth and cheeks.

Bars, cafes or open-air cafes are another option. After lunch, many people like to go to the coffee room or open-air cafe to drink a cup of strong coffee to drive away the tiredness. Travelers who have the time to spend a lazy afternoon accompanied by coffee and idleness are truly enviable. For example, there is a nice Portuguese café on Banjangtang Street with a wide variety of Portuguese desserts and pastries. Or go to the famous Portuguese egg tart store, where it is common to see people munching on the crispy tarts despite their hot mouths. Bars in Macau range from luxury bars in five-star hotels, to local bars where you can enjoy a drink, to music bars where you can dance to the rhythm of African music. In recent years, Portuguese cafes have also become an up-and-coming eating place in Macau. The more famous cafes are concentrated in the area of Pancham Tong and Rua de Ma Tau in Nam Van. These cafes offer not only unique flavors of coffee, tea and wine, but also Lisbon style snacks and desserts.

Unique dishes of the world

Portugal has ruled Macau for more than 400 years, and has left its mark on the food. When foreign guests come to Macau for the first time, the people of Macau will surely treat them to Portuguese food, which is the brand name of Macau. All foreigners who have eaten Portuguese food can accept and enjoy it. Because the cooking method and ingredients of Macanese Portuguese cuisine are a combination of Portuguese, Indian, Malaysian and Chinese Cantonese cooking techniques, and the original Portuguese cuisine has been improved to complement its strengths and weaknesses, it can be said that it is a unique dish in the world. Crab curry, African chicken, garlic and spicy prawns are just a few of the signature dishes that can be eaten in a combination of East and West with a touch of Southern flavors. In addition to Macau-style Portuguese cuisine, Macau has also preserved authentic Portuguese dishes, such as duck rice and mackerel, and grilled sardines. Duck rice is a limited edition Kung Fu dish - fresh duck is marinated and roasted for 45 minutes, the bones are removed and boiled in broth, rice is cooked in the broth, and the roasted duck meat is finally buried in the rice and served. The flavor of the duck meat into the rice, is a Portuguese dish is very suitable for the Chinese taste of one. The most common protagonist of the Portuguese table, it is said that it can be changed in Portugal thousands of recipes. In fact, maquecheu is salted cod, and the more authentic Portuguese restaurants taste the more salty. Macau restaurants in the common menu of horse cacao, such as horse cacao ball, fried potato shredded horse cacao and roasted horse cacao, etc., must be imported from Portugal horse cacao in the twice-daily change of water in the soak for three days to remove the salt before being brought to the cooking. There are also Portuguese chicken, pork knuckles with roasted sauce, green vegetable soup and Portuguese sausage.

Portuguese food is not only delicious and unique dishes, but also pay close attention to the mood of the restaurant, most of the simple and elegant, quite nostalgic color. For example, located in the Inner Harbor near the pier of the Bay Portuguese restaurant, a long history; located in the top of the flat land of the Macau Club restaurant, built in 1873 in the Opera House; built in 1870, the Army Club restaurant, are very moody Portuguese restaurant, is the taste of Portuguese food and Portuguese culture of the elegant place to go. There are also more places for the general public to eat, such as the Dumbo Portuguese Restaurant and the New Crossing Portuguese Restaurant, which are often packed.

History and culture hidden in food

Taste Macau from the perspective of food and drink, and perhaps a more direct and distinctive feeling of the intersection of Chinese and Western cultures. Compared with mainland cities, Macau has many Western restaurants, including the famous French restaurant in the Lisboa Casino, which has a world-renowned standard. Culinary skills cover France, "century chef" known as Mr. Robson as the restaurant manager, he crafted two first-class dishes - white truffle mushrooms and black truffle mushrooms, is said to be the French diet enjoys the highest honor of the top dishes, not only to retain the food perfectly the original taste of freshness, but also to make a variety of flavors in harmony **** survival. Another reason for the restaurant's fame is the thousands of wines in its library. As soon as you walk into the French restaurant, you will see a 24K gold skeleton with constant temperature and humidity facilities of the glass wine cabinet, which is placed from France, Britain, the United States, Italy, Spain, Canada and other countries of a variety of wines, including a variety of collection of the very best, such as the 1945 production of the French wine, a bottle of Hong Kong dollars 60,000 yuan; and a bottle of French dessert wine, produced in 1847, the price is up to 160,000 Hong Kong dollars! A bottle of French dessert wine produced in 1847 was sold at a price as high as 160,000 Hong Kong dollars! The entire restaurant, in terms of luxury and consumption, is a place for the upper class to gather and dine.

Contrasting with this is the fact that there are also food stalls along Rua de S?o Paulo along the Macau River, which is a completely different flavor. Many of these stalls are set up in the open air along the roadside and are open late into the night, such as Yang Liu Beef and Minced Beef Shop, where many locals come to eat, aiming to be fresh, lively and approachable. Especially in winter, the family sits together to eat hot pot, despite the north wind whistling in the ears, but the body and mind still feel warm and cozy. That's why guests love to drink and talk here, and leave only when they've had a good time. In addition, there are well-known dessert stores along Fuk Loong San Street, Senado Square and San Ma Road, which are often crowded with people queuing up, who don't mind how long they have to wait, just for the smooth stewed eggs and double-skinned stewed milk. In sugar water stores, shopkeepers make a variety of nourishing and nourishing sugar water according to different seasons, horseshoe sand with fresh fruits, stewed papaya with snow fungus, walnut dew, almond paste with coconut milk, and red bean paste in a variety of patterns. There are also many noodle shops in Macau that specialize in curry cuisine, where the aroma of curry, smooth noodles and delicious toppings stimulate one's appetite. Since the Southeast Asian Chinese who came to Macau to settle down mostly live in the area of Sam Lau Lantern, you can get authentic Southeast Asian noodle dishes here.

Mr. Lu Bo is obsessed with Macau's food culture, and his reputation precedes him. Over the years, he has used his spare time to visit almost all the restaurants, big and small, turning eating into a cultural pursuit, and writing articles about it whenever he learns something. His experience is that food culture is the best way to reflect unmistakably the life pattern of all social classes, the colorful regional characteristics of the East-meets-West fusion, and the rich pursuit of life of Macanese people. Nowadays, the articles he has written in the past few years about Macau's unique lifestyle have been summarized into a book, amounting to hundreds of thousands of words! Mr. Luk has a jocular saying: when one is in the society, two kinds of friends must be made, one is a cook and the other is a doctor. It is really a real life aphorism!

Excerpted from China.com