A taste of Macau Cuisine

Enter the Portuguese traders in 1535, which were granted landing rights in the harbour in an area the natives called A-Ma-Gao (Bay of A-Ma). Difficult to pronounce, so Macau na lang. More permits were issued, this time building permits to construct sheds to store their goods and finally, then a Mayor’s permit (or was it the Emperor?) in 1557 to establish a permanent settlement in Macau.

And in 1887, with a little threat here and there, Macau became a Portuguese colony. As the years went on, more negotiations; finally, on Dec. 20, 1999, Macau was repossessed by China. Very difficult, gyud, these history lessons; fortunately, my beloved readers, excuse me, are very intelligent to understand that the culture of a population is a sum of the various nationalities that previously occupied its country.

Today, Macau is the most densely populated region in the world (18,428 people per sq. Km.). Tourism is big business and gambling is the major attraction; the accompanying hospitality industry contributes more than half to Macau’s GDP. Ninety five percent of the population is Chinese and 2 percent are Macanese (mixed Chinese-Portuguese) and when there is a blending of two cultures, there are plenty of holidays, celebrations and events like the Macau Grand Prix and the Chinese New Year.

When you have festivals, food plays an important role and in Macau, you have Chinese (Cantonese), Portuguese and Macanese cuisine which is a blend of the two cultures. My loyal followers have read my previous article “Magellan’s relatives visit Cebu” and they have read about Portuguese cuisine and the importance of Bacalhau or salted cod. It is nicknamed Fiel amigo (faithful friend) and in that dinner, the Bacalhau com Natas (with cream) was exceptional.

Your favorite food columnist had several opportunities to visit Macau but somehow, Hong Kong is such a gourmet paradise and its countless restaurants prevented me from crossing the waters. It would be best to eat Macau cuisine in Macau so that the basis for an authentic cuisine would be encoded and a more accurate culinary accounting could be made; unfortunately there are budgetary constraints!

The alternative would be to taste the “Flavors of MACAU” at the Marco Polo Plaza (Cebu) (www.marcopoloplazacebu.com phone 253-1111), the only five-star hotel in Cebu City, from March 01-15, 2009 and the Marco Polo Plaza (Davao), March 11-April 12. You might even win a Travel package for two to Macau!

I had the privilege to join the Macanese Opening Reception, a joint undertaking of the Marco Polo Plaza and the Macau Government Tourist Office- Philippines held last Feb.23 at the BLU and this writer had to taste some twenty five delicacies of the Cuisine of Macau. Some of these dishes are featured here.

The soup was the Caldo verde or green broth. In a previous article, I described the original version of the soup which is made from Minho’s potatoes, Portuguese kale (deep green, strongly flavoured than Spanish kale), and slices of garlic-seasoned smoked pork sausages called linguica or chourico. It has a delicate rich taste and it is said to be the very essence of Portuguese cuisine.

The vegetable dish was the Bredo raba-raba made from water spinach (tang kong), cabbages, mushrooms like golden mushroom (looks like short noodles) and fine shrimp paste (maybe Lee Kum Kee brand?) that gives the dish a distinctive taste.

As usual, we do have our favorites and during the dinner, the Steamed Sole was a winner. Very Chinese, this dish, reflecting the culture and heritage of the ancient fishermen who once ruled the seas of Macau.

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