Brandon ate China pt 3: A brief visit to Macau

"Your dad likes to take me to Vegas.  What's the point?  Macau's right here and it's much better."

After a few nights in Hong Kong, it was time to visit Macau for half a day and then return to Carilyn's hometown, Jiangmen.  Sadly, since my time in Macau was very brief and the weather conditions were unfavorable, I didn't get to try any restaurants specific to the region.  Still, we got to enjoy ourselves in the tourist heavy parts of town.

For those who don't know, Macau was a Portuguese colony for a few hundreds years and wasn't returned to China until 1999; two years after Hong Kong was handed back to China from the British.  The Portuguese influence can be seen in some of the food, architecture, and in many of the bilingual signs displayed in Chinese and Portuguese.  However, I saw much fewer westerners here than in Hong Kong.  There just isn't that much business to do here and apparently the vast majority of people in Macau work for the resorts.

Much like many parts of Asia, Macau is a mix of old and new: Modern Eastern condo in the background, historical European in the foreground, McDonald's in the center.

The main thing Macau is known for are the casinos, which I didn't take any good photos of.  Just imagine Las Vegas, if Las Vegas were less about the party and more about the gambling.  Chinese people love to gamble and it statistically shows: Macau, a relatively small city on an island, has about 7 times the gambling revenue than Las Vegas.  These guys are nuts!  I saw a man lose 20,000 HKD in one Baccarat hand.  That's about $3000 at stake to the flip of a card.  No thanks, I need to eat.

There's a touristy part of town with old Portuguese architecture.  At the end of the street is the Ruins of St. Paul, probably the most photographed place in Macau (also which I happen to only have bad photos of).  There's lots of shopping to do here, but more importantly to me, some touristy food on the way to the sights.  Sadly, I'll have to borrow pictures for the food.

Beginning of tourist-ville, Macau

A typical Macau jerky shop.  Several options, samples available, prices high but jerky's good.
Credit: travelsintranslation.com

Macau bakery and cookies.  Most can be sampled; most are pretty good.
Photo Credit: Tripadvisor

Macanese food involves a lot more than jerky and cookies, but I'll have to save that for another trip because we had no time.  The jerky, however, is just a whole different level than Western beef jerky.  Macanese jerky is soft to the bite, sweet, and actually retains some of the flavor of the meat.  They've got beef, pork, and veal varieties and they're flavored with a number of marinades including abalone-flavor and chili.  I've found places that have it in America, but none I've had in the states were as fresh or as balanced in flavor as what I had in Macau.

Macau almond cookies are nothing mind blowing, but the stores are fun.  There's dudes in aprons outside of each store offering fresh, still warm samples.  Once you go into the store, every item is accompanied by a box of even more free samples! It was fun to get to try twenty or so different cookies, but most of it is stuff you can find at Chinese grocery stores or bakeries in America.

One day, I'll have to return to Macau to try an actual Macanese restaurant too.  But even more important, I need to try one of their famous pork chop buns.  Seriously, look at this thing.  I only heard about it after watching the Macau episode of Anthony Bourdain's old show, and it looks to die for.  The bread is supposedly crispy on the outside and soft on the inside and the pork chop is cooked to order.  As simple as can be, but seriously, WHO COULD EVER RESIST THIS?

Be careful, the bone's still inside.
Photo credit: thatbestbite.com

Anyway, soon after we saw the ruins, it was time to head to the mainland.  Onward to Jiangmen!