Macau: A Gastronomical Experience!

When: June 18-21, 2010

Where: Various foodie joints in Las Vegas of Asia

In attendance: Passie, our travel bud. More of Passie below.

This is a long overdue food post concerning my trip to Macau last June. After compiling all my travel pictures in other social networking sites (e.g. Facebook, among others), I have decided that I should post food trips. As y'all know, my friend Issa and I spent a super fun weekend in Macau and, along with the obligatory shots at tourist spots, we also took shots of the food we ate while we're there.

Before we engaged to food trips in Macau, we acknowledged the fact that food may either taste or smell different from our countryland's cuisine. Oh heck, armed with guts and hungry bellies, we knew everything will be alright!

 

Come Buy's milk tea with pearls and curry fish balls at Senado Square

It was absolutely love at first sip with Come Buy's milk tea! While chitchatting and catching up with juicy details of anything under the sun (or the moon), Issa and I swore to try other flavors of Come Buy. With the curry fish balls, I think it was brave of us to eat strange looking hotpot balls drowned in curry sauce. My favorites include the cheese-filled ball and the plain ones since they taste so meaty. We had a good laugh from the vendor who hardly speak any English, so thank God for sign language! 

 

Beef noddles, yang chow fried rice and milk teas at Hundred Tastes Kitchen, The Venetian Macau food court

Issa and I ordered lunch at Hundred Tastes Kitchen, a Taiwanese food stall, in the spacious The Venetian food court. They have big servings that's why we picked only the yang chow rice, which is already a meal in itself, and chunky beef noodles. The purple yam flavored milk tea I ordered proves to be just a so-so drink. Good thing there's the complimentary bottled water at The Venetian casino lobby. It turns out that the casino attendant is a Pinoy too!

 

Just ask the friendly casino attendants for bottled water and they will gladly give you one for free. Or maybe two.

 

Lazy, junk food afternoon at Macau Fisherman's Wharf: Potato crisps, cheese rings, M & M's coconut chocolate candies and iced teas

We found this amazing grocery store which sells a wide array of snack foods at the MFW. We chose the snack items which we rarely find in Manila stores. The potato crisps  and cheese rings reminded us of home-grown junk foods. We were also glad to find M & M's coconut choco candies (limited edition), but we got disappointed with the taste. Coconut & chocolate are not good friends, trust me.

 

Pork chop noodles, fish ball noodles and cold milk teas in a hole-in-the-wall food spot at Senado Square

I experienced one of my loudest burps in my life that night after gulping one big bowl of noodles with pork chop. The combo looks odd but it was surprisingly good. Just imagine replacing your good ole hot rice with a steaming hot bowl of noodles with vegetables and a flavorful pork chop slices on the side. Their milk tea was also good you can  taste  the strong, authentic tea after one single sip.

 

Green tea gelato at Milky Top store in Senado Square

I'd say this is a perfect dessert for health-conscious people. After our heavy dinner, we browsed the food stalls in Senado Square for something sweet. We found this small ice cream parlor called Milky Top and the green tea gelato was very addicting! Issa raved all about it until we went back to our hotel.

 

Light brunch at Heong Tou Cafe: beef macaroni soup, macaroni with fried egg, toasted bread slices and milk teas

It was my first time to try macaroni in a brown soup which is unusual to me. More unusual was the macaroni soup topped with fried egg which was Issa's choice. Back home, we're used to milk-based soups with macaroni, right? Wanna know how the soup tastes? Tomatoey and beefy. But it's good! Look, we got milk teas again!

 

This is the famous food stall which sells pork chop buns, milk teas and egg tarts featured in Boys Over Flowers, a Korean drama. 

It was my second time to try the milk tea in this food stall en route to the Ruins of St. Paul's. My first try was last February with BF and spouses BC. We noticed back then that lots of young people flocked to this stall and we got curious. Then we learned that it was the food stall made famous by the romantic pair Jan Di and Jun Pyo of Boys Over Flowers during their Macau location shoot. If you ask me, I think it was the Korean drama hype that made people dropped by and not the taste of pork chop bun and milk tea. Nothing spectacular.

 

Dimsum dinner of shao mai and vegetable buns and yummy custard for dessert and sweet honey lemon drinks at Creative Kitchen, New Yaohan Mall

  

Solo shot of pretty and yummy custard... *sigh*

 

Steamed shao mai in a street corner

We observed that locals flocked to a street food cart named Lotus near Casino Lisboa, so we did not let our chance pass to try the food ourselves. Very meaty dumplings sprinkled with sweet soy sauce. Yum.

 

Crabstick sandwiches, chocolate drinks and the best egg tarts (pastéis de nata) ever at Margaret's Cafe e Nata

We found the most tastiest Portuguese egg tarts in Margaret's Cafe e Nata located in a pedestrian alley which is also home to several food joints. Issa and I agreed that their egg tarts are far more delicious than Lord Stow's Bakery. The small cafe was filled with busy locals trying to grab a quick yet tasty breakfast or simply eat an egg tart or two.

 

Juice up before our Guia Fortress adventure!

Picture this: It was 12 noon and strong sun rays, icky feeling of sweat and the long hike to Guia Fortress. You think these juices would suffice? Surprisingly, they did! It was similar to our Mount Tapyas climb last year in Coron, except that it was done in late afternoon.

 

Ice cream sandwich and melon ice cream (for Issa) at Lai Kei ice cream parlor

After our long, tiring foot journey in Guia Hill, we stopped at this old ice cream parlor named Lai Kei. We learned that this ice cream parlor has been operating for almost sixty years already. Interesting. The retro paper box of the ice cream sandwich reminds me of old school blackboard eraser.

Late lunch consisting of rice toppings at New Yaohan food court

Curry balls (again) and Come Buy's flavorful iced teas

Above was our airport food in Macau so we opted to buy at Come Buy for our farewell drinks. I chose passion fruit flavored iced tea while Issa picked another variant of their milk tea. If you noticed we had this snack combo during our first night in Macau and we enjoyed eating curry balls, so we replicated the idea. It made us feel nostalgic all of a sudden.

After spending almost four days in a foreign land, it dawned upon us that it was an ultimate girl bonding after all, from food adventures, camwhoring at tourist spots, shopping for gifts (Father's Day gift, that is) and girl talk! Best of all, we discovered Passie - our jetsetter-friend and overexposed travel buddy! :)