Macau and Pastéis de Nata

Our 3-day visit to Macau ended up in a gastronomic experience. We could already sense it upon arrival, with the ‘boa noite’ (good evening) that the passport control lady gave us, that we were in for a treat.

Forgetting the fact that Macanese drive on the wrong side of the road and have squinty eyes, one could easily imagine himself in a Portuguese downtown, well packed with small rococo churches and colorful façades.

We had read that many restaurants were famous for their Portuguese menus so we decided for ‘Caravela’ (Pátio do Comandante Mata e Oliveira), honoring the boat that took Portuguese adventurers to discover new worlds. We could as easily be in a small ‘tasca’ in Lisbon. The atmosphere was the same… small tables too close to each other to let people pass; RTP channel screaming news from Portugal out of the TV set; loud customers talking about how much better they would run the country…

We ordered in Portuguese – even though the waitress didn't speak it (but recognised somehow the sounds) – carrot soap and seafood rice but not any food rice – sauce was flooding the plate and it had swimming crabs, oh nostalgia!!! When we were about to pay an old man with a cane walked in and said “I want a galão, please!” – ‘galão’ is a drink of espresso and foam milk. Rustically delicious, but don’t expect to drink a gallon of coffee, we are serious people mind you.

By counting the incredible number of windows with custard tarts (‘pastéis de nata’) we decided on a benchmarking, giving the winning prize to a local joint not far from ‘Caravela’. They make them crustier…

We ended our day splendidly by going to ‘A Lorcha’ – more Portuguese delicacies, including ‘pastéis de bacalhau’ (cod fritters) and açorda (bread porridge). A chinese fellow sitting next to us thought that we were Brits at first. We explained “we are Portuguese”, to which he promptly replied “ah! you know that Portuguese were here in Macau for many years?”. Talk about short memory loss! We just left the place in 99. He even added “Oh! You should have gone to Shanghai instead”. Big red and blasting WRONG!

Macau, Casino Lisboa

Lonely Planet and fishing quotas

Hong Kong will be always present in our memories as the place where we’ve eaten the best shushi of our lives. We were in Hong Kong Island and it was late. 2pm is not time anymore for lunch for an average ‘Hong Konger’, mind you. The place was gloomy, in one of these narrow streets behind striking grey skyscrapers, smelly, rubbishy. It was nevertheless referenced in Lonely Planet and we treat our literature as serious stuff. The kitchen was about to close, we had to rush ordering. Service was unremarkable, no frills decoration, decaying restrooms. But a second after tasting that fresh, soft and salty tuna all the surroundings faded away and we imagined ourselves swimming freely in the Pacific waters, in a time where Bluefin is not synonym for fishing quotas.

Hong Kong