'Asia's Las Vegas' is home to a rich mix of flavours from places as diverse as India, Africa and Southeast Asia
Much has been written about the phenomenal changes afoot in Macau as new mega resorts keep popping up and international business pours in. And just as the character of the city keeps evolving, so does its food culture.
While no doubt the city offers a richer experience these days because of the myriad new influences all this development has brought, fortunately, Macau's own cuisine is still alive and well in some new and many old restaurants.
The city's culinary tradition began in the 16th century when Portuguese seamen and traders arrived on Macau's shores and married local women. Those who had arrived from other parts of the world brought their various traditions and cultures with them. In recreating their favourite dishes from home, these early Macanese often substituted locally available ingredients for some they couldn't find and the result, as we still see today, is a rich and subtle fusion incorporating flavours from places as diverse as India, Africa and Southeast Asia.
It's safe to say that authentic Macanese cuisine cannot be found in restaurants anywhere else in the world. One of the more exotic ingredients in many Macanese recipes, for example, is a paste made from fermented shrimp called balichao, a product that was once widely manufactured on Macau's Taipa Island where, along with fireworks, its manufacture was important to the community's economy. Even today it is still a popular item in souvenir shops because the real local product is hard to find outside of Macau.
Other tastes you might detect in Macanese dishes are those of chilli, turmeric, coconut milk, cinnamon and star anise, and the Portuguese staple bacalhau, dried salted cod (like balichao, it tastes a lot better than it sounds). If cooking with all these seems too complicated to try at home, the solution, of course, is to head out to any of Macau's many Macanese restaurants to find all the flavours without the fuss.