Macau Chow-down Part 2

After our excursion to the Venetian, we walked to the nearby food haven, Taipa Village. It is basically a street filled with small shops selling Macau street food. One of the famous souvenir food shop in Macau is Koi Kei, famous for their almond biscuits and bak kwa. My friends bought a big packet of pepper BBQ meat.

Unlike most BBQ meat, the shop uses the whole meat, without mincing them. Yes, the meat is slightly on the tough side, but still very tasty and great to munch on. We finished the whole packet on the spot!

Just near Taipa Village is a famed shop, 新好利咖啡饼店 ( San Hou Lei Bakery ). They are famous for their Pork Chop Bun , Egg Tarts and Bird Nest Tarts.

We got a couple of Bird Nest Tarts to try it out. They were fresh out of the oven and were piping hot still!

Unfortunately, they had run out of buns, so we got the Pork Chop Sandwich instead. Its pork chop was a little fat. Unknown to us then, we'll be tasting a better Pork Chop Bun the following morning.

What would a trip to Macau be without sampling their famous Macanese food ( Portuguese fusion). Alorcha Restaurant happens to be the most famous in the island. We saw many patrons turned away at the door due to it being fully booked. Thank god we were smart enough to reserve weeks before.

One famous Macanese dish is the Grilled African Chicken. The chicken is served with a tangy, sour sauce which did not fail to whet our appetite, even though we were already stuffed from all the snacks we had all day long.

This is mixed seafood rice, which due to its wet appearance, tasted and looked like the Italian Risotto. The sauce was flavourful and the rice fragrant. Overall a very very good dish.

This is what the Macanese call the Bacalhau Fritters, or fried codfish fritters. It was very salty and made me really thirsty. It was flavourful, but i wished the chef had been a little light on the salt.

Ahhh...Lemon Coke.... a Hong Kong and Macau specialty. It tasted a little odd at first, but i soon got used to the flavour.

Macau : Asia or Europe?

After lunch, we promptly checked into our hotel. We hopped onto a shuttle bus to the ferry terminal, followed by another bus to Venetian. To get to the Venetian, we had to cross the bridge from main Macau to Taipa.

The Venetian was built as identical to Venice as possible. Sixian, who just recently came back from Venice, said that the real deal is much dirtier and uglier, but the original has a 'feel' that cannot be transferred here. Also, the water is brown in Venice, not blue like in the Venetian.

Wow, i love the ceiling, although it is not the original painting. These are things that i love, i think i'll love Italy.

This is at the entrance of the Venetian Hotel...anyway, the moment my boss saw this photo, her question to me was : WHY IS THE GUY 'WEARING A GREEN HAT'? ( in the Chinese context, it means that his wife is cheating on him ). Ahh...naughty, naughty~

This is the Venetian from afar, taken from Hard Rock Cafe right opposite. My friend had to buy a souvenir T-shirt from Hard Rock Cafe, but after walking there, we realised that the shop no longer carries the signature tee. Gah....

While killing time before our dinner reservation, we alighted from our shuttle bus at Sands. Right opposite Sands is Macau Fisherman's Wharf. It is a big theme-park, fringed by fake landmarks and European fake buildings. We walked through the wharf once and the time was just right to go for dinner.

They tried to make the buildings within the wharf colourful, with a Mediterranean feel. It was very pretty, although a little fake.

This is a nice building, totally like those i saw in Europe! Macau is a great place, if you adore Europe...kinda like a cheaper alternative.

This photo turned out a little blurry and eerie. On the cab during our ride to the restaurant, we passed by the Kun Iam statue situated at the pier, so i quickly snapped this photo.

Macau Chow-down Part 1

On the morning we were headed to Macau, we actually had breakfast at China HongKong City before boarding the ferry to Macau. We ate at Mak's Noodle, one of the famous noodle franchise in HK.

It was breakfast time, so my wonton noodle was a mini bowl size. My friends were griping about how small the bowl was. You can't really tell from this photo, but this bowl is actually the size of a rice bowl... really tiny, but perfect for small eaters.

After our very 'small' breakfast, we boarded a ferry to Macau. By the time we got to Senado Square, our tummies were rumbling again. We had our lunch at 黃枝記粥麵店, but had to queue for about 10 minutes due to good business.

This is wonton & beef brisket noodle ( Dry ). This noodle house is famous for their noodles, which are strictly handmade. They were awesome, machine-made ones are nowhere close in standard.

This is beef brisket and tendon noodles. The noodles are just as good even in soup. If you ever go there, do order any type of noodle dish, and you'll be satisfied. This shop also has outlets in Hong Kong. We ate it on our last day at the airport as well.

This is wonton noodle soup. Their wontons are fresh and you can see full-size shrimps in them. They really don't scrimp and save on the ingredients.

Lastly is the beef brisket and wonton noodle ( soup version ). Just the same as the dry version.

After lunch, we headed to Lemon Cello Gelato. It was a hot day, therefore perfect for a cooling dessert.

Oh my, they have so many choices we couldn't make up our minds. Everything was special!! Not just the normal boring Vanilla, Chocolate, strawberry....ughhh.... Hey, look how they decorate the gelato with the actual fruit? I thought that was a really nice touch!

This is their second display ( they have two gelato fridge ). Look closely to the far right, can you see they actually put a durian shell on the gelato?

Ahhh....my choices were Yakult, Chocolate Liquor and Mango Peach! Superrrrrr.....

Macau : Ferry, Lotus, Wine and Rose.

On Day 3, we made our way to Macau, taking the Star Ferry's Turbojet. Boy, the water was darn choppy that cursed day. Lucky for me, i popped a trusty old Novomin before the boat ride. Even then, i was still hit by a strong wave of motion sickness, as with my 3 other companions..haha...boy, it was rough!


Right outside the Macau Ferry Terminal, we took a public bus just outside the Lotus Monument. Our first impression of Macau was fantastic...let's just say that leaving HK and arriving in Macau feels like me leaving Singapore and arriving in Malaysia. From a congested, rude, cosmopolitan city to a laidback, friendly and big town.

To be honest, the Lotus Monument wasn't our intended destination. We were heading to the Wine Museum right opposite it. The museum charged us SGD 3 per entry and teaches us the history and the process of making wine, along with display of things related to wine.

The best part was that every person admitted to the museum is entitled to one free glass of wine ( we got to pick from about 8 choices of bottles ). Sixian and Kenny went for dessert wines, Soo Sun for the red wine and myself for the white wine.

We later made our way to Senado Square, right in the heart of Macau City. The square is paved with black and white cobbles in a wavy pattern, and the bright colours of the surrounding buildings add to the appeal.

This is the famous Holy House of Mercy, just at Senado Square. The charitable establishment was founded by the first bishop of Macau in 1569. There is an in-house museum in the building, but we didn't have time to visit.

Walking down Senado Square will bring you to a smaller center : St Dominic's Square. This square lies in front of the St Dominic's Church, or better known in Chinese as the Rose Cathedral. This was the first church to be built in China.

The Neo-classical and Baroque styles are very prominent. The design of the church is stunning, the Baroque altar being particularly outstanding. No matter how many churches i go to, i still look in awe each time i'm in one. They must be my favourite buildings to be in... a sign for me to convert? Ha Ha Ha....

Zero Cookies

Play extra attention to around 2:55 minutes, where Cookie Monster suffers from cookie-withdrawal symptoms. I laughed my ass off, it was just too much to take. Reminded me of :

a) Puffyrazzi's Coffee Withdrawal Symptom

b) Dajie's Shopping Withdrawal Symptom

c) Erjie's Sam Gor Withdrawal Symptom

d) Agent LL's Noodle Withdrawal Symptom

e) Agent KK's Toy Bus Withdrawal Symptom

Choco Cat Cafe

After some crazy shopping for close to 3 hours, we headed to this place which i had requested to go : 阿貓地攤, Choco Cat Cafe at Causeway Bay ( So many C's ). It was tucked away in an old building in the middle of all those shopping centers.

The place was cozy but already filled with people, mostly cat lovers who were gawking at all the cats.

Besides having free-roaming cats, they also have various cat memorabilias collected from many places. Every corner of the shop was decorated with cat-related accessories.

This big, hairy beauty was sleeping comfortably on the counter right at the entrance of the cafe. He was oblivious to all the people who were touching him and taking his photo. When we started rubbing his belly, he even showed his belly to us, a sign that he was feeling very safe and secure.

Of all the 9-10 cats there, this is my absolute favourite! I even gave him a name : Chompy, even though he already has a name. Look at his ears, which flops down like a dog. Only a certain rare breed of cat has ears like that, the Scottish Fold, only their ears are more apparent. So i guess Chompy has a little Scottish Fold blood in him.

The ginger and white cat was earlier performing a ball trick for us, but he got tired soon after and joined his mate sleeping on the memorabilia cupboard.

At this place, food was secondary to the cats. However, the desserts still came with cat motifs, like our order of Milk and Chocolate pudding with Fruit Corn Flakes.

And also our creme brulee and cat cake with strawberry jelly.

They had many other cute foodstuff in their display fridge. Everything looked too nice to be eaten. Ohh...what a great place to be....

Hong Kong Chow-down Part 3

After a very heavy breakfast on our second day in HK, we went for a walk in central Hong Kong. Sixian had already marked down a bakery there which sells some very mean egg tarts, Tai Cheong Bakery.

This bakery specialises in 'floury-crusted' egg tarts. We were so full then we decided to bag it first and later had it in a McDonald's where we sat down to rest in. The custard was good, not too sweet. One plus point about eating in HK is that their food and desserts are not made too sweet, albeit being too oily =(

On that day, we had a lunch reservation at Yung Kee Restaurant 鏞記酒家 , a very upmarket restaurant in HK. The second floor is dedicated to customers like us who had prior reservations and has more variety of dishes to choose from than patrons seated on the ground floor.

This restaurant's signature dish is their century egg with ginger. Of course, we seized the opportunity to try it. However, according to locals, we should only consume century eggs once in a while and in moderation each time due to its high levels of lead content. I guess for the 6 days i was there i had already exceeded the safe limit then... hee hee...

A platter of char siew! So many fatty bits inside... but it was roasted very very nicely.

Another plate of roast - Roast Goose! Wow, this was way way too oily for me. I don't know how the locals do it, but they go for really oily food. I drank so much Chinese tea to neutralise it out.

Finally, something not as fatty - a dish of bamboo fungus with other assorted fungus and mushrooms. I'm a big fan of fungi and mushroom, so a big thumbs-up for this. We must all also thank Julia ( Kenny's HK friend ) for footing this bill. I heard that this restaurant doesn't come cheap ( Good service, good food though ).