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I can't believe I've been to Macau so many times, and I haven't been to this street!!!
It's damn famous and damn gorgeous, and I haven't been there!
Hmmm~ but at least now I can say I have ^_^
We were there to find a famous noodle shop...
It was hot, humid, sticky, balmy, rainy...
PS. did you notice SC and his yellow backpack?
He went ahead of me to find the noodle shop, because we were starving and it was lunch time...
Thus, good luck to us...
The price to pay for dining at a famous place at lunch time :D
So, SC would queue, and I was sent to roam around to photograph the place...or whatever, basically, just get away from him and don't nag ^_^
I went and take more photos of the picturesque place...
Love the place.
...and kept eyeing this mobile ice cream "stall"
HK$20 for one tiny scoop! We overheard some people saying "I'd rather have Haagen Dazs". But guess what? No Haagen Dazs around, it's hot and you're hungry. Ice Cream uncle really knows how to make money! ^_*
I went to check on SC and his queue...
...whoa! The queue got even longer!!!
So I went back to stalking ice cream uncle some more...
I think he noticed and wasn't too happy about me stalking him.
Finally! We got our seat! Warning! Super tiny seats during peak hours, be prepared to squeeze your ass into a mini booth and smell the opposite diners' breath.
We started with the dry prawn roe noodles. It's delicious! Springy noodles with subtly flavored sauce and prawn roes. Yum!
Another must order, the pig trotter. I despise pig trotters and the gelatinous fatty bits, but sc insisted that I must try these. I could accept this, and had seconds, which probably means that it's extra delish?
We also had the golden fried fish balls, served with clam sauce. Super mega delicious!
Tasty "skin", perfectly chewy "meat" and delicious sauce. I could have tonnes of this with icy cold drinks. Yummeh!
This place is listed in most Macau travel books and sites...and we believe that it's extra crowded...thanks to...this lady on the wall!
Ah So from TVB's So Far So Good show.
Some of my friends said once an eatery gets a mention from Ah So, we should forget about visiting it, since it'd be so damn crowded or the food gets so expensive.
Hmmm, actually it wasn't so bad. If possible, try to avoid visiting this place at lunch time...after lunch time madness is over, I think you'll be able to have a table to yourself.
Unfortunately for us, after this lunch madness, we still had to continue our queueing adventure under the heat and the rain...in front of another "famous" dessert place. Sigh~
Oja Sopa De Fita Cheung Kei (祥記麵家)
G/F, 68 R. da Felicidade, Avenida de Almeida Ribeiro
新馬路福隆新街68號地下
Macau
Tel: +853 2857 4310
I wasn't so keen about this place when I learnt that it's mentioned in most Macau travel sites/books(cue crowded, long queue, waiting, waiting and waiting), and I was even less excited when sc tried to call and book a table, and the guy replied "we don't accept bookings on weekends/holidays. we open at 4pm, you can come over and wait"
Uh oh...but anyway, let's get it over with, let's try this famous place and hope it's worth it.
When we arrived (it cost around HK$50something by taxi from City of Dreams, Taipa), I saw the place and fell in love with it. It's old, it's charming, it felt like I was in another world!
We arrived around 6pm and there was no one waiting yet. Oh yeah! Our early-birds-senior-citizens dining habit always gives us the edge!
I walked through a corridor to the back part of the restaurant, passing by a corridor full of currencies from everywhere...
...and a cozy looking outdoor bar (mosquito repellent needed) for patrons waiting to be seated, or for those who wants to enjoy their drinks outdoor...
We had a nice seat by the window, overlooking the bar and the garden...love the warm lighting, the checkered table cloth, the brick walls and the wooden framed windows...charming!
Soon after ordering a truckload of food, our bread arrived...they're fluffy and decent, but I gotta save space for our orders.
We ordered a vegetable and chorizo soup. I didn't know that there was gonna be lots of potatoes in there. It's a tad too filling for our meal and a bit too bland for my taste.
We've also ordered the charcoal grilled cod fish. Good news is, it's boneless, the skin tasted nice with lots of chilli sauce. Be careful when pouring the chilli sauce, it's pretty thin. Not knowing this, I poured half of a bottle of chilli sauce onto my plate. Luckily, I love the chilli sauce, it's tangy and hot. The fish, however, is flavorless and too firm for me.
Was it that bad?
Nonono...
Now, the good stuff.
The roasted suckling pig. WOW! The best non-Chinese style suckling pig I've ever had so far. Absolutely delicious!
Crispy crackling skin with juicy tender meat. Every part is so tasty, it didn't need any sauce. It was served with rustic homemade-looking fries, which I consumed with chilli sauce after making a fool of myself by asking for ketchup. Restorante Fernando doesn't do ketchup :D
Another hit...
The drunken beef. When I saw it, I doubted that the beef would be so delicious. It looked pretty overcooked to me...
But it wasn't. It's pink at the center...absolutely juicy and infused with garlicky, boozy sauce. Yummy to the max!
...and it was served with a mountain of fries. I made them absorb all the tasty sauce and clean the whole plate up. Carb heaven...here I come...
After we're done with dinner...we needed a little walk, so we went to explore the back of the restaurant...
We saw the place where they hang dry the table cloths...
...and...
Is this also a dog shelter? Look at them cuties!
On our way out...we saw this adorable scene...
...and this lady's business card...a very hot looking mama of five kids, with a killer bod.
Do I really wanna know her secrets? Hmm, it probably involves eating none of those sauce soaked fries and definitely not the suckling pig... T_T
Check out Restaurante Fernando's website for locations etc.
Does the colorful street look familiar?
Ahem, that's probably because you've been there.
Rua da Cunha, the Souvenir Street in Taipa.
One of the most cliched destination in Macau, but yet, I couldn't help but to pay a visit every single time, almost religiously.
I've mentioned that we've arrived before lunch time, and I had dessert first.
Obviously, the dessert wasn't enough to bolster the 15 minutes between then and lunch time...so, we also sampled...
Pieces after pieces of this gloriously gorgeous pork jerky...
Although I like the one from Bee Cheng Hiang better, but...when hungry, everything's yummy!
...and these...
Sadly, it doesn't taste as delicious as it looks...a tad too chewy, a few minutes in the oven/microwave would help, I guess?
...and we sampled endless amount of cookies and sweets...
...before we headed to our lunch destination, Seng Cheong, for some crabby lunch.
Judging from the crowd lining up even before opening time, the food's either bloody delicious, or cleverly "marketed" (i.e. posted in every Macau travel book there is)
I saw some crab noodle dish, which I wanted, but we had to go for the famous crab congee.
Very very subtly flavored, which might indicate less amount (or absence) of MSG? Or was it simply...not that good? Or was it because the other dish we had was too tasty it outshone the congee? Hmmm~
Next time I'll go for the crab noodles instead of congee :D
One good thing...
I love the softness of crab meat in congee, so I spent a good half hour sucking every single piece of meat outta crab shell, since SC wouldn't even try doing so (he is against eating anything that requires any more effort other than shoving food into mouth and swallow)
See? I asked him to try sucking crab meat...
...and he made this face. Obviously failed to suck any meat out.
That only means there's more crab for me, so...yeah!
The star of the day...
...I avoided ordering the fish/squid balls since we're gonna have some the next day, so I chose this fried frog legs dish instead.
I believe just one shot is not enough, so here we go...
Yummmssss! I am not an alcohol drinker, but I bet these would taste fantastic with some icy cold beer!
There's only one way to consume these deliciousness...of course, with my bare hands :D
Another 30 minutes wrestling with every tasty bits and the tiny bones.
Oh yum!
One non-food related thing I couldn't help but notice...
This ceramic tile design!
Funky! Funky!
Very Sampek-Engtay? Heheheh
Seng Cheong (誠昌飯店)
at Rua da Cunha (Souvenir Street)
Taipa, Macau
澳門氹仔官也街28-30號
Tel: +853 2882 5323
I always think that the famous phrase "Life's short, eat dessert first" is irrelevant to me. I love stuffing myself with savoury goodnesses first, only adding a touch of sinful sweetness in the end, as a perfect ending to a wonderful journey (oh, please! what's with the language?!!)
However, I had to make an exception.
Last weekend, we arrived in Macau extremely hungry, and ready to attack all the cliched and predictable treats, starting with some crab congee plus delicious frills. Sadly, we arrived a touch too early...the place we were supposed to visit hasn't even opened yet!
When SC pointed at Gelatina Mok Yi Kei, at its "quiet-before-the-post-lunch-madness-queue-started" moment, I hesitated. Sweets? Before lunch....hmmm....
But when I saw that beautiful array of colors...puddings in various flavors...and I heard my stomach rumbled and lil' sc was kicking hard...I gave in.
OK, dessert first.
SC had their famous milk pudding (木糠布丁) topped with cookie...dust? powder?
Smooth, creamy pudding with tasty cookie topping...yum...but surely not as yummy as mine...
DURIAN ice cream. Ice cream was the perfect choice for the scorching hot weather. It's not too sweet, it doesn't give me insatiable thirst, and it has super intense durian flavor. If you're not a fan of durian, don't even think about it. I was still burping durian wayyyy after my lunch was over :D
Right after we're done with our pudding and ice cream, more and more people (mostly from Hong Kong) started to gather at the shop...I guess we were all waiting for the same crab congee shop ^_* and had to have dessert first. Not that I'm complaining. It was delicious.
PS. If you are into cute props (who isn't?), you may wanna see what I've bought in Macau ^_^
Gelatina Mok Yi Kei
Rua da Cunha (Souvenir Street)
Taipa
Macau
澳門氹仔官也街
It was October 1st, the handover day. Our visitor has a day off, and he has pretty much been to everywhere in Hong Kong. So we decided to let him experience one of the most popular (i.e. nearest haha!) destination Hong Kongers go for short getaways....MACAU!
Macau might be known to some people as...
- Asia's version of mini Las Vegas, a heaven for God of gambler wannabes
- (Fortunately and unfortunately?) A hub of the most beautiful young girls from the region...who are available for...a chat? (I certainly hope so)
- A small Chinese city with beautiful Portuguese influenced architecture, which made it swamped with photographer (and model) wannabes. Tripods, tripods, over/underexposed, blurry pictures everywhere ^_^
....but most importantly, to us....it's a place where we'll never go hungry.
We were only there for a day trip...and we were torn between Chinese or Portuguese lunch. We went for Wong Chi Kei's noodle shop as our experienced traveler friend, Foodaholiv, has NOT tried this super famous shop!
Plus, the long queue was kinda convincing...which was essential to impress our visitor from Bangkok, Mr. Job ^_^
When ordered this bowl of tasty beef brisket rice noodle soup. The soup was tasty, the meat was tender, and the rice noodles were satiny smooth.
We certainly had the famous dry egg noodles with wontons. The noodles were delightfully chewy, and the little wontons were just perfectly succulent!
...and these are fried wontons like no other. The crispy skin was light and fluffy, and the shrimp fillings was just right. The sweet and sour dip completed the dish. We, the ever so talkative group was once silent as we were enjoying this meal.
Foodaholiv wanted to try these deep fried fishballs. I never tried these bad boys before, but glad I did! Cos these were the BEST deep fried fishballs I've ever tried so far. Crunchy on the outside, perfectly bouncy on the inside. I loved the corriander touch and the salty clam dip.
The city is well known for its crab congee. Although it is not what Wong Chi Kei is famous for, but they did this beautifully too! You probably don't fancy getting your hands dirty or spitting crab shell pieces outta your mouth (just like how the locals)....but the congee itself is sooo infused with the crab's fragrant scent and sweet flavor....you don't even have to eat the meat to enjoy it.
Wong Chi Kei Noodle
Macau:
1. Largo do Senado
2. Travessa de Cinco de Outubro 51, R/C, Macau (Tel. +853 2892 2271)
Hong Kong:
G/F 15B Wellington Street, Central. Hong Kong (Tel. +852 3559 1025)
We moved across the bridge to the other side, Taipa village and checked out the Discovery Travel and Living featured kinda famous snack shop, Tai Lei.
There was again, a queue (naturally)...and before I knew it, I was standing in line, although my travel pals were all saying that they were stuffed. At the end of the snaking queue...we were all ready to try whatever it is that made us queue all the way to the front ^_^ under Macau's unforgiving, scorching heat.
The place is famous of its pork chop buns, which were served in either a foccacia-esque buns or sweet topped ("pineapple") buns. When it was our turn to order, the pineapple buns were gone (of course!) and we just ordered the normal versions. Please excuse the blurry pictures...it was hot, I was eager to try the buns, my hands were shakin', the place was dark , my friends were shooting me impatient looks...(and all other lame excuses I can't think of hehe)
For a little entertainment, let's play "Where's Rita?"
We moved on to Rua da Cunha (Food Street), taking lots of pictures along the way to whet our appetite....
...here you can find local treats to take home, such as Chinese cookies, pastries, candies, barbecued meat snacks, nougat, and even wine! Pastelaria Koi Kei, one of the famous snack shops, has an outlet here too. Now, go on...start shopping!
We bought various barbecued meat snacks...to enjoy during the firework display competition later
I just watched the skillful chef doing his thing...cos I know I am not really into the cookies, despite always being ended up buying some hehe
I sampled some...just to make sure that I really really do not want to buy some and won't regret it later :p
I love quaint little old shops like these...the wall and floor tiles are still authentic!
My pals Foodaholiv and Ken craved sweetness and couldn't resist these puddings and jellies
So, we sampled this muk hong pudding...it tastes like vanilla pudding with Chinese cookie crumbs topping
...and a bowl of sweet egg pudding
It's time to bid our adieu to Taipa's food street as we move on to hit the casinos...not to gamble!
Knowing us, (God of eaters wannabes-- not gamblers)...we'll probably end up gobbling down more food than winning some money hehe