Munching in Macau

Hmmm what shall I have for dinner… “His Aging Mother Tofu”? Or “Rape Heart”? Or maybe “Angus Steak to the Naked Eye”? These were just a few of the delicious choices greeting us at a food court in Macau.

I was surprised by the food in Macau. As the casino chains are the same as in America, I had expected to find some western chains. And there was a handful; a McDonald’s, a couple of Starbucks, Marks and Spencer’s Food Court in the Venetian, a Hard Rock Cafe (which was closed!) in the City of Dreams, and a couple of expensive pizza restaurants which we couldn’t afford – this is a mere handful of places, among hundreds of cafes and restaurants. And apart from this it was all Asian. I love Asian food but to be honest I probably love a western version of Chinese food, like Sweet and Sour dishes. The food here was very, um, “real”. Like the dishes names above, there was lots of questionable stuff I wouldn’t touch with a bargepole, like tripe. We did read that Macau was meant to be Las Vegas for the Asian market… not Las Vegas in Asia. So fair enough – Macau should indeed cater for Asian tastes as opposed to Western.

Also don’t expect to pay by credit or debit card. We thought that the casino chains being American would mean that they would accept payment by card. No. Even the McDonald’s in a casino hotel would only take cash. McDonald’s! As American as it gets! We quickly ran out of cash and couldn’t spend on our cards, so had to get cash out of an ATM and pay the fees for this. Take more cash!

However in terms of cost, most of the casinos have a food court for the cheapest food. This is still not cheap (around £10 for a main course), but the price climbs from there to very expensive posh restaurants.

So what did we eat? From the poor to the amazing, here were our delights:-

Poor

The worst meal was one I couldn’t even eat. It was just like the incident with the curry in France. From the horrifying moment the waiter put it on the table i was disgusted. I used to ride horses and muck out the stable, sweeping out all the horse muck, horse piss, and stale hay. The soup that this dinner came in smelled like stale horse piss. I couldn’t eat it. Luckily was had a side dish of vegetables so i was able to eat them, and it came with prawn wonton which were lovely (as long as you don’t smell them or breathe in while putting them in your mouth!). My BF thought it was fine and thought it was just like Miso Soup. It looks a lot better than it tastes:-

Good

We had a couple of meals in the various food courts – sizzling salmon on rice with a teriyaki sauce (my BF had sizzling beef). And noodles with stir fried vegetables and seafood. Both perfectly pleasant and inexpensive.

Excellent

The day after the horse piss meal, we decided to cash in our coupon and go to Le Buffet in the Parisian Hotel/Casino. Oh. My. God. It was like being in heaven. From the moment I saw the array of french cheeses, fresh salad, and baguettes, to the moment the french chef said “Bonjour!” to us, I was so happy!! Don’t get me wrong – I love Asian food but after a week of eating it, i was so ready for a change, and this french food was just what the doctor ordered.

I had a lovely Chicken and cashew meal in a casino restaurant which was lovely. Great Cantonese food. Although my BF had sweet and sour pork and the meat came on the bone (or rather, on several pieces of bone) – see main picture at top of page. We weren’t sure if he should eat the bones or not, so he didn’t. Lean meat would have been preferable.

We enjoyed our fave Din Tai Fung. With their steamed pork dumplings, egg-fried rice, and garlic vegetables, this is always delicious. But this branch (in Studio City) was rather expensive with inflated prices compared to the other branches we have visited.