Macau: Savouring the authentic Macanese Cruisine

You are right. I just came back from Macau, actually Macau and Hong Kong. This round will be free style blogging as I found that there is no perfect itinerary for Macau or Hong Kong, just the best itinerary that suit you. So, I will focus more on some useful tips and highlights of my trip.



First, allow me to introduce a few Macau maps from the internet which will help in directing you to the places/restaurants that I had visited. Above map shows that Macau consists of Macau Peninsula itself and islands of Taipa and Coloane.



Enlarge of Macau Peninsula, the below chinese version map has more details. I collected a few maps from the hotel lobby, but none of it was as detail as this version. With this Chinese version map, I was able to find almost every streets in Macau Peninsula. If anyone has a equivalent English version, please let me know and I will update it in my blog.





This is the last map which covers the Taipa and Colane islands. I also noticed that Macau, unlike hong kong, do not have the street name/signs/instructions in English. They have it in Chinese and Portuguese Language. Making it worst, the Portuguese words are always small fonts compare to the Chinese words. So, to be safe, I would suggest that you copy/print out both Portuguese and Chinese information(especially the keywords) for Macau.

Before we could spend happily in Macau, we had to change some Hong Kong dollars to Patacas. In fact, Macau shops do accept Hong Kong dollars with 1:1 currency. But, I managed to get exchange rates of 100:101 in airport and 100:102.9 in Macau town. Tai Fung Bank heard to be giving the best rate. Check rate here! However, Patacas is not popular outside Macau, so avoid holding Patacas when you leave Macau.

We landed in Macau airport in the late evening, around 5pm. Since it was dinner time, we headed straight to our first dinner place after checking-in the hotel. I wanted to try the unique Macanese Cruisine, which is a blend of Southern Chinese and Portuguese Cruisines. There were two restaurants in my mind, Litoral Restaurant and A-Lorcha Restaurant, both were located very near to A-Ma Temple.


A-Lorcha Restaurant



Litoral Restaurant

Eventually, we picked Litoral Restaurant. It was a double storey restaurant and we were given a table upstair. The white-washed walls, stone floor and the use of dark-gleaming wood beam provided a fabulous dining ambience. I noticed that the restaurant was fully occupied by foodies from all over the world, which means it was well known worldwide.


a big gang enjoying their dinner



While waiting for the food to be served, the waitress sent us a basket of warm buns with butter on the side. It was Portuguese Crusty Bun, just nice, not too soft or hard.

Not long later, the first dish, Pastéis de Bacalhau(马介休球) came. Bacalhau was codfish in Portuguese, and commonly refers to dried and salted cod. A famous Portuguese delicacy that one must not miss. There were countless of Bacalhau recipe and Pastéis de Bacalhau was one of them. The Bacalhau was mixed together with potatoes, eggs, parsley and then deep fried in ball shapes.


Golden Balls served with black olive ,~MOP$80


Can even taste the shredded codfish

And, here was our main course, stewed duck with herbs(血鸭) served with plain rice at ~MOP$140. Sorry that I forgot to jot down the Portuguese name. The dark gravy might not look appetizing, but it was so great that I ordered another bowl of rice.


numerous of herbs were used in this dish

I am sure you are waiting for more dishes or dessert, but I have to put a halt to this post. We were so full that we decided to give up the dessert. I had missed Galinha à Africana(African Chicken, 非洲鸡) and Serradura(Pudding,沙度娜布丁) and Sangria(Wine Punch,鸡尾酒). Nevermind, for that I will have an excuse to come back again. :)



Look for the "H" symbol, that is where Litoral Restaurant.


Litoral Restaurant 海湾餐厅
261A Rua do Almirante Sergio
Inner Harbour, Macau
澳门河边新街261号A
Tel: (853) 967 878
12pm-3pm;5:30pm-10.30pm