Macau Food Porn: Heaven in My Mouth

Highlights of Macanese Cuisine

Macanese cuisine is a mixture of Portuguese and southern Chinese cuisines with some influences from South-East Asian countries such as Thailand or Vietnam. It is well known for its steamed or boiled seafood, grilled and roasted pork/ beef, egg tarts and seaweed egg rolls. The majority of Macanese dishes are seasoned with coconut milk, turmeric and cinnamon. Surprisingly, the food is not as spicy as many people think. 

Macanese almond cookies
Macanese almond cookies

Our Culinary Experience in Macau

We could not afford to dine out in Portuguese or Macanese restaurants on a regular basis while living in Macau so we mainly stacked to the budget street food which was not only cheap and filling, but also delicious and nutritious. We grabbed some buns and croissants with a cup of coffee from local bakeries in the morning, had a bowl of steamed veggies and fish balls at local food stand for lunch and enjoyed a plate of Chinese food for a dinner.

A girl is holding a tray with Chocolate croissant, had bun, garlic bread and mini cheese soft baguette in a bakery in Macau
Breakfast time! Chocolate croissant, bun, garlic bread and mini cheese soft baguette

Here are some of the food we tried, loved and we would like to recommend:

Egg Tart (Pastéis de nata)

It’s creamy, soft and delicious. It tastes best when it’s hot. You can have it with a glass of Portuguese red wine or an espresso.

Pastéis de nata Egg tarts
Egg tarts

Sauerkraut and Soy Sauce

It’s a great alternative for vegetarians. If you are a meat lover, you can get one with a small pieces of beef or pork.

DSC06747
A bowl of sauerkraut

Seafood

There is a great variety of seafood in Macau. You can have some fish balls, crab balls, fried or grilled salmon, etc. Any kind of seafood balls are cheap, ready in 5 minutes and they are also very filling.

Fish and crab balls
Fish and crab balls

Seaweed egg rolls

You can buy a whole box of them and have a few when you need a great, quick snack. It’s perfect with a cup of tea or coffee. Very crispy.

A box of Macanese seaweed egg rolls
A box of Macanese seaweed egg rolls

Serradura (Portuguese sawdust pudding)

It might look a bit weird, but this biscuit dessert is just amazing. The biscuits are crushed super fine so it looks like sawdust. It is in a cake slice form, very creamy and cold, like a hard ice-cream. Perfect sweetness!

A bowl of Serradura
One serving of Serradura

Kebab

It’s a very popular street food. You can fill yourself up with a kebab meat wrapped in a pita bread topped with garlic sauce and served with veggies. It’s cheap and delicious!

Kebab in Macau
A portion of kebab in pita bread, salad and dressings

Portuguese Baguette with Chips

Are you looking for some breakfast ideas? Go for Sandes de Ovo com Queijo, Fiambre, Tomate e Afece (egg, cheese, ham, tomato and lettuce sandwich). Fresh, crispy and filling!

Portuguese baguette with chips
Portuguese baguette with chips

Chinese Specialty – Diced Chicken with Hemp Pepper Rice

If you miss rice, meat and spicy herbs, go to any Chinese restaurant and order a spicy Sichuan meal. You will get a plate of fried chicken or pork meat, any kind of veggies and a bowl of sticky pepper rice. Sounds delicious?

Diced chicken with hemp pepper rice
Diced chicken with hemp pepper rice

BBQ Dishes

If you are bored of steamed and fried dishes, go for a grilled option. You can have well done chicken wings, steak or sweetcorn. Cheap and yummy.

Grilled chicken wings and sweetcorn
Grilled chicken wings and sweetcorn

Strawberry Yoghurt Shake

Words cannot describe how much we love fruit drinks, from smoothies, shakes to frozen yoghurt. Macau coffee shops serve a great variety of tropical fruit drinks so if you feel like having a mango smoothie or frozen berry yoghurt, you can find it anywhere around you! We enjoyed our strawberry yoghurt shake, iced and creamy!

Strawberry yogurt shake
Miss perfect on our table

Breakfast Sandwiches

There is no way you can find a ham and cheese toast anywhere in China (Chinese breakfasts are more complicated than this). Macau is different. Finding a nice sandwich, breakfast roll or pork bun is super easy. Every single restaurant sells them. We highly recommend ham, fried egg and cheese sandwich, simply cheese toast and a mug of hot chocolate. 

A mug of hot chocolate, ham fried egg and fish sandwich, cheese toast
A breakfast we would never get in China

P.S. Everything tastes better in Macau with a glass (often a bottle) of Portuguese red wine, right?

See also  My Food And Wine Experience With Inside Lisbon

Any particular Macanese food we missed?

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Agness Walewinder
Agness Walewinder
Travel freak, vagabond, photography passionate, blogger, life enthusiast, backpacker, adventure hunter and endless energy couchsurfer living by the rule "Pack lite, travel far and live long!"
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39 thoughts on “Macau Food Porn: Heaven in My Mouth”

  1. Avatar of The Guy

    It all looks very tempting. I’m particularly drawn to the egg tarts, I love them.

    Welcome back Agness, it is great to see you blogging again. I hope you had a great time in Europe.

  2. Avatar of Mary {The World Is A Book}

    I would go to Macau just to eat most of these food. I’ve had Portuguese Egg Tarts and they are delicious. Seaweed egg rolls may take a bit of getting used to for me. What a wonderful variety and you guys ate well. Welcome back!

    1. Avatar of Agness Walewinder

      Hey Mary, thanks for sharing. I would take a ferry from Hong Kong to Macau to try the egg tart again, insane how good it is!

  3. Avatar of Amanda @ Adventure Year
    Amanda @ Adventure Year

    Oh, all of that seafood you just mentioned got my tastebuds hungry. All of it looks good, though! That Strawberry Yoghurt Shake looks pretty dang tasty too. Can you even have that with wine? ;)

  4. Avatar of Cassandra

    While I was aware that Macau had been a Portuguese colony, I hadn’t thought about how much of the cuisine would come from Iberia! I’ve tasted the pasteis de nata in Lisbon, and they were amaaaazing. It’s so interesting to see the mix of foods at this crossroads of culture!

  5. Avatar of Aggy

    Yumm! So many Portuguese food! I love the custard pie when I was travelling to Portugal and Macau looks like it has a wide range of food *mouth waters*

  6. Avatar of noelfy

    I am addicted to Pasteis de nata from the time I used to live in Porto, but after trying the macau version, I was very disappointed :P Not really the same. The one they make in Azores Islands is pretty similar, but the Chinese version left me with nostalgic mouth!!

  7. Avatar of Dan @ A Cruising Couple

    We stuffed our faces in Macau. The flavors mixing from all those different influences make for some really unique and delicious food. And it’s true it all tastes that much better with a glass (or two) of Portuguese wine!

  8. Avatar of Tim Blight

    Macanese food is one of Asia’s undiscovered gems in my opinion!! It’s like the perfect fusion of east, west and everything in between!!! Thanks again for sharing :D My stomach is rumbling just looking at those pictures!

  9. Avatar of Zara @ Backpack ME

    HA! It’s funny that you say Portuguese tarts (pasteis de nata) taste good with red wine, as we (we as in Portuguese people) mostly have them for breakfast or as a snack in the afternoon, with coffee! It’s one of my favorite treats I indulge in when I’m back in Portugal and, believe me, they’re quite different than those in Macau.. of course I’m gonna say better.. so come to Portugal sometime and try them there too! ;)

  10. Avatar of Noah @ Somewhere Or Bust

    Never made it to Macau, but the photos between kebab and bbq looked best. (I’m not much of a Macanese dessert guy, I guess.) I did love the dim sum and “Medium Very Spicy Soup” in Hong Kong, even though the latter took a few months off of my life.

    1. Avatar of Agness Walewinder

      Dim Sum is definitely my favourite one and I always order it when I’m in Hong Kong (every two weeks). You should try one of these Macanese desserts, they are so nice!

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