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.Â

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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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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!

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!

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!

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?

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.

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!

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.

P.S. Everything tastes better in Macau with a glass (often a bottle) of Portuguese red wine, right?
Any particular Macanese food we missed?
39 thoughts on “Macau Food Porn: Heaven in My Mouth”
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.
I’ll take one of each, PLEASE! :-)
Suuuuuuure!
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!
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!
mmmm everything looks/sounds delish!
And tastes delicious as well :)
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? ;)
Yes, sure. Everything tastes good with wine, right?
I want the diced chicken with hemp pepper rice!
Me too, me too right now!
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!
Iberia, seriously? What a surprise! I gotta go there soon to judge the food!
Looks like you had a great time sampling the food in Macau!
Yes we did, indeed Jennifer!
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*
Custard pie is amazing :):)
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!!
You just made me miss Macau food so much!!!! It’s crazy!
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!
Wait a minute, we missed wine tasting in Macau, buuuuuuuu :((((
The seafood and the BBQ dishes look absolutely delicious
And they taste even better!! :)
If the food taste good lie the photos, we should pack to Macau :)
Welcome back girl :)
You should, definitely!!!!!
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!
I absolutely agree, Tim! One of my favourite cuisine! :)
Hmmmmm is it very unoriginal if I say this is a delicious post? :-)
Oh Pedro, wish you were here. Heaven in my mouth!!
We ate so many egg tarts in Macau! Somehow we missed the rest of these items so I guess we’ll just have to go back :-)
Same here, LOL! Egg tarts are just way too delicious, right?
You eat some of the most interesting things! Always enjoy reading about them.
Thanks a lot. It’s been a real culinary journey for me where I discovered some of really delicious food!
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! ;)
Hahahahhaa, everything tastes good with wine for me, maybe that’s why :)
Nice post title, it got me thinking. Lovely photos of the food.
Thank you Shalu. Macau is a great place to experience new food flavors.
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.
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!