Dine Wherever

MOP 40, approx US$4.97 While coffee seems to be pretty much a universal beverage, but every country has its own way of making coffee its own.  Apparently, Hong Kong has its own rendition of coffee.  I'm curious about all cultures, including the coffee culture, so when I saw there was a Hong Kong style coffee on the menu of this restaurant , I just had to try it out.  I have to say that I much prefer the coffee that I usually ordered back in Los Angeles .  This Hong Kong style coffee was a little too bland for me...

MOP 40, approx US$4.97 Like Hong Kong, Macau has a very strong milk-tea drinking culture. I have no idea why milk-tea is so popular in Macau. People here always order it in breakfast and afternoon tea and snack times. May be Macau’s proximity to Hong Kong just makes everything that is popular in Hong Kong also popularity in Macau. The popularity of drinking milk-tea here is like drinking coffee back in the USA. I think milk-tea drinking has been catching on in the USA also, thanks to Starbucks for making Chia tea mainstream, the Thai restaurants for popularizing the Thai Ice Tea, and the Taiwanese restaurants and bakeries for bringing the Boba Milk Tea to the USA. But I personally like the Hong Kong style milk tea the most. It is more flavorful than the Taiwanese Boba milk tea, and it doesn’t taste like perfumy like the Chai. The Hong Kong milk tea has this good rich tea aroma and flavor but it doesn’t have the tartness and bitter undertone of the English tea. I personally...

MOP 55, approx US$6.83 I rarely had Choy Sum ( 菜心 ) in America. The Chinese characters literally translates as “Veggie Heart”, which kinds of tell people what to expect from it in terms of taste and texture. Yes, it’s supposed to have a tender crisp texture, flavorful with a sweet tone. It wasn’t that commonly used a veggie even in the Chinese restaurants that I patronized back home, which often cooked Chinese broccoli, spinach or baby bak choy. But I always had Choy Sum whenever I visited Southern China. Choy Sum looks like Chinese broccoli, but it has a very different texture, different taste and different color of flowers. The flowers of Choy Sum are yellow. When I was a kid, I always picked the flower parts to eat because I think it was fun, and it just tasted a lot more tender than the rest of the veggie. I still remember that very first Choy Sum that I had many years ago when I was about 4 years old, at a very ugly and run down restaurant tugged away in the mid...

MOP 100, approx US$ 12.41 My friends call me a lazy tourist and they hate to travel with me because I always wake up too late to miss the bus for the next tourist trap! This restaurant is the lunch place where I end up whenever I wake up at noon to find my friends all gone to their next whirlwind tour.  I like coming back to this restaurant because it's open 24/7 and it has an ipad ordering system for me to swipe my orders into the kitchen without needing me to recite my orders to a waitress and then confirm with her my orders.  I just wish all restaurants in the world have an ordering system like this. Fried rice is always a good meal option for the lone diner, so I  ordered the Fried Rice With Seafood, Dried Shrimp & Spring Onion. This string of English words is quite long to be recited to the waiter while the Chinese name of the dish (漁村海皇炒飯) was short, elegant and intriguing. It literally translates as the The Sea Emperor's Fried Rice From The Fishing ...

MOP 50, approx. US$ 6.21 Like oatmeal to us, congee is a very popular breakfast food in Chinese society.  Being in Macau, I just had to try out the kind of congee that I can't easily find in the USA.  I love congee because it's like savory oatmeal with a variety of protein options. I have many favorites, the Liwan Sampan Congee (a slow cooked thick rice soup, that has shredded meat, fried pork skin, jelly fish and squid, and topped with salty fried or roasted peanuts, crispy Chinese crouton, and a sprinkle of chopped green onions).  This congee was originated from the Liwan District in Guangzhou China many many years ago.   It was prepared and sold by the boat people there. This is how the congee got its name.  This congee was then made very popular in Hong Kong and Macau through migration. Everybody in the two cities are very familiar with it.  I had tried some good ones in Hong Kong from the past when the Chinese BBQ duck was used as the meat....

MOP 35, approx. US$ 4.5 This is Hong Kong's well known breakfast and afternoon tea bun.  This bun has also been widely popular in Macau for many years and its popularity in Macau may as well make it the trademark bun of Macau.  This is a sweet bun with a sweet buttery crust on top.  Because of its shape that resembles the pineapple , it's always known to the people in both Hong Kong & Macau as the Pineapple bun.  Its Chinese name is therefore totally different from its English name on the restaurant 's menu.  This bun is typically served as a butter sandwich, which has a thick piece of butter in between the top and bottom slices of the freshly baked bun.  The condensed milk on the side is for dipping.  I could easily order this bun at the small mom and pop cafes tugged in some of those narrow streets in Macau, but I preferred comfortable seating and I doubt this would cost less at a crowded mom and pop cafe that has no spacious and beautiful...