Dine Wherever

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 80, approx. US$10 My dear friend in Macau treated me to lunch at this place , so that we could catch up on all our lost years since our college time in the USA.  My friend remembered how I used to always eat pizzas for every meal at our dorm's cafeteria, so he thought we should walk down the memory lane by having pizza together again.  I don't think I ever had a seafood pizza in my life, so I ordered one to try it out. This seafood pizza was loaded with shrimps, chopped mussels and clams.  Even though I love seafood, and I love pizza, I just don't care for this seafood pizza.  The marriage of seafood and pizza crust just produced a texture that didn't appeal to me.  May be this pizza was made to suit the pallets of the locals and tourists in Macau, who are mostly Chinese, it was lacking of tomato sauce and cheese big times.   So I didn't like the taste either.  I did however enjoy the coffee here, the beautiful view and the gorgeous res...

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...

MOP $192 Per Person (10% Service Charge Included). Approx. US$24 This was a fantastic American breakfast that I can't get in most restaurants or diners in the USA.  Unlike the bitter boxed orange juice served in many diners in the USA, the orange juice here was fresh squeezed!  I always avoid ordering orange juice at diners or McDonald's because I hate the bitter and fake taste.  There is nothing like fresh squeezed real orange juice!  There are a lot of  breakfast options for in-room dining at this beautiful hotel , but I picked my most familiar American breakfast because I wanted to stay safe in the taste department.  The breakfast turned out really great with eggs prepared my way, my choice of breakfast ham among other options such as sausages and bacon (the ham was really good and not overly salty), and a fresh basket of bread of my pick ( I picked croissant and white toast among the wheat and multi-grain breads and rolls).  The fresh and cr...

NT$ 180, approx. US$ 6.18 The Taoyuan International Airport in Taipei is one of my most favorite airports because I was always able to have a good meal there.  During my latest visit, I ordered a Spare Ribs Noodle Soup Set (which also included two slices of oranges and a glass of tea). This was not quite the set meal that I expected because the tea and slices of oranges barely made it a set. But at the low price of the set (with no sales tax and no tips required),  I was content with the barely there add-on.  I found the noodle soup quite delicious, just like the vendor's English name: Delicious.  The spare pork ribs were tender and flavorful.  The noodles were in the right texture and I always appreciated the accompanying baby bak choy. I loved that the broth was light and tasty without being salty.  I really enjoyed this noodle soup.  How I wish I could get similar noodle soup at LAX.

Free for all passengers on board Eva Air enroute from Macau to Taipei Since I'm so used to flying from New York City to Los Angeles without being given any snacks or even a small bag of peanuts, I was pleasantly surprised to be receiving a snack tray during my 1 hour and 50 minutes' short flight from Macau to Taipei.  The little bag of Balls Crisps were so crunchy and delicious!   I don't usually like dried rice cereals or any dried snacks, but I love these Balls Crisps very much. They just had such great flavors.  The longan cake was like raisins cake, but instead of raisins, the dried longan fruits were used. For those of you who had never eaten a longan, it's a very delicious fruit that looks like a big pearl after being peeled from its skin.  Due to its appearance, it's also called Dragon's Eye by the Cantonese Chinese. The longan fruit is very sweet, fresh or dried. The cake was delicious, but my cake unfortunately came with some sand inside the cake,...