What’s Your Flavour?

I was on a day trip from Hong Kong, and this was the end of a day spent shopping and eating. So I was hoping that my four-legged friend would help me recover some of that cash. But Mad Dash suffered a humiliating loss, having suddenly decided midway, that he had had enough of chasing a dummy rabbit. Still, going through the highs and lows of gambling is an essential part of the Macau experience.

Known as the ‘Monte Carlo of the Orient’, this tiny principality on the southern tip of China is crisscrossed with casinos. Though commercially outmuscled by neighbouring Hong Kong, Macau is way ahead when it comes to gambling. From Asia’s only dog racing track to its largest casino at the Hotel Lisboa, there’s every betting temptation possible.

Formerly a Portuguese colony, Macau went from one Big Brother to the next in 1999, when it was handed over to China. That unique mixture of Catholic Portugal and Red China has lent itself to almost every aspect of Macanese life.

If a majority of the population is Chinese, there’s also a Christian flavour across the peninsula; while the architecture is Portuguese, every street corner is dotted with Chinese furniture and antique shops, and Portuguese egg tart bakeries are often flanked by quaint Chinese tea shops.

This city of indulgence gives you some fantastic options to be happy. On a warm afternoon—as most Macanese afternoons tend to be—take a walk through Macau’s main square, the Avenida de Almeida Ribeiro. North of the main square is an uphill road peppered with Chinese knick-knacks and traditional furniture stores. While the bargains are fantastic, their antiquity is extremely doubtful. At one outlet I was offered a supposedly 19th century Chinese rice basket in four different colours. At the head of this street are the Ruinas de Sao Paulo or the ruins of Saint Paul’s—Macau’s oldest church and its most important sight. The church, built in 1602, caught fire three times thereafter and was rebuilt each time, but the last fire in 1853 destroyed everything except its stone facade.

Macanese food, the peninsula’s next best indulgence, deserves a whole chapter but let’s try a graph. As a confirmed non-vegetarian with an almost vulgar love of garlic, I was in food heaven. Macanese cuisine worships meat—of all persuasions—and contains truckloads of garlic, onion and tomato.

A Lorcha, located on Rua do Almirante Sergio, is in the best of Portuguese dining tradition—portions worthy of the WWF—and the taste, good enough to make you slobber like Wimpy on a bad day. I still sigh over my stuffed mackerel, chirozo, and rabbit stew dinner of that evening (best downed with some icy sangria). For dessert, or even over a cup of coffee, try Macau’s famous egg tarts. Available at any of the bakeries around the main square, they go best with a cup of strong Macanese coffee.

But what’s a caffeine high compared with the adrenalin rush of watching man’s best friend hotfoot after a phoney rabbit?