Saturday, December 03, 2011

Window Shopping in Macau

We started our early Friday morning with a little breakfast before heading out to catch our ferry to Macau. Instead of touring Macau ourselves, we joined a day trip tour which included our ferry tickets to (and from) Hong Kong, as well as lunch. They gave us free time too.

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Most of us enjoyed slices of smoked salmon (which we brought over from Ottawa) and smoked cheese from Holland (which was a gift Aunty received) between warm baguettes.

The fresh baguettes were the best ones I've eaten. The fluffy sweet carbs were protected by a thin, delicate golden armor, which shattered when it was bitten. Just the baguette alone was dangerous for a carb addict like myself. Add creamy smoked cheese and tasty smoked Canadian salmon and I was in bliss. I could've eaten this every morning!

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Others had some baked goods we picked up the previous day. The top bun had pieces of chestnut, while the bottom one was a plain milk bun.

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At the ferry terminal, we tried the Portuguese egg tarts and although we weren't in Macau. It's still legit, right? They had two different egg tarts: yellow and white.

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The difference was the egg filling was either made of yolks or egg whites. We tried the white ones which was a bit weird. The egg white flavour wasn't overwhelming. It was kinda nice. The pastry was salty and greasy though.

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The hour and a half ride to Macau was surprisingly smooth. Lining up to go through customs was not. All the tour groups from China were so pushy and impatient. We eventually made it through and met up with the group. We boarded our bus and began the tour.


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This was our first stop. It was some famous snack store. *Shrug*

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We bought some beef and pork jerky. The black pepper one was pretty tasty!

The tour brought us to the Ruins of St. Paul's. The area was packed with other tourists, but I managed a few great shots as we walked down the streets for a few hours. Here are a few for you to see.


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We were lucky to have sunny weather. It was hovering above 30 degrees.

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I began losing steam in the heat until a cold boba milk tea came to my rescue! Deeeeelish!

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They brought us to the Macau tower and then to buffet lunch at the Villa Picasso for a late lunch.

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The selection wasn't the tastiest. I tried their noodles, pakora, spring roll, buns, Portuguese style chicken, and their stewed oxtail.

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I liked the oxtail so much that my second round was more oxtail stew and mantou. I mopped the gravy up. It tasted similar to the stew we make at home.

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I gave the fried mantou with condensed milk a try, but the fried mantou wasn't fresh. I took three bites before I gave up.

The last stop for the tour was at the Galaxy Macau Casino.

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From there, we were given our ferry tickets back to Hong Kong and allowed to roam free. They told us that the casinos had free shuttle services between the different casinos, but the shuttle service to the ferry was at the Galaxy Macau Casino. No prob.

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We spent hours walking between a few different casinos (Casino Lisboa, The Venetian Macau, City of Dreams, Galaxy Macau). It got really old, really quickly. I saw this beauty in the City of Dreams though. How appropriate.

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I began to get grumpy that evening because I was sick of walking through the cigarette smoke-filled casinos. Sure, the casinos looked great inside but I just couldn't handle it anymore. Plus, we didn't get to play (not that I wanted to), watch people play, or watch a show. We did visit a few jewelry stores only to leave empty handed. I didn't get the point of window shopping in Macau. We took a much needed breather outside the Venetian and then looked for food.

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Eric Tsang tried to cheer me up as we walked through a casino.

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On our way to dinner, we passed by both of the Casino Lisboas. The one above is the newer one. Can you tell?

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Aunty wanted to take me to try Macau's pork chop sandwiches after I expressed my curiosity (Bourdain's fault). She took us to the milk custard place. Aunty wanted us to try their custard since it's a Macau thing. As luck would have it, they sold out their last pork chop sandwich during their lunch rush. Damn.

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We started with some papaya flavoured milk. The cold frothy milk drink was slightly sweet with perfumes of papaya.

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We shared two bowls of pork with instant Nissin noodles. The pork tasted like Mom's marinated version of pork. No one really had an appetite for instant noodles that night. We had leftovers.

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The main dish was the milk custard. There were three different kinds; one was sweet with ginger simple syrup, one was with plain simple syrup and the third was a lighter regular simple syrup. Eating the custard was like a cold soft cloud of milk jello with a sweet cool breeze of ginger. I'd compare it to a lighter version of dofu fa (soybean custard). I didn't think dofu fa could be lighter. Dessert definitely hit the spot.

We slowly made our way back to Hong Kong after dinner. I don't remember the ferry ride or the taxi ride back to Aunty's place.

Macau would've been much more enjoyable if we actually had a plan for the afternoon.


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Hello from Hong Kong!

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Lunch at Tung Yuen Banquet, Congee Dinner
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