lots of food & a huge fork

the past few weeks have been tough...

i'm slap-bang right in the middle of a huge fork in the road. the consequences of my decision will not only effect my life, but also the life of k-chan and my soon to be born son.
how's that for heavy!
should i take the road to the left?
mmm, the one to the right looks pretty good though.

for the time being my motor has stalled and i'm parked on the center-line.
parked on this center line is giving me gray hairs, sleepless nights and panda eyes.
i kinda need to make a decision asap before i wilt into nothing, but i can't yet come to a solid conclusion. i'm nearly there...


anyway, the last few days have been slightly more bearable as i've had my sister and her spanish boyfriend over to stay.
i'm sure i've put back on all the lost weight with the amount of dining and wining we have done.
we even escaped hong kong and shot over to macau for some portuguese comida (food)

a petisqueira's octopus salad

yummy grilled sardines with portuguese tomato rice

macanese sawdust cake (serradura cake : 木糠布甸)

din tai fung's famous steamed xiaolongbao : 小籠包

hong kong's famous foggy view

mango, pomelo and sago dessert

afternoon tea at the peninsula

hot coke with lemon & ginger from tsui wah

A Petisqueira : 葡國美食天地

crossing over the macau-taipa bridge brings you to the island of taipa (氹仔) with it's quaint taipa village.
but just a short hop skip and a jump takes you to the cotai strip (inspired by the las vagas stip) which is an area of reclaimed land filling up quickly with huge casinos and high-end hotels.
i just so hope that taipa village will not surcome to the greedy gambling empire!

hidden down a little side street on taipa is one of my favorite portuguese restaurants in macau; "A Petisqueira" (葡國美食天地)

while ordering some of our favorites, k-chan said to me she wanted to have "pipis" which is the maori word for clams (no, k-chan doesn't speak maori, but it seems like this word was picked up while travelling in new zealand).
our portuguese waiter heard her say "pipi" and immediately said "yes, we have the pipi on the menu tonight".
mmm, something didn't feel right.... i mean, what's the chance that a portuguese guy would speak the exotic south pacific island language of maori?

my inkling was correct, out came a plate of odd shaped meats.
"errr, we ordered the clams..."
"no no, you ordered the pipi, pipis de galinha"
"pipi de what?"
"pipis de galinha. in english you say chicken giblets, no?"
".........."

as we are both not big meat eaters, the bits i would normally throw out giblets didn't go down too well...
at least i could wash them down with some nice portuguese red wine though!!











k-chan got her clams in the end!



restaurant info:
a petisqueira restaurant and bar
15 rua s. joão
taipa village, taipa island
macau
tel: (853) 2882-5354 (reservations required)

Macau City : 澳門

happy new year everyone!!
hope you all saw the new year in with style;
free flowing champagne, good company, and hugs and kisses all around!

my first post of 2010 is set in both the first and the last european colonized city in china; macau.
when k-chan's mum was over from japan we decided to take her across to macau.
being only 70 minutes away by high-speed ferry, it's a great place to get away from hong kong and soak up the portuguese-chinese mix which makes macau so special.

casino's don't do it for us so we spent most of our time strolling down the back streets of macau, eating way too many macanese delicacies, and checking out the world heritage sites dotted around the city.
macau has 30 world heritage sites so you're bound to stumble across one.

some sights from macau.

crispy pork buns, a must have in macau!


interesting mix of chinese and portuguese


portuguese inspired tiles


post boxes


macau-taipa bridge




almond cookies

ruins of st. paul's church


door bells

another must try; warm macau egg tarts

Macau 澳門

only 70 minutes by high-speed ferry from Hong Kong is Macau (澳門) “a world of difference, the difference is Macau” as the cities catch phrase mentions.
Macau lies on the western side of the Pearl River Delta, bordering China's Guangdong province to the north and facing the South China Sea in the east and south.
there are mainly 2 reasons why “tourists” would come to Macau; 1 being to gamble as casinos are popping up all over the place. Macau has now surpassed Las Vegas in the amount of cash being handled!! or 2, to visit the 30 World Heritage sites. as i'm not a gambler, i was here to re-visit some of the World Heritage sites and to watch Cirque De Soleil’s show ZAIA.

the last time i was in Macau was 4 years ago and i couldn't get over the changes during this time! i remember in the past there was only a run-down looking Yaohan department store close to the Hong Kong-Macau Ferry Terminal (it’s still there), but now is a huge Fisherman’s Wharf amusement-shopping complex and not far from that is the Sand’s casino.
outside the terminal are free mini buses waiting to take potential gambling customers to the many casinos dotted around Macau, so just hop on one of these rather than paying for a taxi. to get to the city center where most World Heritage sites are i took the mini bus to the Casino Lisboa; the original Macau casino before all the others started to spring up. opposite the “old” Lisboa casino is the now full-on over-the-top gold Grand Lisboa casino.

the old Lisboa casino


the new Grand Lisboa casino


from here you can walk to the famous Ruin’s of Saint Paul’s where now stands the original façade of the church which burnt down in 1835.
as the center of Macau is fairly small you can walk around it easily visiting the other World Heritage sites close by.

Ruins of St. Paul's & St. Dominic's Church


for dinner we went to a quaint little restaurant on Taipa island called “A Petisqueira” where we had a delicious Portuguese meal. everything we ordered was beautiful; octopus salad, paella, grilled sardines, clams, all washed down with some Portuguese red wine. i will definitely come back to this restaurant next time i'm in Macau; nothing beats a great meal with service to match.

A Petisqueira
15 Rua S. João
Taipa Village
Taipa Island
Tel: (853) 28825354

close to this restaurant is also a famous shop selling the very popular Macau snack; “pork chop bun” (豬扒包) which is just that, a crispy bun with pan-fried pork chop inside. nothing else, simple but great tasting. unfortunately they had already sold out when we got there…
another must try is Macau’s Portuguese-style egg tart (葡撻). these can be found all over Macau and a great snack when you need a boost of energy.

Macau's must-try pork chop & egg tart



we were lucky to be in Macau during the International Fireworks Display Contest where 10 teams from Germany, Korea, Japan, United Kingdom, Portugal, Taiwan, Philippines, France, Australia, and China. each night 2 teams compete, so we got to watch the teams from Japan and United Kingdom compete. too busy drinking Portuguese red wine we missed Japan but got to see United Kingdom’s display….but disappointing though as i expected something a bit more spectacular.

overall a nice weekend escape from Hong Kong.

Cirque Du Soleil (ZAIA)

while in Macau i went to the Venetian Resort-Hotel to watch Cirque Du Soleil's new show Zaia.
it was my 3rd Cirque Du Soleil show but just as amazing as the first time i saw their work. for those that don't know too much about them, they are a Canadian based company with now over 3500 staff covering 40 countries.

currently there are 6 big-top touring shows (Alegria, Quidam, Dralion, Varekai, Corteo and KOOZA) and 8 resident shows:
Mystere : Las Vega
"O": Las Vegas
La Nouba: Florida
Zumanity: New York
KA: Las Vegas
LOVE: Las Vegas
ZAIA: Macau
ZED: Tokyo (from Oct 1st 2008)

apparently the theatre at the Venetian was created especially for the ZAIA show. the theatre itself was very comfortable and from what i could see the stage could be viewed with ease from just about every seat.

although not really my style, the Venetian Resort-Hotel is a sister hotel to the one in Las Vegas and is the largest hotel in asia, the largest casino in the world and the 3rd largest building (floor space) in the world!!! no wonder it took a while to walk around!

the Venetian Resort-Hotel

gondola inside the resort

it even has a canal running through the main shopping area where you can take a ride on a gondola (with singing punter) for MOP$88 per person... i didn't do it but be aware, you will be in the spot light so to speak with many on-lookers...

getting to the Venetian is easy too. it's situated on reclaimed land now called the "cotai strip". basically there were 2 islands; Taipa and Coloane. they filled in the gap and called it cotai, and now it's set to become the casino gambling capital of the world.

once you arrive at the Hong Kong-Macau Ferry Terminal , hop on the free shuttle bus. doesn't matter if you are staying at the hotel or spending cash at the casino, just join the crowds!

or there is the 24-hour "cotai jet" (金光飛航) which goes directly from Hong Kong (Sheung Wan) to the Taipa Ferry Terminal located close to the hotel.