Pour Mangia - A Vencadora

Today is Saturday, a day used for shopping. I can use this blog as a self-assuring explanation for not yet leaving the house. If I put on Prokofiev's Peter and the Wolf, eat some dark chocolate, and open the window to let the fresh Chinese-not-Chinese air in, I can even convince myself that I am enjoying an accomplished day of much productivity. I've decided to start the sub-blog dedicated to some of the tasty restaurants to be found in town, entitled 'Pour Mangia'. 

So it turns out that eating out is a popular thing here and there are plenty of restaurants to choose from. Kitchens are typically small, food in restaurants is relatively cheap, fresh and tasty. As long as you're able bodied and not burdened by dozens of squirming, crying babies, you're likely going out for dinner (although some people might still try). On a given night, you'll find plenty of young couples, families, middle-aged workers, and grey-haired retirees dining (I suppose this is also the case back at home, but considering that people tend to congregate amongst people more like themselves, it was remarkable to see such a diverse crowd in just about every local restaurant). The local joints are about 80% Asian (Cantonese, Korean, Thai, Vietnamese, Indian, Japanese, etc), 15% Portuguese (Which may be the next setting of 'Pour Mangia'), and 5% other things. You can hunt down something else if you're really looking for it. Eating out is a great. I don't know if it's good FOR me, but here's the first installment of 'Pour Mangia'

Yesterday, prior to a night of birthday celebrations for one of our art teachers, a few friends and I went over to Macau side for a bite to eat at a proper Macanese restaurant, 'A Vencadora', apparently opened in 1918. (I borrowed this and the next picture from another blog because I had forgotten to take a good shot of the front and inside).

To my knowledge, when defining 'Macanese food', I believe it's the mixture of Cantonese/Chinese food and Portuguese/European food. There are plenty of restaurants that serve traditional food from both of those previously-mentioned cuisines, but Macanese restaurants are a little different from them both.  

This is what your typical local place will look like. Simple furniture, fluorescent lighting, draped in a soundtrack of clinking, laughing and Cantonese chatter. 

This is what you'll find at your table. White pepper, salt, vinegar, and toothpicks (at some places they'll even have chili oil and some kind of tasty sauce). Pretty common stuff in these types of restaurants. 

While we take our time ordering, a beer is in order! Tsingtao beer, probably the most popular brand in China, as well as China-not-China. You can get them as cheap as $1 CDN for a can in your (well, my) local supermarket. Not entirely bad stuff, or maybe I'm just used to it. You can trick your inexperienced friends into ordering the big ones (500 ml) instead of the small ones (333ml) for a fun evening in the name of not-wasting-any-beer. 
Menus will usually have pictures, or have English names. Ours had both, but they were separate, so we used the old 'point and grunt' tactics that seem to help me along so well. See that chicken in the middle below the tomato-y thing and above that long fish-with-a-face? Well, prepare to get a better look shortly. 

Something distinctly European about this restaurant (or perhaps, Macanese) was the pre-meal serving of buns, butter and peppers. This is what you'll usually get to start a meal at a Portuguese restaurant, so it gives a bit of a clue towards what you're in for (sort of). 

Oh baby. Here it is. This chicken was one of the best kinds of chicken there is. A simple, slow-cooked masterpiece with all the tasty juices for dipping your potatoes and bread. Our other dish (aside from the rice below) was a curried beef brisket that was eaten so quickly I only had a chance to snap a pic of the almost-empty plate (it's the first picture of this post, at the top of the page).  

This is an example of Macanese fried rice. You've got ham, you've got eggs, and you've got your rice. Sometimes you'll find some chorizo sausage or vegetables in there too, depending on the restaurant's take on the dish. As you can see, everything is served tapas style, and dishes are shared throughout the table. While I'm used to doing this after being here a while, I really think it's the better way to do things. 

All in all, the four of us had a full meal & drinks for about 100MOP each ($16 Canadian), a pretty good price considering we live in a packed city with a uncomfortably-close-to-Toronto property & rental rates. At those prices, there will be plenty more meals out, and with that, more blog posts to come all about the delicious hidden treasures scattered around the country/city. Until then, I will leave you with that tingling desire to visit, eat and lay on the beach (but not go in the water) in Macau.