I HAVE been with chefs on a tour of provinces and other countries. But never with seven chefs.

We met on the early morning flight of Macau Air: Margarita Fores of Pepato and Cibo; Colin Mackay of Sala, Sala Bistro and People’s Palace; Myrna Segismundo of Restaurant 9501; Jessie Sincioco of Le Souffle Rockwell; Vicky Pacheco of Sentro and Chateau 1771 and two executive chefs of the Marco Polo group, Ed Tuason of Davao and Luke Gagnon of Cebu. They came on the invitation of the Macau Government Tourist Office (MGTO) to eat and learn about Macanese cooking and then create a Macanese festival in their respective restaurants in February. We were accompanied by Jet Cabuslay of MGTO and Celia del Rosario of Macau Air, both of whom shepherded this group of individuals, who, like all tourists, liked to wander off from the itinerary.

Our home for the next five days was Rocks at The Fisherman’s Wharf, a small but beautiful hotel by the waterfront. Our luxurious rooms, however, would only see us at night and the few times we came back to refresh ourselves before going out again.

Macau’s cuisine includes Portuguese, Chinese and Macanese. But they also include dishes from other Portuguese colonies such as African chicken, roast chicken with hot sauce and Brazilian feijoada and churrasco, boiled mixed meat with beans and barbecue, respectively. We would see those in the many restaurants we went to and at the cooking classes we attended.

We had three cooking sessions during the visit, two at the Associação dos Macaenses (ADM), an association of the Macanese to preserve their culture and the local language Patua; and one at Instituto de Formação Turistica (IFT), Macau’s hotel and tourism school. The lessons were mostly on Macanese cooking, the fusion of Portuguese, Southeast Asian and Chinese cuisines.

The chefs took down notes avidly, took photographs of the dishes (in aid of their future festivals) and were very particular about procedures as chefs are supposed to be. But what really amused me was how chefs never tasted the food but ate heartily what was cooked. They finished their portions as if to catch every nuance of the dishes. They should really learn the taste-a-little technique of writers who know that there will always be more food after the last dish. They were aghast at having to go through a full dinner after their first session at the Litoral, a restaurant that specializes in Macanese cuisine.

History of dishes

At the ADM, Marina de Senna Fernandes, ably assisted by Filipina cook Catherine Almazan, demonstrated six dishes: lacassa (shrimp with rice noodle soup), minchi (ground pork), caldo verde (potato soup with kale), galinha a Macau (Macau chicken), batatada (potato pudding) and seradura (cookies and cream dessert). Fernandes not only touched on the cooking but also on the traditions and history of each dish. Lacassa is akin to the Malay laksa and it uses balichão, shrimp paste like our bagoong but mashed in Chinese or white wine for 100 days. Minchi is food for Christmas but Fernandes said that an uncle wanted it every day. When served, it looked like arroz a la Cubana with its fried egg but minus the saging na saba. The batatada is usually served during weddings in the northern part of Portugal and is also known as horse’s tail or bride’s pillow (tsavessa de naiva).

Because some of the recipes were specific about brands, it reminded me of recipes obtained from my regional Filipino cooking research. The galinha a Macau had to use Carnation milk; the batatada had to have Anchor or Daisy butter; minchi had to use Lea & Perrin’s sauce; the seradura must crush Marie biscuits.

At the IFT, lacassa, minchi, galinha a Macau and batatada were also taught which gave the chefs the chance to compare recipes from both sources. But the chefs requested African chicken as well. The session was done in an auditorium setup and the kitchen sported professional equipment. That seemed more like home to the seven chefs with us. They closed in to smell and taste a bit, looked into the pot for the kind of consistency needed and, of course, took photographs.

It was at Litoral Restaurant where Macanese cooking was first tasted. We noted how some dishes were so similar to ours. There was pipis, braised chicken giblets that was very much like menudo and then the porco balichão that is equivalent to our pork binagoongan. The crab cakes were similar to our rellenong alimasag.

The other dishes were from Portuguese colonies—Indian samosas from Goa and African chicken with piripiri sauce that comes from a spice paste of Mozambique.

For dessert, it was seradura again and the soufflé-looking concoction—egg whites puffed up like a nuclear cloud with yellowish sauce—called Molotoff.

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