Macao 2008

Ruins of St. Paul's. The remaining southern stone facade of the cathedral

About time I blog about Macao, this is a long, long overdue post. It has been more than six months since this trip to Shenzhen and Hong Kong with two of my sisters and a niece. Macao was actually my favorite leg of the whole trip.

I love it here simply because there weren't any frantic shopping and huge crowd to negotiate as in HK and Shenzhen.

From Shenzhen we took a comfortable chartered van that cost us about rmb 700 to Macao. Hassle-free from the hotel in Shenzhen right to the border at Zhu Hai. 

With only one day in Macao we knew we had a lot of grounds and food to cover. Let me squeeze everything in one post to show you what we ate and saw in pictures...

This reads 'Famous Double skin steamed milk'. 

We found this shop right next to the tourism center at the splendid Largo Do Senado (main square at down town), walking distance to St. Paul's Ruin.

The original dessert with ginger juice. Very exquisitely smooth texture with a delicate and light flavor. 

As I love anything with red beans, I opted for the above...pure bliss...

  

Mok Yi Kei, very popular for its puddings and ice-cream desserts.

The most famous has got to be its durian ice-cream. Amazingly infused with the essence and pulp of the king of fruits but I would have preferred a softer and creamier texture.  

Wing Lai Yuen, a famous restaurant featured on one of our Malaysian's TV food program.

Too bad didn't have a proper meal here but the noodles (forgot what it was called, dan dan mein or something like that) we had for a snack were pretty substantial and yummy.

The Dumbo Restaurant, a famous Portuguese Restaurant

Followed Precious pea's review and i just had to give it a try or I would be going home feeling mission unaccomplished (???)... :P

Grilled quails. Very flavorful but a little dry.

Loved this braised pig's neck. Moist and delicious with a most aromatic smoky flavor.

Most famous portuguese-style egg tarts. These we doggy bagged from Dumbo Restaurant and as I remembered they were disappointingly dry and overly sweet. 

Not satisfied, we had another round early next morning at one of the stores near the Ruins of St. Paul. They were delicious and I realized they are best eaten piping hot. The best, we were told are those from Margaret's Cafe & Nata but alas, we never get near enough to taste them. A good enough reason for me to come back to Macao again...

 

Loved each and every one of these quaint narrow alleyways that we found at almost every turn.

Especially the cobblestone ones.

 

This historical site was near the Venetian Hotel. We chanced upon it while walking towards the casino.

Very well preserved buildings that are now transformed into museum and galleries.

Beautiful dahlias everywhere. 

Inside the Venetian, the world's largest casino resort (for now) which opened in August 2007. It boasts 3,000 luxurious suites and the biggest casino (about 600,000 sq. feet) in the world.  

Amazing indoor canals and gondolas, duplicating Venice.

A masked artist performing a classical piece creating a mood similar to the carnivals in Venice.