Festive foods have special meanings for the Chinese, Portuguese and Japanese in Macau

By Rebecca Lo
Photography by Gary Mak

The Macanese are known for their strong family ties. At no other time is the closeness between relatives more evident than during Christmas, New Year and Chinese New Year. As the city has a long history of fusing Portuguese traditions with Asian ones, all of these holidays have equal prominence – plus any excuse for a celebration with yummy traditional foods and drinks is welcome in a city that loves to dine. Though there are varied reasons why different foods are served during important festive occasions, holiday dishes are all memorably delicious.

For Takenori Noguchi, the chef de cuisine at Tenmasa (11/F, Altira Macau, Avenida de Kwong Tung, Taipa, +853 2886 8868), festive food brings back memories of waking up as a child at home in Japan on New Year’s Day, and enjoying a bowl of steaming Kanto-style ozouni, or rice cake soup. “I’d go downstairs to the kitchen still rubbing the sleep from my eyes,” recalls Noguchi fondly. “My mum would ask me how many rice cakes I could eat that morning. Usually I’d say three. Then I’d go back upstairs, wash up, and come down to eat them to mark the start of the holiday.”

Noguchi explains that for the Japanese, 1-3 January is the most important holiday and a time that everyone sets aside to spend with family. During it, the lady of the house gets a welcome break, and everyone else pitches in to help prepare meals at home, since many shops and restaurants are closed. “Osechi is a platter of assorted cold delicacies such as soy beans, fish and seafood,” Noguchi explains. “It is home-cooked, festive family food because it is easy to keep, all the cooking is done beforehand, and you can snack on it throughout the holiday.”

Pastry chef Fernando Marques, the Portuguese owner of Café Ou Mon (12 Travessa de S Domingos, +853 2837 2207), not only supplies his own restaurant with baked goods, but also many of the major hotels and gourmet shops in the city. His busiest time of the year is during Christmas, when demand for his bolo rei, or king’s cake, skyrockets. An egg-enriched fruitcake enjoyed in Portugal from Christmas well into the new year, it has special significance on 6 January, the date when the three kings were believed to have welcomed the birth of Jesus with gifts. Traditionally, a trinket such as a coin and a broad bean are baked into the cake, and whoever gets the slice with the trinket is said to have good luck throughout the year. The person who gets the bean has to shoulder the expense of purchasing bolo rei the following year.

“Every kid wanted to get the coin,” remembers Marques. “And everyone ate bolo rei. It was left in the middle of the family dining table and people helped themselves throughout the holidays.” He only inserts a trinket for cakes sold on Christmas Day, and the industrial ovens in his bakery on Avenida de Venceslau de Morais can bake 110 cakes simultaneously. Marques finishes the top of the cake with glazed fruit such as figs, cherries and pears. “Bolo rei is a rich winter cake and used to be eaten only on special occasions like Christmas,” he notes. “Now, people enjoy it throughout the year.”

For Peter Chan, executive chef since 2007 at Wing Lei (Wynn Macau, Rua Cidade de Sintra, NAPE, +853 2888 9966) – whose résumé includes both hotel and independent restaurants in Hong Kong and Taipa – the best holiday memories are lighting firecrackers and tucking into basin feasts in his Yuen Long walled village, situated in the north-west part of Hong Kong’s New Territories. “My family is very traditional,” explains Chan. “On the first day of Chinese New Year, we have fish to start the year off properly. But the fish must have its head and tail intact. And of course when I was a kid, I was happiest when I received a lot of lai-see packets!”

Chan believes that Chinese New Year gives everyone a fresh start. Enjoying a feast with expensive ingredients like shark’s fin is a way to treat yourself after keeping your nose to the grindstone all year long. “The Macanese have very traditional tastes at Chinese new year. i’m not saying that they can’t accept new dishes. But hong Kong people will try new things during the holidays. when i create a menu, i combine new concepts and old favourites with fried, stewed and steamed ingredients, to give guests a lot of choice.”

Chan notes that for the Chinese, it is important to have dishes that represent good luck and prosperity, which means that some dishes will never go out of style. “Chinese people are quite superstitious,” he cautions. “That is why we don’t use too many square things, only round. even round tables are preferred!”

マカオで味わう年末年始の料理

東西文化が交わるマカオでも家族が集う年末年始の料理は特 別だ。

天政では日本の元旦の朝を思わせる関東風お雑煮が味わ える。

日本人にとって特に意味深い新年の三が日。家庭の主婦が 束の間の休息をとるこの時期には、多様な食材を調理して詰め 合わせた「おせち」を食べるのが習慣だ。保存が利くおせちは 大晦日までに準備し、正月には欠かせない家庭料理である。

マカオで有名な洋菓子店 Café Ou Mon が一年で最も忙し いのがクリスマスだ。ポルトガルで年末年始の食卓に欠かせな い「ボーロ・レイ」が飛ぶように売れる。イチジクなどの果物でト ッピングしたボーロ・レイを食べながら、新しい年の運勢を占う そうだ。

永利軒のシェフ、ピーターによると、1年中休む暇もなく働く 中国人は旧正月には自身への褒美として高価な料理に舌鼓を 打つ。香港の人は新しい物が好きで、マカオの人々は伝統的な 味にこだわる。だからこそ、ピーターは伝統を守りながらも新し い料理の創作に取り組んでいる。

中国人は迷信深い人種なので幸運と繁栄を意味する料理 にこだわる。中国人が円卓を好む理由はそのためなのだ。