Oriental Odyssey – Day 2– Macau

Day 2 dawned bright and sunny over Taipa as our group took (great) comfort from the fact that the sightseeing didn’t begin till after lunch. While everyone else took respite from the sweltering heat and dazzling sunshine outside, I struggled under the burden of some obligatory sightseeing.

Am sure you are aware of obligatory sightseeing – though you might not know it by this name. There are 2 kinds of OS – one, where a friend/relative/guidebook/TV show lauds a particular sightseeing place/activity so much that you feel obligated to visit/do it - and that place/activity is not included in your itinerary. And you feel that if you DONT see/do/taste/hear that thing, you’ll come back from your trip with enough regrets to haunt your memories forever. :P The other kind of OS is, of course, those sights which ARE included in your itinerary which your inner mind whispers are a waste of time and energy but which you feel obligated to see – after all if its included in the itinerary, it must be good. And if you SKIP them, well, again you’ll come back from your trip with enough regrets to haunt your memories forever. :P

In my case, it was the first kind - an article in the Lonely Planet magazine which described the ‘unseen Macau’ –the true Macau kept safe from tourists behind the glamorous but fake façade of the casinos. I was possessed by the idea of seeing something beyond the glamorous side of Macau. That, plus umpteen accounts of the almost-national dish of Macau – the Portuguese egg tart made me wild to see what the true Macanese culture that lay beneath the world-wide reputation of Macau as the Vegas of the East.

So off I took, first making a quick stop at our hotel’s Reception desk to get some local currency (Patacas, which are freely exchangeable for HK dollars. In fact HK dollars are also accepted as currency) and some info on how to reach peninsular Macau by public bus. There was a bus stop a stone’s throw away from the hotel with 2-3 direct buses which would take me to the main island of Macau, where all the places marked in the Lonely Planet magazine were located. (I got this geography info from the pretty-but-with-limited-English-speaking-ability girl at the Reception desk – by showing her snaps in the magazine article and hoping she would recognise some of the places at least!) But after waiting at the bust stop for 15 minutes, in which both buses went by without stopping since they were already crowded (just like Mumbai’s BEST buses!), I realised that there just wasn’t time to hop across to Macau and be back in time for the afternoon city tour with the group. So I gave up the idea of being a bold explorer and became an aimless wanderer instead. :)

And in my aimless wanderings around the hotel, I chanced upon what I was so desperate to discover – the real Macau. First stop – a Chinese temple called Pou Tai Un, located on the slope of the mountain (completely covered with houses and roads) on which our hotel was built. Pou Tai Un was a haven of cool, quiet, greenery, a welcome respite from the dazzling sunshine and stifling humidity of the Macau morning. There I chanced upon a family who were in the middle of celebrating the ongoing festival of the dead – where offerings of fruit and incense sticks are offered to the dead of the family. Lots of paper scrolls are burnt in the holy fire as offerings too. I was grateful that the family did not frown at me for witnessing what was their private ritual. In fact a young lady even clued me on about it being the festival of the dead when I asked her what was going on. :)

Pou Tai Un, like most Chinese temples was arranged across several levels – with stone staircases leading up and down terraces and gardens and courtyards. Statues of Chinese deities adorned the entire area. There were also bonsai scenes in shallow basins – complete with small statues of people standing next to bonsai trees and miniature streams. :)

It was QUITE something to explore this quiet, hushed place which was a cross between a temple and a garden, not knowing when some angry priest/monk would throw me (a foreigner! Of a different faith!) out. But it was so beautiful and so serene! Especially when I saw the high rises of our hotel and other properties soaring into the sky from the top terrace of the temple, and saw how they contrasted with the old-worldly charm of Pou Lai Un. Truly, a jewel of a peaceful little world, contained within a bigger, louder, harsher one.

All this exploring in the sun had made me thirsty and I was lucky to stumble upon another little jewel – a charming little café called THS Honolulu, a few feet down the road from Pou Tai Un. The smiling lady in charge sat me down, and asked me (with some trepidation) if I was vegetarian. The relived smile on her face when I shook my head was priceless! :D But anyhow, eating was not on my mind, so I asked for the menu and ordered the most non-Indian and exotic drink on the menu – chrysanthemum syrup, served cold (it can also be served warm, for 2 patacas less. :P ) Unfortunately, the drink was not as sweet and floral and different as it sounded. A pretty clear yellow in colour, it was only just-sweetened and had a faint herbal taste to it. Nothing funny or strong-tasting at all. But it went down a treat given I was all sweaty and shining red like a tomato from all that wandering about in the relentless heat and sunshine!

After this welcome break I walked back to the hotel to leave with our tour group for Macau’s city tour. In which the first thing we saw was the border Macau shares with China (from afar, and from within the bus, so nothing exciting) But we learnt that drinking water and fresh fruits and vegetables all come into Macau from China. So the dependency on China is high indeed.

As we drove back to the main heart of Macau, our local guide briefed us on the Macanese economy and how it works. Apparently 70% of the Macau government’s income comes from the casinos. There’s so much surplus cash with the government that primary and secondary education, as well as all medical treatment for Macau citizens is free. Plus, every Macanese citizen gets 5000 patacas every year from the government. Just like that. And most people work in the casinos which pay really well. The flipside to this (as explained later by our Hong Kong guide!) was that there was zero incentive for Macau youth to learn any vocation. Fewer and fewer youngsters wanted to learn a trade or vocation like engineering or business since the casinos paid way better than jobs like teachers or engineers or government doctors. And this was definitely not a good sign! (BTW quick trivia factoid – In Macau, 4 kinds of people are banned from gambling in the casinos – teachers, people working in banks, people employed in casinos and government servants. They are allowed to gamble only during the 4-day fest of the Chinese New Year, so all hell breaks loose then. :) )

After this, we visited the ruins of St. Paul’s cathedral located at the top of a hillock in the heart of Macau. Only the façade of the cathedral (built by the Portuguese in the 16th century , dedicated to St Paul the Apostle) stands tall today.

The cathedral behind the façade was largely destroyed by a typhoon in 1835 and Time has done the rest. This site is one of UNESCO’s World Heritage sites. There are sloping steps that lead away from the cathedral (perfect for a photo-op, like the steps of Asiatic Library in Mumbai) to busy cobbled streets, just like those seen in Europe. Only the shops lining these streets have Chinese signs and Chinese wares. :) And I think this strangely attractive juxtaposition of the Orient and the Occident, of East and West, is the true unique identifier of Macau. Where roads have Portuguese names, but their name plates are written in Chinese. Where the architecture is Portuguese (bright colours, graceful arches) but the people who live and work within these buildings are Chinese.

Coming back, the Monte Forte fortress overlooks the cathedral and contains the Macau Museum (which we did not get time to see). But I did climb till the top to get 180 degree views of Macau. And as usual, was the last one to rejoin our tour group. (Our tour guide started figuring out my obsession with exploring and taking a zillion snaps around this time!) On the way back to the coach, I chanced upon a shop selling the famous and much-desired Portuguese egg tart - a marvel of flaky puff pastry surrounding soft-set baked custard in a glorious two-tone yellow - sunnier yellow on top and a creamier lighter yellow inside. Score! :)

After St Pauls, we headed to a purely Chinese cultural site, the A-Ma temple located in the city, but near the coast. This temple is also a UNESCO World Heritage site and is dedicated to the Goddess Mazu/Matsu. She is the patron goddess of fishermen and seafarers and hence, particularly important to Macau which used to be a fishing town before the Portuguese took over.

There I had a gorgeous time clicking away tons of pictures of everything – the stone lions guarding the entrance, the enormous incense sticks being burnt (3 ft high and 7 inches in diameter!), the stone arches of the gate, the people making wishes by rubbing the handles of a basin of holy water (You get to make a wish only if you succeed in making the water dance by your rubbing the handles – needless to say, I didn’t get even a full-fledged wave, leave alone leaping water!).

After the A-Ma temple, we visited the Macau Tower – a 338-metre high tower which houses restaurants, observation decks, a sky walking track and a bungee jumping deck.

We didn’t do any of the adventure sports (of course!), but treated ourselves to 360 degree views of night-time Macau (all lit up, like a golden city!) from the 58th and 61st floors.

After the Macau tower, we took a dinner break and then proceeded to what was the highlight of the Macau leg of our trip – a night tour of Macau. We drove to the main casino district of Macau and walked around, absorbing the multi-hued twinkling, shining, sparkling, blinking neon lights that adorned all the casinos. It was beautiful, in a psychedelic eye-streaming way. :)

We also caught 3 free shows at the Wynn Casino. First was the Tree of Prosperity - a life-size tree made of gold leaf which arises from the ground, and then thanks to innovative light effects shows 4 different avatars corresponding to the 4 different seasons of the year. And this, to the tune of some stirring music. It’s quite a spectacle to see the bountiful tree change from green (Spring) to gold (Summer) to brown (Autumn) to silver (Winter) as it slowly rotates around itself. No wonder, the Chinese hurl coins at it during the brief 7-minute duration of the show and wish for luck and prosperity.

Next were the musical dancing fountains (lovely!) and finally the Golden Dragon – a massive golden dragon with glowing red eyes and smoke pouring from its nostrils and mouth which emerges from the same underground pit from which the Tree of Prosperity makes an appearance. All 3 shows were magnificent, in a completely over-the-top, yet bewitching way.

So here ended our Macau sojourn – and I was glad to have caught a glimpse of both of Macau’s faces - the glitz & glamour of the neon lit casinos and the quieter, soothing blend of Chinese culture and Portuguese influences. Obligatory sightseeing does have its benefits! :P

Oriental Odyssey – Day 1– Macau

After almost 18 hours of travelling, filling countless embarkation-disembarkation forms, standing in snaking queues, walking across miles of airport floor, and most painfully, lugging my heavy luggage around with my bare hands – and all this on zero sleep – our tour group reached Macau at about 3:30 PM local time. By which point my sleep-starved-and-exhausted-by-all-the-travails-I’d-put-it-through body was on the brink of collapse.

Well, not really.

But yes, it was kind of a tough journey despite the excellent in-flight entertainment options and good food aboard Kingfisher Airlines and the sterile yet comforting efficiency of Hong Kong International Airport – largely due to lack of sleep, cramped cattle class seats, undisciplined crowds at Hong Kong Jetty (it’s not just Indians who can be accused of line-cutting and creating crowded chaos – the Chinese are better at it than us!) and most importantly, the horror of having too-many-steep-escalators-and-no luggage-trolleys-at-all at the HK jetty. We all had to lug around our heavy baggage ourselves across several floors at the jetty and aboard the swaying boat. This is fine for youngsters but truly torture for senior citizens – especially since it involved lugging around the bags with you on the numerous escalators. Our Naana-Naanis are barely comfortable getting on and off escalators (especially ladies with flowing sarees) so stepping atop a steep moving staircase with 2 heavy bags is not really a viable option for them! This was one of my biggest pain-points of the trip – and one of the most easily solvable! Is it really so difficult to provide luggage trolleys at the jetty? Or have luggage checked in right at the entrance, like we do at airports?

Anyhow, so after this…ahem….scintillating trip, I was ready to drop with fatigue aboard the jetfoil (powerboat from HK to Macau). The jetfoil was immensely comfortable though – an expanse of comfy leather seats, and a swift and powerful one-hour ride over the waves which was not too rough. Only the most delicate tummies would complain of sea sickness! :)

The jetfoil to Macau is spacious and comfortable

At Macau jetty, we had to unload our cargo ourselves (no surprises here!), but there were trolleys to push your bags across the miles of jetty to go through yet another round of immigration. Which brings us to an interesting point about HK, Macau and Shenzhen. All three are legally parts of the PRC (People’s Republic of China). Yet all three have different visa policies, which stand apart not only from each other but also from mainland China. You need different visas for all 3 territories (most are easy on-arrival ones), and consequently, need to go through rounds of immigration every time you leave/enter either territory. Not only this, HK and Macau have different currencies and laws than mainland China. This is to preserve their distinct cultural identity and sovereignty which stands apart from China. Personally I think communist China has let these territories be semi-autonomous and not imposed Chinese laws and identity on them since they are money-pullers and economy-drivers. Interfering with their laws and stamping out their individual identity would adversely affect their money-spinning USPs (HK is a powerful hub for banking & finance and logistics, while Macau is a gambler’s – hence tourists’ heaven) I doubt if sympathy towards HK and Macau’s inherited cultural identity from their colonizers (British for HK and Portuguese for Macau)is the driving point for this autonomy given to the erstwhile European colonies which are now part of the Republic of China.

Anyhow, after the landing formalities at the jetty we took a coach to the island of Taipa, which is like a surburb of the main city of Macau. Macau territory consists of 3 parts – peninsular Macau city where all the glitz, glitter and glamour of casinos abounds, and the two islands of Taipa and Coloane, which were the locals live.

One of the many over-the-top casinos in Macau city

We were lucky to be put up at the Regency Hotel on Taipa – which not only gave our rooms spectacular views of the Macau skyline across the Pearl River Delta but also a peek into the real Macau, where locals live and work and pray.


Taipa is connected to Macau city by 2 superb bridges - one, with European style arches, and the other with undulating waves as a shape. They kind of dimmed the glory of our Bandra-Worli Sea Link a bit. :P



After a quick freshening-up break, we set off for Macau city to explore the Venetian, which is a copy of the Venetian Hotel and Casino at Las Vegas. Since I’m not into gambling, I didn’t enter the casino area at all – and since I’d seen the Villagio Mall at Qatar last year, which, too, is a copy of the Venetian at Vegas, the evening stroll through the opulent arcades and palazzos and courtyards, the fake canals with gondolas and bridges, and cathedral-type painted ceilings – all under a rose-tinted, cloud-littered blue sky (fake, kind of like the ceiling of the Great Hall in Harry Potter) was not an eye-opener and felt more like a déjà vu. And since I don’t have the kind of money required to shop at the stores which line the streets of this make-believe Venice (Ferrari, Van Cleef and Arpels, Dior, Chanel, Ferragamo etc etc etc), I only took in the sights. :) With me was K, an irrepressible 16-year old who was part of our tour group and who immediately felt like a long-lost-and-now-reunited little sister. I enjoyed seeing the same old sights once again, because she was with me and it was new for her. :)

The opulence of the Venetian

The Venetian (like all good casinos) is designed in such a way that once inside, the lighting and décor give no clue about the time of the day outside. Punters are supposed to lose track of time and place and just keep gambling. :) So, after a good hour-long walk in the perpetual golden Venice evening that is the Venetian, we headed back to our hotel – and to glorious nighttime views of neon-lit colourful Macau across the dark waters of the Pearl River.

Restaurant Review : Kung Food, Bandra East

The best treasures are often unearthed in the most unlikely of places. Bandra East is like the poor country cousin of its stylish twin suburb of Bandra West - not just in terms of the glamour quotient, but also when it comes to epicurean adventures . While in Bandra West you'll find a cosy/swish/wacky/fine dining/ethnic/exotic eatery/bakery/patisserie/pub at every corner you turn, Bandra East is bare, except for the once-famous Aaram Kutchhi Thali restaurant and a few restaurants by the Western Express Highway.

In this barren culinary landscape, Kung Food shines like beacon of taste and value for money. Located bang opposite the erstwhile culinary landmark Aaram, Kung Food is a small, but not stiflingly-so Sino-Ludhianwi (aka Indian Chinese) restaurant, with 4-5 tables (of 4-6) on the ground floor and 3-4 on the mezzanine. The walls are a cool grey stone, with lit-up recesses recesses and a textured silver wall. The tables, though are a contrast from the sober sophistication of walls - they are a glitzy granite with sparkly particles embedded in them - the glow-in-the-dark types. :D A cute feature that caught the eye was the use of hand-painted glass bottles with metal caps - kind of like old-fashioned milk bottles blown up and decorated. :)

This was our second visit to Kung Food, and we were keen to see if it lived up to the promise it had shown in our first visit here. We shared a few soups (Tofu, Seafood Combination soup and Chicken Tom Yum) - all were nice (except that the seafood was lacking in prawn/fish flavour) but the Tom Yum was divine. Fragrant and spicy, it was the perfect appetiser to start the meal. And especially awesome that I and Agent J (whose choice it was) were the ones who bagged the winning soup! :P

Starters were ordered in two rounds as we waited for a few colleagues to join us for lunch. In all, we sampled Mustard Chicken, Chicken Momos, some other chicken starter whose-name-I-dont-remember-but-which-was-recommended-by-our-server, Crispy Vegetables and Crunchy Potato with Chilli and Garlic. While everything was tasty, the clear standouts were Mustard Chicken (divinely sweet and spicy with just the perfect pungent kick of mustard) and the Crunchy Potato (Crunchy batons of fried potato drenched with a tangy sauce). The momos, much remembered from our last visit to Kung Food, while having perfect toothsome-yet-soft-and-slippery skins and the right taste of the filling (boiled chicken mildly-spiced with ginger and chilly), somehow faded in the face of the strong flavours and tastes of the other starters.

Crispy Vegetables


The chicken starter whose name I don't remember :P



Crunchy Potato


Chicken Momo (The Mustard Chicken got polished off before I could photograph it! :P )

The mains included our beloved Burnt Chilli Garlic Rice (the inspiration for my take on the dish), Chicken Woolly, Potato Chilly Spring Onion and a Chicken Red Thai curry. The rice was as delicious as the last time and the Thai curry stood out too - a tad sweeter than necessary, perhaps, but fragrant with coconut and very tasty indeed.

Burnt Chilli Garlic Rice and Chicken Thai Red Curry

The other mains were nice too, but such a variety of goodness on the table meant that some dishes were etched in memory as "Wow!" while others were just stomach-fillers. :)

Dessert was the usual honey-tossed noodles with ice cream - except that there was some dry fruit (dried fig, I think) ice cream rather than the standard-issue vanilla. Crunchy deep-fried flat noodles bubbled to a crisp, drizzled with honey, and the cooling creamy ice cream - a match made in gastronomic heaven! Another nice touch was the small pool of honey on top of the small ice-cream mountain. :)

From all the above ramblings, I think I have made it clear that I find the food at Kung Food very tasty. :D But an equally compelling reason to visit are the very reasonable prices. Starters are around INR 150, Veg Mains are INR 150, Non Veg mains are 170. Together with the great food, nice ambience and convenient location (from all the offices at BKC, AND the highway), Kung Food is a sure-shot winner for large gatherings, office parties and general catch-ups with friends.

Kung Food,
Opposite Aaram Restaurant,
Government Colony,
Bandra East,
Mumbai
Tel No - 022 - 26452484

Quick-Fix Meals : Burnt Chilli Garlic Rice

After having seen this dish make an appearance on several Indian Chinese restaurant menus, I wanted to see if I could recreate it at home - with one difference. At the IC restaurants, there was always an 'Oriental' (for want of a better word) flavour/taste - I dont know if it was the splash of vinegar+soy sauce or the bits of veggies/chicken (stir-fried with the obligatory MSG). But I wanted to remove traces of Chinoise and create a versatile rice dish - which would marry well both with a 'Chinese' gravy dish as well as an Indian one. With chillies and garlic being common to both cuisines, I thought it could be done.

So off I went.

Washed and drained 1/2 katori/cup of Basmati rice

Finely chopped three semi de-seeded dried red chillies into crimson slivers.

Brusied and chopped 3-4 cloves of garlic into pearly bits of confetti.

In a pressure pan, heated 1.5 tablespoons of oil till very hot. Added the chilli-and-garlic rubble.

Stir-fried it till the garlic was a deep gold and the chilli ribbons had darkened to a red-brown (You dont take the 'burnt' part seriously! :P )

Added the washed rice, gave everything a good stir so that the flavoured oil coated every grain of rice.

Added a katori/cup of water (ideally should be hot, but I forgot!) , adjust the seasoning (I added salt and a sprinkle of chicken seasoning (a blend of dried garlic and other spices, no chooks involved) and put on the pressure pan lid.

Cooked it on medium till 2 whistles, turned down the flame and cooked for a further 2 mins.

Turned off the flame, waited till the pressure dropped, opened the lid and breathed in the warm moist steam that gushed out - redolent with the scent of caramelised garlic.

I'd purposely kept the dish simple, and did not add any additional strong flavouring to the broth in which the rice was cooked - so that it could adapt to any curry it was served with (I made myself a quick Thai green curry and the packed the lot for a delish office lunch) - I think that this rice will go well with Chinese/Thai/Goan/South Indian curries - any 'wet' dish which is spicy-sweet or spicy-tangy or all three.



Some learnings:

1. A little bit of oil goes a long way - 1.5 tbsps is way too much for 1/2 katori rice - my rice turned out (inadvertently) very faithful to the rice served at Indian Chinese restaurants - glistening with oil. Use oil sparingly, just enough to fry the chillies and garlic.



2. Its best to adjust the seasoning in the broth in which the rice is cooked - because the rice grains absorb this liquid while cooking, so the taste and flavour permeates every fluffy grain. I had to adjust the salt at the end (had added a tad less in the broth) - and while it worked out fine, doing it in the broth would have been tastier.

3. Taste the broth before putting on the lid and make it slightly saltier than what you'd think is perfect - since the salt should be enough for the rice which has no salt added to it before.

4. If you don't have a pressure pan, a normal saucepan/kadhai will do, just cover with a lid and cook till the rice is done. This was the way our great-grandmothers cooked rice, anyway. And this method gives a delicious chewy golden-brown crust at the bottom too! :D


Enjoy!

Kitchen Experiments : Bread Pudding

This should go down as one of the world's quickest dessert recipes. Not to mention hassle free (in terms of ingredients) and easy (in terms of the process) too! Its a rare recipe which fits all 3 criteria AND is something presentable to guests as something that looks like a lot of time and effort have gone into it. :P

The recipe is generic and can be found online - be sure to follow the Bread Pudding recipe and not the Bread and Butter Pudding recipe (which is slightly more complex).
You basically soak pieces of (preferably day-old) bread in hot milk. While they soak up the milk and go all gooey, blitz together egg(s), sugar and a flavouring of your choice (I used grated nutmeg but you can use vanilla/chocolate/kevda jal /cinnamon/ what have you) in the blender. Add the soaked bread pieces, and blitz further till you get a thick smooth puree.

Mix in (by hand) roughly chopped nuts (also raisins if you prefer), pour into a greased pan/tin and either bake it for 15-20 minutes or cook it in a pressure cooker (one whistle at full pressure, then 15 minutes on low flame) till done. If using the cooker, ensure you do not cover the pudding tin with a lid, else the steam will condense on it and drip back onto the pudding making the top soggy and gluey (yuck!)

You can serve it hot or cold, but it firms up as it cools, so you can make neater slices when cold.




The best way to serve it is with a sauce of your choice (I made chocolate sauce by melting chocolate chips and a touch of milk on a double boiler) but personally feel that a caramel sauce would have worked better with the nutmeg-flavoured pudding. A few nice combinations that come to mind are:

1.Butterscotch morsels and walnuts in the pudding and butterscotch/toffee sauce on top

2. Coffee grounds/instant coffee in the pudding and a coffee-caramel or coffee-chocolate sauce on top

3. Orange essence in the pudding and an orange-caramel sauce on top (add a splash of orange juice (the sugar-free, all-natural variety you get in cartons) to 3-4 teaspoons of sugar. Heat in a pan till sugar melts into the juice and caramelises, i.e. turns into a golden-brown sauce)

4. Vanilla in the pudding and chocolate sauce on top, or cocoa and chocolate chips in the pudding with the same chocolate sauce on top

5. Fresh fruit pieces in the pudding and the same fruit's coulis (fresh fruit blitzed with icing sugar in the mixer and then pressed through a sieve - basically a fresh fruit sauce) on top. Suitable fruits - mango, strawberry, chickoo.

So there you have it - a versatile recipe that lets you express your own culinary voice in a simple no-fuss way, with no exotic ingredients to worry about, too! AND it looks very professional when served restaurant-style - a wedge of pudding with a drizzle of sauce.

Enjoy!