Nowadays, Macau is known as a significant resort city and the top destination for gambling tourism. However, it is rare for most visitors to know about this nation’s cuisine, which is considered the world’s first fusion food since 400 years ago.
The food here is a unique combination of Portuguese and Southern Chinese cuisines in ingredients and cooking techniques with various seasonings or other influences collected from Europe, South America, Africa, and Southeast Asia. To cook yourself Mancanese dishes in your own kitchen, you should try these 6 best Macanese cookbooks introduced in this article.
The Adventures of Fat Rice: Recipes from the Chicago Restaurant Inspired by Macau [A Cookbook]
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“Macanese Cooking is complex (and delicious). This book makes it much easier to make it.” – Brien El
Locating on the Pearl River bank in China and just taking an hour’s ferry ride from Hong Kong, Macau is a modern, cosmopolitan city with an unexpected history. This nation has been one of the world’s most significant trading ports for centuries now. Here, Portuguese settle along the spice route, where travelers from Europe, Southeast Asia, South Asia, and mainland China traded resources, culture, and food.
As a result, vibrant Macanese cuisine is the place for East meets West from Chinese, Portuguese, Malaysian, and Indian foodways. Bringing all those cultures into the restaurant menu, the two authors desire to offer the diners the fascinating culinary view of Macanese food through the lens of the favorite Chicago restaurant, Fat Rice.
Among 100 recipes, readers are suggested with dishes like Minchi (a classic Macanese meat hash), Po Kok Gai (Portuguese-influenced chicken curry with chouriço and olives), Arroz Gordo (the combination of paella and fried rice). With varied recipes and colorful, lively graphics right from the cover, this book will surely excite you to cook wonderfully unique yet enticingly familiar flavors of Macau in your own kitchen.
About the Author: The authors of this cookbook are Abraham Conlon and Adrienne Lo. Both of them are the chefs and co-owners of the famous Chicago restaurant Fat Rice. With their successful work, Abraham Conlon and Adrienne Lo have received awards and recognition from the James Beard Foundation, Bon Appétit, Food & Wine, Eater, and many others. In 2018, Abraham was named Best Chef: Great Lakes by the James Beard Foundation.
Taste of Macau: Portuguese Cuisine on the China Coast
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“The definitive Portuguese Macau cookbook” – Amazon Customer
If Macanese cuisine is considered the world’s first fusion cuisine by Portuguese’s colonization over 450 years ago, “Taste of Macau” is the first to introduce to the English-speaking world this vibrant culinary. Publishing at the time witnessing most Portuguese communities’ leave and authentic Macanese culture&way of life seems to be doomed. This book is not only a cookbook but also a project to preserve and share a vital aspect of the Macanese world.
To bring up 62 recipes in this cookbook, the author has spent almost ten years collecting and testing these heritage recipes, getting in touch with the Macanese migrants, and asking them to reflect and write about Macau’s food. Most of the methods are straight from the place where they originate, like old family recipe collections or the files of influential Macanese chefs.
Moreover, this lavishly illustrated cookbook can also be used as a complete reference guide to Macanese cuisine. It carries information on ingredients and where to buy them and stories &information about the few remaining authentic restaurants in Macau.
Besides, readers also find and a fascinating discussion on the relationship between food and culture through the literary talk from essential figures in the Macanese community.
About the Author: The author of this cookbook is Annabel Jackson, who is best known in Asia for her food and wine writing. Together with some other authors, she has contributed to publishing three food/culture books such as Macau on a Plate, Vietnam on a Plate, and Street Cafe Vietnam.
Before working as a wine expert, the owner of The Wine Connection (Asia), the club set up consultant and lecturer in cuisine and culture at the Institute of European Studies in Macau, Annabel Jackson was formerly the director of public relations at the Mandarin Oriental Hong Kong hotel.
Macau on A Plate: A Culinary Journey
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“This is a fascinating book on Macau’s fascinating food, the original “fusion” cuisine” – UXF
Being the blend of several culinary in the world, diners can encounter numerous continents at Macau’s different table. Inheriting the culture and cuisine from Portuguese colonization and other influences, Macau seems to rival Venice as the essential abundant cuisine storage in the world.
With this book, people can dig into the delicacies, dishes, spices, and more of Macau’s remarkable culinary heritage. The recipes here range from familiar ingredients such as olive oil, chourico, coconut milk, and ginger to infused dishes with African spices, fragrant Chinese herbs, the Portuguese shrimp paste.
About the Author: The author of this cookbook is Annbell Doling. Besides this cookbook on Macanese food, she also is the author of Vietnam on a Plate: A Culinary Journey.
The Making of Macau’s Fusion Cuisine: From Family Table to World Stage
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“Another book of Annabel Jackson that gives me a different new aspect” – Vanessa
While most people see Macanese cuisine as a unique product of Portuguese colonialism in southern China, Annabel Jackson has argued in The Making of Macau’s Fusion Cuisine that the culinary of this nation needs to be understood in the context of Portugal’s culinary footprint in Asia and beyond. She stands on the viewpoint that the culinary cultures of other Portuguese colonies in Asia and Africa also influenced Macau’s cuisine.
Moreover, Macanese cuisine plays a role in evoking a sense of Macanese identity as the Macanese have increasingly defined themselves as ethnically and culturally distinct groups. The book also shows the moving of Macanese cuisine from being an average food production in a domestic environment to something more symbolic and ceremonial with recipe sharing.
About the Author: The author of this cookbook is Annabel Jackson. She works as a writer and researcher based in the UK. Living in Hong Kong for more than two decades and has been visiting Macau for 30 years.
Annabel Jackson has authored six cookbooks on Asian cuisines, including a great book about Macau, which is Taste of Macau: Portuguese Cuisine on the China Coast. Annabel Jackson is ever an MA in the anthropology of food from SOAS and is now studying for her Ph. D.
All Under Heaven: Recipes from the 35 Cuisines of China [A Cookbook]
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“Serious cooks need this on the bookshelf – paired with a book on techniques” – tomishungry
With a long time living in Taiwan and acknowledge of Chinese culture, Carolyn Phillips has enough ground and extensive passion for creating a comprehensive cookbook about the contemporary portraits of China’s culinary shaped from the landscape, geography, and history.
Through 300 recipes scanning through 35 cuisines of China, this is the first cookbook in English you can find about diverse Chinese cuisine from the Northeast to the Southeast, including Macau. Based on centuries’ worth of culinary texts and her own years working, eating, and cooking in Taiwan, this book is written with clear, step-by-step instructions that can serve as both a handbook for the novice and a source of inspiration for the experienced chef.
About the Author: The author of this cookbook Carolyn Phillips. She is a food writer, scholar, artist, and author of The Dim Sum Field Guide. Her work&art has appeared in numerous places, including several publications, museums, galleries, and her own weekly blog, Madame Huang’s Kitchen (MadameHuang.com).
Besides, she previously worked as a professional Mandarin interpreter and cultural consultant for the third Ghostbusters movie with her husband. Living in Taiwan for eight years, Carolyn has translated countless books&articles and married into a Chinese family for more than thirty years.
Food and Foodways in Asia: Resource, Tradition and Cooking (Anthropology of Asia)
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“Suitable for anyone interested in searching for the deep knowledge about food besides cooking” – Lexie
When investigating food of a country, all of us can not neglect the politics of food production, such as how, when, where, and even why different kinds of food are produced, prepared, and supplied. Following that criteria, “Food and Foodways in Asia” provides all information above with detailed ethnographic descriptions and analysis of food production as it interacts with social and political complexities in Asia’s diverse cultures.
With chapters ranging from the discovery of “local food” for tourism growth to Asia’s contribution to “world cuisine”, Food and Foodways in Asia will be fascinating reading for anyone interested in food/Asian anthropology studies.
About the Author: The editors of this cookbook are Sidney Cheung and Chee-Beng Tan. Sidney Cheung is an Associate Professor in the Department of Anthropology at The Chinese University of Hong Kong. Chee-Beng Tan is a Professor in the Department of Anthropology at The Chinese University of Hong Kong.
We hope you like this post and finally find out your favorite Macanese cookbooks. Meanwhile, we welcome you to explore our site and discover more cookbook recommendations from the same cuisine below.
