🎬Macau food recommendation｜Portuguese style on the tip of your tongue! In-depth experience of Chiado restaurant
#Macao Food Guide
40 hours of traveling alone,
three meals missing,
the choice is very exquisite,
no hesitation - Chiado.
There are two reasons:
1. Historical reasons: If there is no plan to travel to Portugal in the short term, Macau is definitely one of the few places where you can taste the most authentic Portuguese cuisine;
2. Cuisine value: Portuguese cuisine is a niche cuisine. Only five restaurants in the world have won two Michelin stars, and Alma in Lisbon is one of them. Chef Henrique is a national treasure of Portugal. Not only is Chiado personally managed by him, but the dishes are almost copied from Alma, and even the name of the restaurant comes from the Chiado district in Lisbon where Alma is located. From the perspective of dishes, Macau Chiado can be regarded as one of the world's top Portuguese cuisine representatives.
Talking about dishes:
1. Style positioning: a modern expression of traditional Portuguese cuisine, not fusion. Although the introduction mentioned that it draws on Asian cooking styles, it actually only uses Japanese spicy peppers and a small amount of Chinese sweet soup elements, which is more of a "getting close" narrative.
2. Cooking skills: The kitchen has solid basic skills. Whether it is appetizers, main dishes, seafood or meat, or even risotto, the completion is accurate and the taste of the ingredients is almost perfect.
3. Menu structure: The set menu is rich in content. After adding bacalhau alone, it almost covers all the characteristics of Portuguese cuisine - smoking and pickling techniques, grilled seafood, stewed pork and other traditions, classics such as Arroz de Marisco (seafood risotto) and Bacalhau (salted cod) are all available.
4. Dessert highlights: The sweetness is restrained and the combination is novel. Example: A light dessert based on Chinese stewed pear with hazelnut sauce; the main dessert "cauliflower cake" is interspersed with rice pudding sorbet, and the light custard and lemon caramel achieve a double level of taste and flavor, which is unexpectedly outstanding.
5. Cuisine limitations: Portuguese cuisine is still a niche, and in addition to insufficient promotion, it also has its own shortcomings: the use of spices is single, relying on popular techniques such as roasting, stewing, and frying, and lack of innovation; the characteristics of the dishes are vague, and the seasoning, sauce, and flavor levels are thin, resulting in a lack of memorable points for the whole meal, and fine dining feels like home-cooked dishes.
6. Quantity and cost-effectiveness: The set menu portion is about half of the single-order portion, and there is a risk of not being full with 5 dishes. Taking the author's appetite as an example, a single serving of cod (a mixture of high sugar, oil, and sodium) is enough to fill you up, and you can even force yourself to eat a Wellington with dog eggs after an hour. The actual budget needs to be increased, and the cost-effectiveness may be lower than expected.
Experience summary:
Perhaps because of overly high expectations or because of picky tastes, the first experience of Portuguese fine dining, the dishes are mediocre compared to the showmanship of French cuisine, the novelty of fusion, and the diversity of Chinese cuisine. However, Chiado has stable products, high completion, and traditional flavors, which are unique in Macau, and the overall dining experience is still worth trying.
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