Macau on the Med

Even apart from the vast Italian baroque complex of the Cotai Strip’s Venetian hotel and casino, much of Macau seems like a piece of southern Europe set afloat in the South China Sea. And while the painted stucco, Catholic cathedrals and churches that helped Macau’s Historic Centre to get inscribed on UNESCO’s World Heritage List in 2005 come out of the SAR’s Portuguese-ruled past, they still are likely to get some people thinking that they’re taking a Roman Holiday.

To help you get into a holiday frame of mind, partake of some Mediterranean-style caffeinated relaxation by way of Macau’s plentiful, breezy cafes – oases that provide a respite from the steady beat of the casinos. Should you find yourself in Taipa, wander down Rua Direita Carlos Eugénio until you hit Castiço (65-B, Taipa, +853 2857 6505), a Portuguese café that opened in May. There, for just MOP37, you can feast on a breakfast that includes a choice of four out of fourteen main dishes – ham, eggs, steak, bacon, and more – along with croissants or muffins, coffee or tea. The family-run cafe is open daily from 10am to 10pm, with a two-hour siesta from 3pm to 5pm.

Also in the vicinity is the Museum of Taipa and Coloane History (Rua Correia da Silva, +853 2882 7103) which offers a glimpse into the area’s past for a MOP5 entry fee. In one room, you can peer directly at an archaeological site laid bare, and in another, admire artifacts ranging from images of the goddess A-Ma (aka Tin Hau), from whom Macau got its name, to the gold chalices of Roman Catholic missionaries. For more historical amusement, stop by the Taipa houses (Avenida da Praia, Carmo Zone, +853 2882 7103) which were built as a series of cultural centers in 1921, and now include the "Macanese House", "House of the Islands", "House of the Portugal Regions.”

Also in Taipa, Cuppa Coffee (Rua Fernão Mendes Pinto 104, Taipa, +853 2882 5201) is a new expat-friendly bakery and espresso parlour with free WiFi internet access. Offering a salad bar, sandwiches, pastries, and smoothies, Cuppa is ideally located in Flower City, safely tucked away from the clang of the slot machines. Patisserie items are priced from MOP10-15, bread from MOP2.5 to MOP25, sandwiches and salads from MOP10 to MOP50, and drinks from MOP10 to MOP25.

Once you have walked off your espresso buzz, you could indulge your Dionysian desires at the Macau Wine Museum (+853 8798 4188). Open every day except Tuesday from 10am to 6pm, the museum includes a wine-tasting session with its entrance fee of MOP15 for adults. This cultural institution, which houses more than a 1,100 types of wine from both Portugal and China, can be found in the basement of the Tourism Activities Centre, Rua Luis Gonzaga Gomes 431.

Get Lucky with Live Music… And More

The Venetian Macao’s branch of Café Deco (Level 1, Grand Canal Shoppes, +853 2882 3326) features live jazz and R&B on Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays in summer. Live band Round Midnight offer up a “sophisticated jazz performance,” lasting from 9pm to 1am. As if that weren’t sufficiently enticing, on July 19, it will also have a pre-concert buffet, between 6pm and 10:30pm, at a cost of MOP145 for children and MOP245 for adults.

Another familiar name at the Venetian Macao, Blue Frog Café (Level 1, Grand Canal Shoppes, +853 2882 8281) features various weekly specials, including the Monday night buy-one-get-one-half-price deal on all burgers from 6pm until close and the daily 4-8 pm Happy Frog, when standard drinks are two-two-for-one. Specialties include the Montana Burger (MOP158), with onion rings, cheddar, bacon, lettuce, tomato and homemade barbecue sauce and Chef Ling’s Sichuan rib eye steak (MOP260), an 8oz rib eye marinated with soy sauce, brown sugar, onions, garlic, pepper and sesame oil. With a location at the entrance to Cirque du Soleil’s new Zaia Theatre, Blue Frog always welcomes show audiences, artists and affiliates.

The Lion’s Bar (+853 8802 2375) at MGM Grand will also feature a live band this summer. The seven-piece Drop Zone, the former house performers at JJ’s at the Grand Hyatt in Hong Kong, are well-known for their energetic performances and the charismatic stage presence of leader Lou Cassidy Harris. Drop Zone will provide in-house entertainment at the Lion’s Bar until the end of September, with performances from Tuesday through to Sunday, from 9pm until that time of the night known as “late.”

Music fans also ought to look out for the 22nd Macau International Music Festival in October. Its programme should be available by the time this issue hits the streets, so get ready to check it out.

Megabites Macau

At the Macau Tower, where you can bungee-jump and “skywalk” on glass panels, visitors who spend MOP300 or more will receive a complimentary Lua Azul Signature Coupon, entitling them to a choice of one free dish from the following menu: deep-fried king prawns and fresh fruit served with cream sauce, braised seasonal vegetables and lily bulb with medlar served in supreme soup, roasted chicken garnished jellyfish and white sesame seeds, pan-fried beef and enoki rolls with gravy sauce, assorted appetizer Chiu Chow-style, and braised thousand layer pork with black fungus. Call +853 8988 8700 for details.

Over at the Crown Macau (intersection of Avenida Dr. Sun Yat Sen and Avenida Kwun Tong), visitors can relish the minimalist luxury of the self-proclaimed “six star” hotel by taking in some of its sybaritic promotions. French restaurant Aurora (Level 10, +853 8803 6622) – which boasts Hermes silverware, naturally – serves up a selection of dishes enhanced with Perigord truffles from Tasmania from July 10 to August 2. Dishes featuring the famous fungus include truffle royale with foie gras, truffle infused guinea fowl and barramundi, and truffle coulibiac. The set dinner will set you back MOP800, but you can add truffles to any Aurora à la carte dish for MOP100.

At Kira (+853 8803 6633), one of the Crown’s two stunning Japanese eateries, Eastern dining meets Western Las Vegas-style buffet in a menu dubbed Kira Unlimited. For MOP550 during the month of July, diners can feast on an endless supply of Sapporo beer, sushi, sashimi, teppanyaki, and more. Like all other Kira offerings, the ingredients – right down to the cooking water – is imported directly from Japan five times per week. The banquet is available from 6pm to midnight each day.
Nearby, the Wynn Macau (Rua Cidade de Sintra) will try to outdo its casino competitors with three summer menus prepared at its signature restaurants, all reachable through the reservations hotline (+853 986 3663). At Cantonese eatery Wing Lei (Ground floor, in the casino), you can nibble on pan-fried pork buns with goose liver and gold leaf (MOP65), pan-fried bean curd skin rolls with assorted vegetable fillings in Portuguese sauce (MOP25), steamed prawn dumplings with asparagus (MOP38), steamed fish maw filled with shrimp and crab mousse (MOP38), and braised marrow squash with diced chicken (MOP88).

This month, the Wynn’s Japanese restaurant, Okada (Ground floor, in the casino), is offering a nine-course mid-summer tasting menu with a sake pairing for MOP1,218 per person, or without sake for MOP880 per person. The menu includes an array of seafood, among them Japanese spider crab dressed in beancurd sauce.

Meanwhile, the Wynn’s Ristorante il Teatro’s (1st floor), summer specials include bluefin tuna tartare with avocado, lemon and capers (MOP140), arugula and endive salad with Parma ham, glazed figs, Gorgonzola cheese, and sweet walnut vinaigrette (MOP95), chilled heirloom tomato soup with crispy crab and marscapone cannelloni, basil aioli (MOP110), and warm octopus and celery salad with homemade sweet pickled peperoncino (MOP110). Also on offer are black angel hair pasta with Sicilian red prawns, baby squid and cherry tomato chili oil (MOP220), portabellini mushroom, goose liver and seared porcini (MOP120), and grilled John Dory over a cannellini bean, pancetta ragù, shaved fennel and orange salad (MOP288).

Artistic Feasts

Now through September 28, the Macau Museum of Art presents Refresh: Contemporary Art of Emerging Macao and Shanghai Artists, an exhibition featuring eight new artworks presented through a cultural exchange programme including young artists from Macau and Shanghai. Entry costs MOP5 for adults. Call +853 8791 9814 for more details on the museum, which is located at the Macao Culture Centre, Xian Xing Hai Avenue.
Meanwhile, Creative Macau attempts to stake another claim for the cutting-edge in the SAR. Sponsored by the Institute for European Studies Macau, the project supports a range of visual art, live performance, digital media, music, design, and more. Events, such as the Storyteller exhibition of oil paintings by Jose Drummond which goes through to July 19, are held throughout the year. Next up is a display of jewellery and acrylic paintings by Dora Tam from July 23 to August 9. The project’s headquarters are at G/F Macao
Cultural Centre Building, Xian Xing Hai Avenue. Call +853 2875 3282 for further details.

July musical feasts await in the form of programmes in the Great Masters Series that also will be held at the Macao Cultural Centre. Performances at its Grand Auditorium include The Macao Orchestra’s The Fate of Beethoven on July 26. The music on offer comprises Ludwig van Beethoven’s Leonore overture No 3, op 72b, and Symphony No 5 in C minor, op 67, and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Violin Concerto No 5 in A major, K 219 “Turkish”. Tickets for the concert are MOP120 and MOP80. For more details, call +853 8399 6699.