Pastry Wonder
Scan the waiting room of any Macau ferry terminal’s departure hall and the reality of China’s casino capital sets in: day-trippers from Hong Kong are not leaving with suitcases full of cash but, rather, shopping bags full of pastries. More often than not, the bags – iconic by force of sheer numbers – are the two-toned beige sacks of Pasterleria Koi Kei. Follow the pastry trail back to Koi Kei’s eight locations in Macau – including branches in Taipa Village and two branches so close they share walls on Rua de São Paulo – and this particular bakery’s popularity seems eerily disproportionate. While other shops with the same types of dried meats and biscuits cater to a couple of customers, the shops’ employees desperately grabbing pedestrians’ arms to coax them in, Koi Kei’s aisles are filled with browsers. It’s hard to tell exactly why it is, especially since the shop’s only been around since 1997 and a sampling of their wares doesn’t reveal a big difference from those of other venues. However, Koi Kei’s neon exterior – complete with a flat-screen monitor looping its television ad – and live bakers kneading, pressing, and packaging almond cookies and egg-roll pastries does make the bakery more eye-catching than its competitors.
Inside, you’ll find a variety of pastries stacked in bulk above self-serve Tupperware containers full of samples. Popular snacks include the almond cookies (round, dry biscuits sold at MOP$32 per box), cakes with fillings such as orange, walnut, or pork (MOP$18-MOP$26 per box), and egg rolls, made by pressing an egg-based batter into a pancake, adding a filling of black sesame, seaweed and/or dried pork, and using a two-pronged fork to fold the pancake around the filling (prices range from MOP$18-MOP$23, depending on the filling). The bakery also has a dried-meat section, where staff eagerly cut 0samples of dozens of pork and beef jerkies (MOP$49-MOP$69 per pound). Dried squid and cuttlefish are also available (MOP$50-MOP$55 per package). Koi Kei locations include 24A-24B Rua de São Paulo, Macau (+853 2835 8515), 23AA-23AB Rua de São Paulo, Macau (+853 2835 8230) and 11-13 Rua Do Cunha, Taipa. Visit www.koikei.com for a list of locations.

September 19 - 20
Theatre Farmers and Spring-Time Experimental Theatre are co-performing the musical Dying Young at the Grand Auditorium. A Cantonese musical, it features more than 40 songs from the late and great local pop stars Danny Chan and Leslie Cheung – both of whom passed away tragically – and covers some of the common problems youngsters face nowadays, including drugs, gambling addiction and emotional instability. The show has already run a number of times in Hong Kong – this will be its 6th run in Macau. Tickets are sold at MOP$180 and MOP$120. For enquiries, call (853) 2870 5005.

September 20 - October 1
The 20th Macau International Fireworks Displays Contest continues in the front of Macau Tower with three more nights. Be there at 9pm and 10pm - Portugal and Taiwan on the 20th, Philippines competing against France on the 27th. Then on the last night it will be Australia and China on October 1 – appropriately the National Day of China, who invented fireworks.

Monday September 22
The Macao Orchestra is running a series of educational concerts to give young local musicians experience in performing with an orchestra. The Flourishing Art concert forms part of the series and features prize-winning piano soloists Lam Leng Leng and 16-year-old Poon Ho Suet in a programme that includes Mozart’s Piano Concerto in F Major K459 and Rachmaninov’s first composition, his Piano Concerto No 1. Beethoven’s King Stephen Overture, Samuel Barber’s Second Essay and Haydn’s Seven Words of Christ are also on the programme. Jackson Leung, himself a multi award-winning pianist and conductor, will conduct. Demand for seats is expected to be huge and, although the concert is free, coupons each entitling two people entry will be handed out from 7pm at St Dominic’s Church. The performance there will start at 8pm. For more information, please refer to http://www.icm.gov.mo.

Friday September 26
Avril Lavigne’s The Best Damn Tour tickets are on sale now for MPO$880, $680, and $380. The performance which is sure to feature all her hits begins at 8pm. Book tickets online at www.cotaiticketing.com, by phone at (853) 2882 8818, (852) 6333 6660 or in person at Sands Macao Lobby and the Cotai Strip CotaiArena Box Office.

September 27 - 28
Shakespeare’s The Tempest is a tale of malevolence, magic, love, revenge and a big shipwreck. It’s a comedy so, of course, love, forgiveness and wisdom win out in the end but, as they more or less get away with it, will the nasty Caliban and Antonio get up to more mischief? See for yourself when the Hui Goc Drama Association takes Shakespeare’s last play to the Macau Cultural Centre’s Small Auditorium. Tickets are MOP$100 and MOP$60. Call (853) 6668 6488 for enquiries.

September 27 - October 18
The first and most expressive mark most of us ever put on paper will be a stroke. It forms the basis for all other shapes we can fashion with a writing instrument and so is the foundation of expression. Artist Ung Vai Meng conducts a dialogue with and about the world in an exhibition he calls The Speech of Strokes, often showing how a few well-placed strokes on a white surface can communicate volumes. His exhibition of ink sketches can be found on the ground floor of the Macau Cultural Centre Building, Xian Xing Hai Avenue, Macau. It opens at 4:30pm on September 27 with a meet-the-artist gathering at the same time on October 4. Visit www.creativemacau.org.mo to learn more.

Macau Collection
Over the summer, kids from 80 schools participated in a Children’s Summer Art Playground 2008 project in which they used imagination and fantasy to create various artworks. An exhibition of these little artists’ paintings and installations entitled Images. Drawing Fantasy will be held at Ox Warehouse, No Cruzamento entro a Avenida do Coronel Mesquita e a Avenida Almirante Lacerda Macau until October 26. Admission is free. Opening time is noon to 7pm every day except Tuesdays. The second floor will also host two mini family theatre puppet shows, Volcano at Ox House, on September 27 and 28 in conjunction with the exhibition. Tickets are MOP$25, or MOP$10 for kids under 12. Visit http://oxwarehouse.blogspot.com for more details.

After a Tokyo debut, the Michelin guide is continuing its development in Asia with a new guide to hotel and restaurants in Hong Kong and Macau. This first guide to the two SARs, to be released in December 2008, will be published in Chinese and English. Just to whet your appetite, here is a preview of the guide cover…