Maddening Macau

We decided to do a day trip to Macau as many said one day is sufficient.
Bad timing, over sleeping and late breakfast didn't help, and long, long wait at immigration added to our frustrations and cutting our time in Macau even shorter.

We reached Macau at noon. It does not help that we took a bus almost immediately at the ferry jetty and none of us could read chinese. My questions in cantonese were left hanging; J2kfm was right, Macanese are not very friendly people. And, make sure you get a detailed map, it took us 3 locals' directions (the first 2 locals gave us wrong directions!)before we managed to get on the right track to the famed Senado Square.

Very crowded and touristy Senado Square..Though it does looked rather quiet in my picture. The crowd disappeared for 10 sec..haha. There were quite a number of nice looking buildings and structures, you can happily snap away on the route up to Ruins of St. Paul's.

You'll definitely get to sample freshly baked almond cookies, barbequed meat, egg rolls all the way to the ruins..

And there we are, all full by the time we were at the base of St. Paul's.

Weaving through the crowded Ruin of St. Paul's, we took a short walk up to fortress hill which was much better. Lots of greenery, bird chirping..got my mood swinging back up :)

At the top of the fortress, we were awarded with a grand view of Macau..

The cannons were targeting many tall casinos I tell ya' :p

As I was having quite a lot of chinese food in HK, decided to have some portugese food in Macau instead. After some asking around, we were recommended to Restaurante Platao..

Hidden away from the noisy, over crowded Largo de Senado, I was pleasantly surprise it's just a few steps away, but was so peaceful here.

I wanted to try Bacalhau, a type of dried salted fish from portugal. To prepare dishes with bacalhau, these salted fish needs to be soaked in water for many hours before cooking it.

Finally decided on Bacalhau baked with seafood

Came a small dish, I was rather sad as I was hungry by then.hehe. Smells terrific, very cheesy and fishy. It was so rich and creamy, simply gorgeous. The bacalhau was more chewy, a tad stringy in texture. The meat don't break as easily as fresh fish and there's still a hint of saltiness in it. Cooked in cream sauce, with prawns, squids and potatoes, this was heavenly. So good. Now I understand the more demure serving, this dish was too rich, too much of it would leave me unappreciative? Either that or they're stingy..haha

Amy wanted something lighter, hence a Grilled Chicken Steak Sandwich..

Maybe I was deprived of other cuisines for a few days, but one bite of this and I have to concede that this was the best grilled chicken sandwich I've tried so far. The grilled chicken was so tender and moist, the juices were oozing from the meat with each bite. And beautifully marinated. The bread reminds me of sourdough, more chewy but in a satisfying way.

Good meal, but a tad expensive. Costs about RM109.

And yes, we had the famed Portugese egg tarts at Margaret's Cafe e Nata

Creamy, cheesy egg centre enclosed by flaky pastry. The egg filling's really fragrant and smooth, such a yummy snack. The crust was ok though, the base was rather hard to chew, think Tong Kee's flaky pastry's better.

We rushed over to Venetian as we bought tickets for Cirque's Zaia.

Realising we had some extra time before the show, decided to take a stroll around Venetian. I must say, it was impressive, fantastic job in duplicating the real Venice..

Take a guess which was taken at Venetian and which was taken at Venice? :p

We managed to make it to Zaia just in time, the act was good, but not as brilliant as Quidam. We're happy nonetheless. :)

And yes, we rushed over to the jetty immediately after the show, in good time for the ferry...what a maddening rush in Macau for us the whole day!

Restaurante Platao

G/Fl., Travessa Sao Domingos, Macau. At Largo do Senado, enter from the sidelane next to Mc Donald's.

Margaret Cafe e Nata

Edificio Kam Loi, Macau. It's at a back lane, walking distance from Largo do Senado.