Macau Keeping Busy

The view of The Venetian in Taipa from Sheraton Macao

 

I was in Macau yesterday and today and my schedule there was packed with visiting friends and eating (and drinking) that we finished really late last night and I was too tired to blog.

Interesting observations about Macau this trip:

My ticket to Macau (left) and return to HK for only HK$100!

When I went to buy first class return tickets at the Cotai Jet ticket counter at the Shun Tak ferry terminal, the staff said the total amount was HK$393. I was surprised as it's usually about HK$600. I reiterated that I wanted first class tickets and she confirmed. So I paid and then looked at the tickets.

The one going to Macau was priced at HK$293, while the one going back to Hong Kong was HK$100! I wondered if it was because no one wanted to go back to Hong Kong because of the protests and later asked my friend's former colleagues who work in hospitality in Macau.

They said it was because of competition from the Hong Kong-Macau-Zhu Hai bridge that forced the ferries to make their prices more competitive. If you can take a bus along the ferry for about HK$70, it's much cheaper, though it takes around the same amount of time, and logistically to go to the casinos and hotels, taking the ferry is more convenient.

Very tender char siu that may have been sous vide first

In addition, some sailings have been cut. I tried to buy a ticket for the 4.30pm sailing, but they said there were no sailings at that time, so I had to choose between 4pm and 5pm. I chose the former.

Macau in general was not as packed with mainland tourists as before, but many more than Hong Kong. The check-in counter at The Sheraton Macao had long lines of customers, but when walking through the shopping malls attached to the hotels, there weren't many people wandering around, let alone shopping. Maybe they were all gambling.

We met up with a chef of a Michelin-starred Italian restaurant who told us while business was pretty good, it was difficult for some of his Hong Kong-based guests to get to Macau because of the protests. But with this past week being relatively quiet on the protest front because the District Council elections were over, business seems to be slowly trickling back.

Delectable braised vermicelli with prawns in clay pot

Afterwards we had a late dinner with my friend's ex-colleagues at Fook Lam Moon in Galaxy Macau, well known for its refined Cantonese cuisine and the food overall was very good. The char siu was made from black-haired pig, the meat looking more like beef and very tender, which made us wonder if the pork was sous vide before it was roasted.

Other standout dishes were braised vermicelli with prawns in clay pot that had a slightly spicy finish, the signature crispy chicken, rice mixed with crab meat, conpoy and mushrooms, steamed in a lotus leaf, pan-fried boneless chicken wings stuffed with ham, and braised fried bean curd mixed with minced fish with bamboo fungus.

For dessert, the steamed red date pudding was delicious and elegantly topped with bits of gold foil. As it was one of the dinner guest's birthday, we also had longevity buns, fluffy peach-shaped steamed buns with lotus seed paste and slightly salted egg yolk inside.

Fan-tastic tofu with minced fish and bamboo piths

Our table was the last one to clear out of Fook Lam Moon before we headed to the Ritz-Carlton Bar & Lounge on the 51st floor. One of my friend's ex-colleagues who works at the hotel was very surprised to see how busy it was -- practically every seat in the bar was taken, it was very noisy thanks to the crowd and the live singer who was accompanied by a pianist who had competed in America's Got Talent.

After not much sleep three of us had an early breakfast in the 24-hour Cantonese eatery next to the casino. Every other table ordered a bowl of congee (HK$78), while we had a few dim sum to keep our stomachs from growling before lunch.

We noted how mainlanders wandered around in packs of three. There were three men in their 50s who each had a belt with the letter "H" on them; three women wandered into the restaurant, and last night in the bar we saw three young men coming and going several times. What's with that?

Pan-fried turnip cake with XO sauce for dim sum

After lunch I managed to catch the 3.30pm ferry, half an hour earlier than my ticket. The ferry was not full, probably because it was a Saturday afternoon.