Local recommendation: Must-try traditional snacks in Macau—pig trotter ginger and tea fruit soup

Text and photos byLittle Dot Paine

This Taishan Market is honestly a place I rarely see tourists visit. I’ve hardly heard any Taiwanese people recommend it either, but this is where a friend from Macau took me—because he wanted to introduce me to some very authentic Macanese pig trotter ginger and tea fruit soup. So he took me here by scooter, and I got to try pig trotter ginger and tea fruit soup for the very first time. The shops were called “Kin Kee Pig Trotter Ginger” and “Yau Kee Tea Fruit Soup.”

This small market is actually a wet market, but we went after most vendors had packed up, so there weren’t many shops open (though we went around noon).

But the Kin Kee Pig Trotter Ginger shop we wanted to visit was open, and business was pretty good—with people coming in to buy constantly.

Widely famous pig trotter ginger—the sign even mistakenly says “pig trotter rash”!? Well, that’s not the point—the point is the pig trotter ginger.

How much does pig trotter ginger cost? Each piece of trotter is 15 MOP, and if you want it to go, the container costs an extra 1 MOP. Each egg is 4 MOP.

Take a look at this pot—it actually looks really tasty, and it feels quite similar to Taiwan’s braised pig trotters. It has eggs and also “fried pork skin”!

Fried pork skin—I’ve seen this in Taiwan too. It soaks up all the sauce, so whether you like saucy food becomes pretty important. And me? I was a bit hesitant to eat it because the pig trotter ginger is stewed with purple ginger, giving it a flavor that’s both sour and sweet—and that flavor is really strong. But personally, I’m not a big fan of sour flavors, so I just couldn’t get used to this taste.

My friend highly recommended the purple ginger—it’s a bit soft when you bite into it, and the texture is different from anything I’ve had before due to the stewing process. It’s quite unique. But the heavy sour and sweet flavors on the ginger? I still couldn’t get used to that. However, I found that a lot of locals in Macau recommend this place as super authentic pig trotter ginger. If you’re curious, you should definitely give it a try. Just because I, as a Taiwanese person, didn’t like it doesn’t mean others won’t.

Next up is the tea fruit soup. This was also my first time trying it, and I always thought it was a “sweet dish”!

But unexpectedly, what came was a bowl of savory food—so this is what tea fruit soup actually looks like. The noodles don’t really taste like rice vermicelli either; they have their own texture. The broth is light and refreshing, but it’s flavored with pork cracklings and pickled mustard greens (which are very salty) on top, making the whole thing quite salty. But is it the same as Taiwan’s salty rice vermicelli? Not at all. I can only say this flavor is truly unique to Macau.

Watch how my friend eats it—he actually picks up the whole bowl and drinks straight from the spoon. But I’m not really used to it either—not because it’s bad, just because it’s a flavor I’ve never had before. But my Macanese friend absolutely loved it and finished the whole bowl.

Taishan Market
Address: Dr. Sun Yat Sen Street, Macau
Business hours: 07:30 to 20:00 (may vary by stall)

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