By TRAVELER Luxe
While hotel restaurants may offer luxurious dishes, stepping into local eateries allows you to truly taste the diverse flavors that blend on this small island, whether Cantonese, Hong Kong-style, Portuguese, or northern Chinese, each brings its own distinctive lifestyle to Macau.
At 9 a.m., when most people are just starting their workday, we arrive at a bustling traditional market. The street is lined with flower and fish stalls, and everyone is carrying bags of groceries, marking the start of a new day. Around the corner stands a pale yellow three-story building with an air of classic Macanese-Portuguese architecture, its sign reading “Long Wah Teahouse” in an authentically local style.
While hotel restaurants may offer luxurious dishes, stepping into local eateries allows you to truly taste the diverse flavors that blend on this small island (Photo credit: TRAVELER Luxe)
The Old-World Taste of a Nostalgic Teahouse
Located next to the Red Market traditional market, “Long Wah Teahouse” is one of the most popular old-school teahouses in Macau’s Three Lamps District. Walking up the stairs to the second floor, you’ll find it already packed with patrons. Owner Ho Ming Tak is continuously stacking small steamer baskets on a steaming metal counter, each filled with Cantonese dim sum such as sponge cake, lotus paste red bean buns, chicken feet, and taro cake. The moment they’re placed down, customers quickly pick them up, and every table is stacked high with towers of steamers.
Next to the steamer cabinet are rows of tea tins, with red paper labels reading Yunnan Dian Hong, Anxi Xiang Pian… After selecting your tea, the owner will scoop a handful into a teapot, pour hot water to brew it, and then serve it to your table.
While waiting, we take in the old teahouse’s ambiance. Built in 1963, Long Wah Teahouse preserves the look of a 1960s Cantonese-style teahouse. In addition to round tables, there’s a row of open, restaurant-style booth seating along the windows. In a corner on the second floor are a carved dragon pottery jar and what look like small bamboo baskets filled with everyday items, while the walls feature traditional ink landscape paintings and shelves display various white porcelain vases.
Owner Ho says he is the second-generation proprietor of the teahouse. To preserve the memories of the older generation, the teahouse has remained unchanged. In the past, people would bring their pet birds, hang the cages on the bamboo poles on the terrace, spread out a newspaper, and sit for the whole day. They came not just for tea, but for the familiar tastes of life. However, due to avian flu, such scenes no longer exist, though the old teahouse remains a beloved spot for neighbors to chat.
[INFO]
Address: 3 Rua do Comandante Tamagnini Barbosa, Macau
Tel: +853-2857-4456
After selecting your tea, the owner will scoop a generous handful into the teapot (Photo credit: TRAVELER Luxe)
Handmade Almond Cookies from a Time-Honored Shop
After a satisfying meal, we stroll into a small alley across from the Red Market, where two connected old bakeries, “Cheng Kei Bakery,” sell handmade pastries. The few-square-meter shop displays buckets of almond cookies, egg rolls, lard cakes, wife cakes, and crispy cakes. When asked how many types of pastries they sell, the owner, while sliding a baking tray into a large oven, replies, “Can’t remember, but everything is freshly baked daily.”
This bakery has been around for over 40 years and is usually run by the couple— the husband makes the pastries, while the wife serves customers. Locals say the almond cookies here have a softer, fluffier texture compared to famous brands like Koi Kei or Chui Heong Yuen, and the brown sugar crispy cakes are neither too sweet nor greasy, making them a popular choice for gifts.
[INFO]
Address: G/F, 1A Rua de Lou Kou, Macau
Tel: +853-2833-3886
● Read More:
Macau’s Old Districts: Rediscovering the City’s Traditional Charms
http://www.mook.com.tw/article.php?op=articleinfo&articleid=9120
The owner is rolling dough in the back of the shop (Photo credit: TRAVELER Luxe)