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Big eyes and sweet lips
Though coffee has a long tradition
here, tea still takes precedence, and
late morning is
yum cha
time. For
no-nonsense
dim sum
— including
hearty steamed fish balls — try Casa
de Cha Long Wa with its retro, first-floor
restaurant overlooking the Red Market.
Alternatively, for a more refined lunch,
chef Peter Chan of Wynn Macau’s Wing
Lei supplements his
dim sum
menu
with some outstanding fish dishes —
including gently steamed codfish rolled
around homemade tofu and preserved
tree seeds.
But cod and mackerel (delicious as
they are) are not fish indigenous to the
seas around Macau. “I try to source as
much as I can locally,” says chef Chan,
“but I must import cod from Australia.”
Nonetheless, over 100 varieties of
regional fish are available in the city’s
wet markets, with the most popular
being horse-head fish and big-eye
fish. But other local varieties that once
swam around the islands — such as
painted sweetlips and John’s snapper
— are now rare.
And as fish stocks have dwindled,
so too has the size of Macau’s fishing
fleet. From a thriving 1,000 vessels
in the 1970s, today there are fewer
than 300 that shove off from the Inner
Harbour’s quays — meaning that
most market traders are supplied by
mainland farms.
Have your dim sum at
Casa de Cha Long Wa
with a spot of tea