Hi guys! It's been a while! Sorry for the long hiatus as I was having my final exam back then. I finally finished all my exams and it means my term in Hong Kong is officially over... To celebrate my (kind of) hard-work throughout the semester and exams, I went to Macau with some friends🇲🇴 I was so excited to go there again, as my last time visiting Macau was 7 years ago with my family!
Our mission to Macau was not only to stroll the city, but to meet my HK friend's friend who comes from Taiwan. They will arrive in Macau by noon, so we took the 11:40 AM TurboJet to Taipa, Macau. We arrived 1 hour later and it took another 45 minutes to do the immigration process due to the load of tourists. We finally able to leave Macau Taipa Ferry Terminal by 1:30 PM with the free shuttle bus provided by the hotel/casino.

As we didn't plan to stay overnight, our time in Macau was very limited (we need to back to HK by night). If you also have the very tight schedule during your visit to Macau like us, this post is intended for you! I will list 5 things you can do in your half day trip in Macau.

1. Eat Portuguese food

As the colonisation of Portuguese, Macau has many Portuguese influences in the language, architecture and of course, food. Because you can't learn their language in one day or build Portuguese building in one day, just do what you can do in your short period time: eat Portuguese food😋

There are quite numbers of Portuguese restaurant in Macau and I believe their foods are similar from one to another. We went to a restaurant called Restaurante Dumbo (yes, Dumbo the flying elephant) in Taipa and ordered some signature Portuguese dishes.

My favorite main dish was the Fried Codfish Pastel (马加休饼). They combined codfish, mashed potatoes and some spices, and deep fried it. Nothing beats deep fried food! For the dessert, try Serradura, a Portuguese pudding with very soft crushed biscuit on the top. In my opinion, the hard and cold texture is more to ice cream rather than pudding and it reminds me to tiramisu without the coffee flavor. 

2. Hunt the best 豬扒包 (zhu ba bao)

There are many stores selling pork chop bun in Macau, but make sure to find time and tummy space for the one in Tai Lei Loi Kei, Taipa. It was established in 1968 and famous for the tender pork chop bun. You can either eat inside the restaurant or ask for a to-go paper bag to enjoy your pork chop bun.

We ordered the pork chop bun with pineapple bun (polo pork chop bun) for a more savoury experience and it turned out to be the best decision we made that day. The slightly sweet pineapple bun blends perfectly with the well-marinated pork chop. I really love the tender and lean pork chop because it was so easy to bite, which is perfect if you ask for to-go!

With the ama and the second generation

3. Visit touristy spots

A visit to Macau is not complete without the visit to the famous touristy spots: Ruins of St. Paul's! Brace yourself to see many tourists busy taking pictures with with the ruined church as the background. It is not easy to take your own picture because there will always be random people showing up inside your frame. During our visit there, we encountered with a couple taking pre-wedding pictures. It was so lovely to see them posing sweetly in front of the camera, but also felt sorry for them for many photobombs inside their pre-wedding pictures...

Walk down the street from the ruined church and head to Senado Square where you can find clothing, makeup, sport and medicine shops. Get lost by entering some random alleys and you can also find a street with sooo many foods. Beef offals, curry fish ball, ice cream, mango juice and the infamous Tim Ho Wan. We spent about 1 hour in that street😳

If you're not interested in shopping and snacking, Senado Square also offers you many beautiful architectural buildings that ready to be captured by your camera. Especially during Christmas session, you could expect Christmas decorations and lightings.

4. Taste food samples

On your way down from Ruins of St. Paul's to Senado Square, don't go down straightly, but turn left and right into the surrounding shops! There are many pastelaria or pastry shops where you can have free tasting of their products😝 The most common ones are Koi Kee Bakery and Choi Heong Yuen, which I think are having a very tight competition between each other. My personal favorite was tasting the pork jerky🐖 and the walnut biscuits. Don't worry if you don't like what you taste, the shopkeeper will not push you to buy anything.

Based on my personal experience, you will end up full after all the tasting journey hahaha. Because you could try everything that they sell as they provide the samples for almost everything and there are several different stores that you can visit. My friends and I kept on tasting all the different samples until we felt full before we realize...

5. Shop signature souvenirs

I believe after the free-tasting journey, you'll consider to buy some to be brought home and it is advisable to do so! Grab some almond cookies, walnut cookies, egg rolls or sesame candies for your friends and family. For a healthier choices, take a pack of dried fruits such as orange peel that good for sore throat.

I chose Koi Kee Bakery because I saw more people holding their plastic bag (successful marketing attempt!). The noisy euphoria inside the stores will make you motivated to put everything into your basket, but always ensure to check the expiry date of your purchase! Most of the products contain no or a very little preservatives so they will expire quite quick. You could always check several boxes first to find the one with the longest expiry date. 

After queuing for payment, reward yourself with the piping-hot Portuguese egg-tart displayed on the main entrance in most of all the pastelaria. It will be the perfect closing of your Macau trip💕

My Macau squad! Christina from Hong Kong and Vivien from Taiwan💕 Thankful for you guys!