Cover Macanese cuisine, Portuguese egg tarts
Macanese cuisine, Portuguese egg tarts
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Macau is home to a wealth of family-owned dessert shops, who offer sweet treats made with time-honoured cooking methods—and also make for the perfect way to beat the summer heat. Macau-born writer Venus Wong dives into the best ones
Macau has far more to surprise and delight beyond glitzy casinos and sprawling resorts.
Take a stroll along its Unesco World Heritage-listed historic centre, and a myriad of stunning cultural landmarks await, from the Baroque-style Igreja de São Domingos to the ornate Na Tcha Temple. But there is a whole other way to experience Macau’s unique cultural identity besides hitting the pavement—and that is by satisfying your sweet tooth.
The SAR is home to a constellation of dessert shops that have stayed family-owned for generations, and practise time-honoured cooking methods passed down by their forebears. These authentic treats reflect the former colony’s rich history and East-meets-West influences, and happen to be the perfect antidote to the sweltering heat. From silky agar jelly to creamy coconut ice cream, the delectable heritage desserts ahead should be essential pit stops on your travel itinerary this summer.
1. Hong Heng Cocos: Coconut ice cream
Tucked away in a winding alleyway near the Ruins of St. Paul’s, Hong Heng Cocos has been in operation since the Qing Dynasty, selling artisanal coconut ice cream at MOP25 a scoop.
Coconuts from Malaysia—favoured for their strong aroma and sweetness—are deshelled, shaved and juiced to produce
pure coconut milk. Most of the milk is used for ice cream production, but the shop also serves the chilled beverage for MOP25 a cup. Hong Heng is the only establishment left in Macau that still employs this decades-old extraction method, which is labour-intensive and only produces limited quantities of coconut milk.
The owners—a senior couple who makes up the fourth generation in the family business—wake up at the crack of dawn to keep the tradition alive. The result speaks for itself: each bite greets the palate with an intense coconut flavour and a delicate, natural sweetness (there are no artificial sweeteners used, and very little dairy is involved). A hybrid between ice cream and sorbet, it has a slight icy crunch that doesn’t melt too quickly—and a wonderfully creamy, yet firm, texture.
The owners have made clear their plans to close up shop when they eventually retire, instead of passing down the trade to their children. Those who wish to sample this refreshing goodness better hurry along.
2. Lai Kei Sorvetes: Ice cream sandwiches
Ask any person from Macau about their fondest childhood memories—and they’d tell you it is of visiting a bing sutt, literally “ice parlour”, to cool down and tuck into a glass of homemade ice cream. A traditional, mum-and-pop eatery that finds its origins in Guangdong in the 1950s and 60s, the bing sutt usually offers cold drinks and localised versions of western snacks.
In Macau, these old-school joints are sadly almost extinct, but Lai Kei is the rare exception. The café, located on bustling Avenida do Conselheiro Ferreira de Almeida, was all the rage in the 1960s thanks to a trifecta of homemade creations: ice
cream bricks, red bean popsicles and block-shaped ice cream sandwiches. The flavours and product packaging—featuring cheeky illustrations by the founder—have remained unchanged, as have the charming interiors, replete with leather banquette booths, green floor tiles and retro signage.
There is a dizzying array of flavours on the menu, each served in lotus-shaped glass bowls at MOP14 per scoop. You can’t go wrong with taro, which delights with a powdery texture and subtle sweetness. The fresh coconut and mango flavours are also highly recommended. The place is thronging with young travellers eager to snap the perfect photo of the tri-colour ice cream sandwich (pineapple, coconut and melon flavours flanked by crispy wafers). But the Macanese tend to gravitate towards the classics, such as the red bean ice cream float or the banana split, topped with fudge and candied cherries.
3. Mercearia de Mok Yi Kei: Serradurra
A trip to Macau is incomplete without trying serradura, or “sawdust pudding”, a popular traditional Portuguese dessert. The “sawdust” here refers to crumbled biscuits, nestled between layers of sweetened whipped cream.
The best place to try this indulgent yet airy treat is Mercearia de Mok Yi Kei, located on Rua do Cunha, a tourist hotspot for souvenir shopping. It would be hard to miss the shop’s bright yellow signs and blown-up pictures of durian: besides the serradura (MOP60), it is also renowned for durian desserts—specifically ones made from the Musang King durian. This category of Malaysian durian is highly priced, thanks to its luscious, creamy pulp. A spoonful of Mok Yi Kei’s durian ice cream (MOP68) will melt away any preconceived notions of the spiky fruit.
The taste is incredibly rich and fragrant, yet without any trace of the slightly rotten smell that makes durians so polarising in the first place. The level of sweetness is mouthwatering, but not cloying, and you will be left wanting for more. It would be prudent, however, to leave room for yet another signature offering: agar jelly cake, a gelatinous confection made from algae extractions. The cooling, silky bites are perfect for scorching summer days.
4. Bonus: Portuguese egg tarts at Lord Stow’s Bakery
Here’s a Macanese dessert you can enjoy year-round, and at any time of day. Lord Stow’s Bakery is famed for its pastel de nata, or Portuguese egg tart—an enduring symbol of Macanese cuisine. Here, the sweet treat’s homemade pastry shell is crispy and flaky, with a smooth custard filling and caramelised top.
Some argue that the egg tarts from a smaller shop: Margaret's Café e Nata, opened by Stow's ex-wife, taste better, so you may want to check it out for yourself.
