Make mine Macau

It all started out of curiosity. Gourmet George Pua, the man behind Toni Roma’s (Glorietta) and Thai Barbecue (Greenbelt), was on a business-pleasure trip to Macau. Every time he passed by the back of Hyatt Hotel in Hong Kong, he saw this long queue leading to a restaurant. The queue didn’t let up at any time of the day: it was there during breakfast, lunch, dinner and even midnight snack time.

Intrigued, he stepped inside. But he didn’t want to stand in line for hours on end. Who would, anyway? So he pretended to go for take-out. George ordered so much food the table he shared with another customer soon groaned with so many dishes. And he knew why the restaurant was doing so well.

When George got back to Manila, he wasted no time doing some networking. He asked his manager at Toni Roma’s to do some research. When the guy finally found the contact numbers of that popular restaurant in Macau, George did the necessary arrangements. He found himself back in the former Portuguese colony, this time talking to the restaurant manager about franchising terms and conditions.

Thus was Macau Restaurant in the Philippines born. There are two: one at the entrance of Glorietta 4 beside Oakwood Premier, and another (seating capacity: 250) at Eastwood City. Both bear that signature Macanese cuisine on all its dishes.

"I asked my friends in Hong Kong to try our food and they loved it," reports George.

I myself was in for a little surprise that afternoon when I took a look-see at the restaurant’s Eastwood branch. It was a blast from two years past, when I visited Macau for the first time with a group of journalists. The porch area (seating capacity: 60 people) has a fountain reminiscent of the one at the Macau Plaza, complete with the undulating lines found on the ground. At night, the place is awash in the light of several lanterns hanging from the trees.

Even the interiors of Macau Restaurant bears hand-painted renditions of tourist attractions in the former Portuguese colony, like the St. Paul’s Cathedral and the Lisboa Hotel. The posts, too, sport this wavy design one sees in the Macau plaza.

But the greatest attraction of the place lies in the food, which its owner describes as Chinese with a twist. The runaway favorite is the crunchy baby pigeon. You bite into it and you know why.

"Some of our spices are imported from Macau," George lets us in on one of his many kitchen secrets. But that’s all he has to say.

Maybe it’s the sauce, or the way his chef, a true-blue Macanese, mixes the ingredients. But you can’t just have enough of what’s on the table.

The stir-fried spicy minced beef is a hodgepodge of many ingredients: fried rice under, sauteed topping and sunny side up above. Another all-time top seller is the Macau Fried Rice. A meal in itself, it is filled with Macau roasted pork, Portuguese sausage, shrimp, black olives and red and green bell pepper.

"Office employees prefer our Macau Fried Rice because it’s cheaper than buying plain rice. You get a full meal for only P120. The order is good for two to three persons," explains George.

The prodigious cook who stood on a stool to reach the wok at age 10 has other aces up his sleeve, like the Portuguese sausage and the bacalao imported all the way from Macau.

These, he mixes and matches until he comes up with a medley of gustatory treats, among them Baked Cauliflower in Cream Sauce with Cheese (P110), Lapu-Lpu Fillet with Crispy Garlic (P175) and a house specialty, the crab served in a variety of ways, from sweet and spicy to deep fried with crispy garlic (P380).

George has many plans for his restaurant, one of them adding authentic Portuguese cuisine on the menu.

So brace yourself: another burping experience is in the works!

(Note: For inquiries and reservations, call 421-1171 to 73 for Libis branch; 814-0945, 814-0952 and 814-0961 for Glorietta branch.)