Every year from 2004 until 2009, Fernando Real and his wife Elisabete used to come to Macau Tower to showcase signature dishes from their restaurant Tromba Rija, located in Leiria, Portugal. The month-long promotions were always a great success and their traditional recipes were enjoyed by the guests.
“So we agreed with Macau Tower to do a kind of franchise with this restaurant,” says Fernando. “They manage it and I oversee it to ensure that the food served here is authentic and the best quality on offer. This isn’t fusion food, and will not be fusion food,” he adds.
The restaurant features around 60 signature dishes, the most popular ones including roasted suckling pig; steamed chicken with rice, lemon and parsley; octopus boiled in olive oil and garlic; braised salty cod and onion gratinated with potato chips and cream; duck rice; and steamed baked salty cod in olive oil and garlic. These dishes all make up the buffet, which also comprises a variety of cold cuts, cheeses and sausages, in addition to Macanese style cuisine.
Portuguese sweets are also very popular at Tromba Rija. The restaurant offers a great variety of assorted platters with sweet rice, egg pudding, chocolate mousse, fresh fruit, just to name a few.
Tromba Rija literally means ‘pig’s snout’ and there is a family history behind the name. In early 1972 Fernando returned from overseas and later that year married Elisabete. Her parents owned a local butcher and wine tavern shop that supplied all the basic things to the village of Marrazes, and it was the tradition to kill a pig on a Tuesday.
“My father-in-law killed the pig for himself and to sell at the store. Because there were no fridges back then in the late 1950’s, the meat was stored in salt,” he recalls.
The head, however, was too big to cover with salt and had to be consumed quickly.
“So my mother-in-law decided to cook Portuguese bean stew (feijoada) with the pig’s head. She would sell this at the tavern, and on Wednesdays would serve it up on demand just like today’s buffet,” explains Fernando. “The people of the village, would ask each other: “are you eating at the ‘pig’s snout’ today?”
After his father-in-law passed away, and because he was traveling a lot, Fernando decided to close the shop and restaurant.
“But the ladies soon did my head in complaining,” he says, laughing. “So I opened the tavern again, but this time people would have to call ahead of time and make a reservation, and food was made accordingly so that there weren’t any leftovers.”
That was the start of Tromba Rija, and the tavern remains the group’s headquarters, with three more restaurants throughout the country, and now one in Macau – its first overseas one.
Despite the name, Tromba Rija is best known for its codfish dishes, Fernando’s specialty in the kitchen. There are two such dishes on offer at the restuarant – baked in the oven with cream and potatoes, or steamed and baked in olive oil.
“I’ve found that this dish is very much welcomed by the local customers here,” Fernando notes.
For him, personally, codfish remains his favorite dish of all time.
“When it’s cooked properly, it is extraordinary,” he says, adding that codfish is such an essential part of Portuguese cuisine and was cheap back in the day, making it an everyday staple for the majority of people. “It’s also a very healthy dish, and one that the tastebuds crave for.”
To maintain the traditional flavours of the dishes, Fernando is trying to import as many of the ingredients as possible directly from Portugal.
“We’ve had suckling pig imported from Portugal and cooked it here, and people realize how different it is from the local ones. So we’re trying to bring that from Portugal,” he says.
Despite having only just recently opened, Tromba Rija is usually full on the weekends and reservations should be made in advance, especially for dinner.
“We have hardly advertised, it’s mainly word of mouth,” he says. “Of course I am happy and overjoyed that people are coming here on purpose to have Portuguese food.”
G/F Macau Tower Convention and Entertainment Centre
Lunch buffet from 12 noon to 3pm
Tapas set 3pm to 6pm
Dinner buffet 6pm to 11pm
Reservations: (853) 2896 2878
