In many ways, Macau reminds me of the wet markets of Singapore in the 1980s and 90s, before mass production took their place. But at first, navigating the Macau wet markets was a daunting, even overwhelming experience, with impatient vendors always giving me a hostile ‘tisk’ and often times telling me to stop asking questions and to go away if I wasn’t planning to buy anything from them. Later, after months of persistence, I found that beneath their steely, hostile façades, there were actually endearingly helpful locals who now even give me cooking tips!
It’s not easy to break into the local community even if you speak Cantonese, but what better way to do it than by connecting culturally through food and the freshest local produce.
A stroll through the Red Market and you’ll see there’s a great respect for local and regional produce here, with various types of beancurd made fresh daily and selling out before the end of the day. Rice flour skins for spring rolls are made on the spot, as are freshly pulled noodles. Coconut milk anyone? They still sell grated coconut here where the milk is wrung out of it through a porous cheese cloth-like bag.
I spent over 10 months looking for Laksa Daun kesom leaves and finally found the fragrant leaves deep in the cross roads of the streetside vendors behind the Red Market. The vendor specialises in regional vegetables and you’ll find over 10 types of basils from purple to Thai to Vietnamese. There’s white aubergine, a whole range of green limes, Calamansi and beautiful purple banana flowers, which I recently learnt how to cook – they can be added to a Pad Thai noodles dish or served like a salad. Think of it as an Asian version of artichoke as you handle it the same way, getting through the leaves into the heart.
Alongside the fresh fruit and vegetable vendors, there are plenty of shops that sell assorted fresh nuts – pine nuts, almonds, cashews – in raw form. You name it, they have it, and all for a fraction of the price at bigger retailers.
And there’s dried and preserved versions of tasty creatures of the sea too, from squid to octopus and of course the ubiquitous dried fish that we see all around Macau.
Wander off further to the Inner Harbour by Ponte 16 in the early mornings, and you’ll meet the fishermen hauling in their catch of the day. Local sole and garoupers don’t come cheap, but you’ll taste the difference when they come out of your wok, freshly steamed with ginger and chives.
Behind the glitzy casino exteriors, the charming backstreets of Macau have some of the best produce, so let’s hope it stays this way forever, in a charming, grimy, slow food kind of way.
