This Tiny Island Is the 'Las Vegas of Asia'—and It's Also a Foodie Paradise

Travel + Leisure

16 hours ago

If you've heard of Macau at all, it's probably because of gambling; the casinos in this special administrative region of China, about an hour's ferry ride from Hong Kong, pull in 25 percent more annual revenue than Las Vegas. But food-focused travelers should also have Macau on their radar. For nearly 500 years, the territory was a colony of Portugal. That legacy led to a mixed-race population known as the Macanese, who created a fusion cuisine of the same name.
One of the most prominent people cooking Macanese cuisine today is Antonieta Fernandes Manhão—a Macau native, Iron Chef Thailand contestant, and author. In March, I visited Macau with Chef Neta, as she's known, who showed me a side of the territory that didn't involve a single casino. From left: Belos Tempos restaurant; salt-cod fritters at La Famiglia restaurant.
Her interest in cooking was inspired by her grandmother, a native speaker of Patuá—a mix of Portuguese, Cantonese, and other languages found along the Portuguese trade routes—who was tasked with feeding a family of 14.
I met Neta at Universidade de Turismo de Macau (UTM), where she offers a cooking course. 'I saw that Macanese food was disappearing,' she told me, describing her motivation to start teaching. In addition to a hotel, Pousada de Mong-Há , the compound is home to two dining outlets. The one we ate in, the casual UTM Café , features Macanese specialties such as minchi, minced pork and beef fried with soy sauce and topped with a fried egg. (This year, Neta published a cookbook, Receita di Casa —with text in Chinese, English, and Portuguese—that contains her recipe for minchi and 18 other dishes.)
One day, Neta and I crossed Macau's Outer Harbor to Taipa, where La Famiglia serves both Portuguese and Macanese dishes. 'I'm trying to re-create the taste that I have in my memories,' said the restaurant's owner, Florita Alves, who is of mixed Chinese-Portuguese ancestry. It was a great place to try the various savory snacks that form a cha gordo (fat tea), a traditional Macanese feast that includes rissoles (a type of savory pastry), samosas, salt-cod balls, croquettes, and hand pies.
Originally opened as a gathering place for senior citizens, APOMAC is one of Macanese cooking's more traditional outposts. 'This is homestyle food,' said Neta of the dishes in front of us, such as capella, a meatloaf studded with olives and topped with melted cheese, and xarope de figo, a jelly made with fig leaves.
Ana Manhão, Neta's cousin, is the ebullient chef behind Belos Tempos . Manhão, who had a background in Portuguese folk dancing, told me that before opening the restaurant she reached out to Macanese relatives for recipes and feedback. 'They knew the tastes. I didn't. They'd say, 'Add more vinegar, more turmeric.' ' Order in advance for specialties such as porco balichão-tamarindo, pork ribs and belly in a sweet-tart funky sauce, or batatada, a dense, moist cake made from potatoes. From left: A quiet corner at UTM Café; digging in at APOMAC.
'I love that you can find these things here,' Neta said as she led me to our last stop: the lobby of a hospital in Macau. Hidden in plain sight at Centro Hospitalar Conde de São Januário is a café that serves Portuguese and Macanese sweets and snacks such as serradura, layers of pulverized Maria cookies and whipped cream, and pãezinhos recheados, tennis-ball-size rolls stuffed with turmeric-spiced meat.
'We should do a tour, the route of Macanese food. It would stop in Malaysia, Thailand, Japan,' Neta said. Perhaps she was just thinking out loud, but her words left me wondering where I could sign up.
A version of this story first appeared in the September 2025 issue of Travel + Leisure under the headline "Mixing It Up ."