All Things Food!

            Hello readers! This week I decided to have a topic-focused blog instead of just what's happing in my life, but don't worry, I have some big BIG plans coming up! More details at the end of the post 😉 . I bet most of you can guess by the title what this post is about: FOOD. My favorite topic. I've mentioned what I've been eating from time to time over this past month, but I suppose I'll go more in depth.

            The food offered by the residential colleges is, to be brief, not that good. For lunch or dinner, you can pretty much predict what it is going to be every day. For the meat, it's typically some sort of combination of chicken, pork, fish and/or the occasional organ 😷 . There's

The usual lunch/dinner

also the vegetables which can be a mix of corn, peas, carrots, and meat (beef? I really don't know), cooked cucumbers and carrots, or some weird fruit that looks like potatoes but are not potatoes, and a lot, I mean A LOT, of bak choy. There's also soup, but I never eat it since I never know what's in it. Actually, that's one of the biggest problems I have with the food here is that I rarely have a good idea what it is I'm eating. There aren't any signs in English and the food ladies, while they are SUPER nice, don't have a very big English vocabulary. With every lunch and dinner, you have a side of rice and I tell you, it is no stereotype to say that they REALLY like rice here. I won't complain about the constant rice though, I love rice, and it's the one thing that I know I'll eat every time. There's usually an occasional day that they have something I enjoy though, like popcorn chicken 😍 .

The usual breakfast

            Now I'll talk about the breakfast, which is actually my favorite meal at the RC's cafeteria. There's no rice, I mean the rice cookers have to take a break sometimes right? You get a juice box (the other meal times don't have anything to drink), your choice of bread (toast!), buns (might have a bean paste filling or something), rice noodles, fried noodles, and hard boiled eggs. By comparison, it's probably the best mealtime at the RC. The RC's food is convenient, but that's pretty much it. I'm pretty sure the other main reason why people actually eat there is because that is the only place to eat on campus that will accept meal swipes, you have to pay for all the others.

            The other food on campus has a lot more variety, but again, you have to pay for it. Some places sell food similar, but I suppose better overall, to the RC's cafeteria, and the price can be pretty cheap. If I really want food similar to home, I can go to Pacific Coffee, a chain shop that is pretty much Starbucks, both in products and pricing. Seriously, $6 for a small mocha? Luckily students get 30% off, and you can buy sandwiches too. The campus also has an on-campus grocery store and a 7-Eleven, so people make their own food as well. Ok let's get off campus and into some of the actually good food.

Dim Sum

            Since Macau has a lot of Portuguese influences, there are plenty of places to eat Portuguese, or Chinese-Portuguese fusion, food. I only really ate the Portuguese food here once, and I guess it was good, but I don't think it really suited my tastes. You can also experience Dim Sum which I talked about in my second post "New School, New Friends, New Experiences." You can think of a Dim Sum as a meal comprised of appetizers served in steamer baskets or plates. There are SO MANY things to order from any one place ranging from different kinds of dumplings, rolls, and buns. It is a very popular meal style here, especially during events like Chinese New Year that's coming up this week!

Aaah! So good!

            There are many other Asian cuisines available around Macau, like Thai, Vietnamese, Taiwanese, etc. but I haven't really tried any of those yet. I've had some Japanese food a couple times though, and I really enjoy it. Walking around, you can see so many cafes and street food stalls! Just yesterday, I was have a wonderful time just exploring the streets and I ended up getting some ice cream in a very soft, waffle-like wrap at this random place I walked past. And it was SO. GOOD. The place was called Cafe Mian; I think it had Hong Kong style food and deserts, and by the look of it, I'll have to go back at some point 😋 . Macau has a lot of amazing stuff like that. A few weeks ago I mentioned serradura and gelato which are some other great dessert options around here.

It was actually better than I expected.

            If you're curious about the Western food options, then there are a few choices. You got Pizza Hut, Subway, Starbucks, Haagen Dazs, and McDonalds. There are a few local businesses that have some good pizza and sandwiches, but other than that, there's not much else. But then again, would you really expect any? I don't mind too much, all I need is the occasional pick me up and I dive right back into rice and barbecue pork. Plus, did you know that the McDonalds here have McWings!? Crazy, right? Well that's it! You now have a guide to food (or at least that I've experienced) in Macau! If you want to see more of the food I'm eating, I made an album (yes, one entirely devoted to food) and you can see it here.

            I'm sure to experience a whole lot more food and otherwise starting Sunday though because BIG NEWS. UMAC has started its two-week Chinese New Year break and, of course, I'm traveling! First on the list is Hong Kong, and I'm kinda going alone 😐 . "But Caroline, didn't you go to Hong Kong like a week ago and have a mental breakdown along the way-" yes, yes I did. But no one else could go with me and I'm NOT wasting all this time on campus when I only get so many opportunities to go anywhere! I'm a little more confident now, and I think I'll be ok. I'm sure it'll be such an adventure that I'll want to write an extra post about it, but we'll see. If not, next week will surely be a very long post because on Wednesday, Connor and I will be traveling to Beijing for 10 days! I will have so much to talk about, so be prepared for looong tangents!!!

再见!

TL;DR: My dorm's cafeteria is not that good, I don't know what I'm eating, they eat a lot of rice in China, there's some other options on campus that you can pay for, around town you have a variety of different cuisines, I really like dessert, they have wings in McDonalds, and I have big BIG plans coming up!