One of Taipa’s century-old, turquoise-coloured homes has taken on a new life as Casa Maquista, a restaurant that goes further than most when it comes to authentic Macanese cuisine. The space, originally a residence for senior civil servants and more recently known as the House for Receptions, retains much of its original charm – with period decor complementing the kitchen’s family-style meals. In this way, Casa Maquista reconnects the building with its own history while inviting a wider audience to experience a uniquely Macanese way of life.
The new eatery’s menu is managed by executive chefs Pedro and Mauro Almeida, who are brothers from northern Portugal. While the Almeidas’ other establishments focus on Portuguese classics like bacalhau à brás (salted cod with potato and scrambled eggs) and arroz de marisco (seafood rice stew), Casa Maquista is dedicated to sharing Macanese specialities best enjoyed with family and friends. The likes of porco bafassá (turmeric-laden Iberico pork), vaca chau chau parida (stir-fried beef with ginger and port wine) and caril de camarão com quiabos (shrimp curry with okra).
A culinary challenge
Crafting Casa Maquista’s menu was no easy task. While Macanese cookbooks do exist, recipes within this community are rarely shared beyond immediate family circles: they tend to be transmitted to younger generations verbally, within the confines of private kitchens. Some of the best home cooks even take their signature recipes with them to the grave, says Annabel Jackson, author of The Making of Macau’s Fusion Cuisine: From Family Table to World Stage.
According to Jackson, Macanese dishes are tightly intertwined with personal identity and family heritage. “No one would ever say that someone else’s recipe is better than their own family’s concoction,” she notes. And even if you do have a written recipe, the dynamic nature of Macanese dishes make them difficult to conceptualise as a standardised product. Then there’s the fact that these older recipes often use outdated measurements and equipment, making them tricky to replicate. Eggs, for example, are larger today than they were half a century ago, meaning fewer are needed in modern adaptations. Contemporary stoves and ovens can also influence the cooking process in ways that previous generations would not have been familiar with.
Pedro Almeida tells Macao magazine that it took a lot of “detective work” to settle on what, exactly, should be served at Casa Maquista. “There’s a bit of trial-and-error and imagination that goes into executing our dishes, especially when comparing the resources available now to what was around back then.” His brother, Mauro Almeida, adds that “hundreds of tests” went into finalising their menu.
Defining Macanese flavour
One of Casa Maquista’s co-founders is a restaurateur named Asai, who prefers to go by his first name only. Asai explains explains that it is quite common to find Portuguese and Macanese dishes served simultaneously at restaurants in Macao. Asai worries that this gives patrons the impression that the two cuisines are one and the same when really they are remarkably distinct.
While Portugal’s coast is Atlantic, the country’s pork and seafood centric-food is heavily influenced by the Mediterranean, largely thanks to the Roman occupation of the Iberian Peninsula more than 2,000 years ago. Macanese cuisine, on the other hand, has a far more exotic range of influences that started merging around 500 years ago. It dates back to the Age of Discovery, when Portuguese explorers set sail around Africa’s coastline to reach Goa, Malacca and eventually Macao, adapting their native culinary instincts to new ingredients and techniques encountered along the way. Macanese food blends the Portuguese’s passion for salted cod and port wine with Southeast Asian ingredients like turmeric, coconut milk and shrimp paste; spices from Africa and India; plus that southern Chinese staple, soy sauce.
Jackson, the cookbook author, understands Asai’s concerns. But she also believes that confusion around the two cuisines is likely inevitable, saying it reflects “the depth of Macao’s cultural and culinary diversity”. Jackson points to the ubiquitous egg tart as an example of this in action. In Macao, the term ‘egg tart’ can refer to any of three distinct confections: the Chinese dan tat, the Portuguese pastel de nata and a local invention served at the iconic Lord Stow’s Bakery. The last, perhaps the city’s most sought-after, was created by an Englishman in the late 1980s.
Cited as one of the world’s first fusion cuisines, Macanese gastronomy is classified as part of Macao’s intangible heritage by the Cultural Affairs Bureau (known by its Portuguese initials, IC). On the international stage, UNESCO designated Macao a “Creative City of Gastronomy” in 2018, in recognition of the city’s unique blend of Eastern and Western flavours.
A home for history
The building that houses Casa Maquista holds heritage value itself. It is one of the five Taipa Houses, a striking row of Portuguese neoclassical-style villas along Avenida da Praia, built in 1921. Now managed by IC, these buildings were first opened to the public in 1999 for the purpose of showcasing life in early 20th-century Macao. Casa Maquista – with its traditional food, antique furniture and Portuguese crockery collection displayed on its walls – fits this remit perfectly. It currently rubs shoulders with a museum, a bookshop and two galleries.
Since opening its doors in early June, the restaurant has been welcoming not only guests, but also the memories of the area’s former inhabitants, says Ricardo Balocas, general manager of the restaurant. “I periodically receive phone calls thinking it is a customer looking to make a table booking, but before I can even say anything, the person on the line says, ‘Hi, I used to live or work in your restaurant,’ then follows it up with an elaborate and personal story,” he explains. Balocas sees these anecdotes as testament to the Taipa Houses’ strong cultural resonance within Macao.
Among those who have reached out include Gastão Humberto Barros Jr, whose family lived in Casa Maquista’s building in the early 1960s – when his father served as the deputy mayor for the Taipa and Coloane islands. Barros has shared numerous old photographs with Balocas, including pictures taken inside the home during family dinners and formal banquets. These are now on display at the restaurant.
Like those photographs, the area adjacent to the Taipa Houses appears almost frozen in time. Above the turquoise-coloured former residences is the yellow exterior of Our Lady of Carmel Church, built in the late 19th century, along with a former school building currently serving as the marriage registry for Taipa. And yet, just beyond the now enclosed lake, the skyline reveals that time has marched forward. Towering integrated resorts have replaced what was once the waterway between Taipa and Coloane, a striking contrast to the quaint old neighbourhood below.
Though the evening sky now glows with neon lights, strolling past the Taipa Houses feels like stepping into history. And as old memories return to Casa Maquista, new ones are created every day, adding a fresh chapter to Macao’s rich and evolving gastronomic story.
