Monday, February 27, 2012

Vegan and Gluten Free Eating in Macau

We went to Macau for a few days with Toby's parents. Macau is such an interesting place. It's an hour away from Hong Kong by ferry. It used to be a Portuguese colony so there is a combination of Chinese and Portuguese signs everywhere which is such as unique mix. There is also lots of pebbled walkways and people driving on vespas. Its well known for its casinos, a little like the las vegas of Asia. It's a little confusing to get around though so be prepared to take some snacks. We couldn't find a couple of restuarants on Happy Cow so ended up eating rice cakes with tartex for breakfast.

We started at Venetian hotel and casino which is super fancy and has a gondola ride in the middle of it. We saw an amazing cirque du soleil show called Zaia at the Venetian. I was in a constant state of awe during the performances.


This is on the 1st floor of the highrise building, so there was a painted ceiling above.


Our first meal was at the food court, look how it is decorated! Another fake sky painted on the ceiling. I can't believe there was also a boost juice place there too.

I got some dhal with rice. It was slightly creamy but dairyfree and gf.

Food Court
Venetican Casino (take free bus from ferry)
Estrada da Baia de, North Senhora da Esperanca

 Look at this hotel/casino opposite:


For dinner we couldn't resist going to one of wynn hotel/casino restaurants. The owner Steve Wynn went vegan and as a result all of the restaurants/cafes in both the Macau and Las Vegan wynn hotel/casinos have vegan menus. We chose Cafe Encore. We had emailed them in advance to warn them I was coming. They explained that almost all of the vegan options could made gluten free.

I ordered a strawberry juice which come with my choice of sweetener: sugar syrup, agave or some sort of artificial sugar. I chose sugar syrup. It was refreshing and I loved that I could control how sweet it was.
I was most impressed that I had my own bread basket which had gf white bread and these awesome blueberry bread rolls. They were served warm too and pretty good for gf bread. I've dined in a few fancy restaurants in Melb but none of them have offered me gf bread.



We shared the braised bean curd roll with mushrooms and asparagus. They left out the sauce to make it gf, but you really didn't notice as these tiny mushrooms which are called willow/tea tree mushrooms left such a strong flavour which I loved. I'm not the biggest fan of mushrooms but this was so tasty and I loved how delicate the bean curd basket was.

We also shared a bean salad which come with three different dressings. I can't remember two of the dressings though because my standout favourite was the lemon-garlic.

The service was amazing too. If we had more time and more money would have tried a few more of their restaurants.

Cafe Encore
Wynn Macau
Rua Cidade De Sintra

The following day we explored the 'old' macau and visited the ruins of St Pauls.

Not far from there is a small vegetarian restaurant

I had some steamed greens with ginger and some fried rice with pine nuts and seaweed. Sadly I forgot to take a photo of it but it was my fave fried rice of the trip (I had fried rice three times).
   Rua do Monte, 2
We also picked up some addictive peanut candy which I forgot to take a pic of. I used to enjoy almond cookies from Macau which were vegan but unfortunately I could only find vegan ones or gluten free ones not both.

5 comments:

  1. blueberry dinner rolls? that sounds delicious! and i love that roll- the mushrooms sound amazing!

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  2. Now I really wish we'd gotten to Macau when we went to HK. The food looks great, and I still can't really beleive that food court ceiling isn't real!

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  3. Thank you, K and T! Travel (and the planning of travel) are what's keeping me breathing right now, so thank you for sharing yours. And hurrah for the v/gf options at the Wynn! I've only seen one Cirque, in New York, and it was quite disappointing. Only afterwards did I read reviews saying it was one of the most lacklustre shows Cirque has ever put on, sadness! One day I'll see a great one :)

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  4. There's a Wynn in Macau, too? Cool. When we were in Vegas last year I somehow didn't find out about all the Vegan options at Wynn casino until the second day there. I wish more gazillionaires went vegan!

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  5. Amazing places - and I love that bean curd basket and the gf blueberry rolls - sounds like a great trip

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