Page 25 - Sphere No.25 (Aug 2009)

Sphere 23
which dates all the way back to 1622 and look at the lighthouse,
completed in 1865 and the first of its kind on the China Coast.
The focal point of Portuguese Macau and the heart of the
Historic Centre is the Largo do Senado, or Senate Square, an
elegant cobbled public space surrounded by some of the best
preserved examples of Macau’s colonial architectural heritage,
including the Leal Senado, or Loyal Senate building.
Have a stroll around the square, then walk uphill to Macau’s
most famous monument, the church of Sao Paulo, construction
of which began in 1602, and of which only the façade remains
since a catastrophic fire in 1835. Built by Japanese converts to
Christianity under Jesuit supervision, it remains one of Asia’s
most remarkable ruins.
Macau’s unique atmosphere, however, is not just to do with
monuments and buildings. The side streets of the Historic Cen-
tre, with their tiny cafes selling fragrant coffee and Portuguese
pastries, and shops crammed with supposedly antique Chinese
furniture, are a real repository of the old Macau, particularly if
you crane your neck to look up from time to time at the rusty
wrought iron on the balconies, decaying wooden shutters, and
disintegrating pastel plaster. Equally absorbing are the city’s
gardens and the cemeteries where the history of the town is
simply and movingly recorded on the headstones.
The Cemiterio Protestante in the Camoes Garden area is per-
haps best known as the final resting place of George Chinnery,
the greatest Western painter of South China Coast scenes and
portraits of the 19th century, but the epitaphs of the less famous
record many early deaths from now curable diseases or accidents
aboard ship or ashore. For centuries life here was harsh and often
brief, but the cemetery is nevertheless a serenely restful place.
Macau’s gardens are also known for their easy tranquillity,
and perhaps the finest is the Jardim Lou Lim Ieoc, modelled
on classical Chinese lines with its carp ponds, pavilions and
bamboo groves, but also including, in the best Macau tradition,
elegantly integrated European elements.
The same delicate balance of East and West is nowhere better
reflected than in Macau’s unique cuisine. Macanese is arguably the
world’s first true “fusion” food – simmered over centuries like a good
stew in which a huge array of flavours and aromas gradually resolve.
No simple combination of just China and Portugal, Maca-
nese food involves home cooking unique to this town, and in-
tegrates Chinese kitchen ideas and ingredients with influences
from the whole of what was the Portuguese empire, including
many exotic herbs and spices. It includes modified speciali-
ties from Africa, Goa and Brazil as well as from Portugal and
Guangdong Province, including such enduring favourites as
intensely spicy African Chicken, Macanese Chilli Prawns and
Tamarind Pork.
Two of the best places in town for authentic Macanese food
are A Lorcha and Litoral which both serve a combination of
Macanese and Portuguese dishes. A Lorcha is known for its
curried crab, clams with coriander and a creamy dessert known
as Serradura. Litoral’s crab speciality is oven baked crab meat,
cooked in the shell, coated with golden breadcrumbs, and
served with a couple of black olives set into the crisp crust so
as to resemble eyes. Other house favourites include succulent
stewed duck and spicy-hot African chicken.
Purely Portuguese cuisine also thrives in Macau, and the per-
fect setting in which to enjoy it is the restaurant of the Clube
Militar de Macau on Avenida da Praia Grande – worth visiting
not just for the food but for its immaculately preserved colonial
era ambience. Built in 1870 and originally an officer’s mess for
the Portuguese military, it is now a private members’ club but the
dining room is open to the general public. The local Portuguese
still like to congregate there, particularly for lunch on Sundays.
With its lazily rotating ceiling fans and polished wooden floor,
the restaurant epitomises a particularly Portuguese style of gra-
cious living.
Today, Macau has a plethora of new, fashionable and up-
market restaurants. But behind all the glamour and the glitz,
the old Macau remains, and perhaps the real anomaly in its his-
tory was that “sleepy” period. In the words of the UNESCO
description of the Historic Centre: “It bears witness to one of
the earliest and longest lasting encounters between China and
the West based on the vibrancy of international trade.”
Hutchison in Macau
A s a supplier of both goods and services,
Hutchison has a long history in Macau and
continues to make important contributions to
the city’s development. While respecting and comple-
menting the town’s traditional heritage, innovation has
played a key role in many of
the company’s successes.
HutchisonTelephone (Macau)
Company Limited is well estab-
lished, offering superior voice,
data, IDD and roaming services
through its GSM dual-band net-
work and Macau’s first 2.5G
GPRS high-speed network.HutchisonTelephone connects
Macau to more than 180 countries around the world,with
state of the art services which include GPRS roaming.
The company was also the first operator to launch a
WAP service, Hutchisonworld, which allows mobile us-
ers to browse online via their WAP handsets, as well as
Macau’s first Multimedia Messaging Service.
Watsons was the first international chain to establish it-
self in Macau more than 20
years ago and now oper-
ates a total of eight stores
there. In 2006, the company
opened a new flagship store
on historic Senate Square.
The store has set new stan-
dards for health and beauty
retailing in a rapidly grow-
ing market.