The first time I went to Macau was in 2017, and I spent an embarrassing amount of time lost inside The Venetian. Let me tell you, there’s something profoundly disorienting about a fake sky and canals indoors. I kept passing the same gondola, panic mounting. I suspect I’m not alone in this experience – or in the broader reality that many people never see much beyond Macau’s glitz and glam. It’s easy to visit for a weekend, stick to the resorts and come away thinking you’ve seen the city. But for our Macau issue, we wanted to go deeper into both the past and present.
Elsewhere in the world of food and drink, Elaine Wong looks at where Macau’s chefs eat when they’re off the clock. The answer: roadside stalls turned roofed eateries, izakayas in Taipa and alleyways near Lin Kai Temple, where the same hawkers who once cooked kerbside now run modest restaurants serving beef offal and imitation shark fin soup until dawn.
