Category Archives: Portuguese

Macanese Week At The Four Seasons, Circular Quay

macanese food sydney

My friends and I were talking about cuisines that aren’t represented in Sydney. It was hard to pick one as Sydney is so diverse it seems that we have a restaurant for just about every cuisine.

“How about Kazakhstani?” I ventured as I recalled trying to brainstorm for a Kazakhstani dinner party and being at a loss to find the ingredients.

One cuisine that is a little more accessible taste wise and that isn’t represented in Sydney is Macanese cuisine from Macau near Hong Kong. The intriguing thing about this cuisine is that it was borne from Macau being a Portuguese colony and is influenced by the various foods in the areas that the Portuguese visited on their spice routes creating a unique cuisine. So Macanese cuisine is actually a blend of Portuguese, Cantonese as well as some African and Indian flavours. You can get bacalhau-the Portuguese dried and salted cod alongside coconut laced curries and African chicken. Their egg tarts are a cross between the classic Portuguese tart (pastéis de nata) and Chinese egg tarts. And for just one week ending this coming Friday the Four Seasons hotel has brought over two chefs from the Four Seasons Macau to cook traditional Macanese food for diners at Kables restaurant. And that is where we find ourselves one spring lunchtime.

macanese food sydney

Cod fish fritters with marinated olives, tartare sauce

Macanese food is traditionally served share style, similar to Chinese food. The cod fish fritters are up first and they’re small dark golden crumbed fritters with a thin, lightly crunchy coating with a salty kick from the salted cod. They remind me of the oven baked croquettes that I made recently rather than my image of a fritter and they’re combined with a thick tartare sauce and sharp, firm green and black olives.

macanese food sydney

Caldo verde – Portugeuse style potato and kale soup, extra virgin olive oil $16

I must admit that I wasn’t really won over by this soup which was a bit grainy. I did like the smoked pork pieces which didn’t get a mention on the menu (and fellow diner Heather doesn’t eat pork so that was a surprise). It is served with a basket of grilled bread.

macanese food sydney

Macanese prawns with chilli and garlic

The prawns are served with the shell on and the smaller ones are the easiest to eat as I ate them shell and all. And if you’ve never eaten a prawn head, eating a dish like this is the time to do so as much of the flavoursome chilli, ginger and garlic sauce and flavour is concentrated in the head and the smaller ones pack a lot of flavour whilst being soft too.

macanese food sydney

African chicken -curry roasted chicken, potato wedges and salad

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34 comments | October 16th, 2011 by Not Quite Nigella

Petersham Charcoal Chicken, Petersham

After Seinfeld, the term “soup nazi” has become part of the urban vernacular and when researching a place for the best Portuguese Charcoal Chicken in Sydney, this place along with that very term popped up again and again. My blogging buddy Christie from Fig & Cherry is a regular here and if it’s good enough for her, it’s good enough for me. Researching it on eatability I read this amusing warning from member, mooooo__. “As long as you know their system and don’t faff when ordering/deciding though, all should be good. Don’t look certain senior staff in the eyes, some say she can steal your soul if you do. Even better don’t say anything to her except “thanks”. She appreciates not having to converse with you.” With an intro like that, I was trepidatious at best. Luckily I was unwittingly armed with a secret weapon. Eight month old baby Annabel.

The Secret Weapon

The queue is long and there’s another woman in the line behind us. “I thought now was going to be a better time to come here but it’s just as busy” she says to us. I have to agree as the nights where we’ve driven past this place, we’ve witnessed lines and crowds spilling out of the doorway onto the street of hungry people eager to get their lateish night fix of charcoal chicken (and apparently fat reduced as the neon sign says).

The takeaway items are very reasonably priced but as we’re not local we want to sit down so we are shown a table by the lady that eatability readers fear. Did I mention my secret weapon? Teena’s daughter Annabel proceeds to melt everyone’s hearts with her smile and the staff couldn’t be nicer. The woman in question stops by to coo at her and tells us with nothing but a beaming smile on her face that she has a 7 month old granddaughter. I was initially a bit fearful of asking for something from the takeaway menu to eat in but given her friendliness I do and it’s absolutely fine. *Phew!*

1/2 chicken $7 and cod croquette $2 (front) and chips $6.50 (behind)

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56 comments | July 17th, 2009 by Not Quite Nigella