Friday, February 18, 2022

Virtual China: Macau- Fusion Cuisine and Jade

 

The wok...cleaver...and my hand-carved jade goldfish arrived this week. The long stainless steel cooking chopsticks are coming directly from mainland China and take longer...

The wok is amazing, and I used it to make my Macau Shrimp and Rice.

The cleaver...omg...can be used for slicing, dicing, chopping and probably home security, as well.

Eight inch by 4 inch flat blade...so sharp you could shave with this thing. You can slice so thin you could make homemade potato chips with it!

I'm impressed.

Definitely my go to knife, other than peeling/paring.

The hand-carved jade fancy goldfish arrived on a red braided silk cord with adjustment beads of white jade and a placement bead of green jade.

It is perfect...buttery soft...silky smooth and takes on your body heat when worn much like amber or opal.

I love it.

About Jade

https://www.britannica.com/topic/jade-gemstone

https://youtu.be/DwsEBjtmJ5c

My little fish is Nephrite. 

Carving Jade

https://youtu.be/jRWxs4sRA90

https://youtu.be/3SLhfCo5ck4

 Anyway....

 

Macau is known for its fusion of Chinese and Portuguese flavors.

The favorite street foods here include 

Egg custard tarts.

 ...which we tried a long time back during Virtual Portugal...

Soft bun with crispy fried pork chop.

....basically a steamed bun with a whole bone-in fried pork chop...sounds delicious...but not much cooking involved...

Egg rolls.

...just finished all the egg rolls from Lunar New Year...so no...

The fourth favorite food was fusion of Shrimp and Rice...with a Portuguese Twist.


 While the rice and green beans were steaming I thawed the shrimp...saved several for chilled cocktail...then sliced my lemon.

I put a couple tablespoons of oil in the wok...and stir-fried chopped onions, peppers and shrimp together...then added tomato sauce and chili powder blending all the flavors well. 

I added my steamed rice and mixed thoroughly.

Plated above I added chopped cashews to my steamed green beans.

The completed stir-fry looked like this.

Lemon juice was squeezed over as a finish.


 The spiciness of the chili and tangy flavor of the tomato and lemon made this an exotic treat.

I think it would have been much better with cubes of stir-fried pork instead of shrimp. 

But it was tasty and filling...and went well with the sides. 

Not Chinese...Not really Portuguese...like everything else is Macau...a nice blend.


Sunday, we will check out something interesting Macau has to offer!

Until then!