As a former trading center for spices and a melting pot for Portuguese and Chinese cultures, it's little wonder that Macau developed its own very fine cuisine. The Portuguese settlers brought with them sweet potatoes, peanuts, and kidney beans from Brazil, piri-piri peppers from Africa, chiles from India, and codfish, coffee, and vegetables from Europe. In turn, the Chinese introduced rhubarb, celery, ginger, soy sauce, lychees, and other Asian foods. The result is Macanese cuisine. One of the most popular dishes is African chicken, grilled or baked with chiles and piri-piri peppers, but I also love minchi, a Macanese dish of minced beef prepared with fried potatoes, onion, and garlic. Other favorites include Portuguese chicken (chicken baked with potatoes, tomatoes, olive oil, curry, coconut, saffron, and black olives), bacalhau (codfish), Macau sole, caldeirada (seafood stew), spicy giant shrimp, baked quail and pigeon, curried crab, Portuguese sausage, and feijoada (a Brazilian stew of pork, black beans, cabbage, and spicy sausage). There are also restaurants specializing in traditional Portuguese cuisine, and, of course, countless Chinese restaurants. And don't forget Portuguese wine, inexpensive and a great bargain. Most famous is the vinho verde, a young wine served very cold that is refreshing on hot summer days.
Restaurants will add a 10% service charge to your bill, but as you'll discover, even the "expensive" restaurants in Macau would be a bargain in Hong Kong.
