http://www.mixmeetings.com AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2018 MIX 15
PERRY
YUEN’S
MACANESE
MARVELS
Pattangra –
Portuguese ham
stands well against
other European
varieties, while
smoked meats are
getting more popular
across Asia.
Minchi – deep-fried
minced or ground
pork or beef topped
with fried egg.African chicken- Rarely, if ever,
eaten in Africa, but
a dish influenced by
Portugal’s former
colonial outposts on
the continent.
Pork Chop bun, egg
tarts, and deep-fried
bacalhau (cod) are
among the other
Macanese delights.
Gastronomy thanks to its natural produce and
for it being considered in China as the home of
Cantonese cuisine, with a tradition of supplying
chefs to the world’s Chinatowns.
Such is Shunde’s strength as a City of
Gastronomy that a food festivals it holds over five
days attracts more than a million visitors, while a
three-part documentary series registered 100 million
online views.
Fang Li, a main coordinator in Shunde for the
Unesco Creative Cities Network, and a lecturer in
the hotel and tourism management department at
Shunde Polytechnic, said the city was today equally
famed for being a huge manufacturing base for
household appliances. Yet food culture in the region
held an enduring appeal alongside dragon boating,
Cantonese opera and kung fu legend Bruce Lee’s
ancestral home among the visitor attractions.
In Thailand, Chiang Mai and Phuket are the two
cities in the Unesco gastronomy network, while
Bangkok is making a mark in the Michelin guide
from its traditional Thai eateries through to haute
cuisine and even streetfood.
Though Thai food is adored worldwide, tourism
authorities have until recently struggled to build
a sustainable visitor-economy model for the
kingdom despite an impressive annual growth in
tourist numbers. In a meeting with the International
Monetary Fund, IMF officials pointed out that any
other country with such “phenomenal double-digit
growth” also saw a rise in domestic consumption
figures, “but not in Thailand, where domestic
consumption was stagnant”.
“It tells you that we are not distributing tourism
well enough – we want tourism to be as sustainable
power that drives the economy forward,” said
Chattan Kunjara Na Ayudhya, the Tourism Authority
of Thailand senior official said.
“Putting Thai food at the forefront and in line with
sustainable development goals is what we do.
“In Thailand, we’re trying to position ourselves
as one of the main destinations when you think
of good places to eat. But we want to go beyond
that and to a sustainable social economy to create
a better life for our people and we do that by
promoting and developing tourism.” ltourism leaders, held at Macau Fisherman’s Wharf
Convention and Exhibition Centre, June 22-26.
Macau’s unique culinary heritage stems from a
combined Chinese and Portuguese that evolved into
Macanese dishes. As well as providing popular staples,
they also symbolise the strong links between China
and Portuguese speaking regions across the world.
Macanese food – in addition to Macau’s Portuguese
buildings in the town’s old quarter – has placed it in
Unesco’s Cultural Cities Network. It is the third Chinese
city to be accepted into the fold of more than 180
cities from 72 countries committed to preserving
aspects of local culture, including unique cuisines. The
Sichuan capital Chengdu and Shunde, in Guangdong,
are the other cities in the Unesco network.
Chef Perry Yuen, a leading figure in the Macau
Culinary Association and the director of F&B with City
of Dreams Macau, told the Skal Asia conference how
Macanese cuisine dates back 450 years to when
the first Portuguese sailors and traders arrived in
southern China.
Yuen, who hosted food shows on cable TV in
his native Hong Kong and plied his trade as a chef
in five-star hotels, was joined on stage by Fang
Li, representing Shunde, and Chattan Kunjara
Na Ayudhya, Tourism Authority of Thailand’s
deputy governor for policy and planning in a panel
moderated by Cheng Wai Teng, deputy director of
Macao Government Tourism Office.
“Long voyages meant the first Portuguese traders
and sailors developed methods to preserve food and
wine. It could take more than a year to sail to Asia,”
Yuen said.
“The routes they took went around India and Africa
until landing in Macau. They collected spices [and
ingredients] along the way... picking up influences from
Chinese cooking which became Macanese cuisine.”
Compared with later colonisers, Portuguese were
felt content to marry and settle with native peoples
across Asia. Yuen said that in Macau this gave rise
to a unique culture and the first known forms of
fusion cuisine with dishes influenced by Chinese and
Portuguese cooking styles that used European and
Indian ingredients.
Shunde, which is one of Macau’s neighbouring
regions in the Pearl Delta region, is also a City of