For a place you can walk across in an afternoon, Macao eats extremely well. Four centuries of Portuguese rule sitting on top of a Cantonese base produced a cuisine that exists nowhere else, and the best of it is cheap street food eaten standing up.

What I like most here is that the food tells the history without anyone having to explain it. You will eat a Portuguese custard tart, then a Cantonese noodle soup, then something with coconut and chilli that belongs to neither tradition, and it all makes sense on the same street. Come with an appetite and no fixed plan.

The dishes that define Macao

Portuguese egg tarts

The one thing everyone knows, and it deserves the reputation. Macao's version has a caramelised, slightly burnt top and a flaky puff pastry shell, rather than the smooth yellow custard of the Hong Kong style. Eat them warm, within minutes of buying. The famous bakery near the ruins gets enormous queues, but several other shops make versions that are just as good with a fraction of the wait.

Pork chop bun

A thick fried pork chop, bone in, slapped into a crusty white roll with nothing else. No sauce, no salad. It sounds too plain to be interesting and it is one of the best sandwiches I have eaten anywhere. Around MOP 25 to 35.

African chicken

A Macanese classic: chicken grilled with chilli, coconut and garlic. Despite the name it is a local invention, a collision of Portuguese, African and Southeast Asian ingredients that could only have happened here. Order it in a proper Macanese restaurant, not a tourist canteen.

Minchi

Minced pork and beef fried with diced potato, usually topped with a fried egg, and served with rice. It is the closest thing Macao has to a national dish, and it is comfort food in the truest sense. Almost every Macanese family has their own version.

Serradura

A simple dessert of whipped cream and crushed biscuits, layered and chilled. Sawdust pudding, literally. It is far better than the name suggests and a good way to finish a heavy meal.

Where to eat, roughly

• The historic centre around Senado Square and the Ruins of St Paul's is the obvious cluster, and it is where you will find egg tarts and pork chop buns within a few minutes of each other.
• The Taipa old village, across the bridge, has a calmer row of restaurants and is where I would go for a proper Macanese dinner.
• Coloane, at the far southern end, is worth the bus ride for the seafood and the Portuguese restaurants along the waterfront.

A Portuguese lunch, which is mandatory

Book a table at one of the proper Portuguese restaurants for lunch, and order the way Portuguese families do. Start with bread, olives and a plate of presunto, then share a grilled bacalhau, the salt cod that appears in some form on every menu in the city. Add clams in garlic and coriander, a green salad, and a bottle of vinho verde. Finish with a pastel de nata even though you have already had three that morning.

Lunch runs long here. Nobody will bring you the bill until you ask for it.

Practical notes

Macao uses the pataca, pegged to the Hong Kong dollar, and Hong Kong dollars are accepted almost everywhere at a one-to-one rate, though you may get patacas back as change. The city is tiny and the buses are frequent, so you rarely need a taxi. Eat early or late to avoid the worst of the lunch crush around Senado Square, and bring cash for the small street stalls, because not all of them take cards.

Two days is plenty. One full day for the historic centre and the food, and a second for Taipa and Coloane at a slower pace.

Originally published on 71Asia Tours blog.