Ruins of St Paul - Macau

If there's one place that you have to take a snapshot in Macau, the Ruins of St Paul is "the place". I guess it's almost obligatory to visit the Ruins of St Paul when in Macau almost as synonymous as visiting a casino. 

It's not too difficult to find this place. At the St Bernardo Square, walk past the fountain and look out for the signs. To go to Ruins of St Paul, look out for the sign that says Ruínas de São Paulo, 大三巴牌坊(tai sam ba pai fong in Cantonese).The people over there speaks a lot of Cantonese and thus knowing some places by the Cantonese name helps especially if you need to ask for directions. To get to Ruins of St Paul, it's just 5-10 mins walk from the St Bernardo Square, up some alleys with shops or just follow the big tourist groups!

Camwhore with the facade is also obligatory!

This is the remains of the greatest church in Macau. It is also the biggest Catholic Church in East Asia at that time. This is originally the church of Mater Dei built in 1602-1640 and this is also the archaeological remains of St Paul College which both were destroyed in a fire in 1835. The design of this church is very unique and probably the only one in the world as it incorporates the oriental motifs and a western Baroque-Mannerist facade.

Did you know what's behind that beautiful facade? Behind the façade are remains of the original pillars and a shrine. There's also a steel stairway allows tourists to climb up to the top of the facade from the rear. It is customary to throw coins into the top window of the ruins from the stairs, for luck.

This is the view from the stairways to the Ruins of St Paul. What a nice view, right? From there, you can clearly spot the Grand Lisboa! The street leading to the facade is filled with shops selling delicacies and don't forget to get some Almond cookies and Portuguese egg tarts from the shops.

Noodle & Congee Corner @ Grand Lisboa, Macau

Guess what I've spotted?

A dashing Bentley Continental Flying Spur. 

Not just one but 3 of them parked right in front of Grand Lisboa. Did you know that you can rent one of these Bentley to take you to the airport/ferry terminal at MOP$550 or RM215 per trip?

No thanks. I rather spend it on food.

The day I arrived at Macau, the 1st casino I visited was Grand Lisboa. This is because the building is too huge to be missed. On the way to the hotel, I was telling myself that I have to step foot here as the building intrigued me a lot. I wonder who designed it? Thanks to google, I found out that it was designed by renowned Hong Kong architects Dennis Lau and Ng Chun Man. I really liked the architecture as it's iconic and posh. These two guys are brilliant.

I guess I never thought that I could control my gambling inclinations and not gamble away a single cent during my entire trip in Macau. Can you imagine the possibilities in this land of casinos?!! I might have rolled some big bucks there to support my shopping escapade OR... some might say that I might lose my skirt.

After some casino surveying, it's time for dinner. We were quite lucky because we met a friend who works in Macau and he was our accidental tour guide for the night. Rei brought us to a restaurant in Grand Lisboa on the upper 1st Floor overlooking the gambling tables. I looked at it and said "what's so special about a noodle house at a casino?"

Noodle & Congee Corner

Don't underestimate this restaurant. Underneath its unpretentious, humble looking space lies a place that specialises in hand made noodles and chinese tea that is served by a Kung Fu Tea Master who walks around with a long spout copper kettle.

 

This place is quite spacious. You won't be close enough to another table to eavesdrop. I had a cup of Long Jing 龍井茶 which is translated to Dragon Well Tea. It's a type of chinese roasted green tea and it's quite expensive depending on the grades of the tea leaves. Did you also know that these tea leaves can be eaten after infusion?

  

This restaurant specialises in noodles prepared the Shanxi way where you'll find at least 6 types of noodles here to tickle your palate. We ordered a bowl of Jian Dao Mian 剪刀面 which is noodles that are cut from an enormous pair of scissors as the spool shaped dough is rotated. Thus the end result as you can see here is noodles that resembles the little pig tails. The broth is made of pork bones that has been boiled for many hours and thus the creamy white colour. This is one of the best hand made noodles I've eaten and I kid you not! Not only the noodles have that X-factor which is springy, the soup certainly did make a big difference. YOU MUST ORDER THIS!

Besides this variety, there are also some noodles that you might want to try. There's one that is called Yi Gen Mian  一根麵 which is a one strand noodle that measured 10 feet long! Now that's a never-ending noodle. Or you might also want to taste the Dao Xiao Mian  刀削麵 which it is also called a type of knife cut noodles where the giant dough is shaved with a knife directly into the boiling water.

A set of noodles with 1 side dish will set you back $62 while 2 side dishes will only cost you $68. Of course we took the 2 side dishes noodle set. 

Shanghainese Spare Ribs (Side Dish)

We had a bowl of braised pork and a plate of the shanghainese spare ribs. As you can see, it's quite apparent that I chose the accompanying dishes because it was everything pork! Why not indulge in pork when you're in Macau? The Shanghainese spare ribs might not look pretty from its presentation but I can assure you that these are very tender pork. No excessive chewing needed and it's VERY THE NICE! (pardon my broken English)

Succulent shrimp wantons!


Fried Rice $52


Pacific Clam and Asparagus Wrapped in Steamed Rice Flour $42

They are quite creative with the steamed rice roll. Apart from the usual barbequed pork or shrimps, here they have rice rolls wrapped with scallops, enoki mushroom, beef fillet, and bamboo piths. Price starts from $30 to $65. It's worth a try but you will have to savour it while it's still warm. These rolls are quite filling as well.

This is truly one of the noodle houses that I don't mind revisiting. In fact, the noodles are so good, I wished there's an outlet here in KL and I don't mind paying RM20-30 for a bowl of that. It's just like paying the price of a bowl of ramen. The 3 of us ended up with a bill of $300+ here.

It turns out to be that this Noodle & Congee Corner is a 2 Michelin Star restaurant! Need I say more?

Noodle & Congee Corner

Upper 1/F Grand Lisboa,
Macau.

Open 24 hours

Tel: +853-88037755


 

I'm heading to...

Guess where I'm heading to this morning? Woke up at 6+ this morning to head to the airport and catch the 1st flight to Hong Kong and then to Macau and back to Hong Kong for a full shopping + eating itinerary. The last time I was in HK was about 9 years ago!

Casino will be one of my destination and hopefully I will have some beginner's luck or else I really have to jump from the Macau Tower without the safety harness. Gosh so many casinos and so little time!

I have been deliberating for a month if I should just try their bungee jump from the Macau Tower. To jump or not to jump is not the question. Money is. But then again, paying almost USD400 to jump from a building seemed too expensive. However, that decision is not final. I think it'll depend on how I fared at the casino.

From the 2nd day to the 5th day, I'll be in Hong Kong. I've prepared a whole list of eateries that I wanted to try. I think I'll have 10 meals a day. But I hate queuing up. Life sucks.

A friend asked me if I am MACHO enough to give the stinky beancurd a try? I heard that these beancurd stinks like a sewage and would I put something like that into my mouth?

Why not?

If I can eat 2 Balut eggs on my 1st attempt, why not the stinky tofu?!! 

They seemed so harmless until I smell it from afar.

Wish me luck! (I wanna meet Moses Chan, preez!)