Cars, Food and the Ladies of Hong Kong & Macau: 好記麵食 @ Seafood Market

Tuesday, February 12, 2013

好記麵食 @ Seafood Market - (Macau)

There are occasionally treasures waiting to be discovered in Wet Markets or Cooked Food Centres, although the majority of the ones in HK have been covered by foodies for a number of years as the news leaked out. The situation in Macau is different because only around 2-3 years ago, the Macanese Government decided to shift some of the more prominent street stalls to inside their renovated hygienic Cooked Food Centres, not dissimilar to Singapore’s strategy and which the HK Government can really learn from if they have any future vision. For this shop a floor above a Fishermen’s wet market, which I have been trying to open an account for half a year on Openrice with no success – it’s advantage is clearly geographical. The Macau delta region has access to the best crabs available especially the Watery Mangroves Crabs (水蟹) when they swell up during their 13th shell moulting stage by absorbing more water. They lose out on meat and crab roe flavours, but makes up for it in subtle sweetness. Soft-Shell Mangroves Crab Congee 水蟹粥 is a signature dish in Macanese region.

I Headed to this Wet Market 水上街市 -
Unfortunately not because I am smart, but because I accidentally stumbled across a magazine article which mentioned a particular shop here, which sources their fresh daily crabs from the fishermen beneath them. A search online reviewed absolutely no review whatsoever, and it took me 2 goes to finally find and eat here as the shop closes by around 1pm.

Looking like a normal Wet Market Dai Pai Dong -
I was skeptical at one stage.
Confused smile

The Menu is definitely Wet Market range -
They’re on the cheaper side for 2013.

My Watery ‘Soft Shell’ Mangroves Crab Congee - $40
The daily caught crabs were still alive & kicking about, when the lady boss cleavered them up. It’s not exactly Soft-Shell crab as we know it but it’s at one of those stages in it’s life when it has more water content and the head caraspace swells up. This sweet crab juice is suppose to melt into the congee and make it sweeter, but without much input from crab roes and tomalleys. Another game altogether..

OK Yum and Fresh !
The crab flesh is less meatier than usual but may be it’s my placebo effect as it seemingly tasted more sweet. I have eaten these Watery Crab Congees quite a few times in Macau now with some repetitive revisits to the same shops! What did I really think about here comparatively speaking? The crab was very fresh, and there was no MSG whatsoever and appeared oh so natural. The base rice congee taste and consistency was deemed decent but could be ricier, although many shops pass off a worst attempt. Just in case I never get around to covering other shops and not including ones I haven’t already tried as yet - so far this was next best to the impeccable one served at 老記麵家本店 and Red 8 inside Wynn Hotel (though slightly MSG influenced and don’t order their Apple Wood Peking Duck unless they fix the limpy skin problem). 六記麵家 my absolute favourite noodles place found a street away from here also makes it decent but I would have to re-try 1st and reserve my judgment. This one was definitely better than other famous places like MSG laden 誠昌粥店 or the not bad 牛記咖哩. After all the consideration I would put this into my 2013 running Top 3 finish. And at only $40 a bowl, this easily worked out to be the cheapest bowl and for the wet market setting alone definitely worth a shot! ~ 7/10

They Have Pocari here !

At Seafood Market, 沙梨頭街市 Mercado Municipal do Patane -
Macau is confusing because it’s written in either Chinese or Portuguese.
I guess showing this picture to the taxi driver might get u to here quicker! It’s 7-8 minutes from Central Macau so it’s not so pricy, may be USD 3-5 max. Arrive before 12 - 1pm as they close quite early, I think they open at around 7:00am onwards.