Thanksgiving in Macau

Without an oven and many critical ingredients for the usual spread (e.g. cranberries), what are some hungry Americans supposed to do on Thanksgiving? The answer: eat out! Thanks to a tip from another expat, Austin/Susan/Mari/Brian/Carlos/I ended up at the Rossio restaurant in the MGM last night, where they had a huge Thanksgiving special: all-you-can-eat buffet for 268 MOP per person, plus 10% service charge. The restaurant was open from 6-11 PM and we made sure to get our money's worth.


As you can see above, the restaurant itself was quite nice, with soothing beige/gray color palette, running waterfalls over glass, a big open kitchen in the middle and decorations of squashes/gourds on many of the tables. Service was impressive - every time one of us got up to get a fresh plate, the old one would be whisked away, but they would also refold the napkin and place it neatly back on the table! However, what we were there for was the food (of course), and they didn't disappoint. When we made the reservations, we were already pretty excited about the menu, which read as follows:

Classic dishes:
- Roasted prime rib with red wine and horseradish sauce
- Whole roasted turkey with gravy and cranberry sauce
- Glazed holiday ham with applesauce and honey mustard
- Carrots braised in beet juice with honey and cumin
- Potato, corn, and crab gratin
- Turkey stuffing
- Braised collard greens with with apple/chestnut/sausage
- Braised sweet potatoes in apple cider
- Oysters casino
- Mustard-braised Brussel sprouts with smoked bacon lardons
- Garlic mashed potatoes
- Braised lamb shank stew
- Turkey pot pie

Sumptuous Desserts:
- Pumpkin pie with cinnamon cream
- Cranberry apple pie with walnut brindle ice cream
- Mississippi pecan pie
- Cherry pie
- Ginger Creme Brulee
- Baked banana cheesecake with caramelized pecans

What we found when we got there, however, was not only did they have all this, there was more! Seafood-on-ice bar, sushi and sashimi, pasta bar (fresh ravioli or fettuccini), freshly fried crabcakes, at least 5 kinds of salad, antipasta area, sliced meats like prosciutto, lots of fresh-cut fruit, and even more kinds of dessert than the menu had promised. Many mouthwatering photos below:
Carrots in beet juice, lamb shank stew, turkey pot pie

*gobble gobble*

We were puzzled by this at first, but it turned out to be Beef Wellington

Snow crab legs, yum!

More of the seafood bar (they also had clams and scallops)

Sushi bar
As I mentioned before, we stayed for a good three hours, carefully pacing ourselves and sampling a little bit of many dishes rather than eating a lot of any one thing. I had sushi, snow crab legs, crabcakes, asparagus/grapefruit/crab salad, turkey pot pie, mashed potatoes, carrots in beet juice, sliced prosciutto and other meats with rosemary/pumpkin seed lavash, and a bunch of different desserts. It wasn't just all eating - we went around the table to say what we were grateful for, and Susan/I even managed to get some grading done while taking a break from the food =P
Salads galore

Half of the antipasta spread (the figs were sooo good)

Fruit bar

This photo only shows about 20% of the available desserts...they kept rotating them out

Crabcake with green apple/celery garnish

My desserts: blueberry cheesecake, chocolate/raspberry jam tartlets, pear/almond/blueberry tart, and baked pineapple with cinnamon/palm sugar

Also, crepe with (rapidly melting) banana ice cream, bananas foster, chocolate topping, and candied pecans
After dinner, Susan and I staggered home to work on grading and the others went home to Taipa, but we all agreed that the buffet had been worth the (admittedly high) price. If you went to a buffet like this in America, it would easily cost over $100 USD per person, but we ended up paying about 300 MOP each ($37.50 USD)...I easily got more than my money's worth from just the sushi/snow crab legs! Even better, we didn't have to cook or clean up! All in all, an excellent Thanksgiving feast =D