Last of LNY

In case you didn't know, Lunar New Year is actually supposed to be a 15-day celebration, although obviously mostly people don't take things that far (we all have to work, right?) However, most of Macau kept decorations up, so it was still fun to walk around and see what was there.

As usual, the Venetian had one of the more impressive displays, although the mix of Italian and Chinese was a little strange. The columns at the main entrance were wrapped in red paper with extra detailing between, and decorations inside were all...extra large. They also had some poor guy walking around in an emperor outfit and ridiculously fake beard so tourists could take photos with him.

An example of the columns

Giant cherry blossom (plum blossom?) tree

3-D "fortune" (福) character in the middle of the casino floor

Bow yes/no?

This last photo isn't a decoration, exactly, but it caught my eye with its clever modification of the "tiger" character (虎)
For our apartment, I managed to pick up a mini-tangerine tree that someone else was throwing out. I remembered that Emily had wanted to buy one at the Tap Seac festival (toward the end of the entry), and I was still personally curious to find out if the fruits were edible or not. Unfortunately, after a couple days we realized the leaves were sporting quite an impressive layer of fuzziness, so we had to dispose of it as well. I did try one of the fruits, concluding that it was edible (at least it didn't make me sick) but rather sour.

The ill-fated shrub

Friday night, UM hosted a dinner at the Macau Tower: a 13-course meal for just 88 MOP (Ming managed to finagle it so we only had to pay the full-time staff price instead of the part-time staff price, which was considerably more). The menu included standards like fried rice and fresh steamed fish, but also some more unusual items.

"Barbecued whole suckling pig" (more like crispy-roasted)

Deep-fried shrimp mousse balls and taro rolls with almond (yum!)

Braised pig's tongue with sea moss and dried oyster (interesting texture...)

A "Chinese petit four" with red bean soup (and a GRB!)

More dessert: another "petit four" and fresh fruit

We ETAs and the Grinnell fellows ended LNY in proper fashion by celebrating the Lantern Festival (元 宵節) with a group gathering for GRBs (湯 圓) at our apartment. After looking up recipes, we decided it would be too much trouble to attempt making our own, but the grocery stores conveniently sell frozen packs =P

A freezer-ful of GRBs

I think we left them in a bit too long...still yummy!

Throw in a couple games of Apples to Apples, and it was both a fun and filling way to end the Lunar New Year vacation =)

Top Restaurant + Food Festival

This past Friday, Susan/Mari/Sam/Emily/Amy/I went to see "The Top Restaurant," a play staged by the Beijing People's Art Theater (BPAT) at the Macau Cultural Center (MCC). The Chinese name is "天下第一樓" literally meaning "the first floor under the sky," though that may be a metaphorical description for something else in the play that I didn't get. The description on the Macau Cultural Center website said that the play

"is centered on a famous Beijing duck restaurant: the owner is retiring, and his bickering sons are unable to assume their father's role as restaurant manager. Eventually, he finds an outsider that is perfect for the part - he is talented, sharp, and manages to tackle the restaurant's problems. Ten years pass and the business' prestige and wealth grows, but now the two quarreling sons want a piece of the pie..."

From this description, we thought it would be a drama-comedy, but it turned out to be more of a drama/tragedy, with a rather abrupt, anti-climatic ending (I won't say what happens). The play was performed in Mandarin, but Susan and I agreed that we could only understand about half of it because of the antiquated language and the heavy Beijing accent the actors used (of course, since the play is set in early 1900s Beijing). Imagine watching Shakespeare performed in Elizabethan English with a heavy Scottish accent, and you'll have some idea of how it was. Fortunately, there were Chinese and English subtitles (most of the Cantonese-speaking audience would have relied on these as well), so we were able to get the gist of the plot, if not the subtleties of the dialogue. Overall, it was a worthwhile investment of 3 hours and 96 MOP (yay for group discount!) to get a glimpse of Chinese drama beyond the Beijing Opera.

BPAT curtain call

Also this past weekend was the opening of the Ninth Macau International Food Festival, held in Nam Van Square near the Macau Tower. While all the vendors were local restaurants, food ranged the gamut from the usual Chinese/Portuguese to Malay/Japanese/Indian and even a little French/Italian for good measure. Each type of cuisine had its own area, making it easier to navigate and sample a bit of everything =D

Gate to the Food Festival

Because of the bitterly cold weather (ok, it was super-cold by Macau standards plus it was windy because we were close to the water), Austin/Susan/I mostly stuck to the hot foods (sorry LemonCello!) that could double as handwarmers. Examples below:

Massive scallion pancakes at the Taiwanese "Night Market"

Banana-chocolate crepe =D

'Allo? Vould you like to join me in zees varm baff?

Some less-fortunate crayfish comrades
(Austin tried some; I didn't.)

One of the crowd favorites was the roti stall, where a master maker whirled and spun cakes of dough into paper-thin sheets, upon which he might add egg, butter, or banana slices, depending on the order. They were basically like the pratas I had in Singapore, which only makes sense considering roti is a Malaysian food. I opted for roti telur (with egg, same as the Bentara appetizer for you Yalies), which also came with a tasty curry dipping sauce.

Spin, spin, spin!

Roti in various stages of completion

Overall, this food festival was much more satisfying than the little one in Three Lamps, so I will probably be back for another round next week when it's not so cold out =P

Do you have what it takes?!

Another batch of visitors this weekend: the first round was 7 HK ETAs (Jessica M, Mai Choua, Laura, Sarah, Allison, Jesse, Layton) and Allison's boyfriend Charlie. Brian, Mari, and I met up with them at the ferry terminal but they wanted to do different things, so I ended up going with Jesse/Layton/Allison/Charlie to the Macau Tower while the rest went to lunch in Senado.

Why would we go to the Macau Tower, one might ask? Why else, of course, but to go bungee jumping! As the website proudly proclaims, the Macau Tower boasts the highest bungee jump in the world at 233 meters. The Hackett company also offers several other adrenaline-pumping options, such as walking around the top of the Tower, or even climbing the mast. I was wearing a dress, so clearly I wasn't about to go, but the four of them opted for the deluxe bungee jump package, which includes photos and a DVD of your jump. An interesting psychological point: you have to buy the tickets at the base of the tower, and they're non-refundable, so you mentally commit even before you get to the top =P

While at the base, we paused to take a couple photos of the many model Macau Towers around:

Lego Tower (next to the Toys 'R Us entrance)

A larger model one level down
"Oh great, we have to carry a spear and have our feet on fire?"

The elevator ride up was slightly disconcerting, even for me. They run on the outside of the Tower so you can get glimpses of the surrounding area, showing just how high you're going...

Fifty-something stories up and counting...

When we finally got to the observation deck, the view was kind of hazy, but still pretty awesome:

Macau (easy to spot the Grand Lisboa)

Taipa (the NW corner)

The jumpers, however, had other things on their mind. This teddy bear (one of several hanging around the deck), was not exactly inspiring =P

Whee!

After filling out the usual waivers and such, they all got harnessed up and ready to jump: first Jesse, then Allison, then Charlie, then Layton. The guy actually offered to let me put on a harness and go out to the balcony for free, but I elected to stay safely inside and just photograph from there =P

In the (indoor) waiting area
L->R Charlie, Allison, Jesse, Layton

Jesse had a mildly frightening moment even before getting outside - one of the more senior staff suddenly pulled him out of the waiting area saying, "You have the wrong harness on." That fixed, they got outside, had their feet Velcro-ed together, and all successfully made the jump. What amused me most were the other non-jumping tourists on the observation deck who would all collectively gasp anytime someone jumped...obviously, after seeing all four of my friends jump (and a few people before that), I was a bit jaded.

5, 4, 3, 2, 1...

Layton spotted me while getting his feet Velcro-ed

After they got to the bottom, all four came back up to meet me, get their bags back, and review their photos/videos. They all got certificates showing they had made the jump, which they can now show off with pride =P As scary as it sounds, the process is actually quite safe - dozens of people do the jump every day, and as far as I know, they haven't had any accidents. Besides the bungee cord, there are also multiple guide wires, so it's not possible for a gust of wind to blow jumpers into the Tower or out into the water. Obviously, if there was a typhoon warning, they'd shut down the whole operation. I still doubt that I'll ever do it myself, but it's nice to know that others have survived.

The rest of the day was quiet by comparison, but still a lot of fun. We stopped for lunch at Dumpling Town (it's so sad that they haven't found a decent dumpling place in HK, because they're all the way out in Tai Po) and walked around Senado a bit, then met up with the others at Venetian to catch the 6:00 Zaia show (yay for a 200 MOP discount!). I couldn't take any photos of Cirque de Soleil, but the acts were incredible even though the storyline was tissue paper-thin. All my YAGS buddies definitely would have appreciated the fire juggling: staffs, poi, jump ropes, and more ;-)

After a late dinner in the Venetian food court (first decent Mexican food I've had in Macau!) and singing Happy Birthday to Emily (over a chocolate Starbucks donut =P), most of the HK folks hopped on the convenient Venetian shuttle bus to the ferry terminal, with just Jess M staying overnight. From the fun we all had, though, we know they'll be back for more!