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

Weekend recap: Hac Sa, fireworks, casino tour, and more

Friday evening after work, Susan, Sam and I got slightly lost in Z.A.P.E. after getting off the bus a few stops too early, but after some walking around we finally met up with the MPI girls for dinner at "A Taste of India" near the Kun Iam statue. I thought my spice tolerance had increased throughout college after rooming with Atisha for three years, but things here still seem to have quite a kick, and the combinations aren't always what I expect. For example, my chicken curry had a LOT of cilantro, along with some other unidentifiable spices...I think I chewed a bit of ginger at one point and there was something that looked like a raisin but smelled lemony. It was still really good, but quite, um, flavorful.

Sam and I were pretty tired so we went home early while the others went out bar-hopping, but we all slept late in preparation for the afternoon/evening full of activities. Things started off around 4:30 PM with the UM exchange students' barbecue, all the way down at Hac Sa (Black Sand) beach.

The beach, which I guess is more dark brown than black

A cool sculpture overlooking the beach

The exchange students' association, including people hailing from all sorts of places (mainland China, America, the Philippines, Finland, France, Germany, among others), had invited us ETAs to join the fun, and we took the opportunity to explore the area a bit more ourselves. Joseph and Henry, two local students, had also come along to meet more of the exchange students (they both studied abroad, so their English is very good), and because they had kindly agreed to guide us to a good local restaurant for dinner, but more about that later.

Hac Sa itself was nice and cool, partially because it was so cloudy, which made it perfect weather for the annual beach rugby tournament. Austin wasn't with us at the barbecue, but that was because he was playing rugby!

Attempting to dodge a defender

By early evening, we were getting kind of peckish, so Susan, Henry, and Joseph stopped by one of the little food stalls to get a snack...a very protein-rich one =P

Susan with her snack, which looks like it escaped from Davy Jones' locker. She said it was yummy.

For dinner, we headed back to Horta e Costa, where Joseph and Henry guided us to a popular local joint called Sun Iek. Amy and Holly joined us for dinner as well, so it was one big party. While I'm getting a bit tired of Cantonese food all the time, I thoroughly enjoyed the tong cai, shrimp with cheese, pork chop with spices/cheese, spicy fried pork pieces, and curry chicken in a giant bread bowl!

Yum.

Post-dinner, Joseph and Henry left us to start their homework and Amy went home, but the rest of us caught the 32 bus down to the Lisboa to watch the second round of fireworks: Taiwan vs. France. Both were definitely better than last week's contestants, although my photos aren't as nice because I didn't have the backdrop of the Macau Tower.
After the shows, Holly went home, but Susan, Sam, and I randomly bumped into Emily while walking around the MGM. We continued exploring the casino lobbies, some of which had some extremely amusing decor:

The light/water show at the Wynn

Chinese zodiac-themed dome in the Wynn rotunda

"Legend of the Golden Panda" at MGM

Mock Senado Square (which doesn't really look like Senado) in MGM

More pandas in the MGM =P

We stayed out until the wee hours of the morning, but it was a pretty satisfying night of explorations, so it was all worthwhile =D