MACAU: Ali's Curry House

Macau lies on the western side of the Pearl River Delta, an hour ferry ride from Hong Kong. Because of the Portuguese background, even though just a mere ferry ride, the cuisine, the culture, even the way people look and talk are very much different from Hong Kong.  Local Macanese food is made up of a blend of mainly Chinese and Portuguese cuisines although it uses the ingredients and seasonings from different countries, including those from Europe, South America, Africa, India, and Southeast Asia ingredients. And who said Macau was ALL about the casinos?

This restaurant that we chose in Macau was Ali's Curry House. It's a low-key, lovely lakeside restaurant that's a close proximity from the city, facing the Sai Lake and the Macau Tower.  With both indoor and outdoor alfresco seating, the restaurant seats about 120. Seems like it's not that small of a restaurant, however if you don't make reservations ahead of time, expect to wait forever. (Note: this restaurant isn't like most other food outlets in Macau where it stays opened until the sun comes up, it HAS a closing time, and it's 11pm.)

The two times I've been here, I left with a very satisfied tummy, although a little bloated, nonetheless, my tummy was satisfied. The dishes aren't huge, making it possible to order a few more dishes to try out.They have a very extensive mouth-watering menu that makes it a difficult decision.

The first time I went, we started off with Shrimp on Toast, Baked Mussels and the Samosas.  The Shrimp toast was very fluffy with a big shrimp on top, so fluffy that it reminded me of tempura, though it was a bit on the oily side.  Samosas, again were too oily but it was bursting with flavourful curried veggies. TheBaked Mussels were perfect. Cheese was melted so that it was stringy, and the mussels itself was not only extremely fresh but they were large and were able to be pulled effortlessly from the shell.



As the name attests, Ali's Curry House, it's specialty is none other but Curry. They have a whole page dedicated to it, an assortment of curries are available, from Vegetarian curries to a variety of seafood curries, beef and lamb, basically everything that goes well with curry! We chose chicken curry. Not much of an exciting dish eh? You're wrong and I was wrong, they were able to WOW me with that dish. The flavours were so distinct, it's like you can differentiate the variety of spices, it tantilizes your tastes buds. It wasn't too spicy yet had a kick, the potatoes were soft where it just breaks apart in your mouth without chewing and the chicken was tender with a bit of sweetness.  What was even better was that they had 5-6 different Naan bread selections, we chose the whole wheat naan (trying to be healthy after all those fried food). Only comment is that it wasn't warm enough and a bit on the hard side. Another bite of the curry, low and behold, it easily made up for the flaws of the naan.

That was it for my first time at Ali's Curry House. When we left, it started pouring rain! Getting a taxi there is fine, it's leaving the restaurant that's a a hassle. There aren't any taxi's there, so you literally got to stand on the streets and wave them down (rain or shine).
Totally not equipped for the rain, we ran out, frantically waving our arms for a taxi and after 15 minutes, soaked, we finally found one. That's fine, we thought, our lunch was worth it.

The second time we went was for dinner. Here are just a few other dishes we tried:

Beef brisket curry, and not wanting to make the same mistake with the naan, we opted for rice.  The curry doesn't need anymore compliments, it gets enough; rather, this curry tasted very from the chicken. It was a lot meatier and a lot thicker.  Needless to say, we cleaned out the dish.

Beef Short Ribs, it tastes exactly what you would expect from a good short rib dish, savoury, salty and juicy.  It wasn't fatty but it was fairly greasy. It was cooked perfectly otherwise, I had to be STOPPED from hogging the whole dish to myself.

Portuguese Sausages, Thought we'd try something more "Portuguese" so we tried this. I didn't like it. It was far too salty and basically my tongue was numb and it stayed numb until i drank a full glass of water.

Duck Fried Rice, I didn't order this, only because I thought we already had enough food, with curry, appies, rice and all, but my companions did, and am I ever glad they did. Before this came, I was already full; I declared that I'd have just one bite to try it. That "one bite" didn't stop there, not even close, I think I had almost a whole bowl of rice after everything we had before that. The fried rice was dry, covering the hidden duck inside. Uncovering the rice, shredded duck was peeking through. The aroma of the duck literally filled-in the little space between me and the rice. The duck was very moist, shredded up with the duck skin making the fried rice a little chewier and crispier.

Overall this is worthy coming back to and it's a great place to take friends. Of the ones I've recommended, I don't think anyone has yet been disappointed! 

Ali's Curry House Avenida da República no. 4-K, Lojas L-M, R/C, Macau

Open daily from 12:30 pm. - 11:30 pm, Reservations are a MUST: +853 2855 5865

Luxist Reader's Choice for Best in Food

Luxist has put together the "Reader's Choice for Best in Food" awards. With a number of sumptuous nominations, there is still time for you to vote. Results will be announced in about 10 hours from now.

Each of finalists for the Readers' Choice for the Best Gourmet Grocer/Food Hall is a leader in the industry.

The Readers' Choice for the Best Online Gourmet Food nominees include a New York institution with a staff that travel the world in search of great artisan-produced foods.

The Readers' Choice for the Best Caviar Retailer for a Luxist Award include award-winning brands from Europe and the United States with each offering the highest of quality. Several offer some of the finest Russian caviar to be found, while one is a proponent of sustainably harvested roe with its own tank-farming system.

Nominees for Readers' Choice for Best Bread Bakery include companies that have been producing bread for decades. One opened more than 70 years ago and is now an institution in Paris, while another was launched in Belgium before expanding around the world. A Los Angeles-based nominee has developed more than 100 varieties of award-winning breads.

Readers' Choice nominees for Best Cheese Shop include some of the most respected shops in the world. These cheese shops, offer a full range of both international and domestic artisanal cheeses. They are the destinations for serious cheese lovers and chefs who are in search of the best.

Vote for the Best Caviar Retailer, Best Bread Bakery, Best Cheese Shop and more here.

HONG KONG: A vegetarian restaurant for meat lovers!

Gah! What? A vegetarian restaurant for meat lovers? It must be, I need my meats for a fulfilling dinner. I've been to numerous vegetarian restaurants and no matter what how they've made their dishes or how full I become, I've never been fully satisfied. One of the girls that brought me there is the same way, we both need our meaty dinners.

Life's purpose is "be the change you want to see in the world." It sure changed MY view of a vegetarian meal. This restaurant served such gastronomic delights that I went twice in the same week! Price ranges from $40hkd for a starter to $110 for a main, such a good deal for such fine ingredients. Everything served is organic including Organic beers and wines! The menu indicates whether it's a vegan dish or gluten-free; quite handy for the health freaks (not me).

They always have a Soup of the day($45hkd), the soups are always hearty and very filling. Warning: share with a friend. It's such a nice soup to have on a cold winter day (although that only happens about a month out of a year in Hong Kong). Always loaded up with veggies in their soup and bursting with flavours. Organic DOES really make a difference. It is served with an organic sunflower seed bread.

The Life Salad ($80hkd) is mixed baby greens, julienne carrot, julienne beet, sprouts, nuts,
organic hummus & Life’s classic dressing. Served with Life’s organic flaxseed cracker. The salad was served in a large bowl and again, PLEASE SHARE. It's (again) organic thus the vegetables were naturally sweet, with or without the dressing. The dressing enhances the freshness of the veggies.


Now the mains. We could NOT possibly eat anymore at this point but since we already ordered, we didn't have much of a choice but to try everything. We shared 2 mains amongst the 3 of us. The Sesame scented tofu, seasonal vegetable & organic quinoa stir fry ($95hkd) was very flavourful, it tasted very Oriental... it's just LIKE Chinese stir-fry minus the oil. Finding such an unhealthy dish prepared so healthily is just like a fat boy finding hot fudge cake with ice cream on top... such a nice feeling. The tofu was barbequed with actually grill marks.. one of the hardest things to master according to my chef-friend. The only thing was that they added a bit too much salt, oh well, at least their ingredients are natural and healthy!


and the Whole wheat pizza with roasted garlic, mushrooms, smoked mozzarella & rocket ($95hkd), the pizza crust was a bit on the hard side, a bit like biting into a biscuit. I know, some people might enjoy that but I personall don't. I like it crispy, chips-crispy, not hard. The combination was excellent, I LOO-O-VE my 'shrooms. I was actually glad that it was not served in a very generous portion as we were already stuffed, however if I only ordered that, I probably wouldn't be that happy about it.

And... desserts.. we didn't order any! They had organic cookies and carrot cake or something like that.. it didn't sound too appetizing so we passed. Life needs only one more addition: a better dessert menu!

Life Organic Health Cafe Soho Central open daily from 8am - midnight, Reservations: (852) 2810 9777

HONG KONG: Oysters, oysters and oysters

Yes, I know, I've been gone, how inconsistent of me... the good news is, the foody is BACK!!


A friend told me about this hidden restaurant tucked away under a highway in North Point, Hong Kong. You wouldn't even notice it if you didn't know exactly what you were looking for. Oyster C. You'll recognize it by the glass windows with red, blue, green pen marks all over it. Takes up to a week to make reservations on weekends, the ambiance is casual and no doubt a fun one, scribbles all over the wall from lovers writing messages to each other to testimonials of the dishes customers gush about.

Don't expect to see a hostess, no one is free enough to just stand by the door, asking if you have reservations. Seated admist a crowd of laughing drunken customers, the ill-dyed-mafia-looking server comes to us asking us in the most casual manner what we'd like. He takes the menu out of our hands before we even had a chance to take a glance. He then asks us what we DON'T like. He goes on in his casual but warm manner, telling us what oysters he is going to choose for us. Satisfied with not having to decide what to eat, we just smiled and nodded.



After a few moments, 8 oysters were served with the usual cocktail sauce, shallot vinegarette and a special olive vinegarette that i especially liked. The olive vinegarette was rather sweet, highlighted the bursting flavours. We were quickly done and ready for round two. We had a total of three rounds with and array of oysters from New Zealand, the States, Ireland and South Africa, with South African oysters topping my list.


Our server came back and brought us our Tom Yum Goong soup with lobster. The lobster was served on the side as a sashimi plate. Did you know that Tom Yum Goong is one of the dishes that excites all your taste buds? It's a bit sweet yet salty and clearly sour and spicy. The lobster is fresh but served with the Tom Yum Goong, the flavours were washed out, a bit of a waste.

Now this is my favorite part of the evening, when the server came back again, we knew and he knew, it was time for the mains. We requested pasta and not too much as we were already quite full. He asked what we didn't like, I pitched in what I liked, mushrooms and what I didn't, celery and corriander, preferably not angel hair pasta as I find that it gets soggy. He said he will leave out the celery and corriander but to prove me wrong, he said he's going to specifically use angel hair pasta! He was so confident that I just HAD to say YES.


Soon after, our pasta was ready. Our parma ham-mixed-'shrooms on angel hair ensemble was perfect. The pasta was dry, texture went well with the wine sauce. The parma ham was crispy and the mushrooms were not soggy. It was a bit peppery and unlike most dry pastas, it was not overly oily. The pasta and mushrooms weren't too rich, the parma ham enhanced the flavours as well as the texture.

Although our tummys really couldn't contain anymore food, not even water, we still HAD to have a dessert. Souffle caught my eye and asked our guy to serve it in 20-30 mins while our stomachs digested a bit of our previous food.


25 Minutes later, a fluffy ginger souffle in a ramekin appeared, the sweet smelling dessert caught the attention of a few tables around us. Despite the heat, the dessert was gone in merely 5 minutes. The flavour wasn't too sweet, and the texture was light, melted pretty much the moment it hit my tongue.

It costed about $80USD per person, including one wine. Considering the quality of the food, it was good value. This is not your idea of a romantic date but definitely a fun, warm place to go to with a few friends. Oh, by the way, no corkage which is a big plus!!

Another dish that we tried on another night and proved to be just as delicious:


Garlic Toast and Crab dip: this was on the heavy side and very very filling