IIM to create website focusing on Macanese cuisine

Rufino Ramos

The International Institute of Macau (IIM) announced that this year it plans to establish a website that focuses on Macanese cuisine, providing an interactive page for users to share different recipes.

Speaking on the sidelines of the Young Research Awards, the secretary-general of IIM, Rufino Ramos, told the press that the webpage will not only give an introduction to the history of Macanese food but will also provide a platform for eager residents to contribute their knowledge on Macanese cuisine.

“We’re finalizing it, we have to make it interactive. We want contributions from people with recipes, secrets from the families and also comments and suggestions, photos and so on,” he said.

Questioned on whether IIM planned to work with the Institute for Tourism Studies (IFT), Ramos explained that IIM had provided some information to the tourism institute and expressed his hopes that the IFT would collaborate on the project.

Later this year, IIM will be going to three cities in Brazil to hold seminars discussing “Macau as a Platform for Economic, Commercial and Culture Exchange Between China, Portugal and Brazil.”

Ramos hopes that IIM might also visit Guangdong Province, as there are many Portuguese-language learners in the region.

“We will go to Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo, Recife, and then [return] to Macau and Portugal and [we will also be] in Beijing and hopefully this year in Canton [Guangdong] too,” he said.

Ramos noted that IIM is assisting in the set-up of a museum focusing on the Portuguese presence in Ningbo.

IIM will continue its series of talks on the history of Macau. The first round of talks are being presented in Portuguese-language schools but the series will soon expand to include English and Chinese schools. The talks teach students about the attempted Dutch invasion of Macau in the 17th century.

On Wednesday two local researchers were awarded with the Young Researcher Award.

Since 2001, this award was given once for each of the mentioned areas, and consists of an Honors Diploma and a pecuniary prize of MOP25,000.

The awards were given to Sara Ieong (Economy and Management Area), for her work “Perception of Generation and workers in recruitment and retention in Macau service industry” and Xu Chang (Heritage, Tourism or Identity of Macau Area), for his work, “The Identity of Macanese – Focus on Macanese Cuisine.”

According to the study conducted by Ieong, generation Y values money over opportunities provided in the workplace.

“There is a difference but both of them are very important. We think that for [the] company and service industry, they need to think about how to attract people other than just by using money, opportunity, or potential growth in the future,” Ieong said. LV