Macau Food Festival highlights Japanese food

Masanori Yamato (right) and Hayato Shingu (left)

The 17th Macau Food Festival kicked off last Friday at the Sai Van Lake Square, with the Japanese Village food area returning to Macau as one of the highlights of the popular event.

The 17-day festival, which ends November 26, invited more than 150 catering entities, including 25 from Japan.

This year offers food streets with various themes, such as Asian food, European food and desserts, among some other specialties.

This year’s main attraction, Japanese food, will be available at the unique Japanese Village, where traditional Japanese performances will take place.

Masanori Yamato, vice-director of Edosan-Yamatoya Japan Yamato Group Co., Ltd. and director of the Kansai Foods Export Promotion Cooperative Association (KFEPCA), told the Times that KFEPCA had cooperated with the United Association of Food and Beverage Merchants of Macau to bring the exhibition of Japanese cuisine to Macau.

“This is our second time here. Last time was in 2014. The United Association of Food and Beverage Merchants of Macau invited us again to come,” said Masanori Yamato, aided by a translator.

“All our food products are famous back in the Kansai region. We selected them from a great variety of products which are typical of Kansai,” revealed Masanori Yamato, who then emphasized that “we want Macau people to experience Japanese food and we would love to come back again.”

“We transported most of the food ingredients from Japan to Macau, which is a quite difficult process […] Now, we are shipping food from Japan every day,” said Hayato Shingu, Director of the Cargo Development Group, Aviation Sales and Marketing Development of Kansai Airports.

Hayato Shingu also said that despite the difficulties of bringing food from Japan to Macau, they persisted because they want to provide the Macau public with exceptional Japanese food.

Aspect of the event

Ryoma Suminaga, Chief Operating Officer of Misawa Shoten, a Japanese vegetable and fruit supplier, brought fresh fruits from Japan to the festival. He stated that his company was invited by Macau’s importers to be at the festival to provide fresh Japanese fruits to the Macau public. He also told the Times that Misawa Shoten supplies fruit to Wynn, and that the company exports about 500 kg of fruit to Macau every week.

Daisy Zhang, a tourist from Shenzhen, came to Macau specifically for the food festival.

“We have been coming to the food festival every edition for the past three years. This time we came specifically for the opening. The crowds are a lot smaller than last year, but I think it may be because it’s [still] the opening. Last year, we skipped the opening day,” said Zhang, adding that “today, the experience has been better, but tomorrow it might change […] Nevertheless, the transportation around is terrible.”

As she works in the tourism industry, Zhang learnt about the festival from several sources.

“There is a great variety of food, with food from all kinds of places. I have a friend who loves Japanese food. However, when she arrived here, she was a little bit disappointed because the variety of Japanese food was not as diverse as she had imagined.” When asked about the festival’s prices and hygiene, Zhang had mostly good things to say.

“The prices are very reasonable. I think the Japanese food might be slightly above average in terms of prices. The hygiene is also fine. You can hear them announcing hygiene tips and suggestions through the speakers, mainly for people to not throw out trash indiscriminately.”

“We have been coming every year also because we are quite fond of the festival and we want see what differences were implemented between consecutive editions,” she continued.

When discussing possible improvements, Zhang suggested that “there could be shuttle buses at the ferry terminal, which might be a bit more convenient for tourists.”

“The transportation should be better. I noticed that there are no instructions at the bus terminal. The festival is at night, it’s dark, and people are just crossing the streets [from the bus terminal straight to the festival]. I hope the [logistics] can be upgraded,” said Zhang.