Made in Macao | Celebration of foods

Jenny Lao-Phillips

It was quite surprising to hear the sound of a small explosion somewhere in Macau on Black Friday. At once, I realized, being Macau, it must be the fireworks. What are we celebrating again? Being used to identify information on certain events, I consulted the mighty Facebook, and found my answer immediately – opening of the Macao Food Festival. Well, that deserves some fireworks. How often can we find various kinds of cuisines gathered in one place, while having the opportunity to  taste food from different restaurants just steps away from each other? Wait a minute, this is Macau, isn’t every day a food festival?
I recall when the Food Festival was first celebrated fifteen years ago that it was quite an exciting event for local citizens. I went to the Sai Wan Lake Square almost every day, one day with classmates, another day with friends, and then with family, and we saw the same faces patronizing the Food Festival there quite often. There seemed to be so much food we wanted to try, but we couldn’t try it all in one day. What’s more, everything was relatively inexpensive, allowing students like us to enjoy what we normally couldn’t afford. But then years later, the excitement was gone.
So, to be more objective, I ran a quick survey with students and friends, and there seems to be quite a few reasons why the Food Festival does not appeal to local citizens as much as it previously did.
Firstly, access to the Nam Van Lake Square during the days of the Food Festival is a nightmare. Aside from walking, there seems to be no other way of getting to the location without attending in a bad mood. There are many buses that take us to the Macao Tower, and there is a shuttle bus dedicated to the Food Festival, but not only is it difficult to board one of these forms of public transportation, it takes more time to get there using these means than to walk. Not to mention the difficulty for drivers to find parking spaces. And then, when we get there, even walking around the venue is a traffic jam.
Moreover, the choices at the Food Festival are seen as quite a disappointment. Fifteen years ago, there were new things to try; we were able to try samples from some small food and beverage outlets with which we weren’t previously familiar. But after several years, the selection is still the same. There are a large number of food booths from the same food chains offering similar food, but at a higher price than what they charge at their restaurants. Even those that do not belong to the food corporations, were the same as the year before that, and the year before that, just increasing in cost.
Fifteen years ago, some of these small restaurants were not well-known, and the Food Festival served as a good platform for them to promote themselves. Ten years later, these SMEs don’t really need the Food Festival for promotional purposes anymore. I was shocked to find the food sold at the festival more expensive than in their own shops.
Of course, there are new offerings. Every year the organizers invite participants from nearby countries to provide their local cuisine. But I don’t believe this is attractive for local citizens who quite often travel to those countries for vacation. Isn’t it better to try local Korean, Japanese or Thai cuisine in Korea, Japan or Thailand than at the Food Festival in Macao?
Perhaps I should give the Food Festival this year the benefit of the doubt and try taking a stroll around the venue. Who knows? Maybe after five years I may find some new restaurants or new dishes that make my trip worth the while. However, I would prefer walking around town, buying street food and local delicacies from lesser-known traditional small shops, enjoying my own version of the food festival in Macau.