Made in Macao | Surviving the coldest days in Macao

Jenny Lao-Phillips

Generally speaking, Macao has no real winter now. The winter I remember when I was a child used to be between three to nine degrees, sometimes as low as one degree. And the cold season lasted from December to February. For three months, people were balled up with sweaters over sweaters and coated with dull-coloured old style min-naap, covered from head to toes, without caring for fashion at all. But winter in Macao is gone, to quote Donald Trump, due to that “good old global warming”. Mini-skirts can be worn all year round. But even for a few days, we still need to be prepared for the cold, especially when we do not have three months to get used to the weather now.

Although winters are now shorter and warmer, with only a few days a year where the temperature drops down to the single digits, we cannot be fooled by the temperature. Due to humidity, sometimes the temperature and the real feel does not match, even when it seems warm and sunny outside, once we step into the shades it’s a whole different world, blame the humidity. Especially for people with “internal cold syndrome”, according to Chinese medicine practice, they already suffer from cold hands and feet all year round, something to do with the lack of yang (as in yin and yang) and fire, it is worse during the cold humid days. How about people with “internal heat syndrome”? Are they immune from the chill of the cold weather? Apparently, even people with “internal heat syndrome” could suffer from freezing hands and feet if the internal heat gets trapped and is unable to deliver warmth to other parts of the body. So, basically, whether our body belongs to the “internal cold” or the “internal heat” side of Chinese medical diagnosis, winter in South China is bad for health according to the older generation.

So what do the locals do to survive the few cold days? One is to have lamb belly hot pot. Apparently, hot pot is good for warming up the body, but not all the food we throw into the pot are good for people with “internal cold syndrome”, like radish and lettuce. But red meat is sure to be good for both the “colds” and the “hots” in cold, humid temperatures. So, not sure if it was Hong Kong first or Macao first, but we created the special dish of “lamb belly hot pot with bean curd”, which many Chinese restaurants start promoting as soon as winter arrives. And more than three acquaintances from the older generation of locals advised me to “have some lamb belly hot pot” to counter the cold weather.

Having the internal cold dealt with, the other advice I received a lot is to get a few hot water bottles. Central heating has never been of common use in this part of the world, but in the past, every family has a couple of large heaters at home. Perhaps due to household safety reasons, or the short winter days now, heaters are no longer an essential household appliance, more people are using hot water bottles for keeping warm instead. In fact, many prefer bottles to heaters as they are more portable, and unlike heaters, they don’t dry up our skin. Aside from hot water bottles, people are also stocking up on “heat bags” for temporary warmth.

So, in my search on how people survive this cold week, three things turn up to be most essential: eating lamb belly hot pot, keeping hot water bottles in beds and couches and always pocket a couple of heat bags.