The Almond and Octopus Soup is wonderfully delicious. Photos provided to
Macao is known for its glitzy casinos, Portuguese architecture, Portuguese and Macanese food, antique furniture shopping and sights such as the ruins of St. Paul's. New dining spots are also opening on a much more regular basis here.
In Old Taipa, a quaint area made up of narrow pedestrian streets for visitors to stroll along and admire the art deco buildings, a charming Spanish restaurant has opened up. Near the main pedestrian street of Rua de Cunha sits Casa de Tapas, housed in a three-story restored traditional Macanese shophouse.
Upon entering the restaurant from the ground floor, I imagined myself enjoying a relaxing glass of wine or two at the stylish bar before heading upstairs to the main dining floors. The floor area is not large, but each floor has a simple and welcoming layout.
We dined on the first floor where chef Alfredo M. Perez-Dobon Batlles prepared a few of their cold tapas for us to try.
Casa de Tapas is chef Alfredo's first foray into opening a restaurant outside his native Spain. He talked about his passion for bringing the food, flavors and textures from his homeland to Macao, and from what we tasted, we are happy he decided to move here.
Fairytales on the plate
Taiwan's 'Exquisite' Food Feast
The dish of grilled iberico pork meat cut with spicy chestnut puree on Casa de Tapas' menu is recommended.
Casa de Tapas serves a decent selection of both hot and cold tapas. Highlights include the Octopus, Potato and Paprika, sous-vide Mediterranean octopus which contained a lot of what chef Alfredo referred to as "jelly", white potato simmered in olive oil, and seasoned with a blend of smoked paprika powders; the Prawn Tartar - fresh raw prawns tartar which are "cooked" in lemon juice and served with a healthy drizzle of extra virgin olive oil; and the Potatoes Bravas - a traditional Spanish fried potato dish filled with spicy paprika sauce and topped with apple mayonnaise.
We were also treated to the Asparagus and Orange Salad made with thinly sliced white asparagus, cooked white asparagus, fresh orange chunks, and topped with a generous helping of Manchego cheese.
We managed to sample a good variety of dishes with a couple of wonderfully delicious soups: Almond and Octopus soup, and Gazpacho. For a lighter main dish, the Egg, Vegetables and Iberico Ham is a low-temperature cooked egg with potato crisp, ham, fresh peas, baby green beans and grilled asparagus.
However, the stars were the heavier meat main dishes. The Chicken Marbre is like a beautifully layered lasagne made using thin slices of chicken instead of pasta, and roasted onion and liver replacing the meat sauce and cheese.
If you don't like liver you won't like this dish, but I enjoyed this rich, savory meal. The suckling pig is cooked sous-vide and then roasted so the meat was very tender with crispy skin on the outside.
For those who want to have iberico pork, the iberico pork meat cut is grilled on an outdoor grill and served with a spicy chestnut puree.
The traditional Paella de Marisco made with a good assortment of fresh seafood and saffron-scented rice is the perfect complement to the meat dishes.
Fairytales on the plate
Taiwan's 'Exquisite' Food Feast
Orignal From: Charming house of tapas
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