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Today while strolling around the streets of Rua da Cunha saw standing a long queue; that all goes to the century-old Pastelaria Fong Kei has attracted a group of young tourists from new generations. Since the outbreak of the epidemic, its quite rare to see such lively scenery at the Cunha Streets.

Fong Kei Chinese Bakery

Fong Kei Pastelaria originated back to the 32rd year of Guang Xu, Ching Dynasty times. Its predecessor was once a tea house place which later, the tea place has stopped operating due to poor business profits; thus, have turned focusing in bakery business instead. It has a history of 120 years and is one of the few century-old shops in Macau. Taipa was once a small fishing village centuries ago; and yet lots of people from Macau that time took small boats back and forth enjoying their day trips in Taipa. Quite often prior leaving, they would love buy some gifts for their home, relatives and friends; This habit has not changed till now and which has ended up a collective memory of every local citizen.

Currently focusing family recipe inheritance and operations; they continued to operate as a family business passed down to their third generations; they have won numerous awards and recognition from social media referrals such as the Michelins, Little Red Book, and other well known local foodie agents recommendation and so on. Their most attractive aspects was that they still insists fully hand made products; like pork sliced crisps, bridal cakes and chickee biscuits, etc.; they all have a strong sense of human touch and nostalgic feelings in it.

Yummy Sliced Pork Crisps

Among them, you must try the pork sliced crisps. The shape of this lovely chinese bakery looks like a cow’s ear, with a bit of salty flavor in it; which goes so crispy and tangy, tastes quite unique. Such precious shop pastry created in the early days when the teahouse start operating. Let’s started off with a little story telling here; In the past, most teahouses would sell Chinese desserts and pastries as part of their business instead of just main meals and beverages. When the kitchen discovered some pork leftover, they worried its a kind of a waste, which chefs will think of using residuals making pastries.

This tradition has also created the incarnation of “sliced pork crisp”. Since the said crisp all came from the kitchens cutting board’s leftovers, it also named as “Cut out edible stools”. Though that sounds a bit awful; indeed, well accepted by the public that time.

The must buy items

In general, other traditional bridal cakes made in layered crisps; each standard layered crispy skin all normally cut into thin pieces. Each Fong Kei pieces specially hand pressed. Though their processes intended more on the hand made way compared to other local shops, their winning recipe mix well with its unique taste; and the layered softness all well attuned to just right. The other must buy bridal cakes, chickee biscuits, sliced pork crisps and red bean cakes are their must-buys.

Other snack choice

Other snacks such as the golden peach shaped crisps, walnut crisps, almond cakes, added egg cakes, banana spongy cakes and other Chinese bakery items are also one of the popular snacks. Particularly the Red bean cakes, are quite hard to find in Macau. Those who dislikes red bean would gradually accept its attractive fragrance after tasted. In addition, their layered egg crisps has preserved red bean curd (Nam Yue) flavor, which tastes crispy and crunchy; which extremely difficult to find in Hong Kong China Regions.

The over hundred years of sincerity

At present, the third generation of Gao’s descendants operating as per se; due to the fact that their flagship store are relatively small; they still insist keeping their original nostalgic decoration outlook which lasts a hundred years old. The packaging tempted not be too luxurious, and there is no special display cabinets and outstanding packaging pushing involved business strategies. They adhered original taste as their core concepts delivering their century-old biz characteristics. And because of that, they have attracted thousands of people visiting them admiringly. Compared with other similar chain stores, they appeared to be more prominent; thus till now, showing each family member’s individual small touches and unique hand crafted skills, aimed delivering high-quality product of its own; which in turn, maintaining their sincerity of chinese authentic bakeries over a century and more. Their core values and fundamentals has not changed till now.

Angela Fung

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