Leafing through our itinerary days before our trip to Macau, I was excited for day 3. Not only were we to dine in a Michelin and Miele guide recommended restaurant, we will also get to accompany Chef Antonio as he goes to the market. Sounds exciting, right?

To get to the Red Market, we walked through a lot of streets that were lined with market stalls. Aside from the usual fresh produce, it was interesting to see unique ingredients as well, case in point, black chickens that are literally, naturally black.
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The morning of our second day in Macau found us walking on the famed cobblestones of Macau’s Senado Square. A commercial center in the city’s old district, it blended the old, the new, and the distinctly Macanese. The walk to Senado Square was already an adventure—passing through narrow streets flanked by towering buildings while averting the oncoming scooters and motorbikes demanded much attention.

Exploring the square was another adventure in itself. Here, old, restored Portuguese-themed buildings stood tall and proud—a statement to the territory’s rich heritage, and only the the signs that these stores were a Mc Donald’s or a Starbucks brought you back to the present time. Our walk through this UNESCO heritage site was capped off by a visit to the historic Ruins of St. Paul. A tough task considering the height of the stairs you had to climb, all the while dodging busloads of tourists from Mainland China.
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One of the best ways to get to know a place is through its food. Luckily, our trip to Macau featured lots of it. From their famous pastries to street food to high-end dining, we had an enjoyable variety of food adventures so my biggest challenge here would be to recall them all.

We arrived at Macau in the evening, so the first thing on our agenda was to grab a late dinner. Together with fellow bloggers Nina, Christine, Ferdz, Estan and Ivan, and our Macau Government Tourism Office hosts Charina and Joao, we went off to Travessa da Saudade to meet “The Little Turtle”, a popular noodle master who cooks at that street corner.
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The second part of dementedchris’ food adventures in Beijing. Crazy eats! Reward her for finishing everything. Support her story, A Kind of Flotsam, by casting your vote for it in the Philippine Graphic Fiction People’s Choice Awards. Who knows, we might be able to persuade her to eat crazier things if she wins!

“You have to try some silkworms,” my friend John Rae urged, as we made our way back from the Great Wall. Not that I really needed much urging at that point; I was determined to try something out of the ordinary. And Donghuamen Night Market’s Snack Street, a colorful row of food stalls to the left of Wangfujing, is anything but ordinary.

Here, the everyday meets the exotic. Bowls of steaming noodles sits beside stalls selling sea snakes and sheep penises. When my friends and I were there last summer, it was early evening, and the string of stalls was slowly filling up with people — local teenagers pulling each other in search of a snack, foreigners eager for a taste of adventure. I noticed that a good number carefully watched what everyone else was trying first, in what I would suppose passed for calculated deliberation (or another version of eeny-meeny-miny-moe) in a circumstance like this. Snack Street has plenty for everyone, something you’ll discover as you stroll down the brightly-lit stalls and catch bits of the vendors’ enthusiastic sales talk. Most of the vendors can speak a little English, but the prices are printed on huge boards atop the stalls if you’re not in the mood to negotiate. Even if you end up not trying anything, the experience is an interesting way of spending an evening in Beijing.
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