The Adventures of Fat Rice

Book excerpt: With 100 recipes, this is the first book to explore the vibrant food culture of Macau—an east-meets-west melting pot of Chinese, Portuguese, Malaysian, and Indian foodways—as seen through the lens of the cult favorite Chicago restaurant, Fat Rice. An hour’s ferry ride from Hong Kong, on the banks of the Pearl River in China, lies Macau—a modern, cosmopolitan city with an unexpected history. For centuries, Macau was one of the world’s greatest trading ports: a Portuguese outpost and crossroads along the spice route, where travelers from Europe, Southeast Asia, South Asia, and mainland China traded resources, culture, and food. The Adventures of Fat Rice is the story of how two Chicago chefs discovered and fell in love with this fascinating and, at least until now, unheralded cuisine. With dishes like Minchi (a classic Macanese meat hash), Po Kok Gai (a Portuguese-influenced chicken curry with chouriço and olives), and Arroz Gordo (if paella and fried rice had a baby), now you, too, can bring the eclectic and wonderfully unique—yet enticingly familiar—flavors of Macau into your own kitchen.