Streets along Ruins of St Paul's, Macau 大三巴

When you are in Macau, there is a famous landmark which you must visit - Ruins of St Paul's (大三巴牌坊). Originally the Cathedral of St Paul, it was destroyed by a fire during a typhoon in 1835. What is left now is the stone facade,  and it is officially enlisted as part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site Historic Centre of Macau in 2005. 

Free shuttle service to San Ma Lo (新馬路) which stops outside Metropole Hotel (京都酒店), a 5 minute walking distance to Senado Square is provided by Galaxy Macau. From Senado Square, there are many shops lined up with local delicacies and souvenirs on your way to the Ruins of St Paul's. 

We passed by St Dominic's Church (玫瑰聖母堂), another Catholic Church which is also part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site Historic Centre of Macau. 

Old style grocery store 雜貨店

Preserved meats 臘味 are still very popular in Hong Kong and Macau

You can't escape from the clutches of Casino, even in a historical area. Grand Lisboa is just within your sight!  

In these metal containers are sweet desserts such as sesame paste, sweet potato dessert, and also savoury items such as artificial shark fin with chicken meat broth, pork and century egg congee & glutinous rice. Weird combination of stuff they sell.

Macau is famous for their pork chop buns (豬扒包). The buns are normally soft baguette filled with a slice of pork chop (with bone). Just along the streets around Senado Square and Ruins of St Paul's, you can find lots of shops selling them. 

Shop no.1 - they are using the huge baguette bun as a gimmick. This shop sells theirs at MOP17 a piece.

Shop no. 2 - this shop has many people queuing up for it, most probably because it is the cheapest. One for RMB10 or MOP/HKD13. However, on closer look, seems like the people are queuing for bubble tea instead...

Shop no. 3 :  大聖豬扒包. This one has a big banner hanging on top promoting their pork chop buns. Limited to 300 per day at MOP15 each.

On closer look, this shop has actually been featured in the popular Korean drama "Boys over Flowers" 《流星花园-花样男子》 where the female lead bought a Portuguese egg tart from this shop, loved it and bought a box of them. However she left her purse at the shop and...if you want to know more of what happened, come visit the shop as it replays the scenes over and over again. No wonder I see many Koreans visit this shop.

Shop no. 4: Cafe Tai Lei Loi Kei 大利來記咖啡室. We caught sight of the youngster holding the banner for this pork chop shop. Ms K says that many bloggers commented that this shop's pork chop buns are nice. Hence we approached him for directions to the shop.

Out of the 4 shops I came across, this one sells the most expensive pork chop buns at MOP25. This shop was originally a cafe located in Taipa, but closed down recently and they relocated here to a small take-away shop near St Paul's Ruins.

The pork chop was well marinated and the bun crisply but MOP25 / SGD4 is a tad too expensive for a pork chop bun.

Besides pork chop buns, the other must eat local snack in Macau is the Portuguese egg tart. We didn't know which one is the popular one, but just happened to pass by Maxims bakery, and the tarts were freshly baked out of oven, so we just bought a few to try.

Tarts were only so so, I felt that the crust was too thick, and nothing special about the egg. Luckily they were still warm when we ate them.

At the foot of the street leading to Ruins of St Paul's (大三巴街), shops line along both sides of the narrow road, mostly selling Macau traditional snacks with the no. 1 popular item being almond biscuits. 

Entrance of 大三巴街 - looks like a Macau version of Harajuku to me.

Many shop assistants carry a big tray of almond biscuits for you to sample. You can only find them here at 大三巴街 and not other shops elsewhere. Competition is stiff here!

Koi Kei (鉅記手信) is still the more popular shop along the street. One of the reasons it is highly popular must be because of Tsai Lan (蔡瀾) who endorses their products. Tsai Lan is a popular food critic, columnist, television host and movie producer famous in Hong Kong. Having him endorse a product must mean that their taste is up to his standards.

According to Koi Kei's website on a market research conducted, they have 71% of the market share in souvenirs bought in Macau in 2011. As per their banner shown on the photo, they have been the no. 1 selling souvenir in Macau for consecutive 9 years.

I think Koi Kei must be one of the most successful businesses in Macau, after the Casinos. 

Just along the short 200m or so street, I have already spotted 3 Koi Kei - Branch 4,5 & 8. Maybe branches 6 & 7 are just around the corner?  Business must be damm good to have so many shops open so close to each other.

KoiKei sells a wide variety of items, but Almond cookies must be their must buy item. I like their egg rolls as well. Mum likes their Ginger sweets.  

Traditional antique store vs modern wine store line up along the street. There is even a painting shop.

We finally reached Ruins of St Paul's 大三巴牌坊.   

Many tourists were taking photos of Ruins of St Paul's, from various parts of the steps leading to St Paul's. Me being a Kiasu Singaporean, I had to take various shots of it too! Which angle is the best?

We came across a roadside stall selling skewers of food. Seems like Macau people like to eat this local street snack, which is cooked in boiling water and dipped in satay sauce.

The stall owner has a bad temper - I was lucky to take this shot secretly when she was looking away.

There was another roadside stall selling fruit and the cherries looked so attractive from far. They were selling for MOP38/SGD6 per pound which is equivalent to approx 450grams. Ms K bought one pound of them. I don't eat cherries, but she said they were not as tasty. 

Ms K wanted to drink bubble tea, and I happened to see a small street with the Gong Cha logo, so we went towards there. Not only was Gong cha there, there were 3 bubble tea shops side by side each other. 

More shops selling skewers and the other specializing in beef offal. These 2 shops are quite popular, many people were queuing to choose their skewers.

If you didn't look up these shophouses, you would have missed these old residential houses which are built above. Hey they may be old, but they are located in the prime area! 

There are many small streets along the area, so if you don't look closer, you would have miss them. We caught sight of this Shanghainese stall selling various types of dumplings. 

Ms K likes to eat gyoza, so we ordered a few of the 锅贴 & 生煎包to last us for the afternoon. They were cheap at MOP1.5 & MOP2 each respectively, but a disappointment.   

On the way along the streets, I saw many people carrying a plastic bag filled with tiny pancakes. After reaching back to Senado square, I finally found the answer. There was a street vendor making pancakes on the spot. The pancakes are so simple to make!  and it only takes a few seconds before they are cooked. 

Senado Square, San Ma Lo and the streets along the Ruins of St Pauls is just a very small area which many tourists frequent. However, just by walking, looking, eating, and taking photos, we already spent close to 4 hours there. 

Here are my list of recommendations when you visit:

1) Try the noodles and congee at Wong Chi Kei 

2) Pork Chop Buns & Portuguese egg tarts are a must!

3) Get some souvenirs from Koi Kei - the almond cookies and egg rolls are good!

4) Take a photo at the Ruins at St Paul's and if you have time, take the steel stairways to climb up to the top of the facade from the rear