Macau’s savory meat-potato hash feels foreign and familiar

As the first European gateway to China, Macau became the center of Portugal’s massive maritime empire in the East. You can still taste the resulting mix of flavors.

Egg-custard tarts, salt cod with garlic, and baked duck rice often are on the menu, though so are galinha à Africana (African chicken), Chinese steamed pork buns and Indian coconut curry.

Now imagine that kind of cultural convergence all in one dish — minchi, a minced-meat hash for which every family has its own throw-it-together recipe. It usually includes potatoes and tomato paste brought by the Portuguese, common Chinese ingredients like rice vinegar and soy sauce, and even Worcestershire sauce from the British, who also used Macau as a base before founding Hong Kong across the Pearl River Estuary in 1841.

Stir-fried together with ground pork and a little brown sugar, the hash tastes savory and slightly sweet, and altogether comforting.

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