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Minchee,or minchi,is a Macanese dish based on minced or ground meat stir-fried with vegetables and seasoned. It is widely considered Macau's national dish.
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Minchee,or minchi,is a Macanese dish based on minced or ground meat stir-fried with vegetables and seasoned. It is widely considered Macau's national dish.
It’s an East-meets-West type of dish. Macau’s food has a fusion of Cantonese,Portuguese,South America,Malay,Africa,and India. [1] While recipes vary,the dish is generally based on minced or ground meat. It is made with beef or pork with onions,cubed potatoes,and sometimes mushrooms,slightly stir-fried,and flavoured with Worcestershire sauce,molasses and soy sauce. [2] [3] When served with a fried egg on top it is called minchee chow dan. (Chinese :免治炒蛋).
The term minchi came relatively late into Macanese vocabulary. After the founding of Hong Kong in 1841 many Macanese sought residency there,settling at the mid-level bairro (district) of Mato-de-Mouro. In time as English became more entrenched in daily conversation,Minchi –from the English "to mince" –replaced Kheema to describe this savory culinary staple of the Macanese people. [4]
According to The Splendid Table,this suggests "the dish may have been introduced to Macau by the Anglophone community in Hong Kong,though other histories place its origins in Goa,another Portuguese province." [5]
The odyssey of minchi starts with Kheema ,the term used by many Indians for finely minced meat usually of goat and lamb. When Portuguese seafarers arrived in India in 1498 they wanted to affirm and distinguish themselves as Christians. The cow is sacred to Hindu Indians who are proscribed from eating its flesh,so to proclaim their affirmation as Christians,Portuguese merchants and Christian converts made their Kheema with beef as a designation of their faith. [4]
On to 16th century Malacca,which was the hub of the Maritime Spice Trade for sailing vessels converging from India,China,and South-east Asia. In 1511 Portuguese caravelas –relatively small but sturdy sailing vessels with broad bows,high poops,and lateen sails –arrived. The Portuguese promptly seized Malacca by force of arms and made it their trading settlement. They discovered that Chinese merchants from Fujian province had already pre-dated their arrival by many decades. Knowing that the eating of pork is forbidden to Muslims and following upon the principle established in Hindu India of relating dietary choice to religious and ethnic designation,pork was substituted for beef in the Kheema dishes eaten by Christians in Malacca. [4]
In succeeding decades Portuguese traders and their mestizo and misturado crew of Fujianese,Malaccans,Ceylonese,Indians,Burmese,Thai,Cambodians and Vietnamese sailed out of Malacca and some South-east Asian trading ports for the coast of China. And with them came along the taste,smell,cooking style,ingredients and new crops that would define our Cozinhação Macaista (Macanese Cuisine). [4]
Portuguese traders maintained seasonal temporary settlements along the China coast. By 1543 Portuguese traders aboard a Chinese junk arrived at Kagoshima,the most southerly port in Kyushu,Japan. [4]
In 1557,local Chinese authorities permitted the traders,many of them Lusodescendentes (of Portuguese descent) to establish a permanent settlement at a small peninsula on the western edge of the Pearl River estuary. Thus was born A Cidade do Sacrado Nome de Deus na China (the City of the Holy Name of God in China). [4]
The opening of the Japan Trade soon followed in the mid-1560's. Japanese elites at Kagoshima and Nagasaki desired rare Chinese silks,gold,spices,and exotic European products such as woolens,clocks,firearms,and Western curios. In return Chinese merchants at Guangchow (Canton) wanted Japanese silver. Macau served as the intermediary port between China and Japan. [4]
The Jesuits,scholars all,produced the first Japanese-Portuguese dictionary. More important for us,they translated the first haute cuisine cookbooks used by the elites of Goa and Macau into Japanese. The Japanese elites enthusiastically embraced this introduced cuisine. The Macanese pork Kheema of that time became the Japanese Donburi ,which to this day is served "with minced pork and egg over rice". Our porco póbolacho (crumbed pork cutlets) became their Tonkatsu . Tempura and Teriyaki dishes have Macanese beginnings. The Portuguese Pão-de-Ló transformed into their refined Castela Cake. [4]
The Kurofune voyages made Macau one of the wealthiest places in the world for that time. This wealth allowed the Jesuits to build,with Japanese artisans,the most imposing church east of Goa,A Igreja de Madre de Deus (the Church of the Mother of God),and the seminary of Colégio de São Paulo (St Paul's College),and the noted contemplative retreat of hilltop Monte. Macau was indeed a Catholic city. Direct Portuguese administration was nominal and limited and subsumed to the standing Capitão-Mor (Captain-General) of the Kurofune voyages supported by the Provincial head of the Jesuit Order resident at Macau. [4]
It is according to The Splendid Table "one of the most prized dishes of Macau and has as many variations as there are cooks that make it." [5] According to Vice it is "one dish that's emblematic of the dizzying cultural melting pot that is Macau" and is "widely regarded as the national dish". [2] It is a dish traditionally served in homes;typically every home cook has their own recipe. [6] [7] [8]
The Portuguese families in Macau,a tight-knit community,developed their own unique culture,patois (patuá) and fusion cuisine and called themselves "Macaense" or in English "Macanese". [9]
Hash is a dish consisting of chopped meat,potatoes,and fried onions. The name is derived from French:hacher,meaning 'to chop'. It originated as a way to use up leftovers. In the U.S. by the 1860s,a cheap restaurant was called a "hash house" or "hashery."
A schnitzel,colloquially known in Australian English as a schnitty,is a thin slice of meat. The meat is usually thinned by pounding with a meat tenderizer. Most commonly,the meat is breaded before frying. Breaded schnitzel is popular in many countries and is made using veal,pork,chicken,mutton,beef,or turkey. Schnitzel is very similar to the dish escalope in France and Spain,panado in Portugal,tonkatsu in Japan,cotoletta in Italy,kotlet schabowy in Poland,milanesa in Latin America,chuleta valluna in Colombia,chicken chop in Malaysia,and chicken-fried steak and pork tenderloin of the United States.
A frikadelle is a rounded,flat-bottomed,pan-fried meatball of minced meat,often likened to the German version of meatballs. The origin of the dish is unknown. The term frikadelle is German but the dish is associated with German,Nordic and Polish cuisines. They are one of the most popular meals in Poland,where they are known as kotlety mielone.
Egg foo young is an omelette dish found in Chinese Indonesian,British Chinese,and Chinese American cuisine. The name comes from the Cantonese language. Egg foo young is derived from fu yung egg slices,a mainland Chinese recipe from Guangdong.
Macanese cuisine is mainly influenced by Chinese cuisine,especially Cantonese cuisine and European cuisine,especially Portuguese cuisine and influences from Southeast Asia and the Lusophone world,due to Macau's past as a Portuguese colony and long history of being an international tourist gambling centre.
Cutlet refers to:
Picadillo is a traditional dish in many Latin American countries including Mexico and Cuba,as well as the Philippines. It is made with ground meat,tomatoes,and also raisins,olives,and other ingredients that vary by region. The name comes from the Spanish word picar,meaning "to mince".
Shumai is a type of traditional Chinese dumpling. In Cantonese cuisine,it is usually served as a dim sum snack. In addition to accompanying the Chinese diaspora,a variation of shumai also appears in Japan as,various southeast Asian countries and Australia as the dim sim.
Goan cuisine consists of regional foods popular in Goa,an Indian state located along India's west coast on the shore of the Arabian Sea. Rice,seafood,coconut,vegetables,meat,bread,pork and local spices are some of the main ingredients in Goan cuisine. Use of kokum and vinegar is another distinct feature. Goan food is considered incomplete without fish.
Indian Singaporean cuisine refers to food and beverages produced and consumed in Singapore that are derived,wholly or in part,from South Asian culinary traditions. The great variety of Singapore food includes Indian food,which tends to be Tamil cuisine and especially local Tamil Muslim cuisine,although North Indian food has become more visible recently. Indian dishes have become modified to different degrees,after years of contact with other Singapore cultures,and in response to locally available ingredients as well as changing local tastes. The local forms of Indian food may be seen as localised or even regional variations of Indian food,or in some cases,a form of hybrid Indian-Singaporean cuisine. Popular 'Indian' dishes and elements of Indian cuisine include:
A croquette is a deep-fried roll originating in French cuisine,consisting of a thick binder combined with a filling,which is then breaded. It is served as a side dish,a snack,or fast food worldwide.
A meatball is ground meat (mince) rolled into a ball,sometimes along with other ingredients,such as bread crumbs,minced onion,eggs,butter,and seasoning. Meatballs are cooked by frying,baking,steaming,or braising in sauce. There are many types of meatballs using different types of meats and spices. The term is sometimes extended to meatless versions based on vegetables or fish;the latter are also commonly known as fish balls.
Breaded cutlet or braised cutlet is a dish made from coating a cutlet of meat with breading or batter and either frying or baking it.
Betawi cuisine is rich,diverse and eclectic,in part because the Betawi people that create them were composed from numbers of regional immigrants that came from various places in the Indonesian archipelago,as well as Chinese,Indian,Arab,and European traders,visitors and immigrants that were attracted to the port city of Batavia since centuries ago.
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Indo cuisine is a fusion cooking and cuisine tradition,mainly existing in Indonesia and the Netherlands,as well as Belgium,South Africa and Suriname. This cuisine characterized of fusion cuisine that consists of original Indonesian cuisine with Eurasian-influences—mainly Dutch,also Portuguese,Spanish,French and British—and vice versa. Nowaday,not only Indo people consume Indo cuisine,but also Indonesians and Dutch people.
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