One of the things I like best about trying a variety of restaurants is learning about the culinary history of different countries. The cuisine of any country is made up of local foodstuffs mixed with the imported tastes of settlers. That's how we ended up with things like deep-dish pizza and chop suey as distinctly American foods. And the Central Valley is one of the most culturally diverse areas of the U.S. (see my article from Edible Sacramento magazine two years ago). So Sacramento is a great place to learn about other cultures through their food.
Someone at the Portuguese Historical Society had told me awhile ago about Macau Cafe in South Land Park as an example of Portuguese food. (I was hoping for baked goods, but I'll take what I can get.) Macau is a peninsula just off mainland China that was settled by Portuguese traders in the 16th century and just received semi-autonomy in 1999. So it was one of the longest held colonies in the extensive Portuguese empire. Other Portuguese colonies like Brazil and Sao Tome have similarly interesting culinary and cultural mash-ups.
Anyway, I finally made it to Macau Cafe recently and am now kicking myself for not going sooner. Part of the restaurant group Culinary Wonderland, Inc., that also runs New Canton and New Lai Wah here, Macau Cafe is in the same semi-dumpy shopping center as Prime Supermarket. So I wasn't quite sure what to expect. Luckily, though, it was better than I had hoped.
We went on a Tuesday night and the place was packed the whole time we ate, with our table being the only Caucasian people there. I may be wrong about this, and I don't want to make assumptions, but I always think it bodes well when there are lots of people present of the same ethnicity as the restaurant. Makes you think it might be authentic, or at least pretty decent. The booklike menus have over 230 dishes you can order and the walls were plastered with photos of additional dishes, with titles in English and Chinese. Some were only in Chinese, which made me even more curious about what they were. So we could only taste a fraction of the offerings, but decided to try a combination of Chinese and Portuguese dishes.
We started with an avocado milkshake and a banana milkshake--one because we'd never had it before and the other because we had and wanted to see how good this version was. I'm not sure I'm sold on avocado in a milkshake, but it wasn't too sweet, which was nice. The banana version rocked.
To eat, we ordered Macau Country Stir-Fry ($8.95), Chinese Sausage and Frog Rice Casserole ($6.95), Stir-Fried Pea Shoots with Garlic ($9.95), Cashew Chicken ($7.95), and some dumplings from one of the wall photos. The stir-fry (pictured at top) came with slices of lotus, chunks of pork, shrimp, big slices of crunchy celery, and a flavorful sauce that didn't have any gumminess sometimes found in Chinese food. It was listed under "Macau Specials," which also included Supreme Broth with Bitter Melon and Clams and Portuguese Stir-Fried Beef Spare Ribs. The casserole (second photo) came in an individual pot. The frog was prepared classically, which is to say that it had bones and all. The sausage was the dried spicy Chinese variety. The flavor of the casserole was meaty and complex, but the many small bones of the frog were not much fun to eat around. The bok choy on top was perfectly crisp-tender.
Similarly, the stir-fried pea shoots were fantastic, with slivers of garlic tossed throughout. I was expecting the least from the cashew chicken, but it was an excellent version of this standard Chinese restaurant dish. Juicy chunks of chicken, perfectly cooked asparagus, and toasted cashews all came together with no cornstarch-thickened sauce. None of the dishes suffered from the excess saltiness you often find in American Chinese food. The dumplings were the least interesting--tender but nondescript, although the bright red sauce that came with them added an odd sweetness to the mix.
The menu is so vast that I can't imagine tasting everything, ranging as it does from Swiss Steak to BBQ Eel, Clam Congee to Fried Eggs with Pork Chop, and Russian Borsch to a seasonal Sampan Crab with Garlic and Chili Pepper Salt. One guy came in and ordered a steak with a side of spaghetti. All the while, "Dancing with the Stars" played on the three flat screen TVs in the small space. TVs in restaurants always bug me, but at least the sound was muted.
Macau Cafe is open seven days a week, from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m., so you can go for any meal. They also serve family specials for 3 to 8 people, which include eight or nine different dishes for the table. I also just discovered that you can look up the county food inspection results for any place in Sacramento and was relieved to find minor infractions for Macau that had been quickly fixed. Next time I go (which will be soon, I'm sure), I want to try one of the Portuguese-style curries and a clay pot dish like diced chicken, eggplant, and tofu. It's all so interesting, it makes me feel like I traveled without having to get on a plane.
Macau Cafe4412 Del Rio Road (just south of Sutterville)916-457-8818M-Su, 11 a.m. to 10 p.m.
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