IN THE MEDIA
The Macau Daily Post | 2025-07-22
Macanese food book enjoys success at HK Book Fair
Review by Rachel T.
At the Hong Kong Book Fair 2025 on Wednesday, the Macau Cultural Affairs Bureau (IC) hosted a book launch for the Chinese edition of “The Making of Macau’s Fusion Cuisine: From Family Table to World Stage” – complete with a sharing session about the book and related topics such as food, memory and identity, hosted by Hong Kong-based British food writer Annabel Jackson, who wrote the book, and translators Swallow Xu and Stephanie Li from Macau-based translation company PROMPT.
The event was a great success, highlighting this year’s Hong Kong Book Fair’s theme of “Food Culture • Future Living”.
The session started with Jackson talking about how this book was born out of research through interviewing 2,000 Macanese*, highlighting her insights into (and worries about the future of) Macanese cuisine as an important part of Macanese identity - even though it was almost on the verge of becoming a museum piece, while looking forward to its contemporary evolution being served at high-end restaurants.
Xu and Li shed some light on the challenging translation process as well as sharing a few fun takeaways regarding dishes and food ingredients from the book, which elicited some laughter.
It also included interactive Q&A, with audience members asking thought-provoking questions, which Jackson tried to clarify, most notably on the internationalisation of Macanese cuisine, with the author mentioning several successful restaurants around the world. Yet, she also acknowledged that Macanese cuisine is hard to define, facing challenges to remain traditional, and seeking contemporary adaptations that could be a way forward.
The event, conducted in English and Cantonese in a lively ambience, attracted a food-interested, multigenerational audience from near and far, including Macanese and Chinese, as well as culinary experts from home and abroad, notably Prof. Thomas DuBois, a historian of modern China from Beijing Normal University, Chris Thomas, a Chinese food and culture influencer from the United States, and a master’s degree candidate studying food anthropology related to Portugal who travelled to the session all the way from Hangzhou, the capital city of Zhejiang Province.
This book talk proved to be a cultural exchange event promoting Macau’s unique, interesting cuisine and culture. Participants expressed wishes for more similar publications and events to come in the future.
*Customarily, the term “Macanese” denotes Macau’s community of mixed Portuguese and Asian extraction and its diaspora, as well as its cuisine, customs and culture. Macanese cookery is one of the world's oldest European-Asian fusion cuisines, comprising Portuguese, African, Indian, Malay, Chinese and other Asian recipes and ingredients. – HB
Translator Swallow Xu (left) addresses Wednesday’s sharing session during the Hong Kong Book Fair at the Hong Kong Convention Centre, as fellow translator Stephanie Li (centre) and author Annabel Jackson look on. – Photo: Tomas D.