If I could import only one dish that Vegas doesn’t have, it would be frango chicken, a Portuguese or Macanese rotisserie chicken slathered with piri-piri peppers from the coast of Angola. The lucky gamblers on the Cotai Strip in Macau, China’s answer to Las Vegas Boulevard, must find solace in this dish on their losing nights.
Little Macau, a new restaurant and gaming bar in Chinatown, has something it calls African chicken wings, and while a good dish in its own right, it doesn’t transport me to the Asian boomtown quite that completely.
In fact, we don’t really have what you’d call a Macanese restaurant at all, in spite of the rash of them that have opened in Southern California. The cooking of Macau is uniquely delicious. It’s a hybrid of southern Chinese and Portuguese influences, and it relies heavily on condiments such as turmeric, coconut milk and cinnamon.
But now there is, in name at least, a place called Little Macau, which purports to
serve Macau-style dishes, which are prepared in a kitchen the restaurant and gaming bar shares with the DLK Korean restaurant next door. Eating at Little Macau tends to be fun, exotic and satisfying. I’m not sure how Macanese the food is, but who cares?
This is a huge place with a high ceiling, an enormous marble-topped bar that seats more than 20 and various nooks in which to sit and dine, on high stools, leather sofas and a variety of designer chairs. The far rear room affords maximum privacy. Sit out front, or at the bar, and you’ll probably find yourself watching one of the many plasma-screen TVs. (I don’t know about you, but few of my dates ever find ESPN’s Baseball Tonight romantic.)
One of the clever menu innovations is giving the prices in MCP, Macau’s former unit of money. (If you go today, you’ll pay for your sins in Chinese yuan.) The best of the Little Macau Signature Drinks is probably the pineapple mojito, or the Macau three-way iced tea, described as a “Long Island Iced Tea on steroids.”
But I’m here to eat, and there are lots of good things to enjoy. Little Macau’s Signature Dumplings can be had fried or steamed, with a minced-pork or shrimp filling. They are more like Korean mandu than the fluffy pork buns you’d buy on the street in Macau, but they also happen to be addictively good, and you can’t stop eating them.
The fried-rice dishes are the best bargain on the menu, also excellent, with your choice of beef, shrimp or vegetables stir-fried into the mix. There are a few nice salads to choose from if you want something light, or say, after hours, since the kitchen serves food all night here. Salmon de faixa is a salad of spring greens topped with two large grilled-salmon filets; salad do tofu might also hit the spot, a vegan salad with a nice sesame-oil vinaigrette. There is also a section of the menu called Mild and Tasty, where dishes can be had with white rice or a pile of french fries. One of these dishes, bone-in Korean-style short ribs, is the famous Korean barbecue dish galbi, strips of rib meat on the bone redolent of sesame oil, garlic and ginger. That’s what the folks next door at DLK are lining up for (although if you get it in there, you’ll probably have to cook it yourself on a brazier in your table). There is also a garlic and soy-marinated chicken breast that is fairly generic, garnished with lots of green onion. Neither of these dishes, of course, is intended to recall Macau.
But the Hot, Sweet and Sour section of the menu comes as close as anything you’ll find in Vegas. The African chicken wings are softly battered and pan-fried, smothered in a mouth-searing red sauce astride a huge pile of french fries. Little Macau spicy short ribs are taken off the bone and cooked in the same sauce, which works better with the chicken than with the beef.
There is a nice stir-fried pork dish called carne de porco with green beans, and a shrimp stir-fry called shrimp fritado, a mélange of fresh shrimp with savory, stir-fried vegetables. A few of these dishes, I’ve been told, were created for Little Macau by the Korean chef next door, to meet the specifications of the ownership. They’ve done a bang-up job.
There are a few desserts, such as tiramisu, and a workmanlike chocolate mousse cake, and the one truly Macanese dessert, the Portuguese egg tart. If you’ve ever eaten in a dim sum restaurant, you’ve seen this flaky, round tart with the canary-yellow center. They are wonderful, especially with tea, and it would be too bad if the management here decides to take them off the menu, which they have said might happen soon.
Little Macau
3939 Spring Mountain Road. 222-3196. Open 24/7. Suggested dishes: dumplings, $7-$8; African chicken wings, $10; bone-in Korean-style short ribs, $14; Portuguese egg tart, $3.