The Macao Catering Industry Association held the awards ceremony for its first-ever contest, the “Morro Style Chicken Rice Gold Flavour Award Selection”, at Carmo Hall in Taipa yesterday.
The contest was part of the group’s event “Molo Takes You on a Journey Through Macau”, which was sponsored by the Commercial Development Fund (FDIC).
According to the statement, the competition attracted 189 catering businesses, with four awards presented based on professional judging and a public vote: the “Morro Style Chicken Rice Gold Flavour Award Selection”, the “Traditional Flavour Award”, the “Innovative Flavour Award”, and the “Online Popularity Award”.
The event commenced in March, with a citywide public voting phase held in June that attracted a total of 382,285 votes, the statement said, adding that during the campaign, sales of the Moorish Chicken Rice* (嚤囉雞飯) dish across Macau rose by 30 percent.
The following restaurants have won the “Morro Style Chicken Rice Gold Flavour Award Selection” competition, such as San Hong Café, Ocean Club-Coffee House, Alves Café, The Lee Jia gourmet coffee, Good Day, and La Paloma.
Aeson Lei Ian Leong, president of the association, told reporters on the sidelines that he hopes to promote the initiative on an ongoing basis through an institutionalised annual competition combined with the association’s original IP character, “Molo”. The initiative’s aim is to preserve Macau’s traditional culinary craftsmanship, encourage innovation and improvement within the industry, and raise quality standards across the sector, Lei said. He added that the event also seeks to attract visitors through food and retain them through culture, guiding tourists into local communities for a deeper, more authentic experience of Macau’s distinctive character.
* 嚤囉雞飯 (”Moorish chicken rice”, or arroz de mouro in Portuguese; pronounced molo-kai-fan in Cantonese) is a traditional Macanese fusion dish with deep historical roots blending Portuguese, South Asian (Indian or Malaccan), and local café cultures. “嚤囉” (mo lo) is an old Cantonese transliteration derived from “Moor” (“Mouro” in Portuguese). Historically, it was used in southern China to refer loosely to people from South Asia, the Middle East, or the Islamic world as a whole.
Etymologically, the term “Moors” does not refer to a single distinct ethnic group or nation. Instead, it was an exonym – a name applied by Europeans – to describe the Muslim inhabitants of Northwest Africa, the Iberian Peninsula (modern Spain and Portugal), Sicily, and Malta during the Middle Ages. The term originates from the Latin word “Mauri”, which the ancient Romans used to describe the indigenous Berber-speaking tribes of Mauretania in north-western Africa. – Gemini, MPD
Samples of Moorish Chicken Rice dishes from ALVES CAFÉ displayed at an event held by the Macao Catering Industry Association yesterday at the Carmel Hall in Taipa. – Photo: The Macao Catering Industry Association
