Off the Shelf

Hong Kong, Macau and the Muddy Pearl
By Annabel Jackson
(Asia 2000; 138 pages)

"I am not a normal visitor," writes Anna-bel Jackson. "I have far more interest in the sounds than the sights of a city." Add to that the tastes. Jackson has traveled extensively throughout the Pearl River Delta in pursuit of outstanding cuisine and lively dinner companions. In Hong Kong, Macau and the Muddy Pearl, Jackson--who divides her time between Macau and Hong Kong, where she is public relations director of the Mandarin Oriental hotel--proves to be a congenial travel companion herself. The book, her fourth, explores the cultural and culinary connections among the cities along the Pearl. Her observations on the region's arts, architecture, politics and history are filtered through her passion for people-watching and for eating as the locals do. She takes the reader on a connoisseur's walking and dining tour, venturing to such out-of-the-way spots as a garishly lit restaurant in Gangkou deemed by locals to serve the best seafood, or stopping off in Macau's Coloane village to rhapsodize about the casquinhas, or baked crab, served at Cacarola. Jackson is a food lover without being a food snob. Her extensive knowledge of Macanese and Portuguese history and cuisine (her earlier book, Macau on a Plate, is an excellent primer on both) informs her experiences. Only Jackson could conclude that the best Sichuanese food is found in Shenzhen, or that "flaming milk"--a stir-fried concoction of sausage, nuts and egg white--that appears on a menu in Shunde traces its Portuguese-inspired roots downstream to Macau. Jackson has an eye for detail (nobody else can delight in and deconstruct a market in quite the same fashion) and a talent for selecting travel mates. Among them is fellow gourmand Lau Kin-wai, whom she accompanies on a poignant visit to his birthplace, Zhongshan--during which he concludes that he feels more at home in New York, for "the culture, the people and the jazz." Jackson's journey flows like a running conversation, conducted between meals and cities. The pace allows her to uncover treasures beyond the smokestacks and behind the crowds--providing a feast for her and for the reader.

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