This Beef and Pork Minchi Is the King of Macanese Cuisine

If there's one dish that's emblematic of the dizzying cultural melting pot that is Macau, that dish would be minchi.

Believed to have been named after the English word "minced", minchi is widely regarded as the national dish of Macau, and has a murky genesis that is simultaneously credited to both the Anglophone community in Hong Kong, and Goa, another former Portuguese colony.

Pretty much every family in Macau has their own take on the iconic dish, but with countless variations and a damn murky origin that crisscrosses between a cornucopia of cultures, just where is one to turn in one's quest for proper minchi?

Why, to Abraham Conlon of Chicago's Fat Rice, of course.

Conlon shared with MUNCHIES his recipe for beef and pork minchi, which is a play on a minchi he ate during a trip to Macau that he says changed his life. Conlon looked to Macau's past and his own childhood when coming up with the recipe, a necessity that Conlon told us was prompted by the fact that "there is no Escoffier type that has written the Macanese version of Larousse Gastronomique, that can inform you on things like, this is exactly how you do it." When it comes to the food of Macau, he says, "There are base guidelines for specific dishes, but every family has their own variation, "

RECIPE: Beef and Pork Minchi

The Fat Rice version of minchi uses a mixture of minced beef and pork that are slowly cooked in garlic, shallots, and spices, before being drenched in Worcestershire sauce, light and dark soy sauce, and finally, topped with a runny fried egg. Colon says if you can finely and evenly hand chop your meat, you're one step closer to the real deal.

You don't need to have a Macanese grandma to cook like one. Trust us.