With the close proximity of her home and restaurant both based in NAPE, Macau, Cecilia Wong’s busy life revolves seamlessly around family and business.
In 2019, Cecilia Wong bought her apartment on Rua de Roma in NAPE, Macau; the building has a particular significance for her and her husband Ken. They had met a few years earlier through friends at a New Year gathering and “after the countdown we all decided to go somewhere for supper and ended up at a restaurant which happens to be downstairs of our apartment. So it’s a special place to us – we met here and now we live in the same building!”
The 3-bedroom, 2-bathroom apartment was originally in poor condition needing a full renovation, new electrics, new plumbing and external wall water proofing in one of the bedrooms. Fortunately, Ken is an engineer and has a contracting company that remodels and renovates residential and commercial properties, so he was well placed to do the work.
“As we enjoy entertaining, we decided to reduce the size of the kitchen to give more room in the dining and living room” explains Cecilia. “We have two children and Ken has two brothers and so on weekends all the families get together, there’s lots of kids, sometimes we have gatherings of as many as 17 – so we needed a bigger living space.”
Clever use has been made of pocket doors to save on space, at the hallway separating the living room from the bedrooms, and in both bathrooms. And the guest bathroom door is camouflaged behind a white brick wallpapered façade, “for fung shui reasons, my mother convinced us to do this so that the bathroom door doesn’t face the living area!”
It is clear that Cecilia and Ken are extremely supportive and encouraging parents; everywhere one looks in the home there are signs of their children’s artistic and sporting achievements, be it for fencing, piano, art, basketball. Medals, trophies and several paintings fill the cabinets and adorn the walls. And the piano? “This is my oldest son’s” smiles Cecilia. “I made him promise that if we bought him a piano, he would study to at least Grade 4. He’s achieved Grade 6, but is now more interested in basketball!”
Cecilia herself studied commerce, accounting and finance in Melbourne. “I’ve always loved hospitality – I wanted to go to Switzerland to study there but as an only child my mother felt that I would be too far away from the family so we settled on Australia to be closer. My degree helped me develop a business mind and I followed it up with a Master’s in Business Administration at the Macau University. I was in the last year that studied at the old university campus before it moved over to Hengqin. I used to go to the new campus for meetings with my dissertation supervisor.”
After graduation, Cecilia’s first job was with MGM Macau, where she worked front of house in customer service. “Then my uncle persuaded me to return to Macau to help manage some jewelry shops in the VIP casinos and the Grand Lisboa. We started with one shop and grew to eight. I was general manager – I did this for 4 years. I was young, I worked SO hard – sometimes as much as 20 hours a day! It was a great opportunity, a great experience, I learned a lot. When the government decided that the jewelry shops should move out of the casinos, the number of our shops reduced.”
Hospitality came calling … “It’s in my blood!” she laughs. “I joined JW Marriot Hotel as a Food and Beverage Manager, planning and managing events, large banquets, seasonal promotions – communicating and coordinating with the different departments, with the chefs. I then went into the wine business; my uncle was setting up a new company and wanted my support. We went to Japan and our company Dr. Wine became approved, exclusive distributors in Macau of DASSAI Sake.” Popular in Japan and now in Macau, it’s a premium product and sold through a shop in Lisboetta and in most supermarkets.
Though busy with Dr. Wine, it didn’t help lessen Cecilia’s yearning to have her own restaurant business and by mid-2023, as Macau was gradually recovering from the Covid lockdown, she came across a two-storey premises for rent on Ave do Governador Jaime Silveerio Marques, NAPE within 100 yards of her home. Strategically located opposite a school, near the City University and within a short walk from the many office buildings in NAPE, this excellent location presented an opportunity for her first ‘cha chaan teng’ or ‘tea restaurant’.
Similar to the iconic, fast-paced Hong Kong eateries that serve affordable, East-meets-West comfort food, Cecilia wanted her place to offer local charm, shared tables and efficient service. She teamed up with business partner Mica Silva; “we’ve been friends and past colleagues for more than 10 years, since my time with the jewelry shops, so we totally understand and trust each other.” And Mica has a similar passion for hospitality; when attending school in Northampton, England, where there’s a small community of Macanese, Mica lived with a Macanese host family, watching them cook, helping in the kitchen and learning the use of ingredients for Macanese cuisine. “I went on to study psychology at Manchester University … how is psychology related to hospitality? Well they’re both people businesses!”
“Opening in October 2023 our restaurant is called Coffoodies. We serve Fusion Macanese dishes, like our Portuguese chicken on noodles – for our curry sauce we use coconut and turmeric,” explains Mica. Operating 7 days a week, “we open for breakfast at 7.30am when we get the school and university students, the parents. Lunchtime trade is busy with the office workers and then the local residents come for supper. We close at 10pm. We have four chefs, four waiting staff and some part time when we need.” Specialties are croissant with prawns and egg, beef curry, Minchi and a variety of noodle and rice dishes. Another popular dish is the ‘Hac Bac Ying Yeung Lai Yau’ – a crunchy, toasted bun spread with a sweet black and white sauce. French toast sprinkled with popcorn “we invented this”, is served with ice cream.
“We focus on what we’re best at, aiming for quality, delicious food at reasonable prices” stress the two partners. “Students have limited budgets and office workers don’t want to spend MOP100 for their lunch, MOP35-40 is more their target spend” adds Cecilia. “We keep our prices very fair – noodle dishes around MOP30, rice dishes around MOP40. The trend in Macau on spending is that people focus on mid-price items, not luxury. The economy is not so stable so in this environment people take care with their spending. We have competition from across the border in China where prices are low and quality is high.”
What other challenges does the business face? “We are lucky we have steady regular clients. When the schools and universities are closed for the long holidays then we promote to tourists, via our influencer friends, Facebook, Mfood promotions, Red Note and the like. The difficulty is when we introduce new dishes to satisfy the regulars, but then we get grumbles when we have to take some dishes off – like recently we took off tofu to make room for a new dish, and there was an outcry!” laughs Mica.
Both Cecilia and Mica have studied and worked overseas and decided to return home to Macau – what do they love about this place that draws them back? “Its convenience, its safety!” they both exclaim. “It’s not a big city,” adds Cecilia, “but it offers everything. There’s little traffic, its easy getting around, people all have jobs and are busy, there’s no beggars on the streets. We have beautiful hotels. When I compare with other places when we travel, Macau is so clean. The Macau people are friendly and they welcome and seem genuinely interested in visitors from different countries. And we have an interesting historical background, a fusion of cultures … lovely old Portuguese style buildings, full of Chinese!”
Article and photographs by Suzanne Watkinson of Ambiente Macau – for the Macau Closer magazine
