Feeling Lucky?

I returned to Macao Friends with some trepidation to find that some similarly random ordering resulted in a fabulous meal. From the appetizers, Portuguese-style mackerel fish balls (a half-dozen for $5.50) turned out to be much like the famed Portuguese bacalhau, minced fish blended with mashed potatoes and fried. Short ribs ($5.95) were sliced thin, and their translucent garlic sauce was perfect for sopping up steamed rice. The ginger and green onion beef hot pot ($8) was tender and redolent of fresh hot ginger. Both the Macau-style fried shrimp ($8.50) and the Macau-style fried crab (normally call-ahead and $18.95, but that night on special for $16.95) were salty, peppery, and drenched in chopped chiles.

Our return to T 28 for another round of comfort food was less comforting. The ginger and green onion beef hot pot ($7.95) paled almost literally in comparison with Macao Friends' version: generous in serving size, but the beef was not as tasty, there were fewer onions, and the ginger was far less prominent. Steamed greenlip mussels ($4.25) suffered from a coating of acrid garlic from a jar. The deep-fried samosas stuffed with curried mashed potatoes ($3.75) were merely okay, and the rice noodle rolls with combination sauce ($3.50), suggested as an alternate when I tried to order crispy fried milk dumpling ($5.25) were kind of dull. They were silky, bland rolls of noodles, dabbed at one end with red hot sauce, black oyster sauce, and a beige sauce that turned out to be hot peanut butter. Surprisingly, that made me yearn for a rerun of the peanut butter toast. That had been a lucky choice. I'm sure many more await at both Macao Friends and T 28 for those willing to take a gamble.