Macao, trip ... at home!

Between Friday, November 6th, 2010 and Saturday, November 7th I go to Macau, city chosen along with Shenzhen, like other popular places of the Congress. To achieve the former Portuguese colony, now, like Hong Kong, under the control of mainland China, but with special rules that make the transition between one and the other cities, however, an enter and an exit from a customs, using fast hydrofoils that every 15 minutes carry hundreds of people at a time, in  this sort of Asian Las Vegas. Indeed the residents of Macau state that the gambling capital will soon be a distant memory, for the pomp and the number of people who attend each day the huge gambling room in China. Macau in a few years has seen dozens of casinos built and all hotel services and catering are just serving the gaming industry, just one statistic, the F&B department of a hotel like the Altira we visited, does not exceed in an year 1% of the total turnover. We are guests with Mario Caramella, Marco Sacco, Samuele Rossi (gvci resident in Macau) of Michele Dell’Aquila that in these days has proposed in his restaurant, the Aurora, a promotion with Giovanni Grasso and Igor Macchia. It is funny to sit in this luxury restaurant in an equally embarrassing luxury hotel with friends and enjoy the cuisine of La Credenza of San Maurizio Canavese 10000 km away, with the same dishes, the chefs themselves, the usual habits, with Giovanni to make the honors and make fun with a tasty pizza with truffle, as if we had not eaten enough these days, and then finally at the end, all sit down and chat like old friends. It is a beautiful thing this GVCI that brings distant friends and makes you feel at home anywhere in the world where is a group member. Before leaving a nice surprise, Michele, the chef of the famous Japanese restaurant Tenmasa, host us for a light lunch, giving us the opportunity to taste a cuisine totally consistent with the reality of the rising sun. We also make a written note in the room given to us, a couple of characters that synthesize Chinese and Japanese, want to be a symbol of good omen for the guests. At the Summit even these cultural exchanges are important and interesting. All good, great, but the memory will remain indelible primarily for the tempura. Our correspondent Aldo Palaoro