Minchee

Minchee, orminchi, is aMacanese dishbased on minced orground meatstir-fried with vegetables and seasoned. It is widely consideredMacau's national dish.
It's anEast-meets-Westtype of dish. Macau's food has a fusion of Cantonese, Portuguese, South America, Malay, Africa, and India.While recipes vary, the dish is generally based on minced orground meat.  It is made with beef or pork with onions, cubed potatoes, and sometimes mushrooms, slightlystir-fried, and flavoured withWorcestershire sauce,molassesandsoy sauce.When served with a fried egg on top it is calledminchee chow dan.(Chinese:免治炒蛋).
The term minchi came relatively late intoMacanese vocabulary. After the founding ofHong Kongin 1841 many Macanese sought residency there, settling at the mid-level bairro (district) of Mato-de-Mouro. In time as English became more entrenched in daily conversation, Minchi – from the English "to mince" – replaced Kheema to describe this savory culinary staple of the Macanese people.
According toThe Splendid Table, this suggests "the dish may have been introduced to Macau by theAnglophonecommunity in Hong Kong, though other histories place its origins inGoa, another Portuguese province."
The odyssey ofminchistarts withKheema, the term used by many Indians for finely minced meat usually of goat and lamb. When Portuguese seafarers arrived in India in 1498 they wanted to affirm and distinguish themselves asChristians. The cow is sacred to Hindu Indians who are proscribed from eating its flesh, so to proclaim their affirmation as Christians, Portuguese merchants and Christian converts made theirKheemawith beef as a designation of their faith.
On to 16th centuryMalacca, which was the hub of the Maritime Spice Trade for sailing vessels converging from India, China, andSouth-east Asia. In 1511 Portuguesecaravelas– relatively small but sturdy sailing vessels with broad bows, high poops, and lateen sails – arrived. The Portuguese promptly seized Malacca by force of arms and made it their trading settlement. They discovered that Chinese merchants fromFujian provincehad already pre-dated their arrival by many decades. Knowing that the eating of pork is forbidden toMuslimsand following upon the principle established in Hindu India of relating dietary choice to religious and ethnic designation, pork was substituted for beef in theKheemadishes eaten by Christians in Malacca.
In succeeding decades Portuguese traders and theirmestizoandmisturadocrew ofFujianese, Malaccans,Ceylonese,Indians,Burmese,Thai,CambodiansandVietnamesesailed out of Malacca and some South-east Asian trading ports for the coast of China. And with them came along the taste, smell, cooking style, ingredients and new crops that would define ourCozinhação Macaista(Macanese Cuisine).
Portuguese traders maintained seasonal temporary settlements along the China coast. By 1543 Portuguese traders aboard a Chinese junk arrived atKagoshima, the most southerly port inKyushu, Japan.
In 1557, local Chinese authorities permitted the traders, many of themLusodescendentes(of Portuguese descent) to establish a permanent settlement at a smallpeninsulaon the western edge of the Pearl River estuary. Thus was bornA Cidade do Sacrado Nome de Deus na China(the City of the Holy Name of God in China).
The opening of the Japan Trade soon followed in the mid-1560s. Japanese elites at Kagoshima andNagasakidesired rare Chinese silks, gold, spices, and exotic European products such as woolens, clocks, firearms, and Western curios. In return Chinese merchants at Guangchow (Canton) wanted Japanese silver. Macau served as the intermediary port between China and Japan.
The Jesuits, scholars all, produced the first Japanese–Portuguese dictionary. More important for us, they translated the firsthaute cuisinecookbooks used by the elites ofGoaand Macau into Japanese. The Japanese elites enthusiastically embraced this introduced cuisine. The Macanese porkKheemaof that time became the JapaneseDonburi, which to this day is served "with minced pork and egg over rice". Ourporco pó bolacho(crumbed pork cutlets) became theirTonkatsu.TempuraandTeriyakidishes have Macanese beginnings. The PortuguesePão-de-Lótransformed into their refined Castela Cake.
TheKurofunevoyages made Macau one of the wealthiest places in the world for that time. This wealth allowed the Jesuits to build, with Japanese artisans, the most imposing church east of Goa,A Igreja de Madre de Deus(the Church of the Mother of God), and the seminary ofColégio de São Paulo(St Paul's College), and the noted contemplative retreat of hilltop Monte. Macau was indeed a Catholic city. Direct Portuguese administration was nominal and limited and subsumed to the standingCapitão-Mor(Captain-General) of theKurofunevoyages supported by the Provincial head of the Jesuit Order resident at Macau.
It is according toThe Splendid Table"one of the most prized dishes of Macau and has as many variations as there are cooks that make it."According toViceit is "one dish that's emblematic of the dizzying cultural melting pot that is Macau" and is "widely regarded as thenational dish".It is a dish traditionally served in homes; typically every home cook has their own recipe.
The Portuguese families in Macau, a tight-knit community, developed their own unique culture,patois(patuá) and fusion cuisine and called themselves "Macaense" or in English "Macanese".