Lei Kai-iok is the founder of Pastelaria Chui Heong (最香餅家), a long-running Macau souvenir bakery. Founded in 1957, it is famous for hand-pounded, charcoal-roasted almond cookies (杏仁餅) and is the only bakery in Macau still making almond cookies in a charcoal oven. It began as a pushcart and a front-shop-back-factory workshop on Rua dos Três Candeeiros (三層樓街); per Macau Memory, his wife Lai Oi-chan (黎愛珍) carried products to restaurants by shoulder-pole. In the 1980s the shop moved to its current Rua do Gamboa (夜呣街) premises in the St Lawrence district. The brand is now run by second-generation Lei Chi-iong (李志勇) and third-generation Lei Chun-ming (李俊明); it was named among the first batch of official "Macau Characteristic Old Shops" in 2019 and received a Tourism Merit Medal in 2023.
A hand-pounded, charcoal-roasted almond cookie — on Rua do Gamboa, Pastelaria Chui Heong has guarded Macau's only charcoal-oven almond-cookie craft for over six decades.
Lei Kai-iok is the founder of Pastelaria Chui Heong (最香餅家), a long-running Macau souvenir bakery. Since its founding in 1957, Chui Heong has been famous for hand-pounded, charcoal-roasted almond cookies, and is the only bakery in Macau still making almond cookies in a charcoal oven — keeping alive an increasingly rare traditional craft.
Profile
- Brand: Pastelaria Chui Heong (最香餅家)
- Founded: 1957
- District: Rua do Gamboa (夜呣街), St Lawrence; started on Rua dos Três Candeeiros (三層樓街), moved to the current premises in the 1980s
- Signature: hand-pounded, charcoal-roasted almond cookies (Macau's only charcoal-oven almond cookies)
Background
Lei Kai-iok founded Pastelaria Chui Heong in 1957. In its early days he started out with a pushcart and a front-shop-back-factory workshop; per Macau Memory, his wife Lai Oi-chan (黎愛珍) carried the products to restaurants by shoulder-pole, the couple building the business together (the name Lai Oi-chan appears in Macau Memory only, a single source, and is presented here with mild caution). Chui Heong's defining feature is its insistence on roasting almond cookies in a charcoal oven, making it the only bakery in Macau to keep that craft. Lei Kai-iok's birth and death years are not reliably recorded and are omitted here.
The Brand & Its Legacy
Chui Heong started on Rua dos Três Candeeiros and moved in the 1980s to its current Rua do Gamboa premises in the St Lawrence district, settling into that old-town quarter. The brand stands on its hand-pounded, charcoal-roasted almond cookies, whose aroma and texture are its signature. Over decades, Chui Heong passed from founder Lei Kai-iok to second-generation Lei Chi-iong (李志勇) and then third-generation Lei Chun-ming (李俊明), across three generations. In 2019 it was named among the first batch of officially recognised "Macau Characteristic Old Shops," and in 2023 it received a Tourism Merit Medal, affirming its place in Macau's souvenir culture.