Series

Founders of the Heritage Brands

The almond cakes and wonton noodles you grew up buying each carry a self-made family story. This series records the founders of Macau's heritage souvenir shops — from street hawker to Michelin nod, from a bamboo noodle pole to a Japanese packaging machine — and how a few generations turned flavour into a city's collective memory.

From Street Stall to Institution

Macau's souvenir trade is a history of family striving. Leung Chan Kwong started out hawking peanut and ginger candy on the street and built Koi Kei into a market leader; founded Choi Heong Yuen on Rua do Tarrafeiro in 1935 and later pioneered Japanese auto-packaging machines, reshaping how Macau markets its souvenirs; 's Kou Kei turned from a 1902 teahouse into a bakery devoted to hand-made traditional methods, now in its fourth generation; and carried the craft of bamboo-pole noodle-making from Dongguan to bring Wong Chi Kei's silken noodles and shrimp-roe soup to Macau's Rua da Felicidade.

Pastry & Noodle Houses

Legacy archive1969-

Leong Chan Kuong: from a street peanut-candy cart to Macau’s biggest souvenir brand

Leong Chan Kuong

Founder of Koi Kei Bakery. He started selling peanut and ginger candy from a street cart, opened his first shop in 1997, and rode the post-handover mainland tourism boom to build Koi Kei into Macau’s leading souvenir brand, with roughly 70% market share.

Legacy archiveFounderHeritage brand

Legacy archive1905-

Wong Kit San: the man who made the almond cake Macau’s taste on Rua do Tercena in 1935

Wong Kit San

Founder of Choi Heong Yuen Bakery. He opened the shop at No. 20 Rua do Tercena, Macau in 1935, built around the almond cake; his nephew Wong Wing Cheong later took over and refined the recipe, and in the 1980s the firm introduced Japanese automatic packaging machines that reshaped how Macau souvenirs were sold and presented.

Legacy archiveFounderHeritage brand

Legacy archive1875-

Kou Fong: from a 1902 teahouse to a century-old hand-made bakery on Rua do Cunha

Kou Fong

Founder of Fong Kei Bakery, named after him. Its predecessor was a teahouse already operating on Rua do Cunha in Taipa by 1902 (Guangxu 28); when the tea trade declined the family closed the teahouse and focused on hand-made traditional pastries. The fourth generation, Kou Chi Kei, took over in 2018, and the shop has been Michelin-recommended.

Legacy archiveFounder

Founders of the Heritage Brands

From Street Stall to Institution

Pastry & Noodle Houses

Leong Chan Kuong: from a street peanut-candy cart to Macau’s biggest souvenir brand

Wong Kit San: the man who made the almond cake Macau’s taste on Rua do Tercena in 1935

Kou Fong: from a 1902 teahouse to a century-old hand-made bakery on Rua do Cunha

One Egg Tart, Half a City

Flavour as Memory

Wong Wun Chi: one bamboo pole, one bowl of silver-thread noodles, from Shilong to Rua da Felicidade

The Egg Tart: a Taste of Macau

Andrew Stow: the British pharmacist who turned the Portuguese egg tart into a taste of Macau

Margaret Wong: founder of Margaret's Café e Nata, the "Queen of Tarts" who took the egg tart to the world