[This is an excerpt from my book Vegetarian Asia Travel Guide, which should be available within a month.]

When looking through a book of Macanese recipes, the only vegetarian ones I found were desserts. So if you have a sweet tooth and you eat eggs, you can at least sample some traditional treats. Ginger milk is made of milk and ginger juice and eaten with a spoon. Arroz doce is rice pudding. Serradura combines whipped cream, condensed milk and crushed cookies. You can also buy homemade ice cream in tropical flavors.

mango-sago-pomelo pudding served at Treasure Palace in City of Dreams

Pumpkin compote and bread pudding don’t need much explanation. Ovos em neve, or snowy eggs, combines condensed milk, fresh milk, wheat flour, chocolate powder and eggs. Saransuravel is a cake made with shredded coconut and dry roasted bean powder. Batatada is a baked mixture of potatoes, butter, sugar, flour, eggs, coconut and condensed milk. Coconut cha cha gets its flavor from coconut, dark brown sugar, green beans, tapioca and yam. Bagi is sweet glutinous rice with coconut. I also put away a couple of excellent chocolate mousses.

Portuguese egg tarts from Lord Stow’s Bakery

If you’ve been eating nothing but plain rice while traveling through Asia, perhaps some fatias da china is just the thing to add richness to your diet. The recipe calls for two ingredients only: 20 egg yolks and one pound of sugar.

Firma U Tac Hong tofu shop in Macau

One traditional Chinese treat is tofu fa, or smooth tofu. I visited Firma U Tac Hong, also called Lee Hong Kee, which is known as Macau’s most famous tofu dessert shop. While it looked like a small, simple storefront business, my host assured me that visitors from all over the tofu-eating world come to sample the tofu fa, which is made on the premises. Served in a Styrofoam container, you get a generous serving of tofu topped with evaporated milk. You add your own sugary syrup from a condiment container at the table and stir it all up. It tastes about how you might think a block of soft tofu mixed with sugar syrup would taste. If you’re new to tofu fa, start with the smallest size and see if you like it.

A local enjoys his tofu fa at Firma U Tac Hong tofu shop

Packaged almond and sesame cookies are good bets, and many even feature a “suitable for vegetarians” label. Note that some almond cookies contain milk and some don’t. If this is a concern, read the labels carefully. The almond cookies were probably my favorite Macanese cuisine. People make them on the streets and will usually offer you a warm, freshly-baked sample.

Warm, delicious almond cookies, a Macau specialty

More sweets await you at Macau’s many bakeries. But be careful. It was on my first trip to Macau that my traveling companion bit into a powdered sugar covered almond croissant only to find it concealed a hot dog. Break your pastry in half to avoid surprise fillings.

Fortunately, the hot dogs are visible in these pastries. Sometimes they’re hidden inside.