Last week I got to spend a few days in Macau, and was lucky enough to meet Aruna Jha, the person I most wanted to interview for my upcoming edition of Vegetarian Asia Travel Guide. Aruna first moved from India to Macau in 1983, planning to spend three months teaching kathak dance to the citizens of Macau. However, plans change. Now, decades later, Aruna has built up an empire of Indian restaurants.

one of Aruna’s delicious vegetarian restaurants in Macau

“I was the first one to start the curry in Macau,” she told me proudly. While few Indians live in Macau, tourism has risen dramatically since 2009, when the International Indian Film Academy had its big awards ceremony in the former Portuguese colony. Now thousands of Indians visit on package tours and Aruna feeds many of them. She caters to veg, non-veg, Jain and halal diets. The back wall of her third restaurant is covered with photos of Aruna with Indian and Macanese celebrities and officials.

Maybe one day I will make it onto Aruna’s wall of fame!

If you’re a vegetarian traveling to Macau, I strongly encourage you to visit one of her three restaurants (or maybe four by the time you read this). I was only able to eat her food once while in Macau, but I could happily have eaten there every day. I managed to try quite a few dishes, including black dal in a tomato base, mattar paneer, two different types of spinach, homemade yogurt with salt and mango powder, papadam, roti and garlic naan. Goodness, when I write it all out, I realize I made a pig of myself! I also ate some samosa chaat, one of Aruna’s signature dishes, which is basically chopped samosas in a delicious yogurt sauce. Oh, and I drank a mango lassi, too.

Aruna’s warmth and hospitality made me feel right at home, even after having been up for about two days on my trip over. I ate lots of good vegetarian meals during my stay, but Aruna’s was my favorite vegetarian food in Macau.