Reinvented as the “Asian Vegas,” Macau comes into its own, but with its old world heart and soul intact.

Two years ago, I went to Macau with a group of food writers and the founder of a top U.S. restaurant chain looking for culinary treasure amid the world’s largest construction site outside of Dubai. The treasure in question was the recipe for the perfect African Chicken—the signature dish of Macau blending together influences of Portugal, China and African spice via Silk Road. While we found the best examples of the dish and other specialties at Restaurante Litoral and a culinary and hotelier academy, we fed our soul elsewhere, at cultural hubs like The Macau Museum and The Handover Museum, and along the bustling streets connecting Senado Square to the Ruins of Sao Paulo Cathedral.

After being spoiled in Cathay Pacific’s Business Class with Agnes B. amenity kits and restaurant grade food and a short wait in its fully-appointed Hong Kong airport lounge (complete with noodle soups and dim sum made fresh to order), I arrived in Macau two years later (via a Turbo Jet ferry service) with a sudden visual shock of a city that doubled in size and was twice as luminous. This time around, Teresa Gomes—by coincidence a friend and co-worker of one of my mother’s best friends—was our guide. Her approach to showing off Macau was sweetly personal, deftly blending usual must-sees with her personal favorite restaurants, side streets, temples, food markets and shops.