You don't need a flight to get a first taste of Macao right now — just a table at Easy! Buddy. The Thai casual-dining chain has teamed up with the Macao Government Tourism Office in Thailand for a 'Taste Of Macao' campaign, running at all branches until November 7, built around three exclusive dishes rooted in genuine Macanese food heritage.

The idea is to showcase Macao's cuisine and its cha chaan teng culture — the Cantonese-style cafés that are a cornerstone of everyday eating there — along with the signature 'wok hei', that prized smoky aroma from stir-frying over fierce heat. The restaurant has translated the charm of the cha chaan teng and that smoky wok character into a contemporary format that's accessible to Thai diners, letting the story of Macanese food start right from the dining table.

So what's on the plate? Minchi, a popular Macanese comfort dish and a classic match for Thai palates, arrives with a crispy fried egg and costs 197 baht. There's also a Macao-style take on creamy scrambled egg rice with shrimp and chili oil — an easy-to-enjoy dish packed with flavour in every bite — priced at 129 baht. And a Macao-style pork chop fried rice, again with crispy fried egg, goes for 199 baht. Notably, the pork chop rice swaps in diced fried potatoes as a key component instead of the usual julienned potato, a twist the restaurant says expresses another taste dimension of Macao. All three offer Thai consumers a way into Macao's local cuisine and food culture through familiar flavours, while hopefully planting the seed of travelling there to try the originals firsthand.

There's real travel incentive attached, too. Every purchase under the campaign earns diners an exclusive Traveloka discount worth 1,000 baht towards booking Bangkok–Macao flights (limited redemptions available). On top of that, diners can enter a contest to win one of 10 round-trip Bangkok–Macao trips.

For anyone who's been curious about Macao beyond the casinos — its Portuguese-meets-Chinese food culture is genuinely one of a kind — this is a low-cost way to preview it. Even if you're nowhere near an Easy! Buddy branch, it's a useful nudge that Macao is an easy add-on to a Southeast Asia itinerary, with direct flights from Bangkok taking roughly two and a half hours.