Impossible Foods opens outles in Macau, China's Tourist Hotspot

Starting today, Impossible Foods’ flagship product will be available at three popular restaurants at Galaxy Macau, Asia’s premier integrated resort and entertainment hub. Galaxy Macau has some of Asia’s top-ranked restaurants and entertainment venues, as well as more than 3,000 hotel rooms on the glamorous Cotai Strip.

Macau is one of the world’s leading resort destinations. A former colony of Portugal and a historic trading post for Asia, Macau is now a Chinese Special Administrative Region. Macau’s international food scene and unique cuisine draws influences from Southern China, Southeast Asia and Europe.

“We’re humbled to launch in Asia’s premier tourist destination at one of the world’s most spectacular resorts,” said Nick Halla, Senior Vice President for International at Impossible Foods. “Macau is a global crossroads of ideas and influences, and we are confident that chefs and consumers in Macau’s dynamic restaurant scene will fully embrace plant-based meat.”

Impossible Foods’ plant-based meat is also served in nearly 3,000 restaurants across the United States -- from award-winning restaurants to mom-and-pop diners to America’s original fast-food chain, White Castle. Most restaurants serve the Impossible Burger with traditional condiments and sides, but the versatile product can also be used in any ground-meat dish, including dumplings, noodle bowls, tacos, meatballs, breakfast sandwiches and more.

Impossible Foods is rapidly expanding in Asia. In April, the California-based food startup made its international debut in Hong Kong with some of the world’s leading chefs, including May Chow (Little Bao, Happy Paradise) and Uwe Opocensky (Beef & Liberty). Impossible meat is now available in over 30 restaurants in Hong Kong, including Jinjuu, Urban Bakery, Plat Du Jour, Alto, and five-star hotels Hotel ICON and Grand Hyatt Hong Kong.

At Galaxy Macau, Impossible meat will be served eight different ways at three of the property’s acclaimed restaurants: CHA BEI, The Apron Oyster Bar & Grill and The Noodle Kitchen.

CHA BEI, a homegrown multifaceted lifestyle concept focused on wellness and conscious living, is adding three delicious dishes with impossible meat – including Tex-Mex Tacos (MOP108), 853 Burger (MOP158), and Thai Lettuce Wraps (MOP98) – to its all-day dining menu.

The Apron Oyster Bar & Grill – known for high-quality, sustainable ingredients – will showcase two creative preparations of the plant-based meat: Chipotle Croquettes (MOP98) and Vegetable Millefeuille (MOP128).

The Noodle Kitchen, which features handmade noodles using fresh flour from Inner Mongolia, will innovatively incorporate impossible meat into three traditional Chinese dishes: Seared Buns (MOP98), Chive Dumplings (MOP98), and Tossed Noodles with Spiced Eggplants (MOP128).

In development since 2011, the Impossible Burger debuted in July 2016 at Chef David Chang’s Momofuku Nishi in New York City. The Impossible Burger is the only plant-based burger to win a 2017 Tasty Award and a 2018 Fabi Award from the National Restaurant Association.

Impossible’s flagship product is made from simple ingredients, including water, wheat protein, potato protein and coconut oil. One special ingredient — heme — contributes to the characteristic taste of meat and is the essential catalyst for all the other flavors when meat is cooked. Heme is an essential molecular building block of life, one of nature’s most ubiquitous molecules. Although it’s found in all living things and in virtually all the food we eat, it’s especially abundant in animal tissues. Impossible scientists discovered that it’s the abundance of heme in animal tissues that makes meat taste like meat.

To satisfy the global demand for meat at a fraction of the environmental impact, Impossible Foods developed a far more sustainable, scalable and affordable way to make heme and therefore meat, without the catastrophic environmental impact of livestock. The company genetically engineers and ferments yeast to produce a heme protein naturally found in plants, called soy leghemoglobin. The heme in impossible products is identical to the essential heme humans have been consuming for hundreds of thousands of years in meat — and while it delivers all the craveable depth of beef, it uses far fewer resources.

Impossible Foods makes delicious, wholesome food without slaughterhouses, hormones, antibiotics, cholesterol or artificial flavors. The Impossible Burger uses about 75% less water, generates about 87% fewer greenhouse gases, and requires around 95% less land than conventional ground beef burgers from cows.