A food tradition that lives on - Maltese honey rings

Two events this week prompt my post about Maltese traditional food. The Malta Standards Authority (MSA) announced it is carrying out a survey over the next two months to ‘clearly establish the eating habits of the Maltese’. Then, my son told me that he needed to dress up like a Maltese villager of yesteryear (flat cap & waistcoat) and serve traditional hobz biz zejt (Maltese bread smeared with tomato paste, olives, onions, tuna and capers) at his end-of-term open day.

The common theme that links the two is a feeling that in Malta we need to return to our roots when it comes to our diet if we are to pass on the dubious honour of our current high rankings in the world’s obesity indices.

Undoubtedly, the Maltese diet has changed drastically in the past 50 years, and now includes all the fast, convenience, additive-laden, pre-packed foods found across the western world. So much for the Mediterranean diet. But, the hobz biz-zejt lives on strongly in snack bars along with qassata and pastizzi (ricotta and pea-filled pastry turnovers) with their interesting blend of healthy filling and carb-laden pastry.

While even the old-style Maltese diet would have included (‘bad’) refined carbs in bread and pasta, it would have been off-set by a larger portion of fresh fish, meat and vegetables. If you add reasonable amounts of fresh meat or fish to your weekly shop here, the total bill shoots up. We may be surrounded by sea, but its fruits are costly.

If there’s one thing we need public health campaigns to do, it’s to show the regular Maltese family how to eat cheaply, cooking fresh meat and fish and leaving out the majority of refined carbs and processed foods. A glance at the list of traditional dishes below, shows that we must have had this knack here once upon a time! As in most of the Mediterranean, meat would have been eked out padded with vegetables and with its juices moped up with crusty bread.

All the recipes below required cooking from scratch with fresh ingredients – that is a good start to eating healthier! Bear in mind, that in the past, the Maltese diet would have included desserts and pastries as a treat on high days, feasts and Sundays only, and not as a regular snack with a cafe pit stop.

Here’s a selection of some traditional recipes, but whether they are cooked at home much? We’ll await the findings of that food diary survey:

Savoury dishes
Lampuki pie – late summer to autumn’s seasonal fish – lampuka (dolphin fish). Also served as shallow fried steaks.
Bragioli – beef olives (thin strips of beef rolled and filled with bacon, bread crumbs, parsley all bound together with an egg), served in red wine and tomato sauce.
Stuffed squid
Octopus stew
Spaghetti with Sea Urchins (Rizzi)
Ricotta Pie – goats cheese and ricotta mixed with some broad beans and parsley on pastry base.
Rabbit stew – with olives, red wine, bay leaves, onion, garlic, tomato puree.
Spinach and Tuna Pie – onion, garlic, anchovy, pastry base, olives, tuna, chopped spinach
Pumpkin soup
Stuffed marrow – mince beef filled marrow rings, baked
‘Widow’s Soup‘ (soppa ta’ l’armla) – this vegetable soup and other minestre are a mainstay of the Maltese kitchen. They are still cooked here big time; I smell various soups or broths in my village street most days.
Bigilla – fava bean paste. A homely dip you find ready-made in supermarkets, and which features also on wine bar menus today.
Timpana – baked macaroni (kind of lasagna using mince beef (sometimes lamb), but with pastry top.
Rice balls (arancini)- chicken or beef mince mixed in with rice to form ball coated in bread crumbs and then deep fried.

Desserts & Pastries
Most desserts and sweets you find in Malta, now as in the past, are directly inherited from our neighbour Sicily. Read about them and their history in our dedicated post on Maltese sweets.
Kannoli – deep-fried sweet pastry tubes filled with sweetened ricotta, and sometimes candied peel.
Cassata – cakes made with almond paste and filled with sweet ricotta
Mqaret – small packages of sweet pastry filled with a date mixture and served mouth blisteringly hot!

Photo: Peter Grima (Know Malta) – he has the recipe for honey rings here!

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The edible thistle, the globe artichoke, in season aplenty in Malta right now

I have just seen Jamie Oliver’s TED talk video. Love or hate his style, Jamie is just about the only celeb voice consistently banging on about the junk that’s in a lot of kids’ diets these days, whether they’re eating at home, school or on the street. His crusade to get us to feed our kids healthily has now extended to America. His TED talk showed a clip of what looks like five-year olds in class unable to name correctly, or recognise at all, basic fruit and veg like potatoes and tomatoes (let alone an artichoke). Scary stuff. They looked as if they’d never seen a raw ingredient.

A few weeks ago, my son started receiving a portion of fruit or vegetables in a small plastic container, once a week, at school break. The initiative is part sponsored by the European Union. Malta has high child obesity rates ranking pretty much alongside the US rates. The veg in schools initiative is therefore laudable, but has its problems. I saw one of the offerings as he brought it home, part eaten. It was watery lettuce, cucumber and a bland, anaemic tomato. Kids can like salad, but usually it has to appeal to them. This was rabbit food at its worst and I could barely eat it.

The art of veggie shopping in Malta
Having Jamie’s TED talk and my family’s health at the forefront of my mind, I ended up scrutinising more carefully than usual my shopping basket of goods in the supermarket today. I don’t mean I paused over the low-fat, but high-sugar yoghurt (health-con) products, but I made a point of taking a long hard look at the labeling of the fruit and veg. A recipe on my menu plan for the weekend required ’snow peas’ – not in season right now, if ever, in Malta. There were some on display though, cellophane wrapped, and stating that they were from Guatemala.

Far too many food miles to contemplate that purchase. Similarly, though I love pineapple and mango, I gave them a miss too and opted for what’s local, in season, plentiful and therefore cheap. At present, that means strawberries! I usually reckon on strawberry season in March, but with growing under plastic and our exceptionally mild winter, they are in the shops now – and they are huge, sweet and just five, reasonably sized ones can provide a child’s Vitamin C quota for the day (according to nutritionist Natalie Savona. See below).

Pick ‘n’ Mix, Squash ‘n’ Squeeze those veggies
In Malta, a good deal of our fruit and veg comes loose, definitely on the veggie carts, and even in supermarkets. That’s a good start to cooking from scratch with raw ingredients. The loose goods are generally local if they are common fruit and veg – or from Sicily.

You can of course get most things, like those snow peas, from anywhere in the world, but why bother? Only around three per cent of Malta’s population is in agriculture, but they work hard and eke out a fairly good spread of raw ingredients. Broccoli, spinach and artichokes are some tempting veg that is in season at the moment. I know that the impoverished soil here might mean that some farmers spray a lot of chemicals around, but who knows what is on most of the imported fruit and veg, unless is says ‘organic’, which itself has been in dispute as the manna from heaven. Wash, scrub and peel things, I say, when in doubt.

Like most canny shoppers in continental Europe, the Maltese housewife (and I use that term because many women do describe themselves here as that) touches and squeezes the produce and digs deep the in plastic tray to find the best of the tomatoes or whatever. There’s a lot of pecking and picking over goods, and the barging aside of other shoppers (as I witness on my local veggie cart days). The economical shoppers go out of their way to ask for any veg that’s almost past its best. I often see people buy a load of wilting this or that to pop in a ‘brodo’ or stew. These are people who use every last sad veg from the bottom of the fridge, and why not? In these times, we have a thing or two to learn from them.

Maltese-descent Celeb Nutritionists
As an afterword, it’s worth noting that the Islands have two Maltese-descent UK celebrity nutrionists to their name. Natalie Savona, an academic and practitioner who has written for and broadcasted extensively in national UK media; and Dr John Briffa who had a long-running column in the UK Observer and has an active blog.

Now, I’m off to work out how to dissect those massive globe artichokes I bought on whim, and see if I can learn what to do with them! They were going like hot cakes on the veg cart yesterday. Damn, I should have called upon the collective wisdom of my fellow ‘housewife’ shoppers to ask their advice…

Related Posts
Cost of Living: Food shopping in Malta
How to shop at the village veggie store
Pumpkin: not just for Halloween
Strawberry Fair

Photo: James

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Not child's artwork, but messy, gooey, gorgeous prinjolata carnival cake

This is a cake designed to appeal to kids, or the kid in us adults. While Christmas cakes are ice-rink smooth perfection, the prinjolata, which starts appearing in cafés and confectioners in late January and therefore well before carnival, is a mound of mess. Splattered with melted chocolate, pine nuts and glacé cherries glowing neon artificial green and red, the prinjolata is like a kids’ art session crossed with a Betty Crocker Angel Food Cake.

Its name comes from prinjol, pine nut, which is similar to the Italian word, pinoli. But pine nuts seem to be just a bit of decoration. The cake itself, which can be a counter-top mountain (as in the St James’ Cavalier café), is made of cream, sponge, citrus peel and biscuits. It has a substantial calorie count with its condensed milk and a bit of a boozy bite to it with its Vermouth content.

My son drools when he sees it. I have to say my stomach turns at its grotesque carnival appearance. But I do admit that it is the epitomé of pre-Lent excess and puts the Protestant Shrove Tuesday pancake in the shade. The prinjolata certainly does use up any fattening ingredients that might be in the store cupboard.

If you feel like giving it a go at home, this seems a good recipe source for it. Decorating it could make for a fun mid-term activity with the kids. If you fancy tasting it, cafés sell it by the slice, and some places have smaller, almost individual-sized plated domes of it for sale. You’ll need a sweet tooth to enjoy it; seeing it is the greater pleasure I think.

Photo: Peter Grima [Know Malta]

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Let the conversation flow (along with a little wine). Food, Wine, Art lectures at Palazzo Falson.

Note: We’ve been informed that these lectures won’t be taking place as Prof. Variana is unable to come over to Malta for now. We’ll keep you posted when they’re rescheduled.

Not all culture comes at a price as February’s series of free lectures at Palazzo Falson Historic House Museum in Mdina proves. What’s more, these particular talks have an added bonus – they come complete with free tastings of wine, Renaissance cookbook-inspired foods and extra virgin locally pressed olive oils.

What an enlightened trio of cultural pursuits. The lectures are a winning formula for getting us to appreciate an historic venue and learn something new, and also an ingenious way of the museum marrying its collection with some complementary, lively events.

The Food, Wine & Art lecture programme
Palazzo Falson has invited a visiting art historian, Prof. John Varriano, to give two, two-hour lectures on food, wine & art, each one covering two distinct themes. The sessions (including tastings) are completely free of charge, but booking is essential to secure a place (and we advise you book fast as seats are limited). To book, tel: +356 2145 4512 or +356 2145 1021, or email: info@palazzofalson.com.

Friday 12th February (1400-1600hrs):
1. “Wine and Health, Wine and Death” first discusses the presumed therapeutic benefits of wine as brought down to us through the ages, and goes on to examine its changing metaphorical associations with memento mori, or images of death, in ancient and Early Modern times.

Wine Tasting & sampling of food inspired by Renaissance cookbooks (researched and prepared by Matty Cremona). Sponsored by Marsovin and Wardija Extra Virgin.

2. “Erotic Appetites” focuses on paintings of food that embody two genres of Renaissance allusion, the first exploiting the sexually suggestive shapes of certain fruits and vegetables, and the second linking the eating habits of the different social classes to stereotypical notions of sexuality and procreative success.

Saturday 20th February (1030-1230hrs):
1. “Eggs, Butter, Lard, and Oil” traces the evolution of the binders used in Renaissance art and cuisine, noting the importance of oil in particular for the signature characteristics of both cultural expressions.

Oil Tasting & sampling of food inspired by Renaissance cookbooks (researched and prepared by Matty Cremona). Sponsored by Wardija Extra Virgin and Marsovin.

2. “Edible Art” introduces the art of trionfi da tavola, edible table decorations that routinely embellished Renaissance and Baroque banquets.

Prof. John Varriano taught Art History at Mount Holyoke College in Massachusetts from 1970, until his retirement in June, 2009. He is a specialist in the art of the Italian Renaissance and Baroque periods in Italy, and the author of five books and more than four dozen articles. His latest interests combine the history of art with the history of gastronomy.

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Bread ovens, BBQ area, rock-cut tombs? No, Roman beehives in Malta

Almost every guide book on the Malta makes reference to the Islands’ name as deriving from the Greek word for honey – meli – or land of honey, melitos, or even their later Roman name ‘Melita’, also meaning honey. It’s just as likely the name came from the Phoenician Semitic verb form malata, meaning ‘one takes refuge.’ All these etmyological threads are possible, but the idea of the Maltese Islands as isles of honey is a connection that we love. Certainly, guide book prose always says Malta is honey coloured, from its warm, yellow limestone and sun. The Maltese word for honey by the way is Ghasel.

But it took an early January walk in fantastically warm weather, high up on the ridge near St Agatha’s Tower (Red Fort) beyond Mellieha, to drive home the millennia-old link between Malta and honey. The garrigue landscape up there is covered in wild thyme; the hardy weathered variety that survives downpours, gales and drought. These bushes rarely get trodden under foot so grow into bushy mounds. Rub them and savour a heady scent that is to die for, and many a lamb has.

Roman Beehives
Now, bees loves thyme when it flowers deep purple-blue in early summer (end May to early July). So it stands to reason that where there’s an abundance of thyme, beekeepers follow. I’d heard about some Roman beehives near Mellieha, but wasn’t at all sure where they were or what on earth they’d look like. They turned out to be a stone’s throw from the road that runs the length of the ridge, but they are easy to miss.

Thanks to a helpful walking guide of the area I’d picked up for €2.50 from Din l-Art Helwa (Malta’s National Trust) which runs the tower, I did an hour-long, circular route passing by the beehives. They lie nestled in a sheltered spot at the mouth of a cave just below the ridge top. If you didn’t know they were an early form of hive, you’d mistake them for bread ovens or perhaps a dovecote of some sort. Sadly, it did look like some people had used the spot as a kind of BBQ area. But in essence, this cave apiary is how it would have looked in Roman times, when Malta’s golden nectar was highly prized. It’s likely that clay pipes with one end closed, but for some small holes, were placed in the alcoves. The door cut in the side allows access to the back of the hollows for comb collecting. Clay pipes hives were in use until relatively recent times in Malta.

Malta’s honey zones
Mellieha is renown even today as a main honey producing zone, and early in the walk, you pass around 40 modern hives. Other zones include most of Gozo, the isle of Comino, and Fawwara, just below Dingli Cliffs in the West. Today, there are only around five, full-time beekeepers on the Islands who manage an income from this ancient livelihood.

Beekeeping here today
But, things are changing, and several, like Nicholas Zammit in Fawwara, are very enterprising, bottling around 500 kilo a year, in nice packaging, and with new lines, such as honey and pistacchios. Honey hand creams and beeswax products like ornamental candles are now regular sidelines too. Nicholas travels widely to beekeeping industry seminars and fairs, in the UK and Italy, for information on how to broaden his scope here. He dreams of an eco-tourism centre near his small-holding to introduce people to Malta’s heritage in honey, as well as a small museum with ancient tools and details of those Roman hives.

Honey types
There are around 20 kinds of honey in Malta attributed to various plants and trees including clover, eucalyptus, orange blossom, carob and thyme of course. If you buy fresh extracted honey and direct from a beekeeper, you’ll know which flowers dominate its taste. Spring is for clover and wayside flower honey; end May to early July is thyme season; and early autumn is for carob honey with its dark colour and distinct aroma.

Where to buy
Some places for starters:
Airport deli shops (but try to buy direct from keepers)
Jubilee Foods
Nicholas Zammit, Fawwara, tel: 21 465750 / 9946 7712
Any local grocer, but it might not be the best
Road side stalls – watch out for honey for sale signs!

Useful Links
For a short background on beekeeping in Malta and those clay pipes, see beesfordevelopment.org

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On the tree, then into the marmalade pot! Oranges in Buskett Gardens.

There was always another New Year’s ritual in my household as a child growing up in the UK. No sooner had the Christmas decorations come down on 6th January, than a different feast for the senses would fill the house – the smell of oranges cooking; Seville bitter oranges only being available for a couple of weeks on the local market. It fell to my father to do the marmalade making, which would take him every evening for around a week. An ancient Spong’s slicer was screwed onto the kitchen table and wound away finely slicing pound (not kilo) upon pound of rind.

Little did I know as a child that in later life I’d not only be making marmalade but actually picking the oranges for it! That sure beats food miles. And once you’ve tasted fresh marmalade from tree to pot in a couple of hours, you’ll never want to eat factory-made again.

Today in Malta, the bitter orange isn’t a hot seller. The public-private partnership nursery, Wied Incita, near Attard only sells the sweeter varieties. These, incidentally, are simply the best for juicing, in terms of price – €3 per 4 kilo – taste and volume, that I’ve come across anywhere. If you want to make marmalade, try to find a neighbour with a bitter orange tree or pick for free from some of the village boulevard trees rather than see the fruit go to waste. The bitter variety has a much thicker and heavily dimpled skin.

But until the 14th century or so, the bitter orange was the only sort cultivated in Malta. Orange growing probably arrived here with the Arabs, who also brought their ingenious irrigation system of farming to the Islands. The Maltese word for orange, Laring, derives from the Arabic Persian na¯rang. Portuguese traders brought sweet oranges from India in the 14th century and the Portuguese Knights of the Order or St John no doubt introduced them to Malta.

The humble bitter orange has a rich history then, and a rightful place in Malta, however few and far between its trees are these days. But it does have a special place in the hearts of the islanders, and not just among a few (mostly British expat) mamalade makers I know. Because the bitter orange is the staple ingredient of Kinnie, a much loved and famed soft drink that is sold everywhere the Maltese live in numbers – Australia included!

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A Marinara Moment: Gozo's food at its best

One of the best things about eating out in Gozo is the service. Generally it’s friendly (if they know you, it’s first name basis pretty quickly), most times it’s quick and it certainly isn’t ITS’ (Malta’s Institute of Tourism Studies ‘cum chef school’) cookie-cutter. In fact, it’s often enough quirky, which adds to the enjoyment, unless you’re some up-tight nuevo-yuppy who thinks he’s worthy of silver service and has this need to send back the first couple of bottles because they’re, you know, not quite the thing.

Hey, fool, if it’s got alcohol in it and it ain’t corked, you don’t get to send it back: next time, choose something you like.

So, where to go when you’re up North and peckish? Time for a coffee or lunch: where do I point the wheels?

You want somewhere smart? OK, if you must, you must, though this is Gozo after all, so chill an’all that, so there’s Tmun, Victoria and Ta’ Frenc for smart dining, right up there amongst the best. Me? I tend towards the more casual end of the spectrum, so close to home, there’s Oleander in Xaghra Square – a leisurely Sunday lunch on one of the outside tables; if the weather’s friendly, it’s as close to bliss as you can get legally.

Don’t jump down my throat, but you can also have fun in Marsalforn, the Bugibba-in-the-North disadvantages notwithstanding. Il-Pulena, in the Menqa, serves up seriously good pizza and other basic stuff, and as far as I’m concerned, a weekday lunch in early spring is the best reason for playing hooky from the real world.

Just back along the harbour-front, towards what must be the least busy Police Station in the country (in winter, anyway) is the Calypso Hotel, where you get a good coffee and can relax a morning while the missus is off getting her hair done or whatever it is people do on a Saturday morning. Alternatively, there’s it-Tokk, in Rabat, with something like six coffee shops intemingling, amongst them the original Jubilee, and the Central, where the Marocchino is luxurious.

After your siesta, which is de rigeur, you’ll need a coffee to clear the cobwebs and, a bit later (you don’t want anyone thinking you’re too fond of a drop) a g&t or something on those lines, to set you up for the evening. Here’s where somewhere like Xlendi comes into the picture – if you can bag a table at the edge, where the beach wall serves as an excellent foot-rest, you’re chilling with the best of them. When you get hungry, walk (yes, walk) to La Terrazza, where “location, location, location” isn’t used to detract from the obligation to provide excellent pizza (you’ve noticed I like pizza?)

It’s the dinner hour, so off you go: Tatita’s in San Lawrenz or Tmun, down the other end of the island in Mgarr (yes, there are two Tmuns) will hit the spot, as will Wileg in Qala or Maji in Rabat.

So there you go, a few places to satisfy the inner man – they’re not the only ones available in Gozo, by a long shot and I’ve probably left a few out.

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They've grown a little larger, but kiosks still serve the same purpose - refreshment!

Ask long-time Malta residents about kiosks and the chances are they will reminisce about their childhood and fondly remember hot summer evenings doing the routine ‘passeggiata’ (a stroll taking in the cool air of evening) on the Sliema front. In the 1950s, ’60s and ’70s, a pit stop at a kiosk would have been a highlight for kids, as, with luck, they’d manage to persuade parents to buy them an orzata or an ice cream. Old photos of Sliema and Balutta seafronts show kiosks in their glory days.

The kiosk became a hot topic a few months ago when the famed ‘Magic Kiosk’ magically disappeared almost overnight! The Magic Kiosk began life in the seventies in modest size, but grew to fill nearly all St Anne Square, Sliema. But since it had only temporary rights of residence – which expired in 2008 – it was demolished by the authorities and the square returned to landscaped glory, with seating and a fountain, as a much-needed lung in this busy urban area.

True old-style kiosks (not the Magic Kiosk, which was a 70s’ restaurant) are somewhat fewer and farther between. You’ll still find some open for business – Upper Barrakka Gardens, Valletta; the square in Balutta; and this one above (which is larger than the truly old-style ones) outside Lower Barrakka Gardens, also Valletta. Until a couple of years ago, a tiny round one was still open, nestling under the arches at the back of Republic Square, Valletta. Now its shutters are tightly down, but it used to have queues of kids waiting for orzata on a hot summer’s day.

In Valletta, you’ll see another on Republic Street with the junction of St John’s Street – it sells flowers, but is well preserved and fine example of what the Maltese kiosk in its heyday would have been.

Instead of the quaint kiosk, the temporary motor van with flip-up serving hatch has mushroomed (and not just at festas) serving fried food as well as obligatory ices, beers, sweets, cakes and coffees. The Sliema-Gzira seafront and the Qawra-Bugibba coast has a lot of these motorvan hawkers around. They do serve a purpose, and are as convenient as their convenience food suggests.

But patronise the older kiosks, and you are likely to find yourself in a picturesque spot, enjoying a moment off from the street’s bustle. Also, if you know of some gems of old-style kiosks, please comment so we can build a list of them all – before they vanish.

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Nothing beats a wood fire: Maxokk's pizzas taste of home and hearth

I’m a diver and Gozo has some terrific diving locations. One ritual we always look forward to after a morning dive is to go to Maxokk for a Gozitan ftira or pizza.

When you enter Maxokk, it’s like entering a time machine. I go back to the summers I spent in my grandmother’s village, when she used to make bread and pastries for breakfast. Except here, you’re in the company of hungry people, in a fifty year-old bakery, waiting to collect ftiras or pizzas baked in a traditional cast-iron oven. Do spend some time in the bakery – the wait, which is renowned for being lengthy, is almost as good as the eating and the smell of the dough and firewood is divine!

At the last count, Maxokk produces 16 types of ftira and pizza. There are some true classics: the closed ftira stuffed with cheese, ricotta and potatoes. The ‘Ftira tal-Maxokk’ with local sausages and potatoes. The caponata pizza with eggplant and green peppers. If you’re in a large group, just choose as wide a selection as possible to really savour true craft!

To make sure that you do not have a long wait, call Maxokk a couple of hours before you wish to collect your food and place your order.

And if the weather is holding out, find somewhere to sit close to the botanical gardens. Enjoy the views to Comino and Malta. Life is very good at Maxokk.

Maxokk Bakery
St James Street
Nadur
Tel: 21550014

Opening Hours:
Monday to Saturday: 10:30 till 19:00
Sunday: 13:00 – 19:00

View Maxokk, Nadur, Gozo in a larger map

Photo: Gege Gatt

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Shopping in Malta is about doing as the locals do

Something we’re asked about a lot by people thinking of moving to Malta is the cost of living, in particular the bill for an average weekly shop. Any comparison is difficult as what constitutes one man’s average could be another’s splash out.

We’ve listed some staples and a few luxuries that regularly go into a weekly shop. Print out our Grocery Basket Malta and take it with you next time you shop wherever you are right now, to see how the prices tally. Prices are in Euro and average shelf prices as at 01/11/09. We will be updating it every quarter.

I feel that compared to the UK, my food bills are less; but if you’re coming here from Spain, then you might find prices similar, but some imported foods might be a bit more expensive. We don’t have economy of scale in Malta, and shipping to an island adds costs. However, since Malta joined the EU and tariffs came off imports, I find many products – like Italian delicacies and basic pasta – very good value. In fact, a local pasta firm went under as it could no longer compete, such was the leveling of prices.

I have kept a record in recent months of my weekly grocery basket, and have seen it average out around €130-150 for a family of three based on 3-4 meat/fish-based meals. An expat friend here, feeding a family of five (younger children) says hers is around €230 or so an average week. She has pricey nappies in that bill, and does quite a bit of entertaining of kids and adults. A long-term expat Swede with her family of five says she spends around €150 a week. It depends on whether you add in some luxuries one week or another.

Tips for saving: use the local veggie vans and shops; they generally have fresh produce at keen prices. Take your own shopping bag so you get loose veggies tipped in (don’t buy pre-packaged if you can help it.). Shop at one of Malta’s larger, value supermarkets to bulk buy (there’s enough of them now, and within short distances of each other so they tend to price competitively). We get a lot of free leaflets through the door with offers from local supermarkets – bother to cut them out and use! Whether in Malta or not, try to make a list and stick to it to avoid too many ad hoc, ‘just popping in to get a loaf and come out with a lot more’ trips to stores – these visits tend to bump up bills, even in the corner shops in Malta.

Download our Grocery Basket Malta (pdf) to compare with yours back home.

See also: Expat Insights: Getting Around & Shopping for more tips and understanding the quirks of shopping in Malta.

Photo: Amanda Holmes

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