You don't go to Cockneys for silver service. You go for the view and a great plate of pasta

When we tried to locate a decent picture of Cockney’s on our database, we couldn’t find one. So we settled for the view you get when you’re about to get to your table on the terrace. That is, lots of water, Sliema with its matchbox skyline on the other side of Marsamxett Harbour, and the regular chugging ferry service between Sliema and Valletta.

Cockney’s, as the name dictates, has a strong legacy with the British colonial past. The original bar seems to be some illegal shack built against the bastions. The current wooden structure looks equally suspect. But let none of this bother you. You go to Cockney’s when the sun is shining and the water is sparkling, so you can have a table on the terrace – which is the only place to be.

You don’t go to Cockney’s for the art decor on the walls, or the silver service. And yet, Cockney’s is all about location and a real Maltese dining experience by the water. You’ll get some people who moan that their lobster was not well cooked, or that the service was slow or frenzied, or that their white wine wasn’t chilled enough. To enjoy the Cockney’s experience you do the following:

• Book beforehand – the place is almost invariably full, especially when the weather’s good.
• Find some loud friends – they will blend in well with the Maltese families jostling to shout their latest gossip, on the next table.  Don’t take your girlfriend there to impress her or on her first date.  Or your in-laws, unless they’ve been to the place before and have a sense of humour.
• Order the antipasto – we particularly like the vegetarian version, with nicely-grilled aubergines and peppers.
• Order pasta as a main course with whatever choice of seafood takes your fancy.  We particularly like the spaghetti with mussels and vongole.  Yes, the mussels are fresh-frozen and come from New Zealand – but, what the heck, they’re very nice, and blend wonderfully with the mint, and the vongole.  And you get to build a small mountain of shell fish as you chat.
• Wash it down with some dry white wine.
• Skip the sweets (or just grab an ice-cream).  Have a little grappa, or a double espresso.
• Watch the Maltese laugh, yell, tell stories.  Watch the green boat with its little line of patient tourists waiting to cross the water. Nod, even though you may not be listening.

Cockney’s deserves to be on our Food Icons list for being so unfashionably Maltese..  

Cockney’s Bar & Restaurant. Marsamxett Landing Place, Valletta. Tel. +356 21236065

Photo: G Travels

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Great for cool, zesty lemonade this time of year

I had some friends coming over for a buffet and needed loads of lemons. All those salad dressings to make, and perhaps a cooling zesty lemon mousse for dessert. So, in Malta, where do you go for lemons? The supermarket?

No, you look over the garden wall. Or, more precisely, you lower a basket over the wall, your neighbour generously fills it, you hoist it up, and hey presto, you’ve a surfeit of lemons to make a gallon or more of lemonade, and some left over.

This little ritual of give and take plays out if you don’t conveniently have your own tree that is. Even the smallest front or backyard in a town like Sliema has room for a lemon tree. I have olive, cypress and palms but my ageing lemon died a long time ago. My neighbour’s garden is littered with fallen lemons. Old, knarled, thick-skinned with warty lumps, and slightly mildewed or bird splattered. Fresh from the orchard, in their natural state and free of those boxtoxed-looking waxed skins, they are bliss. A lemon scent and taste to die for.

Yesterday morning, 07.30, I called from my roof across her garden as I’d heard her weeding. Mary picked out the best from her crate of windfalls and obligingly packed my wicker basket full. I pulled it up the 15 foot drop, ever grateful. And I took a moment to reflect on this endearing slice of Maltese village life: the sharing neighbours, the use of produce to the full when in season, and an appreciation of nature’s bounty.

I look at Mary’s large orchard, overshadowed by the parish church, and pray that it will never be built on. Anything is possible in Malta. Long may her lemon trees live on.

What is a ‘basket’ in Malta?
Basket is used in Malta to refer also to a plastic bag, the sort supermarkets dish out (at a price these days). Not to be confused with wicker or reed woven baskets.

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There's always a different angle to Malta. But many tourists miss its real gems.

This is a selective round-up of some of the more unusual and we hope more interesting pastimes, excursions and tours to think about if you are holidaying in Malta. If you’re coming with a tour operator, the chances are that the rep assigned to your hotel will have regular packages on offer. But what about the things to see that are more off the beaten tourist path? The quirkier, more eclectic museums or the more sensual or adventurous ways to see the Islands?

Here, we hope to give you some ideas about what else is on offer in Malta and Gozo, when the guides, guidebooks and reps’ choices leave you, well, feeling a little like you’ve done and seen the things before (the Balearic Islands perhaps on last year’s hols?!).

Wind, Sea & Sky
Seaplane Trip
A friend of mine took her mum up in the seaplane for a birthday treat. Apart from running the regular hourly shuttle to Gozo and back, the plane also offers scenic flights over Malta. It does recall the glam ‘flying boat’ era of the ’50s even if it’s a thoroughly modern descendent of those planes. What is interesting about seeing Malta from the air is that you discover hidden coves, swathes of walkable countryside and landmarks that you just don’t know about, even if you’ve lived here for years. Places you are eager to seek out later on land. And of course, there’s the thrill of landing on sea, not runway! Contact Harbour Air for details.

Trial Flight
If you are keener to ‘have a go’ and do more than see the scenery, then try one of Malta’s light aircraft flying schools, most of which offer a trial, orientation flight to would-be pilots. Again, like the Seaplane, prices are reasonable, and you do get a go on the joy stick and learn about flying with natural and screen horizons. The instructors are happy to let you treat it as a scenic flight if you prefer! Don’t forget the camera. One school we’ve tested out ourselves is Diamond Flight Training. See our write-up here.

Aviation Museum
Near Ta’ Qali crafts village and right next to the National Stadium is this fascinating aviation museum housed in what were hangers of the old RAF aerodrome. Run as a non-profit organisation, the museum has gone from strength to strength in its work salvaging, acquiring and doing up an eclectic collection of planes and plane bits (mostly World War II era) such as a Hawker Hurricane and a Spitfire as well as having display cases packed with fascinating memorabilia. EU funding secured it a new hanger and the collection, layout, and information are admirable. Kids love it! So do grandads. See its site here.

Sail away
You need to plan this rather than expect to get it sorted when you’re here, but a private hire of sailing boat is an amazing experience, whether you’re out for a day or are more flush for cash and hire it for a three-day trip to Sicily. The tourist boats that start from Sliema ferries are fine for a quick family outing, but if you really want to experience Malta from the sea, you’ll need to sail. Most higher-star hotels with lidos and beach concessions offer sailing instruction, as does Vikings Sailing Club based in Hay Wharf (near the Excelsior Hotel), Valletta. Vikings has three-day (half day) courses in the summer for newbies to the sport. Well worth fitting in if you can and the Valletta bus terminus is conveniently nearby. Other clubs and schools operate too, especially in the St Paul’s Bay area in northern Malta.

Road
Open-top Bus Tours
Malta doesn’t have the space and roads to offer real motoring pleasure while on holiday (nor the road etiquette). There’s little point in hiring a vintage motor (we don’t mean old banger) to cruise the scenery. Leave that to larger countries. But what it does have is its quirky London-style double-decker bus tours. You can sit up top, sun or rain permitting, feel the wind blast your cheeks out of shape and rattle along spying over those rubble walls at a ‘hidden Malta’! Choose the southern or northern Malta tour, and hop on and off at will. Commentary in eight languages. I’ve not tried the tour, but my son wants to next holiday!

Classic Car Museum
If you aren’t getting your fix of old cars on Malta’s road, try out this museum to glimpse some that have had real tender loving care having been restored to near pristine condition. The museum is in one of Malta’ most touristy towns – Qawra – but often gets overlooked. It is privately run, and well kept and has a vast collection, so you can easily pass two or even three hours eyeing up the motors.

Quad Bike Tours
Very popular in Malta over the past five years are quad bikes. I suppose they give a feel of US-style beach riders. Though they are road bound here. The enterprising Malta Quad Bike Association offers all you need to find a tour or jaunt that suits you, from half days in Gozo to tours to Sicily. You need a valid drivers licence and must be over 25 years to take out a quad.

History
Wayside chapels, watch towers and quirky sites
A non-profit heritage organisation that does jolly well in keeping interesting gems of sites and buildings going for the pleasure of visitors is Din L-Art Helwa. We’ve given it several mentions on this site because we feel the places it cares for make interesting, more off-the-beaten tourist path places to visit. Red Fort (mentioned on a walk here), Bir Miftuh, the Wignacourt Tower are all ones we’ve covered. It is now on the verge of completing restoration of the Delimara Lighthouse which will be run also as holiday accommodation. See the organisation’s site for more hidden gems to visit – most are accessible within a short walk of public transport, and all make for an hour’s diversion from the regular tourist fare.

Wine & Food
Winery Tour – Meridiana Wine Estate
If the tour operators tell you only about the crafts village at Ta’ Qali, try to steal away when you’re there to Ta’ Qali’s other business – wine making. Meridiana is a small winery has been going just over 20 years and had start-up know-how from Marchese Piero Antinori, Tuscany’s famed wine lord. The estate produces what is calls ‘world-class wines of Maltese character’, not in great quantities, but all are well worth seeking out in restaurants and wine merchants if you don’t get to make a winery tour and tasting.

Maltese Olive Oil & ancient Olive Trees
The Romans introduced the olive tree to Malta, and it’s been proved in recent years that a few ancient olives growing in Barija, in the North, are around 1,000 years old, and therefore the offspring most likely of those Roman trees. One man, Sammy Cremona, is responsible for reviving this ancient root stock unique to Malta with the help of EU, government, and private sector funding. His own olive farm in Wardija offers tours, tastings and a typical Maltese farmers lunch with all the trimmings. By appointment only and usually run for small groups. His wife Matty is a well-known local cookery expert. Call Sammy Cremona on: +356 79582294. See more on olives here, and about Sammy and the project here.

Photo: Therese Debono

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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 proportion 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. Perhaps in days gone by, people caught or bred more of the protein themselves and kept the costs down that way.

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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