By now my trusty two to three readers have read my impressions of Malta. You also saw pictures taken by my lovely woman. But, as you might have already imagined, I also took pictures but mine are a bit different from those taken by Laura. Thus sit back, take a sip of your beverage, and enjoy another trip to Malta. This time through the two lenses of my iPhone (Laura has a five-lens Samsung).
Let’s start with the obvious. Food. Even though we ate more or less the same during the whole week there were at least two dishes that differed. Firstly, as you might probably know, one of Malta’s official languages is English; thus it is full of tourists from both the United Kingdom and the United States. Therefore, it comes as no surprise you can easily find “A Full English Breakfast” on most menus when going out for breakfast. Since I have always wanted to try a full English breakfast and I have not yet been to the UK, I decided to order it on our last day before our way to the airport. That morning we ate at a lovely place called CRUST Bistro & Bar which has a lovely terrace, delicious coffee (which I must say from my brief experience is a rare thing in Malta), and good food.
In my previous article, I already mentioned Gululu – the best Maltese food restaurant of 2022. Apart from eating spaghetti with a rabbit sauce and seabass with fries and salad; during one of our three sittings I decided to try their “old family specialty” – little pasta beads cooked with minced pork, finely chopped onions, and garlic, white wine, parsley, and a generous dose of grated cheese. I would say it is a bit too salty for most people due to the seasoning of the pork. Even though Laura did not taste it I could immediately tell she would not have enjoyed this meal. But I did. I very much enjoy Carbonara and this “family specialty” is something similar.
Enough about food, two to three words are needed about adult beverages. Firstly, Maltese beer. Their lager does not differ in almost any way from lager made in any other country. The color is the same, the taste is the same, the price is a bit lower, and it is not worth sharing a picture (even though I took one). A completely different story is their amber ale. Do you like Guinness? Do you know the black ale with almost no bubbles and a delicious, gentle foam on the top? I would say that Malta has something similar and it is worth tasting. It is not black but amber as the name suggests. It is light, refreshing, and surprising. Even though I almost don’t drink beer anymore, this ale was a lovely surprise and I would definitely recommend trying it. Lastly, concerning beers, in the gallery below you will also find a picture of two craft beers. Unfortunately, nothing special compared to other similar makings. But I recommend tasting them together with an octopus.
The one thing I regret not buying and trying comes from a place you learned about in the previous article: the Marsovin Winery. They have this one special sparkling wine called “Grand Maitre”. I don’t know if the taste is worth the price which is around 50.00 EUR, but the bottle itself is somewhat of a collector’s item. You can see below for yourself. The label on the bottle is made out of aluminum, and apparently, each one is made individually by hand. The reason I did not buy this bottle is that I did not have any checked baggage, if I’d had then most probably I would need to think where to put it in my home. Since I believe it is a good conversation piece. Have you ever seen a wine bottle with an aluminum label?
Nevertheless, we did try other sparkling wines from Marsovin. Not only during our tasting but also after in our hotel room. My lovely woman had not yet tasted a Blanc de Blancs sparkling wine which for those not familiar with wine terminology refers to a sparkling wine made entirely of Chardonnay grapes. This Maltese winery had one of the 2020 vintage produced only in 1800 bottles. Ours had the number 1371. Is it comparable to a Blanc de Blancs champagne? I will not be rude and disrespectful, but I will say that the aroma was pleasant, bubbles were small and delicate; however, the taste was missing that special feature that is prevalent in Blanc de Blancs champagne. For some, it may not be an issue, but for those who enjoy bubbles, it may be a deal breaker. Having said that, I still do recommend tasting it.
Unfortunately, when we were in CASA ROCCA PICCOLA there were no descriptions or names of manufacturers next to the pieces displayed as it is in Rundáles palace. This in a sense is understandable since this palazzo is not entirely a museum but also someone’s, in this case, the owner’s, home; therefore, if next to everything there would be a brief description the place would no longer feel like a home. At least in my view. But, nevertheless, I did try to take pictures of all the clocks that I managed to spot. Sadly, the guide said that they no longer wind them since it needs to be done multiple times a day and no one has the time or the willingness to do it. I hope to believe that on calmer days when no one is around the owner walks around the house, stops next to one of his clocks, gently opens the case, takes the winding key, and patiently winds the clock so that it continues to run and tell the time.
And lastly, before I let you look through the gallery below I would like to talk about the lady with the red shoes. Who was she? Why did she leave her shoes behind? Were they not comfortable enough? Did she leave them there by herself or were they put there by someone else?
It is almost certain that we will never know why these shoes are on this ledge. Probably a lady was going home from a late evening and these shoes were beginning to hurt her feet. Since she may have had more than one pair at home and these were one of the oldest, she simply decided to leave them. Even though the color stands out, it is not as uncommon as you might think. Since Malta has been invaded by almost anyone who was willing to spend time and resources, the British among them, it is full of English post boxes and old telephone booths. It seemed that those post boxes were still operational, but the telephone booths were badly damaged and left unattended. Probably the people who decided not to remove them thought they could serve as a tourist attraction for Instagram photos. Since currently most of them seem to be used as a toilet, I would say that it was a bad idea. Nevertheless, it was interesting to see British features where you least expected them.
I hope you enjoyed our trip to Malta as much as the guy in that lovely blue Morgan enjoys his ride. Below you will find a gallery of photos that I took while in Malta. You will immediately notice that my amazing woman takes much better pictures than I do, but that is understandable since she enjoys taking them much more than I do. I like to write and express my thoughts as you might have already guessed. See you next time.
Kind regards,
Olaaf
