Boo in Malta - Grabiel Terrazza

I hate the inevitable headache that comes with a beach holiday, the 'I'm on holiday therefore should relax and eat whatever I like' attitude at direct loggerheads with the exposure of skin one succumbs to on the beach. The carb heavy menus in Malta didn't help and disregarding recommendations from those who had fallen foul of the dodgy water in Malta on previous travels, I had lots of salads in the week that I was there. A great roasted vegetable salad in Gozo at an adorable little bay, we drove around looking for a restaurant in a hotel which had been recommended in Helen's Time Out Guide to Malta but found instead a row of nice looking eateries choosing one overlooking the bay.

I had tuna salad at a beach cafe and was pleasantly surprised by the quality of it. It was tuna chunks rather than steak obviously but I had feared much worse. Good salad and a nice olive oil dressing, great olives, tomatoes, capers and green peppers accompanied. The same could not be said unfortunately for the version of the dish sampled at Grabiel Terrazza. Dining unusually late one evening following a large lunch we wondered down the road in Marsaskala where we were staying and nipped into the closest place we could find.

I ordered the tuna salad and what i got was minus dressing with the tuna chunks still in tin can form in the centre of the leaves.


Dry and uninspiring, this salad was a huge disappointment and my companions didn't fare a lot better. Noy went for a mezze mix of local eats, Maltese sausage, the little crackers which were served everywhere, dips, cheese and tomatoes. A Maltese take on the Ploughman's lunch here in England.


Again the overwhelming factor for Noy was the saltiness of her meal, like the stroganoff she had earlier in the week, the Maltese sausage is too salty to enjoy. The sundried tomatoes were tasty and the Bigilla (dish in the middle with the crackers sticking out of it) was interesting, it's a traditional Maltese bean paste known locally as "ful tal-Ġirba". See a recipe here.

Something wasn't quite right with the platter, which in theory seemed like a safe bet. Helen's sausage and tomato pasta suffered because of the inclusion of the salty sausage. She was asked to choose from farfalle, spaghetti or penne, nice to be given the option, but this was a very standard tomato sauce, unremarkable but not bad, lifted a little by the grating of fresh parmesan.


James chose the greek salad with feta and olives, there was a generous serving of the cheese and, though I didn't try it, I think salad's are clearly not their forte, I'm not quite sure what is but it's definitely not the salad!


This said, the lasting impression Grabiel Terrazza will leave is that here we sampled what had to be the most vile red wine we'd ever had. Vinegary and bitter, we each attempted to drink a glass and failed leaving a fair bit in the bottle. The waiter suggested we might like to take the remains with us, we politely declined and suggested he drink it himself. I wish him luck with that!

Grabiel Terrazza
Marsaskala, Malta
3/10

Boo in Malta - Sottovento

On the first evening of our trip James took us to the pretty walled city of Vittoriosa. The harbour has a number of bars and restaurants and was surprisingly busy, rowdy even in a nearby eatery where we could here live music and singing, for late on a Sunday evening, we got there at about 10pm.

Malta’s heavy Italian influence is evident in most of its restaurants. A mere 90km away from Sicily there are pizza/pasta heavy menus everywhere. Sottovento is no exception with most of the large menu consisting of these. James and Helen both opted for pizzas amd they looked very good.

James had the interesting combination of sausage, olives, peas and egg. The base was crisp and substantial, toppings were generous.



Helen's was topped with pepperoni and green pepper. We discussed this later, it seems that the peppers in Malta are far more subtle than the ones we're used to eating here in the UK, I would have exected the exact opposite, anyway, there was a lot of it on Helen's pizza at Sottovento, she picked some off.


Noy went for the prawn and tomato risotto. This was odd because she doesn't actually like prawns, thinking they would be big enough to pick out and liking all of the other components of the dish she was disapointed to find they were very small and there were a lot of them. Presentation could be improved, the use of a bowl rather than a plate might be a good idea but risotto is risotto and the portion was huge, in all Noy was pleased with it.


I had the trio of smoked fish salad which comprised of salmon, tuna and swordfish and was really very good. I would have liked a little more swordfish and less salmon, by the end of the meal the latter had gotten a bit much. The salad was well dressed, the tomatoes and olives were a nice addition.


The setting was the thing that made this meal, really very beautiful, overlooking the little harbour really envoked that holiday vibe which we soaked up, sipping a very satisfactory bottle of house white, imagining which beach we might venture to in the morning. The following day we went to Gozo, the beach looked like this..



Sottovento
Vittoriosa, Malta
7/10

Boo in Malta - Tal Familja

Here's the first of my posts about Malta. The holiday was lovely, I was a last minute addition to the party thanks to the kind hospitality of Noy, Helen and James, I was able to tag along.

The short notice meant I was left with barely enough time to pack let alone to research and get an idea of the local foods or recommended eateries, luckily James is residing in Malta temporarily for work and knew of some local hotsopts.

We ate out most evenings and my personal favourite eating experience of the week had to be dinner at Tal Familja. A small friendly 'typical Maltese' restaurant, we head here looking for an authentic Maltese dining experience.

We were seated, having arrived fairly late in the day, orders were taken and food arrived promptly. Complimentary white bread rolls were served accompanied by a large helping of garlic butter. These rolls were better than others we'd had throughout the week. Warm and crisp, baked on the premises it seems and the garlic butter was a nice touch.


There was also a selection of bruschetta, commonly this is served alongside the bread in Maltese restaurants, this version was good, richer tasting tomatoes are one of the pleasure of venturing to sunnier climes, these didn't disappoint. Then came a Maltese Antipasto selection consisting of beans, tripe, snails and crackers, pictured below clockwise from top left. We hadn't ordered this, it's generously offered to all diners at Tal Familja.


Noy and I took the plunge and both sampled several of the snails and some tripe, whilst James and Helen stuck to the beans and crackers. All of this was cold which surprised me and did not enhance the taste. The local snails, cooked in wine and garlic were less slimey than I'd expected but a bit tasteless really, earthy like a mushroom with the texture of a mussel. I ploughed through a few more thinking that they might improve alas, they didn't. I'm sure that snails can be done better than this but I'm not mad keen to sample them again any time soon.

Time for the tripe, I've read of many fine tripe dishes sampled in restaurants on food blogs and heard much of celebrity chef's attempts to revive the nation's appetite for tripe, not yet a huge success it must be said. In any case, I was keen to try but this again cold offering, in a gloopy mustard yellow sauce, tasted of nothing, I could not recollect a single flavour in the sauce and the overriding sensation was repultion at the fatty, soft, slippery consistency of the stuff. Not good.

I had intended to eat a traditional Maltese dish but in the end only James from our group did this. He went for the Bragioli. Thinly sliced beef rolled with a meat stuffing and casseroled. This was the best dish of the evening and we should have all followed suit ordering local dishes.


I was not able to pass on the disply of fresh fish which was presented atop a trolley to the table, there was John Dory, Seabass, Red Snapper and Sole, all looked amazingly vibrant and appealing, I went for the Red Snapper, served whole with vegetables.


I liked this, they offered to fillet it for me but I boldly declined and regretted it, about a hundred little bones remained after I successfully removed the middle bone making for fairly tricky eating. The taste was subtle and delicious and it was cooked perfectly. Sadly the same couldn't be said for Helen's Swordfish was was severely overcooked and eventually she gave up.


Helen instead filled up on the accompanying roast potatoes, side salad, cabbage and (bizarrely) onion rings served with all main courses. The onion rings reminded me of some I'd sampled in New York, shoestring thin, deepfried and a bit too fatty. I liked the cabbage very much, unusual but welcome.


My fish came with spinach so there was an abundance of sides for all to share. The side salad remained largely untouched, I am not one of course to complain of too much food being served but it's a bit of a waste. Noy, like Helen, was certainly glad of it due to an abundance of salt rendering her beef stroganoff close to inedible.


Looking back, I really enjoyed the evening, we made a new friend in the shape of one of the local cats, she certainly enjoyed the fish dishes more than we did. The bottle of Pinot Grigio we shared was a hit and the complimentary frangelicos were much appreciated. We were disappointed with many of the dishes but in their defence I think we ordered unwisely, that said, it's a travesty to destroy a piece of sworfish in the way they did and despite all the complimentary elements to the meal the service was a bit lacklustre. €25 each, worth it for the experience, and at least I can say I've had snails and tripe now.

6/10
Tal Familia
Marsaskala
Malta