Month: March 2015

After lunch and touring St John's Co-Cathedral, the Missus headed off…..well, I'm not sure where. Like I mentioned before, Valletta is a pretty compact city. Making things even easier, though there are hills, the streets are set-up in a grid pattern. Go in one direction long enough and you'll find the city walls, or end up at a harbor or the Mediterranean. It's a nice place to get lost, because you'll never really be lost if you have a map. Also, everyone we ran into spoke English, probably a product of the British occupation. So "YY" if you're reading this, maybe?

One thing we noticed walking around Malta were the statues that adorn many of the street corners.

Most are of various Saints.

Eventually we came upon a small park, with a small tower. This is the Siege Bell Memorial to honor the almost 7000 people who died in the World War II siege of Malta. It seems that Malta's location is a very important strategic one, thus the island has been subjected to many attacks, battles, and sieges.

The bell overlooks the Grand Harbor and is rung everyday at noon.

In need of a break and some refreshing, we headed to the apartment.

And though the façade made the building look like it was form another century and the entrance hallway looked dark. Once up the stairway and opening the door, you were in a pretty good sized apartment. We'd have appreciated a washer, but the bed was comfortable, and there was a rather humble kitchen.

Looking thru the little breakfast nook's window and you could have a bit of a view of the Grand Harbor. Thru the other window; well, you could see part of the Upper Barrakka Gardens.

After freshening up, we walked a few meters to Upper Barrakka Gardens, the highest point in Valletta. Once the private domain of the Langue of Italy, it was opened to the public as a gift.

It is a wonderful relaxing oasis……..

The view of the Grand Harbor is superb. Right across the harbor you view Vittoriosa and Senglea, two of what is called the "Three Cities". And yes, there is Lower Barrakka Gardens which will be in a future post. Oh, and those cannons….well, they are real. Each day at noon (there's a lot of noise going on at noon in Valletta) and at 4pm, the 8 cannons of the Saluting Battery are fired.

We walked along the now sparsely populated street of Valletta as dusk approached.

Walking past St John's Co-Cathedral, we heard music, and voices, and saw folks walking in. So we just followed the small group. There was a rehearsal in progress.

We felt quite honored to be able to view this. One of the staff told the Missus and I that there was going to be a "special free performance tomorrow night, so if you are here, you should come. It is a special performance that had only been done once before, many years ago." It's amazing, you never know what you'll come across when travelling.

We stepped out; the owner of the apartment had been kind enough to make reservations for us at a restaurant called Ambrosia, "it's not my favorite, but very good….my favorite is booked, so you'll have to drop by tomorrow and make reservations!"

Man, in spite of the rather deserted looking streets, this place was packed! Still, the place felt quite cozy. The chalkboard had some interesting dishes and it looked like the focus was on products produced in Malta. Being an island, Malta imports a good amount of its food. There seemed to be a nice variety of dishes, many of which featured local ingredients.

We ordered a bottle of Astarte Vermentino; an easy to drink, light, somewhat delicate white.

We started with the Caramelized Rabbit Liver and Melon Salad. To tell you the truth, I wasn't really sold on ordering this. I'm not the biggest fan of liver dishes other than a good pate.

I gotta say, this was quite good. The rabbit liver was nicely seared and had an interesting, slight sweetness to it. The metallic, iodine flavor was muted, and I thought the melon was a good foil for the liver, balancing out the dish.

The Grilled Gozo Asparagus – Pecorino salad was fine, if nothing especially memorable.

The asparagus, local, from the Island of Gozo was tender, but nothing really stood out.

The weakest dish of the evening was the Mushroom Rissotto, which, while executed well, was really lacking in mushroom flavor.

The Missus has gotten used to what I make.

Rabbit is not indigenous to Malta, but has been around so long (thought to have been introduced by the Phoenicians or Romans), that it is considered a core ingredient of Maltese cuisine. Therefore, there was no doubt that we'd be having the Rabbit Stewed in Red Wine with Dates.

This was a nice dish, the sweet just enough to balance out the flavor of the rabbit, though I would have probably been ok with something less "tame". Still, the execution of the dish was nice…it was hearty, the rabbit moist, there were no complaints from me.

Service was professional, no complaints on the timing of the dishes.

What we've had of Maltese food so far was fascinating. An interesting combination of dishes from around the globe and most of it seemed to work quite well.

Ambrosia
137 Archbishop St
Valletta, Island of Malta

We all travel for different reasons. The Missus loves the sights, history, and stories….me, well, so much of it is about the food. I learn so much by what is served, how it is served, what is eaten, and the flavors. Malta was proving to be quite interesting……..much like my home, Hawaii, there was an interesting…and I almost hate to use the term; fusion of flavors and dishes.

Malta was proving to be an interesting place………

The Missus and I discussed our day, the food, and how surprised we were at the cuisine as we walked the now almost deserted looking streets of Valletta.

Malta was proving to be much more than what I expected, in a good way!

Thanks for reading!
 

Our next stop after Rome was Malta. When planning the trip, knowing the Missus always loves an island visit, I first thought of Cyprus. But finally decided on Malta. The Missus's response? "Why Malta?" You might be asking the same question. In fact, if you're like about 80% of the people I quizzed, you don't really know where Malta is. So, just in case you're wondering

As to the "why?" We had visited the Island of Rhodes on an earlier trip. I remember walking up the Street of the Knights to the Palace of the Grand Masters and being quite fascinated with the Knights Hospitaller. Originally founded to care for the sick or injured. This group eventually morphed into a highly regarded military force and eventually settled first in Cyprus, then Rhodes. After several attempts, Suleiman the Magnificent brought 400 ships and a huge military force and after a 6 month siege, Rhodes was lost. The Knights left Rhodes. In 1530, Charles I gave the island of Malta to the knights. I think this was a strategic move to protect Sicily and Naples from the Ottomans. And so you have it……The Knights of Malta.

To be honest, I really didn't know what to expect when landing on this tiny island nation. The apartment we were staying at had arranged for a car to pick us up at the airport. As we drove to the capital city; Valletta, I was struck at the sun baked and seemingly wind swept look of the place. We were staying within the walls of the city, which was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1980.

I was told that, in spite of intense bombing during World War II, many of the buildings in the city date as far back as the 16th century. Our apartment owner was a very funny guy. When we asked him about places to eat and said we loved food, he told us, "I will give you the best recommendations….you see, I am a single man, I eat out at good places every night, so I know all the good ones!" While patting his belly…

After settling in, we went out to explore.

Our walk brought us to Caffé Cordina, supposedly the oldest café in Valletta, established in 1837.

Even though we were visiting in the spring, it was still pretty darn hot outside. So we decided to sit inside, where it looked like more of the locals sat.

Valletta was quite interesting. Crowded streets during the day from the cruise ships and fairly quiet during the nights with a few exceptions.

When doing research on the food of Malta, it became quite clear that the cuisine is a melting pot of all who arrived on her shores, Sicily, British (Malta was part of the British Empire from 1814 until 1964), French, Northern African, etc.

I thought Caffe Cordina would be a nice intro into some of the food in Malta, starting with the ever popular stuffed pastry called Pastizz.

Pastizz (plural = Pastizzi) is a stuffed pastry filled with either a ricotta mixture, or like this one, a very British looking mushy pea mixture. Think French pastry, Italian-ish Name, British filling……

This was ok, nothing to write home about as the pastry was on the downside of flaky and the peas were quite bland.

The item we enjoyed the most was an appetizer named Hobz biz-zejt. Tell me if this looks familiar or what?

Does look bruschetta-ish, huh? This was quite good. The tomatoes were ripe and had that wonderful sweet and tangy "flavor of the sun". I loved the addition of olives and capers to this as it added a nice briney-savory flavor to the very nice bread.

I actually knew of two people who married Maltese. One of them told me to try the Maltese version of the tuna sandwich.

Loved the bread, it was just fantastic, yeasty, with a crunchy crust. Also liked the addition of cucumbers, tomato spread, and olives, a wonderful combination. The only thing I didn't care for was the tuna, which was very fishy. I would try this again later at a little no name coffee shop and boy, would it be good!

In spite of being popular with tourists, this was a decent way to get acclimated to Malta. A quick note, if you ever go to Caffe Cordina, check out the ceiling, it's quite impressive.

Caffe Cordina
244 Triq ir-Repubblika
Valletta, Island of Malta

Speaking of impressive……

Less than a block away from Caffe Cordina is my favorite place on this visit; St. John's Co-Cathedral. The humble exterior transitioned to a beautiful interior.

Built between 1573 and 1578, this beautiful Baroque Cathedral kept us busy for over an hour. We would end up returning for various reasons twice more.

The Order of the Knight of Malta has 8 "Langues" (literally "tongues"), divisions by which the order was organized. Each Langue ((Auvergne, France, Provence, Aragon, Castillian, Germany, Italy, and England – England was abolished because of the Reformation of King Henry VII) has it's own chapel in the Cathedral. Each dedicated to a Saint. The chapels are ornately decorated and quite a sight to see. All that gold just dazzles the eyes….

You'll find the tombs and the crypts of the Grand Master who are buried within the walls of the Cathedral.

Another interesting thing about the Cathedral are the almost 400 tombstones of the Knights buried in the floor of the Cathedral. To quote this wonderful webpage: (The tombstones) "are richly inlaid with the coat-of-arms of the respective knights, each buried in his particular grave, with inscriptions extolling his virtues and traits of character, with spoils of victories, skeletons and skulls symbolizing death and eternity, lions and stars to demonstrate valor, and other common artifacts to express the profane history of the Order of St John."

The Missus, who was doing the audio tour came over to me and told me that; "there are Knights of Malta buried in the floor here". To which I replied, "I know, your standing on one of them!" In one shining moment, the Misuss had achieved a 36 inch vertical leap.

As far as I'm concerned, this is a must visit if you're ever in Valletta. Take an hour, or two, and enjoy the place. As you can tell, it was very quiet on this afternoon. A bit of culture, history, and escape from the heat.

This was a wonderful visit, but it was time to move on. Valletta is a rather small city, about 655 yards by 1095 yards….and it seemed like the Missus wanted to see it all in one afternoon!

As for the St John's Co-Cathedral, we didn't know it then, but we'd be back.

Thanks for reading!