10 Things to Taste during your Malta holidays

Kinnie

Best described as one of Malta’s most distinct soft drinks, Kinnie is formed from an aromatic blend of bitter oranges, sweet spices and pungent herbs. While sounding like something a child might cook-up in their mother’s kitchen, Kinnie’s curious composites mysteriously align to form a devilishly tasty dark-amber nectar.

 

Twistees

Famously found in lunch-boxes around the island (adults included!), this popular snack helps to keep the wolves at bay between meals. Found in cheesy, chicken and bacon flavours, Twistees are the local version of naughty-but-nice nibbles.

 

Mqaret

Sweet and tasty, these deep-fried pastries are truly divine (so long as you don’t count all their calories!). Stuffed with dates and served as a warm dessert, often accompanied with ice cream, these fragrant and softly spiced treats are worth ditching the diet for.

Hobz biz-Zejt

The literal translation, being bread with oil, just doesn’t do this dish justice. A better description would be ‘ a rustic Mediterranean loaf ’. For this specialty, fresh crusty bread is fervently lavished with olive oil and stuffed with a combination of ingredients that include capers, olives, garlic, tuna, anchovies and sweet tomato paste. However, Gbejna – peppery cubes of succulent goat’s cheese, in my opinion, really takes the Hobz-Biz biscuit as the best addition to this delicious bread!

 

Gbejniet

Traditionally made from goats cheese you can find them pickled and plain or pickled and coated in black pepper. For a milder taste try them fresh. Enjoy them with Malta’s popular crackers known as Galletti. Nowadays these are available seasoned with sea salt and black pepper, herbs and even sun dried tomatoes in ready prepared packets.

 

Fenek

Often typified as the national dish, stewed rabbit has become synonymous with Malta’s cultural identity. Almost as important as the soft and succulent meat, however, is the act of going for the meal itself. Known traditionally as a ‘fenkata’, this festive feast is not only an excuse to gather all the friends and family but has become a seasonal occasion for most Maltese.

Timpana

Amalgamating two beloved dishes, Timpana gives you the ultimate pasta-pie. Made from macaroni pasta and bolognese meat, this traditional platter is baked in a puff pastry layer until lightly golden brown. A word of warning, however, this dish is best served with a subsequent nap.

Cisk

A premium lager, Cisk is one of Malta’s most significant exports. Locally brewed with a light and refreshing taste, Cisk can be enjoyed without fear of any beer-belly retribution. Unless, that is, you decide to down ten in row; then are making no such promise!

Bajtra Liquer

Formed from the flesh of the local prickly pear fruit (Bajtra), and shimmering in a translucent red, this luminous liqueur looks deceptively close to a cough mixture medicine. However, far from a revolting remedy, this sweetened solution slips down very easily as an after dinner treat. Some might even call it salubrious for the soul, (I said might…)

Pastizzi

With its very own Facebook page (complete with over 36,000 likes) Pastizzi can be easily deemed the nation’s favourite. Cut into diamond shaped pastries, these local delicacies are lovingly oven baked with a warm ricotta or a spicy pea filling. Transforming into an indulgent treat or tasty snack, Pastizzi perfectly epitomizes the sumptuous Maltese palette.

If you would like to taste some mouthwatering dishes visit one of the top Malta Restaurants at the Grand Hotel Excelsior!

Ġbejna - A Traditional Maltese Cheese

And if you enjoyed reading and trying out Our Head Chef's Recipe of the Month 'Fried Goat's Cheese with Gastic Tomato' below is a brief information and the making of the traditional cheeselet.

Ġbejna is a round cheeselet made in the Maltese Islands from goat’s or sheep milk, salt and rennet. Virtually all sheep milk and most goat milk produced in Malta is used for the production of these cheeselets, much of it through family-owned cottage industries.

Ġbejna is shaped in a cheese hurdle made of indigenous dried reeds, although now even plastic ones are used. They are traditionally dried in small ventilated rooms, with windows protected by a special mesh mosquito net. It is said that in the past, sea water, rather than rennet, was used as a curdling agent.

It is prepared and served in a variety of forms: fresh, sundried salt cured or peppered. The fresh ‘gbejniet’ have a smooth texture and a milky flavour and are kept in their own way in a similar manner to fresh Mozzarella. The sundried variety have a more definite, nutty almost musky, taste, and are fairly hard. The peppered ones are covered in crushed black pepper and cured, after which they may be stored in oil or pickled in vinegar. Their sharp taste becomes more piquant the more they age and they also develop a crumbly texture.

Try out our mouthwatering dishes at one of our top Malta Restaurants. For more information kindly contact our Food and Beverage Department on food.beverage@excelsior.com.mt