18-Jan-2025
Today's our last day on Malta, which is a little sad.
It has been a funny week. A little stressed, one way and another. Not being able to organize medical checkups here has meant we're back on Plan A (return directly to Malaysia), and although this shouldn't be disappointing (it was the original plan, after all), it is disappointing, because I'd thought something else was starting to shape up, and now it isn't, which is a pity.
Then there have been other issues to work around: Nigel's foot, the succession of high winds, the gym... Nothing insuperable. But needing a little planning.
Nevertheless, it has been great to see something of Malta, which is truly like nowhere else I've ever been. I'm really glad we stretched the original five-night plan to seven nights (although the ferry timings have meant we've only had six full days).
And the food has been a nice surprise (I'd never really thought about Maltese food before I came here). Here's a list of tasty things:
Deliciously crispy pastizzi
The slightly chunkier qassatat is also very good
If you order a ftira, you get a very substantial sandwich, easily enough for two, made with a flattened sourdough bread that's now on the Intangible Cultural Heritage list
Definitely in the "most surprising" category were lamingtons... We met these cakes (chocolate- or jam-coated) only after we'd moved to New Zealand, and they're very much an Australian/Kiwi thing. Well, they're also here... They have their own name -- pasti mir-roza -- and there's an article here that speculates on the history of this particular foodway. (The mystery of why only the PINK lamingtons made it to Malta remains unsolved, however.)
Having seen them in a couple of cake shops, I thought our Gozo coffee stop was a good opportunity to sample some. This one was excellent... Really... To accompany the cake, we ordered Maltese coffee. The secret here is the addition of roasted chicory, ground cloves, and ground aniseed. Very fragrant:
The cafe where we happened upon these treats is in the St Joseph Band Club building, Ghajnsielem, Gozo. Bands, usually associated with religious festivities, are a big thing in Malta
We were a little limited on provisions outlets, but our ultra-busy shop of choice did offer bigilla (Malta's answer to ful medames, it's excellent either as a dip or dolloped on soup) and "cheeselets", tiny cheeses that range from soft to hard, plain to peppered. You won't be surprised to know that we worked our way through the entire gamut while we were there:
A pleasant Maltese red goes well with bigilla, cheeselets, and lots of other things...
Anyway, we've come to the end of all this. Tomorrow, we head back to Sicily for Part 2 of Island No. 3. Which we'll enjoy, for sure, as we enjoyed Part 1 a lot. There's a feeling of endings creeping up now, though. Malta was our last island, our southernmost point. There are lots of interesting places still to come, but essentially we've turned the corner, and we're on our way back. And that's always bittersweet.