Dining

There is something amazing round every corner you turn in Mgarr. Strolling between temples and breath taking views you are bound to get hungry, and you will find restaurants that will definitely suite your needs and likes. Eat in one of these restaurants and you are guaranteed a taste of Malta, with their choice of traditional and modern dishes that will tickle your taste buds they provide you with the perfect backdrop for your gastronomic experience.

The food eaten draws its influences from Italy, northern Africa and Britain. One of the island's specialities is rabbit (fenek), and small savoury pastries known as pastizzi are also ubiquitous.

The Maltese celebratory meal is fenkata, a feast of rabbit, marinated overnight in wine and bay leaves (although recipies vary). The first course is usually spaghetti in rabbit sauce, followed by the rabbit meat stewed or fried (with or without gravy). Look out for specialist fenkata restaurants in Mgarr.

True Maltese food is quite humble in nature, and rather fish and vegetable based -- the kind of food that would have been available to a poor farmer, fisherman or mason. Thus one would find staples like soppa ta' l-armla (widow's soup) which is basically a coarse mash of whatever vegetables are in season, cooked in a thick tomato stock. Then there's arjoli which is a julienne of vegetables, spiced up and oiled, and to which are added butter beans, a puree made from broadbeans and herbs called bigilla, and whatever other delicacies are available, like Maltese sausage (a confection of spicy minced meat wrapped in stomach lining) or gbejniet (simple cheeselets made from goats' milk and rennet, served either fresh, dried or peppered). Maltese sausage is incredibly versatile and delicious. It can be eaten raw (the pork is salted despite appearances), dried or roasted. A good plan is to try it as part of a maltese platter, increasingly available in tourist restaurants. Sun dried tomatoes and bigilla with water biscuits are also excellent. Towards the end of summer one can have her or his fill of fried lampuki (dolphin fish) in tomato and caper sauce. One must also try to have a bite of hobz biz-zejt, which is leavened Maltese bread, cut into thick chunks, or else baked unleavened (ftira, from the Arabic root for flat), and served drenched in oil. The bread is then spread with a thick layer of strong tomato paste, and topped (or filled) with olives tuna, sun-dried tomatoes, capers, and the optional arjoli (which in its simpler form is called gardiniera).

The local beer has a uniquely sweeter taste than most European lagers and is well worth trying. Other local beers. A lot of beers are also imported from other countires or brewed under license in Malta.

Malta has two indigenous grape varieties, Girgentina and Gellewza, although most Maltese wine is made from various imported vines. Maltese wines are generally of a good quality. There are also many amateurs who make wine in their free time and sometimes this can be found in local shops and restaurants, especially in the Mgarr and Siggiewi area.