I left Le Mans the 10th of May
by car thanks my friends to get to the airport Orly. I took an Air Malta’s
plane to reach Malta for arrive at 7.30 pm.
A person of the agency which
provide me my accommodation was waiting for me and drove me to my apartment.
This is how I discovered how to conduct
Maltese. They don’t always follow the rules of the road, for example, they don’t
stop at stop signs.
Malta is composed by 2 mains islands: Malta
and Gozo and 3 others: Comino, Cominetto and Fifola.
It’s situated in the Mediterranean Sea, at
100km on the south of Sicilia.
Mediterranean climate of Malta offers mild
winters, bright and sunny, with temperatures around 15 degrees Celsius, and
hot, dry summers, where temperatures can reach 40 ° C during the high season.
It rains between November and February, but
episodically. At this period of the year, it’s already very hot, some
afternoon, it was near to 30° but the nights are always cool.
Malta’s area is about 250 km² and
Gozo’s is 70 km². There are 400 000 inhabitants and 85% lives in the
cities.
The Malta’s capital is Valletta with 12 000
inhabitants.
The main religion is the Catholicism.
The officials languages are the Maltese (a
mix with different languages but it looks like Arab) and English.
Because of the different colonization, the
gastronomy is very various.
Specialties
Entries
The bigilla: a spicy bean pate accompanied
by Hobza, Maltese bread.
Pastizzi are fond of traditional slippers
or stuffed with ricotta or peas.
Soups
The aljotta is a fish soup with rice,
garlic, onion and tomato.
The Kusksu is a soup made of a paste of
fresh beans and peas accompanied by goat cheese typical of Gozo, the ġbejniet.
The minestra is a vegetable soup combining
potatoes, onions, cabbage, zucchini, tomatoes, pasta, lentils and chickpeas.
Dishes
The mimli brungiel are eggplant stuffed
with beef and pork.
The timpana is a macaroni gratin, topped
with minced meat.
The Bragoli is a kind of minced beef
roulade made with eggs, bacon and bread and returned in a wine sauce.
Fish
- Torta tal- lampuki is the specialty of
the island made with this very popular fish that is lampuki, kind of bream
which is prepared crust with spinach, cauliflower and walnuts on a pastry.
The lampuki in a zesty tomato sauce.
The octopus is eaten in sauce, stuffed or
pastas.
Spaghetti frutti di mare.
Meat and poultry
- Torta tal- fenek is made with rabbit
marinated and cooked in a sauce of red wine, served in a crust.
The mogli fenek is a fried rabbit with garlic
and bay leaves cooked in white wine.
Lamb is a very popular dish, especially
baked in the embers.
Cheese
Goat cheese is eaten fresh or dried.
Pecorino Gozo, the ġbejna, is eaten dry or
pepper.
Desserts
The frigolli is a dry cake with marzipan
and lemon.
As sweet snacks, there is a tradition of
small shortcakes (biskuttini) to orange or anise flavors that you buy in the
markets.
First impressions
I was a little bit disappointed to go in a
foreign country alone. I was alone in my flat, I knew nobody here.
Despite this, that was good to discover a
new country. The life is very different than France, for example, there are no big
supermarket, there are some small, but there are mostly many small grocery
stores. On top of that there are many trucks that sell fruits and vegetables.
Another thing was confusing to me is that
cars drive on the left, so I was a little bit lost when I had to cross.
Now, my three English roommates arrived,
which will allow me to even speak English and make this course even more
beneficial.
Malta offers beautiful scenery, which makes
life here very nice, especially for the weekend.
