Presentation of Malta

I left Le Mans the 10^th 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.