Mella Malta

I recently went to visit my friend Andy in Malta. Having no idea what to expect, i was delighted by the sun and sea, and mixed north african and meditteranean influences in the food. A firm favourite were pastizzi, which a version of pasties. It made me think about the various types of pasty type snacks I've tried around the world, and almost always enjoyed. Indian samosas, middle eastern boreki, chinese spring rolls, south american empanadas, the best Bolivian saltenas, Cornish pasties and now maltese pastizzi. The picture (and our favourite) shows spinach ones, but peas, meat and spinach and ricotta were also available and a suprisingly filling snack. There are two aspects of these pasty variations that stand out: a sweet light pastry and a tasty spicy filling; Bolivian saltenas have a sweet glaze over a thin pastry, and boreki have the salty spinach and feta with a crumbly pastry.

Another Maltese favourite was 'kinni', a bitter orange fizzy drink, which sadly did not wash down the pastizzi as well as I thought, and I ended up carrying it around for hours trying to finish it as it grew warmer and flatter and even less apetizing. A much tastier drink were the mojitos with strawberries. Our version with seasonal pomegranate is to follow.

The first picture is lamb curry with pilao (spicy and delicious). The second are oysters with tangy lemon mustard vinagrette over a bed of salad leaves (perfect for valentines day). The third is feta cheese sauteed in chilli and leek on a home-made focciacia.

Chocolate con churros: the manchester food festival

This week Manchester is hosting a festival for foodies; delightful for the tastebuds and strangley feeling more like a typical summer music festival in Britain than a the urban scattering of gourmet delights I was expecting. The horizontal drizzle, bright coloured wellies and pints of lager in plastic cups accompanied by reggae was contrasted with the chocolate extravaganza inside the main tent.
Chocolate wine, chocolate truffles, chilli chocolate, chocolate ice cream and let's not forget chocolate con churros! Deep fried batter covered in sugar and cinnamon and dipped in melted chocolate. The supreme way to spend a Saturday afternoon. If only I had got some of that chocolate wine...