For those who like Italian and Indian food, Malta is a good place to sample these cuisines at very reasonable prices. You even find some decent Chinese (albeit Cantonese-style) restaurants on Malta.

Given the historical linkage to southern Italy, it's not a big surprise that you can find excellent and authentic Italian pasta dishes on both Malta and Gozo. And I am positively surprised that many Maltese restaurants serve not just the usual variety of pastas, but they make good risottos too (and with a twist - adding ingredients such as ginger and lemongrass that give the dish a refreshing taste).

As for Indian and Cantonese cooking, all I can say is the quality of food and the variety of choices available are much better than what you can find in most of western Europe, with the exception of UK. In addition the general price levels on Malta and Gozo are also much cheaper than in France, Germany or England, which means your euro or pounds go much further here on Malta should you decide to dine out. For less than 10 euro per person excluding wine or alcoholic drinks, you can have a very satisfaying, high quality meal.

Too bad I only had 5 days' time; would love to try out more restaurants on both islands....

L'Ankra Restaurant, Mgarr, Gozo Island:

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Very popular family-run restaurant serving Italian and Maltese cuisines, good seafood dishes. Reservation recommended if you are going there on the weekend. Open for dinner only. The place is on the road leading uphills from Mgarr's harbour (where the ferry to Malta departs), with good seaview.

There are so many mouthwatering pasta dishes on the menu that I don't know what to choose. In the end I decided to try out this dish of the day 'Penne with Pancetta Ham, Fresh Mushrooms and Fresh Herbs in a Cream Sauce'. I love penne and the slightly thick, chewy texture of the paste goes well with the thick, tasty and fulfilling sauce (flavoured with some cognac). 

Then it's the dessert:

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A very decent serving of cheese cream cake, although in my opinion, at 3.50 euro it's more worthwhile if you save the money for the dessert and opt for an entree instead. The funny thing is, ALL cakes on Malta and Gozo are expensive. I have not yet seen a place that serves cakes for less than 3 euro a piece. For that price you can have a wonderful piece of Black Forest cherry cake baked by a master baker at a up-market cafes in Germany. I wonder why cakes are so expensive on Malta... are they all imported fresh or what??

The second restaurant I want to recommend is the Bistro at the Riviera Hotel, Marfa, Malta Island (near the Gozo Ferry Terminal):

How I ended up at this restaurant is quite funny: I stayed at the nearby Ramla Bay Resort and tried out Ramla Bay's buffer dinner, which turned out to be quite disastrous and very bad value for money. The food was cold, not very tasty and the choices of dishes available rather pathetic. It was not worth the 16.90 euro per person they charged for that. The next day, as I was heading to the bus stop, I saw this place and decided to have a look what they offer. Their menu seems very interesting (Mussels with white wine and herbs!!!! The only seafood I eat!!!) and the Head Waiter extremely friendly. Immediately I reserved a place for that night's dinner and - guess what happened??

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The starter - Penne with freshly chopped tomato and herbs, sprinked with Parmesan cheese (I told you I love penne...)

This is a good one, the flavour is well balanced, the sauce is delicious but not overpowering. As for the wines, the Rose is better than the White. Both wines are from local Maltese vineyards. In general, Maltese reds and roses are better than their whites.

Here comes the main course and the highlight of the day: Mussels with White Wine and Fresh Herbs....

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Now, this looks so tempting, right? So I started eating immediately. After a while I realised that one of them doesn't open. (In case you don't know this yet, don't eat mussels that do not open after they are cooked because they are probably dead and you should discard them If you eat them, you might end up in the ER at a hospital and have to lie in bed for a few days.... but of course you would have already heard of this before...)

Then I found another one that refused to open. After that one more and one more and one more... in the end I counted 10 or 11 mussels that remained closed even though they have been steamed alive in some pressure cookers. For a few minutes I was a bit confused - I remember it's the rule to discard closed mussels, but since there are almost a dozen of them (out of some 30+ mussels on the plate) that are not open, I was not very sure if I should throw them away, or eat  them anyway.

This mussel puzzle allows me to meet a very nice and friendly couple from Scotland, Christine and Dave (Hello!), who agreed that I should just leave the closed mussels on the plate. The Head Waiter came and asked if everything is fine, he probably thought I left the mussels on the plate because it was such a huge portion and I could not finish them. So I told him ''yes, the pasta was very good, the rose was good too, but the mussels are... hummm ho should I say... why are there so many of them that don't open?''

Immediately he took the plate with 10 or 11 dead mussels back to the kitchen. Usually reputable restaurants will bring you another new serving, but I actually hope he does not bring me another 30+ mussels because I am already quite full... even considering all the dead ones, 30+ mussels is a sizeable portion for anyone. If he brings me another serving, I think I won't be able to get out of bed tomorrow morning....

Anyway, the rest is a long story.... at the end when I asked to pay the bill, the Head Waiter said ' No, it's on the house.' What? I can understand they take the mussels off the bill, but the pasta and the wines have been OK and I did not expect them to offer them free to me as well. But the Head Waiter refused to charge me anything, insisting that they want to make sure all their customers are happy with their meals and if they are not, they don't need to pay. Well, if he said so....

Later, the chef came over to me at the hotel bar and apologized for the mussels incident once more. It was not until the next night that I heard from my Scottish couple friends that the hotel management thought I was a food critic (because I have been taking photos of the food and the wine during dinner) and they don't want me to write nasty things about them...

Back to the 20+ mussels that were alive before they were boiled alive ....

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The mussels are good, the best part is the white wine sauce with herbs at the bottom of the plate, which goes very well with the soft and tasty freshly prepared French fries. It's a pity I was so full at the end, I really wanted to wipe the plate clean with all those French fries... Despite the mussel incident, this restaurant is still very high recommendable and you can have wonderful meal for less than 30 euro per person with a good bottle of Maltese red wine.

Copyrights@2008. All photos and text by YC Cheng. All Rights Reserved.

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