Last week’s trip to Malta was a massive change to our normal travel routine; while we are usually running around in search of the next thing to see, Malta was intended to be a sit-and-relax vacation.
In becoming a relaxing vacation, it also morphed into one centered around food; both of us had managed to forget that 17 March was Saint-Patrick’s day, and so the masses of intoxicated people impeding our taxi driver’s path to the hotel came as somewhat of a surprise. Having deposited our belongings, we headed back out in search of the Maltese Hard Rock (I’m becoming slightly less embarrassed every time we go), which we found to be lightly populated despite it’s incredible (as it turned out, “one more drink” actually meant “two actual drinks”) happy hour.
I was also the recipient of a tacky Guinness hat.
The pizza place we ate at after wandering all over Valletta made one of the better pizzas that I’ve had in the last couple of years (though the top prize remains with Marxim’s in Budapest), and while the Maltese pizza-alike that I had for lunch the next day was disappointing (capers and a sweet ratatouille-alike aren’t my thing), the highlight of the trip was the meal we had at The Eletro Lobster Project. The tuna tartare starter, my lobster linguini, the Purrito’s octopus/squid/swordfish/seabass combo plate, my cheesecake dessert, and the bottle of Maltese sparkling wine were all excellent, and somehow totaled less than 100€ (I’d guess that a similar meal would be in the neighborhood of 250€ in Paris).
All things considered, I’d happily go back and sleep beside the pool again.