My lovely mum and dad travelled to Malta in March 2022. They first visited this rocky paradise when I was volunteering there in 2015 and have enjoyed visiting since. They transitioned to veganism, over the last few years, though my dad initially became vegetarian in the 70s and I wouldn’t have the perspective on life that I do without them.
Back to the present day and Malta. Mum had a special birthday last year, that she missed out on fully celebrating because of covid restrictions, so wanting to make the most of the restrictions being partiallylifted, they set themselves a few challenges and jetted off to an adventure from East Midlands Airport to Malta. As they kept sending me wonderful looking vegan food I invited them to do a guest post and thankfully, they obliged!
I’ll let my mum take it from here:
The Malta Challenge:
1. Fly with Ryanair free hand luggage only;
We bought bags that comply with Ryanair free hand luggage measurements; and carefully chose holiday clothes items and packed minimal toiletries.
2. Assess how we feel travelling in these covid times:
As well as Covid vaccination certificates and EU passenger locator forms, we were checked on arrival at Malta airport in regard to any covid symptoms. Out and about in Malta, there were some covid restrictions in place, including the use of face coverings in public places. The majority of shops, cafes and restaurants had hand sanitiser at the entrance; and most of the restaurants requested names and contact information, and temperature check at the entrance.
3. Find eating places with vegan food and drink choices.
We had transitioned from vegetarian diet to vegan during the past year, and this was our first holiday on mainland Europe since going vegan. Pre-travel research using Happy Cow, FaceBook vegan Malta group posts and Google maps suggested there were cafes/ restaurants in and around Qawra and Bugibba with vegan options readily on the menu; and a branch of Welbee’s supermarket with vegan supplies should we need snacks, fresh fruit and vegetables etc. Some of this information proved inaccurate, due to menu changes and low season opening times. Staff knowledge was variable regarding veganism (this is obviously true in the UK too) some people having no awareness and others well-informed. Even in some eating places that had items marked or named vegan, we had doubts as to whether a drink or dish was completely vegan. Our relaxing holiday break turned into an enjoyable quest to find vegan meal choices. The following account highlights the places we confidently, enjoyed vegan cuisine.
Qawra Palace Hotel, Dawret Il-Qawra, Qawra SPB 1900, Malta
We stayed at the Qawra Palace Hotel on Qawra Coast Road. The buffet breakfast certainly had lots of choice of food for those without any dietary restrictions. The labelling was deficient, but we managed with various cereal / muesli, dried fruit; mixed fruit salad, pineapple and peaches. [This looked like canned fruit, rather than freshly prepared.] Bread rolls and salad options including mixed bean salad, olives and sundried tomatoes were available. We had to request a non-dairy milk alternative, as none was ever on display; but the staff willingly supplied us with Alpro Soya milk.
Tuesday 8th March: Literally across the road from our hotel, was a branch of Vecchia Napoli, the menu was well labelled with their vegan options [though, sadly, no vegan pizzas]. For lunch, we shared I Tre Sfizi a trio of dips – melanzane e capperi, fagioli bianchi e spezie and pesto di peperoni, served with crispy rustic wholegrain focaccia; and Panelle – traditional Sicilian chickpea flour fritters flavoured with fresh herbs and garlic. No vegan desserts on the menu, but I was kindly given a complimentary shot of fresh strawberry puree for international women’s day.
A short walk along the road (in the direction of the Salina Park), we found the vegan cafe, Coffee Circus. Lots of different plant milks to choose from and an array of cakes; we tried cappuccino made with oat milk and a slice of snickers cake each. The drink wasn’t quite to our liking, not sure if it was the specific coffee blend, so for the remainder of the holiday we generally had espresso, rather than cappuccino coffees. The snickers cake was delicious and very filling, with hindsight, we should have shared one piece.
Wednesday 9th March: Having bought a multi bus journey tallinja card today, we visited Valletta, the capital city of Malta. We found the Cairokey Tapas & Shisha cafe by the gates of the Lower Barrakka Gardens. Although the menu was not marked with any particular dietary options, after a brief discussion with the helpful staff, we chose a trio of Tapas to share for our lunch. All freshly prepared and delicious, we had bruschetta with cherry tomatoes, olives and garlic mushrooms.
Back in Qawra for dinner time, we decided to try the Garam Masalaa Indian restaurant, another restaurant not far from our hotel. The menu was well labelled and had separate vegetarian and vegan sections. We started with pakoras, some were mushroom and some aubergine, served with mango dip and sweet chilli dip. Our main courses were mushroom karahi and cauliflower & potatoes both served with saffron rice. A very flavoursome meal; but after we finished, we both felt we had eaten far too much.
Thursday 10th March: Enjoyed a walk along the coast round St. Paul’s Bay; stopping at Sottozero the gelato factory, near Bugibba Square, for a late morning ice-cream. Lots of vegan choices, some sorbet, some soya milk based icecreams. On this occasion, we tried one strawberry and one pistachio scoop in small tubs; but vowed to return to try other flavours.
For dinner we returned to Vecchia Napoli, this time choosing a fresh salad La Panzanella Croccante to share; and a bowl of pasta each Spaghetti Aglio Olio e Peperoncino. The salad was a fresh mixture of wholemeal croutons, tomatoes, red onion, cucumber, olives, herbs and olive oil. The generous portions of spaghetti were tossed in garlic, olive oil and red chilli peppers, absolutely delicious. I was inspired to try and replicate the addition of garlic & olive oil to our pasta at home. Unfortunately, I haven’t quite perfected it as yet.
Friday 11th March: Friday is pizza day for us, at home K makes the pizza dough from scratch and we jointly prepare the toppings. We were determined to find somewhere to fulfil our pizza Friday tradition. This resulted in a bus trip across to Rabbat and Mdina, to find Coogi’s Pizzeria within the pleasant streets of the old city walls. [Not to be confused with Coogi’s restaurant and tearoom, which seems to have some different vegan menu options.] We shared a very tasty, aromatic rosemary focaccia with our espressos at lunchtime, and perused the vegan pizza options on the menu, in readiness for later in the day.
Spoilt for choice we had a Calzone Vegano – calzone pizza with tomato sauce, vegan mozzarella, roasted potatoes, capers, sun dried tomatoes and rocket salad; and the Sant’Agata pizza – but without artichokes and with vegan mozzarella. The other toppings on this pizza were tomato sauce, mushrooms, black olives, grilled aubergines and sun dried tomatoes. All very delicious, good sized portions.
Saturday 12th March: Another visit to Sottozero, this time 2 scoops of icecream in vegan waffle cones. Pistachio, dark chocolate & orange and mango flavours were chosen this time.
We had eaten so much pizza bread the previous day, we decided to just buy snack/ picnic food from Welbee’s rather than go out for a main meal. The snacks included fresh tomatoes and mushrooms; breadsticks; slices of vegan mozzarella cheese; and a tub of Bigilla (Tic bean puree dish).
Sunday 13th March: A very windy and wet day, we eventually donned our coats and braved the weather to walk along the coast to explore the Salina catacombs. The Vecchia Napoli seemed so inviting on our return to our hotel, we opted to have our main meal here yet again. We enjoyed sharing a bowl of the salad La Panzanella Croccante, a bowl of Spaghetti Aglio Olio e Peperoncino and a Focaccia Estiva – focaccia topped with fresh tomatoes, onion, capers, olives and fresh herbs. We had the local beer Cisk Excel to drink. The portions were so generous that even sharing, we couldn’t manage to eat everything. Instead, the staff boxed the leftover focaccia for us to take away, and we had this for supper in our hotel room.
Monday 14th March: The last day of our holiday, though our flight was not until late afternoon. We liked the menu so much at Coogi’s that we decided to travel back to Luqa airport via Mdina; have a nice meal here, before taking the bus along the Dingli cliffs road before heading to the airport. We chose the Vegan Sharing Platter for our lunch; this was actually smaller than I had expected for the price, but I presume some of the food items were more expensive. The platter consisted of hummus, fresh carrots, cucumber, grilled aubergines and courgettes, roasted bell peppers, cherry tomatoes, walnuts, vegan cheese with truffle and blue cheese style, served with a basket of Galletti and Taralli savoury biscuits. This interesting mix of flavours and textures went very well with a glass of house wine. We even managed espresso and cake as part of the meal. There were several vegan options in the cake display, we opted for a Pistachio slice and a Black Forest slice. Very well pleased with our choices.
Once through the airport security, the dining options were much more limited. But as we prefer not to eat on the flight itself, we did want to have a small snack type meal. Our only choice seemed to be the Relish self service dining area; here we shared a vegan salad box. It was tasty and looked fresh, but quite expensive for the portion size.
The Greedy Herbivore 