Having found her thru an abandonned blog, we meet up w native Gozitan Claire Borg at the Mojo cafe in Victoria at 8:30. Actually, we tried to meet w her but Derek insisted on ignoring my comments and heading straight for Mo's Cafe on the same corner.
Anyway ... two coffees and an OJ later, mistake corrected and we take off in her car for a traditional small hold farm house to inspect a rabbit who had recently given birth, a couple of goats and 5 kids, three sheep. He does everything himself, milking the goats and sheep, making wine for the year, collecting eggs from the hens - his wife makes the traditional cheese when there is enough milk - right now the sheep are pregnant and the goats have kids so no fesh cheese.
Btw the fresh cheese is surprisingly mild w a hint of sheeps's milk flavour - it comes fresh (made this morning!), half dried, and dried, pickled in vinegar and covered in peppercorns.
We visit the local bakery for fresh baked bread - crusty and chewy, and hidden in a maze of side streets. We ask claire how we would ever find it again and apparently all we have to do is keep asking in the vicinity of the st. x church (the one we climbed a few days ago) and everyone knows where the best bakery is.
Then off to Mekren in Nadur where the best ftira (flatbread w potatoes and the local cheese) is to be had. Having procured one hot from the oven we drive to a cliff overlooking a small valley w orange and olive trees, ocean in the background to have our bkfst.
We head back to Victoria to visit the back streets we never knew were there and to buy cheese, sausages, rough pastry dough from small local shops, and stopping at the fresh fruit and veg depot for lunch ingredients on the way to Xlendi & Claire's apartment.
Xklendi is a cute bay surrounded by low rise apartment buildings which are summer homes for people who live in Victoria, which is rather ridiculous since it is only 10 min away. We are also told that one of the best restos in Gozo is on the bay behind the big seafood joint there. we don't see the actual place but we now know the name - Karolina.
Unfortunately we finish the lunch of kiskus (bean soup), torta (ricotta and bean pie) and easy cheese cake around 15:00 and we know we won't be hungry for dinner ....
Swung by the beach to pick mamasan up, go for a v short ride on the bicycles and then we laze around until dinner, a walk to the square and pasta of local cheese and sundried tomatoes at caputo.
2025-02-12