Smart City… almost ghost town by day, and a favourite drinking spot for many during weekend nights. In early 2017 we checked out the place for potential star burgers, but we only found dry and uninspiring offerings. A countless number of similar online reviews confirmed our thoughts, so we obviously ran away like scared kids on Halloween night, and never went back. That’s until a merry family from Sicily came to the rescue. Enter Mustaccun!
Lucia, the woman of the house, her partner Mario who manages the kitchen and her lovely parents who take care of the rest of the establishment initially moved to Malta to manage the catering section of a band club in Birgu. In September of 2017, they saw an opportunity of a lifetime and moved to Smart City. That’s when they were dutifully tagged with the nickname of Mustaccuni since their regulars at the band club thought they were cooking star level food. And that’s how the restaurant got its name. Their mission was to convince us to come back to Smart City and wow us with their burger creation. Will we find the smartest burger, here in this family-run trattoria? We had to go and find out for ourselves.
Sveglia ragazzi! Wake up, guys! These Italians have put their experience in pizza making, added the elements of the burger patty, poured in a bucketload of veggies and came up with what they call a Maxi Veggie Pizza Burger! Maxi. Veggie. Pizza. Burger. Can you say that in one breath, 10 times in a row? Last July we built our own creation, merging the beloved burger and the ever-popular pizza. We also challenged local burger chefs to come up with their own version of the mythical pizza burger. What we never projected was that someone would make a veggie burger out of it! This burger story is getting enthralling by the minute.
Mario gets ready and prepares the bread base using non-GMO Neapolitan grade flour, water, sea salt and yeast. He uses a fast hand to work the dough with hardly a whisper. The dough is stretched by hand to move the air around so the final result will be a puffy bread with a crust. It’s left to proof and rest for 48hrs and put in the oven for a couple of minutes. Indeed this is the key to a great Neapolitan pizza base as the fermentation period causes the starches to break down into simpler sugars, yeast will create flavorful by-products, and gluten formation will occur, allowing for a dramatic rise and good charring in the oven. And that’s exactly what we got here, a 320gr bread loosely similar to the Maltese ftira in shape, but with a light and airy texture, akin the Neapolitan pizza base the Italians did 300 years ago. The symmetrical charr and the intense smell of baked bread are already alluring us closer.
This pizza bread is sliced in half and filled with a total orgasm of every vegetable you can think of, and more! The first layer comes in the form of a salad mix made from iceberg lettuce, rucola and cabbage, a tomato sauce spread, parmesan cheese and the obligatory drizzle of olive oil. This is topped with cucumbers, cherry tomatoes, spring onions and black olives to produce a truly colourful visual. But wait, there is more!
The burger element comes as 2 veggie patties, each one 120gr, and made from a potato puree, green beans, peas, sweet corn, and chopped carrots and onions. These are deep-fried and golden crusted, with potato fries added inside the burger itself! Ketchup and a generous amount of white sauce made from almond milk & parmesan are added on top. Next comes more parmesan cheese and 3 thick slices of smoked Scamorza, which is a typical cheese from the South of Italy.
The final veggie layer is made from grilled eggplant, sliced courgettes, onions, many peppers and a basil infused oil that adds a fresh and grassy flavour. This €12 burger deserves a green trophy of its own, just for the sheer amount of different raw veggies used in the mix! If you’re a vegetarian and don’t favour rennet, Mario will be more than happy to take the cheese out of the equation for you. We loved the combination of cheeses ourselves, as this veggie burger has an intense and balanced flavour, also thanks to the aroma of the baked bread that blends with the slight acidity of the tomato sauce. The savoury Parmesan and Scamorza cheeses, the freshness and crunchiness of the green leaves and even that aftertaste of spiciness and slight bitterness from the olive oil, all elevate the overall taste of the burger. The burger itself is massive in size promising a full belly, and eating it all is made more arduous with the addition of extra green veggies and many potato fries spread on the circular tray that it comes on.
This is one burger in a league of its own, as it has taken the veggie concept to extremes! If you’re a big eater and have a pet hate for anything veggie, this is the one you need to try out! And if you manage to eat it all you will get a cardboard cutout of a moustache to put on your face, take a selfie and brand your new achievement! You’re now a true Mustaccun con le balle!
But wait! Where is our Sicilian cannolo? Even if you don’t fancy burgers, visiting Mustaccun for an espresso and some classical Italian pastries is a worthwhile experience. Take our word for it, try their semifreddo, either the banana one or the chocolate coffee, or the cannolo filled with ice cream and pistachio, which is their own take on the classic cannolo filled with ricotta. Or just try one of everything, because you will be spoilt for choice! All these pastries, cakes and tarts are Mustaccun innovations, made to order by a local Italian pastry chef. Forget the American monstrosities from Shoreditch, these are refined pastries for the connoisseur and the true buongustaio! If Mustaccun keeps coming up with such decadent delicacies, we’re sure that we will be back soon in the new year!
