Sea Salt in Sliema is definitely one of the most remarkable local eatery concepts of 2018. Despite the overall so-so level of takeaways in Malta, our appetite for such food is thriving. Malta is Malta and the Maltese love TakeAway. Don’t you love those corner shops with ready-made burgers on display? Enter Darren Zammit who wanted to set up a TakeAway approach to star-studded Gourmet food, elevating anything that comes out of the sea, and put it in a box for you to consume on the go. And if you take TripAdvisor’s word, he has well managed to achieve just that in less than 6 months, as his Sea Salt eatery is currently ranked at the top of all restaurants in the Sliema area. If you don’t follow TripAdvisor, you will have to take our word: Sea Salt has exponentially shot to the top position in Sliema Burgerland, dwindling even all-time favourites like Tex Mex who have been very sporadic on new burgers in the last 10 months. The social analysis of the hows and whys of Sea Salt’s ascent will be covered in another feature because today we’re here to check out Sea Salt’s piece de resistance burger.
Last November we awarded Sea Salt with The Gold Standard for their Surf n Turf burger. Coming up with a Gold Standard burger is no easy feat and in six years, only two burger makers managed to sweep us off our feet and snatch that award from us. What followed bewildered us even further. Tonnes of Sea Salt patrons let us know in the most animated of ways, that we managed to skip their favourite Sea Salt burger, which is notoriously known as The Octopus Burger.
This patty-less octopus in a bun is made from a whole braised octopus covered in a dressing, topped with grilled chorizo, a relish made from cherry tomatoes, chilli sauce and vinegar and a mixed leaf salad. So why Octopus? The octopus is a big-time staple of our Mediterranean cuisine, and we’ve already covered the long and eccentric history of the octopus burger in a past feature. We’ve noticed that throughout the years, the brainy cephalopod has paddled its way into the culinary spotlight and more modern restaurants are now making it part of their permanent menu. So why didn’t the same happen in burgerland? The octopus trend has never really overpowered the fish and beef burger one. There’s a very comprehensible reason for that. Even though octopus is a delicacy enjoyed the world over, it’s a tough meat. Cooking this lean cephalopod can be devilish and requires converting the brawny connective tissue into tender, silken gelatin. It’s above the skillset of your average McD or BurgerKing kitchen dude. Obviously, we only expect the best from Sea Salt and Darren, who’s a true burger fanatic himself.
As soon as you step into Sea Salt, the first thing you experience is a display of fish, crustaceans and anything sea. The octopus in question is a 120gr T8 cephalopod from Marocco. The octopus of the fishing zones of Morocco normally lives near the coast and feeds mainly on clams and crustaceans. This particular diet provides the unique flavour of its meat. Octopuses are graded by size (T1 to T8) where T1 is generally the oldest octopus. The cooking process involves braising the octopus as the initial sear seals moisture into the meat and then the octopus tenderizes and soaks up the flavour as it simmers in a mix of vegetables. This has a similar effect as pressure cooking. The longer it’s cooked, the better this dish gets, so in this case, waiting longer for your food will yield better results! As it cooks, the octopus releases all of its natural, tasty water, infusing all the other veggie elements in the pot with a simple and predictable palette of flavours. The end result is an octopus with a tender texture and a very crispy skin. The flavour is also accentuated by 4 slices of grilled chorizo, which brings along drifts of the Spanish summer, and makes a canny & smokey contrast to the octopus, the flavour of which is not masked. The dressing is cunningly extracted by reducing the octopus simmer mix into a sauce. It’s a wise addition here, as it brings forth an extra explosion of oceanic zest and adds a level of deeply rich and velvety-smooth flavour of the sea. The more you taste it, the more you wish there was. This dreamy sauce, slightly dripping down the sides of your burger is well justified. All is sandwiched in a pillowy yet sturdy toasted bun which is much wider than the standard variety we all know of. And when you will experience this burger yourself, you will understand why.
There’s one more thing. The fries! These are freshly cut potatoes that go through a 1½ day process of preparation. They are boiled in water & doused in vinegar and left to rest before they are blanched in an ice bath. They are ultimately deep fried until they end up in your mouth. We’re sure that Darren was inspired from his many years in the UK as this is a common pub snack all over the British Isles. We even think that Darren’s fries are even better than the real English thing! These chunky and scrumptious potatoes have a very addictive salty-sourness, which we adore. That salty, acidic crunch is totally addictive and unforgettable.
Darren has managed to redefine our conception of express burger-making and created TakeAway version 2.0! He’s a jolly, enthusiastic and hard working individual with a big heart, who likes to juggle 5 pans at once, building all the components of your burger from scratch. We truly wish that other TakeAways will follow suit in the future. In the meantime, Sea Salt are now open every day until midnight! Tourists are in for one heck of a treat this summer, as they can delight themselves to Sea Salt on a daily basis! So off we go to Sliema…
