halloumi

The Aubergine & Halloumi connection

We’re always enthralled and overexcited when we come across a veggie burger with a congenial concept… and the burger of this week is such a case in point. Today our radar picked up an extreme reading of veggie activity in St. Julian’s. So we’re heading off to the pythonic Pendergardens complex, where U&Co Social Cafe rests at the very pediments. What’s the concept of a social cafe? This stylish diner is designed is a way to bring people together and move them to interact more in person. In a time where communication and socialising have become totally cyber, here’s someone who’s pushing everyone to get back to the roots, and encourage to share our best moments, eating good food and savouring wine! We’re game for that!

Executive chef Mark Borg has 18 years of kitchen experience under his belt. He spent the last 8 years working on different iterations of his signature veggie burger… and the work does not stop here! At U&Co he also comes armed with a well-equipped kitchen, full of new food-making technology! So what’s all the fuss about? Here’s a veggie patty made from a mix of aubergines, pine nuts, onions, fennel, garlic, ginger, chilli and coriander as some of the key ingredients. The patty is topped with 2 slices of grilled halloumi cheese, and all is served in a wholemeal roll with baby spinach and sliced tomatoes. This looks wholeheartedly veggie and promises to taste equally good too.

Many veggie burgers are made with some sort of combination of beans, but here we have one based on the aubergine, one of the most glorious vegetables, although it’s technically a berry! The aubergine pulp tends to have a mild flavour similar to other fruits like squash, but it has its own uniqueness and is slightly more acidic than squash. Plus, the aubergine is a great candidate for grilling. When combined with the crunchy yet buttery texture of pine nuts, this produces a patty that is pleasantly sweet and delicious. These nuts are high in protein content and give beef a run for its money! Chef Mark seems to have hit the jackpot here and found the ideal blend of aubergines and nuts to grill a crunchy patty with a crispy shell, that is not dry and has a very meaty colour too. It has an overall towering thickness, tantalising taste, tremendous texture and most important of all does not crumble apart at first bite.

The patty is interspersed with spices. The chilli brings in some deep zest and the ginger is well measured without being overpowering. There’s an intricate mix of middle-East-meets-Mediterranean flavours here that work well with the aubergine base and when combined together are quite difficult to find a better match for. The aubergine soaks up all the flavours you pair it with, which makes it an ideal canvas for this burger. All is very sublime and scrumptious!

This year we’ve seen an ascension of halloumi burgers, one tastier than the others. Until recent years, halloumi was a niche cheese even amongst vegetarians, but nowadays it seems to have become a staple mainstream, even in beef burgers. This salty cheese from Cyprus, made from sheep or goat milk, has a high melting point, allowing it to be grilled without losing its form and cool. It seems that our love for Mediterranean food and our eagerness to try new cheese combinations in burgers are the main factors that have brought this expensive cheese in the limelight. It also has a very unique taste, which can’t be easily compared with any other cheeses. Its saltiness works pretty well with the aubergine patty, as they produce an irresistible combination.

All the veggies and cheese are contained in a wholemeal bun, drizzled with a very refreshing herb oil made from olive oil, basil, mint. There are two slices of steamed and grilled beetroot rings on top, which are a very particular alternative for onion rings. We love such attention to detail, as this shows that thought and diligence has gone into the making of this burger. These rings bring a further earthy taste and feel to this veggie burger and are the final touch that seals the deal. There’s also a side of sweet potato chips alongside the burger. These tasty and crunchy orange sticks didn’t stay long on the plate, and they were all gone, long before the burger!

U&Co have produced a veggie burger that will leave even the most veggie-phobic of omnivores coming back for a second and third round at this different take on the classic cheeseburger. They are also launching a vegan menu with vegan wine. 2018 is proving to be a very good year to be a vegetarian in Malta!

Halloumi Heaven in Mriehel

What do you do if you have a tenner and you worship both Halloumi & Burgers? You head straight on to Mriehel, with only 1 pitstop: Levantina Bistro.

Halloumi cheese has made its way up the list of the most popular food trends, and with good reason! Halloumi is a delicious and uniquely grillable cheese like no other. But there’s a catch, this cheese comes with a hefty price tag attached. And that’s enough good reason for us to go to Mriehel and investigate further.

Mriehel is mostly known for its many snack bars that offer countless versions of the venerable Maltese bread filled with sausage and eggs. Levantina brings a breath of fresh air in the area, as the main concept is to offer Middle Eastern inspired food, with a bistro and bakehouse flair. Yes, they do eat burgers in Cairo and Istanbul, so we’re game! The bistro opened its doors in August 2017 and has been a steady beacon for avantgarde foodies, who come from the surrounding office areas, and beyond. Silvana Callus Mizzi is the driving force behind it all. 7 years ago she quit her career in financial services and shortly moved to Surrey where her hopes and dreams took an unpredictable twist and drove her to opt for a cooking course at Tante Marie School, that happens to be partly owned by none other than burger-lad Chef Ramsay! There she delved into classic French cuisine and acquired the highly regarded Cordon Bleu Diploma. Back in Malta, she pulled the guts out of an old factory and turned it into the exquisitely decorated place that we can behold today. There are shelves full of china, teapots and saucers, many books and even the toilets have a very chic flair. It’s not only an impeccable place for casual meetings & wining, but also a lovely & serene environment where one could hang out and spend his leisure time. Yes, we loved it that much!

The kitchen area is one of the largest and most equipped we’ve seen in the local restaurant scene. Here we find Chef Joseph, who helms the cookhouse and is getting ready to prepare the burger of the day. The patty is made from 200gr of chuck beef and is topped with 2 thick slices of grilled halloumi. There is a load of caramelized onions on top. All is housed in a black sesame seed brioche bun, which is spread with smoked mayo, produced in-house. There’s also a bed of lettuce and 2 beefy slices of tomato.

This burger is on the large size, and fortunately, it’s not one of those offerings from NYB or Hugo that seem to be made for XS appetite. The patty is ground daily from choice beef, is authentically juicy and has a wonderful char. And most important of all, it does taste beefy and well-seasoned, with no unnecessary intrusion from the other condiments. The bread is sourced locally, but Levantina add their own touch with a handful of black sesame seed, that bring an extra level of crunch. The grilled brioche bun has a nice crust and is a perfect fit with the meat, with the right amount of bread to meat ratio. There’s enough mayo sauce to inject the perfect volume of smokiness without turning the bun soggy and commit the ultimate sin of breaking the bread. This restraint shows that some good thought has gone behind the design of this burger. The caramelized onions are delicious and very well executed, in as much as they could stand as a side dish on their own!

Even though we consider the meat as the big Hero of any burger, the Halloumi proves to be no less. This cheese is prepared from a mix of sheep and goat milk and is often considered as the most traditional dish in Cyprus. It’s a soft curd-like cheese, free of rennet and thus safe for vegetarians who do not consume rennet. The outside turns perfectly crispy and golden when grilled, and the inside retains some structural integrity but gets just gooey enough. The cheese is tangy and salty, not dissimilar in taste to some versions of feta, but with quite a different consistency. There are two thick slabs of Halloumi, and considering the current market price of quality Halloumi, paired with the meat used here, it takes a true financial wizard to be able to keep the price of this burger for under a tenner. The French fries are also worth a notable mention. They are hot, crispy and crunchy and full of potato flavour. We could eat these all day long, as they are very lightly fried, with no greasy aftertaste.

Levantina has hit all the right buttons with this burger. Overall there’s a perfect symphony of meat, cheese and bread within the first two bites. This burger creation has that much sought-after taste and smell of burger perfection and stands high amongst the most noteworthy burgers we’ve tried out this year. Whether you like Halloumi or not (who doesn’t?!) this burger should be on your next to-eat list!

Halloumi – a Grate cheesy burger

Our search for the tastiest vegetarian burger in town – that one burger-unicorn that can turn the most ardent beef-eating person into a lover of greens – takes us to Gzira seafront. Novi is an unassuming bar at first glance, but first impressions can be deceiving, as this place is a hideout, ebullient with home-made food. One year ago, we already stopped at this same door, but the sign on the front read Happy Pizza. We wonder what string of events brought such a change from pizza house to a burger joint, so we delve inside.

Here we find the man of the day, always-smiling Chris Vella. Chris was born in New York, from Maltese parents. He’s an engineer by profession, but when he moved to Malta 14 years back, he has worked in a myriad of trades, from being a mobile salesman to real estate work. Having acquired a fascination for good food from his father, Chris saw it fit to open Happy Pizza! The ups and downs of running a pizza delivery service made him turn around, and 1 year ago he resurrected the place as Novi, half bar, half express-food joint. Novi actually means New, and the old Happy Pizza premises were dismantled and rebuilt from scratch and by hand, by Chris himself, with his wife doing all the interior designing and planning. The animalistic paper sculptures on the walls roar back that this is a pet-friendly bar. If you’re out for a drink with friends, why should you leave your pet at home? According to Chris, you shouldn’t!

We came here because we heard that last July, Chris came up with a new burger concoction. It’s a visceral vegetable burger, made from grilled, raw vegetables, with halloumi at heart. Halloumi is a fresh, semi-firm cheese, traditionally prepared from sheep’s milk in Cyprus. So why should someone make a vegetable burger based on Halloumi? It’s because Halloumi is a soft curd-like cheese free of rennet and safe for vegetarians who do not eat rennet. Halloumi is firm, salty and a bit rubbery, and has a smooth texture. Halloumi is not meant to be eaten raw, so in this burger iteration, it’s grilled. Once cooked, the saltiness fades into a robust, savory bite with a creamy texture that’s a bit akin to a marshmallow! Just like marshmallows, once grilled, this cheese becomes crispy and savory on the outside, and sinfully melted on the inside! It won’t melt totally, but develops a crispy crust because the protein bonds are broken before forming into curds… which is the opposite of most cheeses!

Liga from Latvia is our chef of the day, and she churns out our burger in record speed time. On top of the two hefty blocks of grilled Halloumi cheese goes raw baby spinach, 2 slices of grilled eggplant, 2 pieces of roasted red peppers and raw onions. All is topped with morsels of walnuts and honey-mustard sauce. All the vegetables are sourced locally, making this one a made-in-Malta guaranteed burger! We’ve rarely seen more transparency than this one, when it comes to burger-making, as you can literally see the whole lot of vegetables it’s made of. The combination of Halloumi, vegetables, and nuts conjures superb flavors and texture. The sauce was a good choice because it is not overly sweet or overpowering, just mellow in taste. We miss some more overall crunch in this burger, maybe adding some carrot strings would help fill that void. We’re sure that this one will stir a fire in the tastebuds of not-a-few beef-eaters, who will be more than glad to devour this burger in a matter of bites!

Any burger, whether beefy or veggie, should be accompanied by a good portion of fries, and Novi spoils you for choice. We tried out the sweet potato and seasoned chips, which are both crinkly, golden and rightly-crisped, just as any Maltaburgers-approved fries should be! The portions are big-man US-sized, so Novi have a variety of dips to go with the fries. We tried the hot one, which is a chili and vinegar sauce, and the basil sauce. Add a lemon drink made in the US, and you have one beast of a veggie meal any gorilla would climb the Empire State building for!

Chris made the right choice when he dumped pizza making and started grilling burgers! We love his attitude and ideas for express-food with a homely taste. Come on Chris, dream up a new burger or four for the year to come!