Notte Bianca

Notte Bianca (sleepless night) was celebrating its 10th year. This is a Vallettan explosion of public entertainment, concerts, cultural events, art exhibitions and many other offerings at the end of summer. Lucky me, I am in town for Saturday night. Most of the events involve Maltese talent. It's staged primarily by the locals for the locals, not for bland international taste.

My plan was to arrive early, find a restaurant to have a nice meal (I had a trattoria already targetted), then emerge onto the street to mingle in the celebrations. Unfortunately the trattoria I had picked out wasn't open. But I stumbled upon the Legligin, a restaurant offering a degustation menu of Maltese and Mediterranean specialties. I thought they might be booked out but with a little negotiation I was seated and served. Here is the list of the little dishes I had:

Maltese bread and olive oil with salt and pepper

Mushroom soup

Coin of pork

Gozitan goat cheese

Preserved peppers

Two olives

Olive tapenade

Maltese sausage in tomato sauce

Baked sea bream

Barbecued prawns

Rocket with balsamic vinegar

Mussels in olive and fennel sauce

Grilled marinated quail breast with rocket and cantaloupe salad

Lasagne

Baked tuna pie

Spicy pork meatball

Bragioli

Baked pork in garlic sauce

And for dessert, 6 homemade truffles

Lucky they were small dishes, because I was stuffed by the end. It was a splurge, but a very reasonable one.

So I waddled out onto the street where this band was moving bodies.

Stilt artiste.

Trapeze artistes.

These plates are actually a cheat. They are plastic and are concave to spin effortlessly on the stick.

Street theatre.

Happy diners.

A moody bar.

Dance company.

Bright street.

More open-air theatre.

I think this is the new parliament building.

Lovely lit windows.

Crowded intersection.

All too soon I had to leave before the ferries got infrequent. This is a restaurant down by the ferry landing. The Maltese sure know how to party. I got to see only a fraction of the offerings. I'll have to come back and really spend a sleepless night on the street.