Ġugar! is almost at the northernmost part of Republic Street, a few doors from North Street.

Ed eats

Ġugar!
89A, Republic Street,
Valletta
Tel: 2703 2837

Food: 8/10
Service: 6/10
Ambience: 8/10
Value: 8/10
Overall: 7.5/10

This column isn’t long enough for my views on restrictive dietary choices. While it is easy for some to dismiss any non-omnivorous diet as a refusal to acknowledge one’s position in the food chain, the conversation has a far broader scope.

Sometimes, a dietary choice is made for us due to circumstance, location or physiological reasons. If I lived high in the Himalayas, I doubt I’d eat Mediterranean fish very often. If I were allergic to fish, then I wouldn’t eat it just to keep myself out of hospital. If I simply didn’t like the taste of fish, then I’d choose not to eat an ingredient that didn’t make me happier as a result.

So jumping to conclusions about people’s dietary choices can easily lead to embarrassment at best.

In general terms, I think we ought to respect the dietary choices of those around us for two reasons. Let’s take a vegetarian diet as an example. You’ll find those who politely decline meat-containing dishes, explaining that they’re vegetarians. I translate that into ‘I’m a human who has chosen a vegetarian diet’, because saying that one is a vegetarian sounds like it is too large a part of one’s identity.

In this situation, there is one reaction I allow myself and that is asking whether the restaurant we happen to be in can cater for their dietary choice.

Claiming disbelief, trying to convince the person that there is error in their ways, or mentioning bacon as the magic bullet that can ‘cure’ a vegetarian is just not nice. And being nice to someone is reason enough to respect their choices.

Then there are those who actively proselytise. They will quote sources that can include the Bible, their guru or a well-researched documentary about the matter. These are the angry ones, and their refusal to eat meat is there to make a point, to rise a rung in the ladder of virtue and to do their tiny bit to prevent atrocities in the food industry. I’m afraid that this is too passive an approach to be credible.

If you really want to take a stand, then take an active one and chain yourself to the gates of a farm that is known to abuse their livestock. Make sure you attract media attention. Start a revolution.

This is the real way to draw attention to the terrible things that happen to animals on their way to my table. And you, dear omnivore, should never, ever disagree with this category of vegetarian simply because they want you to disagree.

And we wouldn’t want to spend the evening listening to a poorly thought-out cause, picking holes in their arguments and making everyone miserable.

There is, unfortunately, an issue with the perception of vegetarian cuisine. The mental image is of a tasteless salad consumed within an overtly hippie context and walking out with a grumbling and half-empty stomach. I’m lucky enough to know a few people who have chosen a vegetarian diet and they put paid to this mental image very early on. You know who you are. If you’re reading this, well, thank you.

Strangely enough, I wound up at Ġugar! purely because I happened to be very close by and hungry. It is at the very top (or bottom – depends on which way you’re seeing things) of Republic Street in Valletta. I choose to say the top because it is almost at the northernmost part of the road, a few doors, in fact, from North Street.

This part of Valletta has escaped the gentrification and fresh licks of paint the rest of the city has been treated to. Time whizzed past the last dozen blocks with a faint whooshing sound that soothed the inhabitants as they went about their business, whatever that may be. And this is where the Bear has decided to take up residence. I thought I was being optimistic when I asked if there was a decent place to eat anywhere close.

He didn’t hesitate. He told me there is a place he likes just two minutes away and off we dashed. As we walked, he casually mentioned that the cuisine was vegetarian and most of the options ranged from a light snack to a small main dish. He said he loved their soups and a couple of other items. By the time he finished describing the food, we’d arrived.

Like every other aspect of our lives, we shouldn’t leap to conclusions about dietary choices people make

The place is cosy, done up with furniture that looks like it’s either been recycled or made out of cleverly repurposed materials. The chairs we sat on might have been made out of pallets.

Two people run the bar and, it turned out, prepare the food as well. There are menus and a menu board with the day’s specialities, all vegetarian. The better half had joined by this time and she picked the Ġugar Salad. They’d run out of the soup by the time we got there, so the Bear ordered a pizza ftira and I went with the bean burger. I was given the option of adding cheese and bean sprouts. I said yes to both, ordered fresh juices all round and headed to our table.

Every chair in the little room was now filled, and there is another dining area downstairs that doubles the seating capacity. I hadn’t expected this level of popularity, basing my expectations purely on the location.

Everyone seemed happily engaged in conversation and those who weren’t made use of the free Wi-Fi on their bestickered Macbooks. The password is taped to the wall and includes the word smile. I felt like Scotty had beamed me to a city far away from our shores.

Our food took quite a while. With just two people running the place, I wasn’t surprised. We had all the time in the world, but I’d have been quite anxious if I’d stopped for a quick lunch. While we waited, we were treated to some delightful fresh bread and this kept us all very happy.

The Bear and I decided we’d share our food. I ate half the bean burger and it was a treat. The patty, red with kidney beans and generously sized, had a pleasant texture.

The bean sprouts gave a crunchy bite and the melted cheese and spicy sauce rounded the experience into an immensely satisfying one. I’ve had countless ‘premium’ beef burgers that don’t come close.

The pizza ftira was also excellent. Olives, melted cheese, ġbejna, tomato and onion provided most of the filling and it was dressed with mastery. All these were ensconced within the freshest toasted ftira.

Equally as impressive was the salad. It looks nothing like the awful picture that the uninitiated has in mind at the mention of the word salad. A quick glance revealed a few lettuce leaves and plenty of bean sprouts, walnuts, figs, pumpkin seed, carrot shavings, chunks of ġbejna, tomatoes and poppy seed, all arranged around a central pot of hummus. Add the fresh, warm, ftira and a very healthy and tasty meal springs into existence.

We followed this up with gluten-free coconut balls, chocolate balls, and devilishly tasty date and almond balls. The bill was a reasonable €10 each.

Later on in the week, I was speaking to two close friends and we decided we’d talk over a meal. We were in Valletta and said I’d been to Ġugar! a couple of days earlier, that I loved what I ate and that we should pay a visit. I was speaking to two of the most open-minded, well-educated and articulate people I know. They obviously asked what type of cuisine to expect.

When I said it was vegetarian, they simply put an end to the conversation. They stared at me for a second, said the word ‘vegetarian’ like it tasted bad, had a little think about the possibility of me choosing this diet, dismissed it quite quickly (they both know me very well) and then picked up the conversation from where we’d left it just before I mentioned Ġugar!.

Then they headed into the closest restaurant for a steak. I joined them and ate an overpriced, overcooked steak. It wasn’t nearly as satisfying as the bean burger I’d eaten a couple of days earlier.

Like every other aspect of our lives, we shouldn’t leap to conclusions about dietary choices people make. There is likely a layer to their choice that we haven’t yet discovered. And Ġugar! is one of these layers you’d be foolish to leave undiscovered.

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