Ed eats

Duo
Qawra Road
Qawra
Tel: 2157 8236

Food: 6/10
Service: 7/10
Ambience: 8/10
Value: 7/10
Overall: 7/10

I’m not quite sure what spurred the growing popularity of the food truck but there seem to be more of them. I suppose it makes sense. You’re packing a restaurant into a truck and carrying your wares to where people are hungry. It is less of an investment than property and you always have the benefit of location.

Last week I mentioned the Coffee Circus and, I’m pleased to report, I tried it out again and their obsessive attention to great coffee is consistent. Just as consistent is a discovery I’m happy to have made. There’s this weirdly named truck called KuYa, capital ‘Y’ and all, and I tried their food three times because I wanted to be certain.

I’m not sure about the ‘gourmasian’ moniker but their food is good. Really good. A fiver bought me a crab burger with coriander and ginger and lemongrass. Another fiver saw me through a pulled pork burger. These guys have stepped it up several notches since all we could get at the typical food truck was a cardboard hamburger or a soggy ftira.

This is all good because supply of interesting food on the move means there is a market out there for this variety. It comes at a premium because spending a fiver for lunch every day might not suit everyone’s pockets. The fact that these things move around makes them suitable for the occasional treat perhaps, and as long as there is enough cash out there to keep the bold and the brave in business, our lunchtime will remain a happy occasion. So kudos to KuYa and anyone else out there ready to accept the challenge and delight a hungry and increasingly inquisitive nation.

There’s more than just us, though. I came across communication by the airport that stated that they saw more than four million passengers walk through the building in a year. Take away the number of Maltese people who travel and you’re still left with a huge number of tourists who turn up, consume a few meals, and head back home. Someone’s feeding them and I often wonder what impression they form of our cuisine.

Spending any amount of time around Paceville or Buġibba is quite depressing in this respect. Either the millions who visit us are only up for fast food or we seem to think so. It is easier for a camel to find a needle in a bowl of noodles than it is to detect a hint of proper dining along the main thoroughfares. There are some gems hidden within both towns I mentioned but the eateries that pop up in high-traffic pedestrian areas tend to peddle the same chips and whatnot.

I’ve heard of a restaurant called Duo a few times and every time the report was positive. What kept me from going there is that it is in Qawra next to a strip of hotels. I somehow picture a restaurant there to serve chips and whatnot so I kept postponing it until I heard a glowing report just a couple of weeks ago and the person who delivered the report is so picky I’m always terrified when cooking for him. He’ll criticise a restaurant for having the wrong-sized wineglass. Or pulled pork that has evidently been a deconstructed rib and not a slow-cooked shoulder. Let’s say he knows his food.

So off to Duo I ventured on a Monday night, parents in tow. Once outside I took heart. The place looks like plenty of attention has been dedicated to the decor, both inside and out, so they’re not only out for a quick tourist deal.

Once inside we were greeted by a young man who was clearly running the place. He is smart and polite and refreshingly well-mannered. He led us all to a table inside the restaurant and made us feel really welcome. It is the sort of welcome where the four of us looked at each other and smiled. My mum went as far as saying she liked him. She’s like that.

Menus were brought to us by another young man. He was also very polite and helpful, taking the tone set by our first host and carrying it through gracefully. He took our orders a little later and, when the time was right, served our wine quite expertly.

A little later he returned with a dish he called bruschetta. The Duo version is more of a chickpea and garlic purée served on slices of toasted baguette and it did the trick of opening up our palates. So far we’d had quite the experience. We had ordered a very inexpensive wine from a well-priced menu and they’d even bothered changing our wine glasses.

Then our starters turned up. Well, all except mine. The salmon gravlax, served on top of a structure built of asparagus and with a poached egg on top was an interesting take on this Nordic speciality. The curing process can make the salmon quite salty and the gooey egg tuned it down just enough. Unfortunately my starter was nowhere to be seen.

A minute later, a young lady rushed to our table, apologising profusely. There had been a mix-up in the kitchen and my starter was on its way. True to her word, she was back with my dish a minute later. The pork belly ravioli are huge, served in a lovely clear broth, and packed with plenty of tender and unctuous meat. They’re evidently prepared from scratch in the kitchen behind me and I appreciate the effort this takes.

Our main courses were served within a very reasonable time and were all served together in a well-choreographed set piece

Our main courses were served within a very reasonable time and were all served together in a well-choreographed set piece. My starters hiccough was evidently an uncommon occurrence. I started by tasting the food around me.

The duck breast had been fried to a perfect temperature gradient so the inside was rare and the outer perimeter nicely browned. It was served with a plum reduction and a neatly matching beetroot and made for a clever twist on the usual formula.

Equally interesting was the sweet and sour pork. As with every good story, all is not as it seems. The pork is a USDA filled that’s been baked and served with ginger, balsamic vinegar and brown sugar on the side. Only one of us had ordered sides and I only noticed this when I stole a devilishly good baked potato.

On to my plate I turned. I’d ordered tuna with a ‘tomato and pineapple salsa’ that turned out to be finely diced tomato and pineapple. I expected the sharpness of this duo to dovetail neatly with the raw tuna that surely nestled within my tuna steak.

One look was all it took to realise that the tuna had been overcooked and I sliced through to reveal that it had indeed been cooked through. I stared in disbelief at this grey slab of what was once surely a lovely slice of fresh fish. I managed two bites but I wasn’t prepared to go through with it. I’d loved everything I’d tasted so far and had eaten so much of everyone else’s food that I was quite satisfied for the night.

No more than a minute passed before our host was at our table, asking if there was something amiss with my dish. I didn’t have time to say anything though because he’d taken one glance at my plate and was apologising. He explained that they were training staff in the kitchen, taking advantage of a quiet Monday night to do so, and there must have been a terrible mistake. I did all I could to convince him that all was fine and that I really wouldn’t like him to replace the dish.

When we were done he returned, apologising again and offering drinks, assuring us that my dish would not be on the bill. Once again I did my best to explain that I realised it was quite a stroke of bad luck and that the service and the rest of the food had made everyone happy.

We were just as happy with the bill that didn’t quite hit the €25 mark for each of us. Strangely enough, the glitches in the system on the night we were there made me want to return. I want to give the place another couple of tries, possibly when I can give their cocktails a shot. If this is the memory that the tourist who goes to Qawra heads to the airport with, it could be a pretty compelling reason to return.

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