Ed eats

Eat Street
Food truck,
mostly in Ta’ Xbiex
Tel: 7953 4952

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

You might have heard of the term ‘big data’. It refers to mind-bogglingly huge quantities of information that can be analysed to reveal patterns in human behaviour. The workings are left to the geeks who named the concept with such lack of imagination but the premise sounds relatively simple.

If a lot of people have behaved in one way so far, then the likelihood is that others will do the same. And these predictions help businesses make more money by providing more relevant stuff.

Relevance is not only about what people want. It is also about where people want it. This isn’t rucola science. Having the food you like within easy reach, for instance, is quite convenient. And without resorting to any fancy data models, anyone who serves food on wheels seems to have gravitated towards Ta’ Xbiex. Well, not everyone. It is more like those who have a slightly fancier offering than your usual ftira-with-everything who have driven towards the holy grail of lunchtime feeding.

The area is packed with offices that house thousands of people with well-paying jobs. This cohort is naturally a more health-seeking one. The more money one seems to make, the more one feels they have an incentive to live longer and better. The wealthier also afford to spend more money on food, healthy or otherwise. So in a short time, the seafront has started to host an interesting array of cuisines, all on food trucks of different shapes and sizes.

There’s Kuya, with its fantastic take on Asian food. I’ve been politely coerced into driving to Ta’ Xbiex by an office-full of hungry people to collect food from Kuya and the tiny effort of driving all the way is paid off in spades by the silent munching and happy faces when I return.

Then there are Bavarian sausages and Swiss ones. These are separate food trucks. The former is a more lighthearted one, inviting everyone to ‘try their sausage’ and greeting people with a jovial demeanour and an outstanding hotdog. The Swiss version is more serious about things.

Once I engaged in conversation with the lovely couple that runs this truck. I asked about whether the grated cheese was a Swiss addition to the hotdog but they replied that it was us Maltese who asked for it. I should have known.

I suspect that if you were to visit and ask for their wurst to be served the Swiss way, they’d be delighted by your desire to preserve tradition. This will take the simple shape of a grilled sausage of your liking served with a bun next to it. The version we’re used to is what they’ll serve if you don’t specify. You’ll be rewarded with an excellent hotdog either way.

Heading towards the Gżira side of the seafront, passing by the cluster of options available around the Black Pearl, there’s a stretch of narrow pavement that can’t possibly host a food truck. Don’t worry about going hungry though. As soon as you get to the gardens named after the Council of Europe, there’s this bright, orange van that shines with glossy paint and retro charm like it was driven all the way from Woodstock. The people who run the van have paid a lot of attention to it so, the closer you get to this beacon of peace and love and scents of food, the more little bits of it you discover.

This turned out to be as far from the customary ftira as it can possibly get

There are planters with herbs, suitable retro trinkets like a lovely orange ashtray, a carefully restored cabin and even a steel, gas-fired tandoor oven at the back.

There’s a hand-drawn menu on the side as well, with a neat script describing all manner of food one would definitely not expect of a restaurant with a diesel engine. The first was a ftira with rib-eye steak, chimichurri and melted provolone. I didn’t read any further.

The men I was with did though. They’re the healthy sort and they work just a minute away from Eat Street so they have this geographic obligation to look out for quinoa.

One of them ordered a quinoa salad and added Vietnamese shrimp rolls to the deal because he thought we all ought to taste them. He’s been to Vietnam and I suspect this was a good excuse for him to remind us.

The other went with a piadina filled with grilled aubergines and stracchino cheese. We ordered iced teas and watermelon agua fresca to go with all the healthy food and my ftira. I almost felt awkward standing around waiting for my ftira when I saw the virtuous looks on the faces of those who’d just tipped another couple of euros into their Holy Grail fund.

Presently, we were joined by my favourite sister. I was pretty sure she’d stand by me and order something like the chicken tikka with paratha, mainly because I wanted to taste something cooked in the tandoor.

Before I could suggest this she’d taken sides and ordered a pork and cashew noodle salad. I was the only one who’d gone with the closest it gets to a ftira I could have picked practically anywhere.

As we sipped our drinks, the stream of people walking up to the van and ordering food seemed endless and the majority of patrons had obviously been here before. They had their preferences and expressed their wishes for custom orders, all received gracefully and cheerfully by the couple who were running the show. The service felt much more like a well-oiled restaurant than many restaurants I’ve been to.

Our food was served quite quickly and we got to share the prawn rolls first. They are cool and filled with freshness and delicate flavours so it feels like you’ve just bit into summer. If this was anything to go by, lunch was looking good.

As I made an excuse to swerve tasting the quinoa salad, my ftira was served. It came with a warning – it was served very hot – so I begrudgingly took a forkful of the quinoa in the meantime. It was served with roasted marrows and butternut squash and was, quite frankly, 10 times better than I’d expected it to be.

I had to admit this out loud and the suit who was eating the salad paused briefly to state, quite solemnly, that this van was about to become a fixture. Half a prawn roll and a couple of bites of his salad was all it took.

My ftira had the same effect. It was filled with beautifully grilled steak and melted cheese, and the vinegary goodness of the chimichurri sealed the deal. This turned out to be as far from the customary ftira as it can possibly get. My only complaint is the actual quantity of beef served but at €6.50, there’s so much expensive steak one can serve before going for broke.

One of the guys in suits insisted on paying for the meal so I really ought not to complain, but at €3 a pop, the drinks are expensive. Even if it goes by the name of watermelon agua fresca, it’s made of a fruit that’s plentiful enough at this time of year.

The food costs a little more than your average lunchtime snack but you’re getting so much more in terms of imagination, ingredients, nutritional value and orange-vanness that it is well worth digging a little deeper into your pockets.

The van is a little patch of hippie goodness that serves food that hipsters would not outwardly snob. There’s healthy food that’s really tasty and food so tasty it needn’t be healthy, all wrapped in orange cheer.

The drinks might need a price re-think but the overall experience is great so I’m seeing my drives to Ta’ Xbiex at lunchtime becoming much more frequent.

You can send e-mails about this column to ed.eatson@gmail.com or follow @edeats on Twitter.