A taste of home away from home! How Ramandalicious brings a taste of home to Maltese expats in the UK
Figolli, pastizzi and imqaret... and that's just the start!
Ramón and Amanda Farrugia, the husband-and-wife duo behind Ramandalicious, have found a way to bring Malta’s sought-after flavours to the UK and Northern Ireland. They spoke to GuideMeMalta.com about their journey from Malta to Grimsby, and how their passion for food grew into a full-time business that ships Maltese favourites across the country.
Originally from Santa Luċija (Ramón) and St Julian’s (Amanda), the couple relocated to the UK in 2009 in search of new opportunities. After living in a few Yorkshire and Lincolnshire towns, they settled in Grimsby in December 2010, which has been home ever since.
Life abroad came with its fair share of highs and lows, including Ramón completing a degree in languages and the couple navigating health challenges. But through it all, their love of food remained a constant, eventually leading to the birth of Ramandalicious.
What began as a recipe blog called ‘Ramanda Spicy Passion’ in 2010 evolved into ‘Ramandalicious’ (a blend of the words Ramón, Amanda and delicious). For years, they shared recipes and food photos for fun. But in April 2022, everything changed when they launched Ramandalicious as a Maltese food business.
Easter proved the perfect time to start, with their handmade figolli selling out. From there, demand snowballed. By May 2025, the Farrugias took the plunge and made the business their full-time venture, shipping Maltese favourites all across the UK.
Working from their home kitchen, Ramón and Amanda prepare a wide range of frozen dishes and sweet treats that taste just like home.
Savoury classics include pastizzi (traditional ricotta, pea, plus newer flavours like chicken & mushroom and Nutella & hazelnut), qassatat, timpana, imqarrun and ross il-forn. They also make a variety of torti, including rabbit stew pie, horse meat stew pie, ricotta & broad bean pie, and the classic corned beef pie – delish! They take pride in their savoury nibbles too, supplying Maltese restaurants in the UK with their hand-stuffed żebbuġ mimli, and importing beans from Malta to make bigilla.
On the sweet side, Ramón and Amanda provide a wealth of choice for their customers, baking biskuttini tal-lewż, pastini tal-kokonuts, biskuttini tar-raħal, qagħaq tal-ħmira, qagħaq tal-għasel, qagħaq tal-ġunġlien, ottini, għadam tal-mejtin, kwareżimal, imqaret, pudina tal-ħobż, and ħelwa tat-tork – phew! Probably the most popular sweets, however, are the figolli and figollini, which they make all year round due to ever-growing demand. They also supply their cannoli siciliani to a couple of local Italian-owned restaurants – a true point of pride!
Aside from homemade goods, Ramandalicious also stocks Maltese groceries like Twistees, Kinnie, kunserva, kapunata, orzata, ġbejniet tal-bżar and more, so customers wishing to make their Maltese dishes at home have the means to do so.
Ramón credits his love of Maltese cooking to his mother, Maria Carmen, his two nannas, and later his mother-in-law, Carmen. He proudly sticks to their traditional recipes, some dating back to the 1950s, ensuring every bite tastes authentically Maltese.
‘The only product we’ve adapted is pastizzi,’ Ramón shares. ‘While we do the classics, we also introduced new flavours like chicken & mushroom and even Nutella, which our customers love.’
Ramandalicious serves a diverse customer base: Maltese expats craving home flavours, families with Maltese roots, and British customers who fell in love with Maltese food on holiday. They ship across the UK, from Scotland to Northern Ireland, with orders arriving straight to customers’ doors.
Their food has become a staple for weddings, reunions, and family parties, living up to their motto: ‘A Taste of Home Away from Home’. As demand grows, Ramón and Amanda hope to reach even more Maltese living abroad while working on reducing shipping costs for their customers. But their mission remains simple: keeping the flavours of Malta alive for anyone who longs for them.
As Ramón puts it: ‘Pastizzi are a must for anyone wanting a true taste of Malta, and for the sweet side, you can’t beat figolli and qagħaq tal-għasel.’