What started off as a humble home-cooking blog has evolved into a beloved San Gwann establishment by the name of emma’s kitchen.
Jan Zammit
After graduating in architecture, dedicated foodie Emma Warrington decided to cook her way through the alphabet, creating dishes at home to document on her blog, Emma’s Kitchen Project. Fast forward a few years and she’s now running her own dream restaurant!
Along with her partner and creative director Matthew Demarco, the pair converted the landmark space, formerly San Gwann's Halfway Inn - a darts hall and casual drinking hole - into a modern Maltese masterpiece, featuring homely traditional tiles and a beautifully restored frontage.
We caught up with Emma, whose love of Asian cuisine can be seen through her original menu, to get the lowdown on three of her favourite Asian dishes.
1. Bibimbap
“This is a rice-based dish originating from Korea that literally means 'a mix of ingredients served with rice'. At Emma’s, we serve the rice with a marinated and pan-seared pork chop, a kimchi slaw, edamame beans, a fried egg and a gochujang-based sauce. The idea is that you mix all the ingredients together before you start eating. I love this way of serving food, as you create a colourful array of ingredients that can be appreciated individually, before you mix and gobble it up. I am loving discovering Korean cuisine bit by bit - their perfection of fermentation techniques over the centuries has created an array of flavours like nothing I had tried before.”
2. Pho
“I visited Vietnam last spring, but we had been making Pho at Emma’s for a while before that. Vietnamese cuisine is one of the most inspiring to me - I love the clean flavourful broths they use, and their obsession with fresh herbs at every meal. It was really interesting to visit Vietnam after we put Pho on the menu at Emma’s, and to be able to compare. It seems all our research paid off as our Pho was pretty close to what we ate for breakfast, lunch and dinner on the streets of Hanoi!”
3. Brisket Rendang Curry
“I made this dish recently at home for friends, before it ended up on the specials board at the restaurant, and it was so successful that we kept it! This is how most of our menu items and specials start. I had never actually cooked with brisket before, but I love slow-cooked meaty curries. The curry is pretty powerful, so I usually serve this with a simple side of rice and some blanched vegetables, such as our favourite, broccoli!”
Thank You Emma! We can't wait to try these specials!