This one is for my contemporaries
Published:
May 23, 2012 at 10:32pm
Despair, tedium and deprivation in a wrapper.
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I never knew there were so many varieties of Desserta. We never had to eat Desserta as our English friends would get us all, or almost all – one can never have enough – the chocolates we wanted.
Eh, mela ghalhekk Joseph qed ibiddel hafna kuluri u ghazel l-orange ghal-taht it-tinda tal-Imgarr.
B’mod metaforiku qed jipprova idewwaq lis-segwaci fidili tieghu id-diversi toghmiet tac-cikkulata Dezerta, inkluza dik tal-laring.
Meta johrog ir-reklami sofor immur taht it-tinda, ghax kont inhobbha c-cikkulata toghma ta’ banana.
Specjalment ghan-nisa tad-djar. Hmm, Michelle should use it instead of a gbejna for her soppa. Really progressive.
Specjalment ghan-nisa tad-dar hemm ic-cikkulata plain jew tal-halib!
Fiz-zmien id-Desserta in-nisa kienu tad-dar u tajbin biex jieklu it-taparsi cikkulata.
Leeeeeeee, tfakkarnix! Ghax issa anke ftakart fil bulk-buying, fejn konna naghmlu xaghrejn nieklu banana biss, u imbaghad xagharjen nieklu laring biss etc.
U biex nixtru pakkett ghagin ta’ barra konna rridu naghmlu xirja ta’ xi Lm60 umbghad nidhlu wara l-counter biex itina pakkett ghagin bil-kontrabandu imgezwer f’gazzetta u ma nhallu l-hadd jarana.
I’m going to have nightmares tonight. Thank you.
Even the font is like something out of a horror movie.
One of the looks of the Golden Years.
They couldn’t spell then, either….CONFECTIONARY?
that’s an adjective
What’s the difference between “cikkulata bil-lewz” and “lewz fic-cikkulata”?
They forgot to mention the regular surprise ingredient: maggots.
Taf x’ma urewx f’dan ir-ritratt? Desserta tad-Dud.
Bad memories.
Desserta – Ghazla wiesgha. Varjeta kbira.
…izda sinjura, m’ghandekx fiex titfixkel. Meta tnehhi l-karta w tiehu gidma, mill-ewwel tara li kollha tghoma ta xemgha mhallta bis-sapun
Taf x’kellha tajjeb? Li ma kinetx tigi mkebba fil-qliezet ta’ taht u kalzetti mahmugin kif konna ngibu l-Mars minn barra.
For me this brings feelings of nostalgia.
I was still very young and I didn’t give a toss about politics, of course. This advert brings back memories of visiting my late nanna with my parents and of my father taking me to the playground and buying me a chocolate bar, or one of those rock-hard granitas that took hours of scraping to get to the bottom of.
For poor little oblivious me, those were very happy years.
Of course I also remember the awe with which people would gasp at a Cadbury or Mars bar.
Ahh! those golden years.
I personally am not old enough to remember this little bit of Maltese history. Was it really as bad as everyone says it was?
[Daphne – It tasted like candle-wax or children’s crayons, Thaddeus, with the texture and consistency to match. And all the different flavours tasted the same – of candle-wax.]
My earliest recollection of going to London for the first time as a child in the 1970s was not the marvellous sights, but feasting on a large, square bar of Cadbury Fruit and Nut from the hotel lobby’s dispensing machine, before even checking into our room, such was our desperation.
When you have no choice and you don’t touch the only chocolate available, that’s saying something.
U tiftakru meta il-Community Chest Fund taht President Agatha Barbara kienet tigbor il-flus mill-pubbliku ghal-Milied – u flok il-flus jinghataw f’ghajnuna lil-istituti kienet tqassmilhom krejtsijiet ta’ cikkulata Desserta.
U, sintendi, it-tqassim iffilmjat u mxandar No. 1 fl’ahbarijiet ta’ Xandir Malta.
Tal-Labour bidlu l’isem, bidlu l-arma, bidlu l-leader – izda id-dinosawri ta dak iz-zmien ghadhom jirrenjaw fil-qalba tal-partit.
Il-politika, il-fehmiet, u l-inkompetenza taghhom baqghu ma nbidlux.
Labour fil-poter = Gvern inkompetenti u bla misthija.
.
Ic-cikkulata tal-Partit Laburista ghadha id-Desserta.
eh kellkom varjeta mela! Tal-halib, tal-laring, tal-banana u bil-lewz! u ghat-tfal hemm il-yummies. Nice.
What was Catch, then? For the pervs?
Catch is sold to this very day in the United States as well. I saw a wrapper on the streets in Times Square the other day.
An alternative to prunes.
Pharmacies were complaining at that time because their sales of laxatives went down . People were using Desserta as laxatives,
What, don’t tell me they used Desserta as suppositories?
Oh for the good old golden years.
Milli jidher, Karmenu Vella kien ihobbha d-Desserta. Issa jmiss inkunu nafu ta’ liema toghma.
Imbasta ngorru – ara x’ghazla kien hemm. Dnub li kienu kollha toghma ta’ sapun. Well, look on the bright side, at least ghall mara tad-dar there used to be cikkulata plain as opposed to cikkulata plejn.
Only the wrapper was different.
U le, there was at least one white chocolate.
The memories of this ruined my breakfast.
ARA IMMA DEJJEM KELLEK AGHZLA TAHT IL-LABOUR.
STAJT JEW TIEKOL IL-KARTA JEW IX-XIHAGA TA’ GEWWA, U IT-TNEJN L-ISTESS TOMA KIEN FIHOM.
PS. MINJAF yANA KIENX JIBATILA XI FTIT MINNA FIL-FOOD PARSIL IL-PAPA.
La tinsiex is-slipper tas-Sanga u l-jins FU’s.
[Daphne – FU’s? What are you talking about! Mank kellna FU’s. Those were SPIDER JEANS. FU’s were like gold dust. Random parents brought them over from rare trips to London and it was expected that you lent yours out, if you were lucky enough to have a pair, to all your best friends who were even remotely the same size, if they had a special party to go to. One of my friends tells a hilarious story about the night she was almost killed in a motorbike accident (she spent many weeks in hospital). The police carted her off and dumped her on the floor, covered in blood and barely conscious, of the local police station to wait for the ambulance (ghax dawk tal-pepe kollha ddrogati). As she swam in and out of consciousness, all she could think of was “My God! I borrowed Fran’s FU’s and now they’re soaked in blood! She’s going to kill me.”. Ah, life in the golden years.]
Such ugly clothes, and yet, they were so much in demand, since there was not much better available, what with Klute, Kinky, Shady Lady, Square Deal, Look-In, Clobber, etc.
It makes us sound like tal-mejo evo, despite it being not too long ago.
Remember Tomato in Republic Street? It looked so good it felt bloody expensive.
Those were the “golden days” – bulk buying and all that – AHLEB GUS.
L-ahjar il-‘confectionAry’ flok ‘confectionEry.
To all readers under the age of 40, be aware that it was a crime to have a Mars bar in your possession in the ‘Golden Days’.
That’s right – a crime to have a Mars. The same went for Colgate toothpaste, Barilla pasta, cordless phones, colour TVs – except for local rip-offs – foreign currency and much more.
U tigi tghidli li l-Lejber partit liberali?
Yes, the Nationalists may be slow and inefficient but they saved democracy, guaranteed our freedom, liberalized importation, reduced state control of individual freedoms and the state’s control of the economy and widened our horizons.
U tigi tghidli li l-PN partit dittatorjali?
Tim, u le jahasra.
Mars could be bought openly, x’qed tghid “crime”: from the Labour Party Club in Naxxar, without a doubt.
25c each. In today’s money that must be about 3 euros.
Tim does C&C ring any bells?
[Daphne – 25c! Bloody hell! Mela veru kontu bir-ribass fl-irhula. A black market, under-the-counter Mars bar cost Lm1 in Sliema. Which means, I suppose, that the minimum wage was 28 Mars bars.]
el bandido guapo
You’re obviously some kind of acquaintance. Of course C&C rings bells. So does Gozo Channel. I took advantage of opportunities I had with both companies to smuggle in pasta, toothpaste, various types of chocolate and even a Mothercare pram/pushchair. Always was enterprising.
Why do you ask if C&C rings bells? I think you should reveal yourself – I give you my word I won’t let anyone else know who you are. You can e-mail me on [email protected]
Actually this would make one hell of an election billboard: Desserta. Brought to you by the man who is now writing the recipe for another five years of life under Labour, 2013 to 2018.
Good one, especially since the poster itself looks so dated.
It should serve as a reminder to all and sundry what Labour are about, what with the same people still so active within the party.
The attached article has little to do with this post (http://belfercenter.ksg.harvard.edu/publication/21904/its_the_weather_stupid.html?breadcrumb=%2Fexperts%2F1420%2Fniall_ferguson).
However, since Labour seem to be hell-bent on blaming Malta’s economic ailments on to Dr Gonzi’s administration, I thought that they might want to read this. We should be thanking our lucky stars for being better off than our American and European counterparts.
Specjalment ghan-nisa tad-dar hemm ic-cikkulata tat-tisjir.
The Fruit and Nut would have tiny worms chomping away at the sultanas. I check my food to this day.
I still remember thinking, as a young child, that it was normal to have to fish out the little black things (insects) which floated to the top of the pot on chucking pasta in to boil.
It never occurred to me that they should not be there.
That was Labour’s notion that meat should be available free to everyone, on a regular basis.
This advert has brought a bout of terrible memories.
Oh those halcyon days of mediocrity, deprivation, state TV at its worst, political censorship, rampant unemployment, dejma, restricted entry to university, defunct infrastructure, budgets that bored one to tears, institutionalised hatred, strikes, next to non-existent arts and culture, same old shops, desserta, black and white TVs, regular beatings at mass meetings, smashed PN party clubs, frame-ups, Special Mobile Unite (or whatever name it had), Blue Sisters expelled, ghoxrin punt, bleak futures…boy I miss those days…..Not.
Unit…not Unite
Oh xi zmien helu.
The golden years of disenfranchisement and contraband galore.
“Specjalment ghan-nisa tad-dar hemm ic-cikkulata tat-tisjir plain jew tal-halib.”
Lucky housewives, eh?
I had forgotten about ic-cikkulata tal-laring u tal-banana.
O xi zmien helu kif ghaddejtni.
I remember going on a business trip to London in the early Eighties with a Mothercare catalogue and a shopping-list about two feet long.
The sales assistant told me they got plenty of Maltese husbands in the same situation and was very helpful, but I think she had a bewildered impression about the situation in Malta.
Damn! I knew there was a lemon-flavoured chocolate. The concept is so horrible my son thought I was making it up. Thanks for this – just wait till he gets back from school.
Nothing to do with this disgusting excuse for chocolate.
I was just reading today’s The Malta Independent and thought to compliment you on your great article.
Even though I was gagging, listening to our illustrious leader of the opposition pontificating about guarantees to our youth, I did not think of the ramifications which you so brilliantly pointed out in the article.
Once again, good show.
I agree completely.
Ooh, I’m salivating! Especially for the “Confectionary” (sic) version.
I remember flying in to Luqa aiport from the UK with a small backpack half-full of Mars bars. It felt like smuggling some serious dope past customs in those days.
It WAS like smuggling dope. The stuff would often be confiscated.
I can think of more than a handful of people who took their fun-size Mars bars to the loos and flushed away what they could, or stamped on the stuff just to spite the customs officials.
Our next door neighbour was an Air Malta hostess, we used to get our monthly fix from her.
Sorry, but could not resist:
From timesofmalta.com today: “The flight started in Austria and picked up migrants from a number of migrants.”
Hemm xi cikkulata tal-kappar?
Le. L-industrija tal-kappar kienet bravura ohra ta’ Mintoff.
Forsi kien hemm tal-gulepp tal-harrub. Tiftakru lill-Mintoff isemmieh?
I pity poor Yana Mintoff Bland who was getting an education in some exclusive school in the Capitalist West and so was deprived of the manifold joys of sampling Malta-made DESSERTA Chocolate.
Where did you unearth this pic? I loved the wedding videos and pics which cheered up a one-hour train ride from Parma to Milano. Thanks.
O zmien helu tassew.
Sigh. This reminds of the box of a game alled “Battleships” which I used to have when I was young. The father and son are shown happy playing together and in the top right corner you can just about make out the mother and daughter washing the dishes. Honestly.
Don’t you remember the “Helping Mother” book by Ladybird? The little girl and her mother did most of the work in the house, including doing the boy’s bed, when the girl was his age or younger. Such were the times.
Prosit hafna ta’ dan l-artiklu.
http://www.independent.com.mt/news.asp?newsitemid=144792
Joseph jerga tizloq fin-niexef.
X’sa jissuggerixxi issa?
Li tfal ta’ sittax il-sena li huma legalment risponsabilita’ tal-genituri taghhom, u li ma jirrizultawlux jistudjaw jew jahdmu , idahhalhom fil-lieva jew f xi Dejma taht dixxiplina militari u jgorru l’azzarin fuqhom?
Shades of Mussolini;s Fascism or Hitler Youth.
Oh how generous dear Dom was, what a choice.
Without meaning any disrespect to anyone, I think that the wise guy who wrote this obituary stinks. But then, it is in Maltastar.
http://www.maltastar.com/dart/20120524-deputy-leader-father-laid-to-rest
“He was married to Catherine and was father to their five children.”
Well, thank God for that. Some people might have had their doubts.
Better than the “she leaves to mourn her loss her adorable husband” one, which appeared in The Times some days ago.
This picture has evoked terrible memories..
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kPdBzym7rDI
Viva l-Lejber, viva l-Lejber hej hej. Duminku s-salvatur.
Taghna cikkulata li il-production process taghha kien dubjuz u misterjuz. Jew ahjar, fejn il-hygiene protocols kienu moqzieza jew inezistenti. L-aqwa li irhisa. Soddlu halqu l-Malti ha joqghod.
Did I hear “those glorious years” ?
Oh no – I had missed ‘tal-laring’. It never made it to Zurrieq.
‘Confectionary’?
Hi Ms. DCG,
First of all, allow me to congratulate you for your highly addictive blog.
I thought of forwarding this to share with your followers.
The Malta Labour Party needs a red condom as its emblem.
A condom allows for inflation, halts production, destroys the next generation, protects dick-heads, and gives you a sense of security while you’re being screwed.
And can on occasion fail .
That has been around for years, pretty much like the people still calling the shots in the Labour Party.
ugh!
Ghamiltli ghugieh ta’ zaqq, Daphne.
It must be why they thought of the Lemon Desserta.
Ohh, the golden years, where everyone wore the same underwear (Abanderado/Princessa), ate crap pasta with crappier sauce/butter whilst looking forward for some feast or any other occasion so that maybe they get lucky and drink a bottle of Coke.
If this doesn’t demonstrate to Yana Mintoff how petty, small-minded and vindicative her beloved father was, I don’t know what will.
Mintoff was the ultimate control freak, determined to manipulate every facet of our lives right down to the chocolate we ate.
My sister and I refused to eat this awful stuff as our own form of personal protest against the great leader.
The saddest part was when your children watched adverts for sweets, such as Smarties and Treets, on Italian television, and they would look up and say ‘daddy can we have some of those’ and the lump in your throat when you had to explain that those were only for Italian children and not for Maltese children.
Dan kien il-Labour l-ahwa, ghax dak iz-zibel Mintoff u l-klikka ta’ madwaru hekk rieduna.
Kien zmien il-biki u terrur bhal dawk il-hbieb tal-Korea ta’ Fuq, li maghhom Mintoff kien ghamel patt sigriet bi tradiment ghal Malta.
Sewwa kien qallu Alfred Sant meta ghajru traditur lil Mintoff, ghax dak tradixxa lil art twelidu u stana hu.
I remember a school visit to the Desserta factory with the vats filled with the orange chocolate mixture.
I then remember being given a bar of chocolate as a token of our visit, taking a bite out of the bar and tasting this very strange flavour. I wonder if all the childhood chocolate deprivation made me the chocoholic I am today.
In those days it was imperative to restrict the outflow of cash from the island.
Our economy was Cash Starved and it was wiser to set up local factories to supply our needs other than imports.
This was not inventing the wheel,these measures were adopted in all countries when the need arose.
Of course there were better chocolates than Desserta, but that was the price we had to pay for getting our economy back on it’s feet.
What is having to do without our bar of Mars compared with what the Greeks are passing through because they did not take care of their economy in time?
Those measures were just neccesaryand they helped save our economy.
[Daphne – For God’s sake, Silvio.]
@Silvio,
that is exactly what they did in the ex-Communist Eastern Europe of Tito, Caucescu, Hoxha, Hoeneker, Breschnev and the rest of Mintoff’s Buddies.
AND IT WAS ALL SO UNNECESSARY TOO.
Daphne, will you please inform your erudite readers that confectionAry is a perfectly valid adjective.
It also used to mean a place where confectionEry is manufactured/prepared.
[Daphne – Neither confectionary nor confectionery is an adjective. They are both nouns. The one is the place, the other is the product, as with stationary/stationery (place/product). Obviously, stationary is also an adjective, but a total different word – i.e. not moving. Desserta was confectionery, not confectionary. It was sold, in among other places, in confectionaries, which had little else to sell in those days and so mostly closed down.]
no; it can also be used as an adjective
as in “confectionary goods”
I actually remember the days I’d go to Catania on a shopping spree and you get these Sicilan drop-outs waiting for us like slave traders holding packets of Minstrels and Rolos and shouting “Signora, anche questi sono buoni!” Ara fiex konna spiccajna.
There used to be a massive scam to avoid customs when the MV Ghawdex started twice-weekly day trips to Siracusa. Gozo Channel crew members used to stock up on chocolate/ TVs and whatever else they wanted.
Then they would lock eveything in the cabins, and pass thorugh Customs in Malta with nothing in their bags. The next day, when the Ghawdex did its normal trips, they’d get friends/relatives to take their cargo down.
Could be because we had loads of money to spend and they did not.
The Italians have the talent to spot a sitting-duck at first sight.
You must surely remember the junk they used to buy. It was a disgrace to say you are Maltese.
Most of the stuff, apart for chocolate, for some, was available in Malta, but you were expected to come back home loaded and proud of telling your friends how much you were charged as duty.
Silvio,
You just said the economy was cash starved.