Please do ;)

“Why is it that the “experts” complaining about living in London are the ones that have never set foot or at the most have visited for a couple of days? They have no idea what it’s like. Ask some of those who have and are still living in London. Ask them if they would be happy to return to claustrophobic Malta.”

Malta is claustrophobic and you need to get away from it all every so often, but so do the Londoners, albeit for different reasons.

Would I want to retire in Malta right now if I was of age? In a heartbeat.

Do I want to return to Malta for work right now? No.

But ask those working in London if they would happily move to another major European city for the same pay. Just because one wants to escape Malta’s insularity doesn’t mean London is the best city to live in or that it isn’t/cannot be a shithole. Jobs in London just happen to be paid well at the moment.

Serving chips on top of lasagne or pizza is for frigging peasants, but I can assure you I have English friends from very privileged backgrounds who think it’s perfectly fine to do so. Ditto for dipping pizza in garlic or mayo dips.

You cannot judge a country’s cuisine by the standard of the better restaurants in the capital. Expats in full-time employment don’t afford to eat out everyday.

“Then we Will have more space to welcome to our shores those English people who are always so eager to come and live in this, according to you, ugly, uncivilised, backward country, where the weather is terrible and the food awful”

You do realise, I hope, that if English people (better salaries; more saved in the bank) flocked to Malta in droves, property prices would go through the roof again?

“I was talking about restaurants in London.”

Unfortunately those living/working in London/the UK are not here as tourists and their taste of ‘English cuisine’ has to extend beyond the nicer stuff served in good restaurants.

[Daphne – You don’t have to eat a three-course meal in a top restaurant to eat well in London. There is a vast number of places where you can eat well very cheaply, and they have mushroomed precisely because of the demand from people who live and work here. Tourists eat elsewhere, or most often, not at all. But once we’re on the subject of the better restaurants, I have yet to see your standard tourist in any of them, and I don’t think it’s because I tend to sit down at 9pm not at 7pm.]

This often means shit ingredients from the supermarket chains, fruit and veg which don’t taste like fruit and veg at all, etc. Good local produce is hard to come by, unless you live in the countryside (with a regional salary that doesn’t justify your choosing to work in the UK), let alone finding it at reasonable prices.

[Daphne – I’ll be happy to give you some recommendations if you’re that desperate.]

Ditto, Jack.

The mixing of lemonade with wine, as disgusting as it sounds, is not an entirely Maltese invention. The Spaniards love their cheap calimocho, which is cola mixed with (cheap) red wine.

“One thing the English have that make staying there such a pleasant experience: it is the courtesy and friendliness they show you.”

Yes, the Londoners in particular are renowned for their courtesy and friendliness…

Italian cuisine is definitely best eaten in Italy, where the raw ingredients are freshly made and picked, preferably in the region where it originated.

Besides there is no question that the best Italian restuarants are in Italy (I agree that they may not necessarily be Piazza Navona, of course).

I suppose the same goes for French restaurants/cuisine.

As for other types of restaurants, such as oriental restaurants, then I agree that London offers the best there is in “westernised” oriental food.

Thanks Daphne,I will copy upload hundred times.