Oh good! I would love to follow a ‘Taste and Flair’ blog. You could also write about social issues; we’ve had discussions on this blog about schools, gays, abortion etc.

But how can you possibly cope with another blog? Don’t you think you should find some time to erm.. sleep? Good luck and well done.

Albona, you’re trying to argue with me, when I’ve made a special study of the subject. Honestly.

Daphne is right, but I can add more. The first written records for the actual foodstuffs consumed in Malta date from the latter half of the 13th century. And guess what? Malta was importing olive oil. And wine too.

Of course you won’t get this in Grajjet Malta because it demolishes the pretty myth of a poplu hawtiel basking in the Mediterranean sun and cultivating its olive groves and vineyards.

Well you could find the use of olive oil a re-discovery of sorts. It was nigh on impossible to find olive oil in Malta after 1800 because one of the first things the British saw to was the uprooting of olive trees and any other trees that could have impeded the defence of the fortress island.

[Daphne – Another of the usual anti-British myths that isn’t tested against the facts or even examined in rational thought. Why would ‘the British’ have razed all the olive trees in the Maltese islands? To what end and purpose? How do olive trees “impede the defence of the fortress island”? And in that case, why would they have razed the olive trees on Gozo, when Gozo was not defended at all? There were no olive trees there either before a couple of decades ago.

There are “majjalati” which are organised in several illegal restaurants/“farmhouses” dotting our countryside, football grounds and bocci clubs around the islands.

For €25 you get galletti bil-gbejniet, bigilla dips, hobz biz-zejt, then an abundant portion of spaghetti “bolognese”, and by the time you are nearly full, you are served with “the real deal” .

You end up looking at the mysterious cut of cooked piglet and fidgeting with the oven-ready chips. Drinks are free where there is an abundance of unlabelled “home made” wine, and peanuts.

Fenkata nights with friends are basically the same – the owners of the eating-houses always have an uncontrolled free hand on the amount and prices on the drinks ordered. They are just given a blank cheque. In more civilised countries, the people who serve drinks mark the amounts on the coasters, but this is Malta where even prime ministers cheat.

And Porky’s in Hamrun serves il-Bhima

http://porkyshamrun.com/porkywp/menu-category/food/

[Daphne – Pretty much sums up the average Maltese attitude to anything, John: ejjew ha niffangaw ghal hamsa u ghoxrin ewro biss.]

Pasta night.

I rest my case. No wait, there’s the Lejla Maltija.

Jack, possibly the rudest bigot to have ever darkened this notebook’s pages, and there wasn’t even a trace of vulgarity, in the….vulgar sense, to be found among his bombastic drivel.

That is quite an achievement. Well done, sir!

I am not sure I agree with you on Maltese cuisine being bad in itself. I still enjoy baked rice, torta tal-lampuki and soppa tal-armla. What’s all wrong is the Maltese diet where they mix different ingredients from a variety of food groups in the same meal. Example: pasta carbonara (Maltese style with bacon and cream) followed by a cheese burger with chips and then banoffee cake. Sickening to watch.

It”s true that a lot of pasta is eaten here in Italy. However, sauces are normally very light and very rarely contain cream. After a plate of pasta, in fourteen years that I have lived here, I have never seen anybody eat a burger as a main and much less a heavy dessert.

Afternoon snacks in Malta (fejn il-bahar) consist of bread-rolls stuffed with gbejniet, chicken and mayonnaise, washed down with Green Label wine.

As for your minestra comment, in Italy I make great minestra. One of the tricks is to cube all veggies (no cabbage), add them according to their cooking time (or in a slow cooker) add fresh borlotti beans, and before serving – a drizzle of olive oil and grated Parmesan. Trust me, it’s anything but tasteless.

In London I normally eat at restaurants which offer cuisine from those parts of the world that I haven’t yet visited. The last time, it was Ethiopian at Keret and Vietnamese (forgot name) both incredibly good.

Lastly, Joseph Muscat should never have passed such a cliched and offensive remark. Veru injorant.

Jien niftakar ukoll meta kont għandi tfal, li kellna l-ispiritiera Valor u ommi kienet taħmi kejk fil-borma forn, jew inkella ma nafx hux aktar tard jew qabel (iktar naħseb qabel) kellna forn taż-żingu li ommi kienet tpoġġih fuq żewġ spiritieri tal-ftila (bi tnejn jew bi tlieta) u kienet tagħmel l-għaġin jew ross il-forn u kultant anke xi qarabagħli jew brunġiel il-forn.

Imma kont trid tibda minn sbieħ Alla biex sa nofsinhar isir u tiekol. U lin-nanna niftakarha tagħmel tliet borom fuq xulxin fuq spiritiera tal-ftila. Kellha l-minestra fl-ewwel borma kbira biex titma’ ma nafx kemm nies, fuq l-għatu tagħha tpoġġi borma oħra bl-ilma biex meta jisħon tużah biex taħsel il-platti u fuq l-għatu tat-tieni borma tpoġġi kitla bl-ilma biex jisħon għall-kafe jew te. (Kien jilħqilha n-nanna). U xi ngħidu għall-qrieqeċ (xaħam maħlul biex isajru bih – mela żejt taż-żebbuġa!) u jibqa’ l-qrieqeċ u jitfgħhuhom flok kapuljat, u s-saqajn tal-majjal melħin. Dan kien l-ikel Malti Mediterranju?

[Daphne – Three large pots, all containing boiling water, stacked on each other on a small spiritiera: a disaster waiting to happen, and a wonder nobody ended up scalded and in hospital. But perhaps they did. The way people lived – I have no truck with nostalgia.]

And sartorialism.