Someone is visiting and they have asked for "proper Maltese food". Here is how not to get that wrong.
It is a specific kind of pressure. A friend is over from abroad, they want the real thing, and you have about two seconds to think of somewhere that will not embarrass you.
The wrong answer is anywhere with a picture menu. The right answer usually has fewer than fifteen main courses and rabbit on every one of them.
What makes a visitor understand the food
Start them on bigilla and ġbejniet so they taste the island before they taste the kitchen. Put a fenkata in front of them — rabbit is the dish that explains Malta faster than any amount of describing. If they are brave, horse. If they are not, bragoli never lost anyone.
And let it take three hours. A visitor who eats a Maltese meal in fifty minutes has technically eaten but has not been shown anything.
You are not feeding them. You are explaining where you are from.
It is a specific kind of pressure. A friend is over from abroad, they want the real thing, and you have about two seconds to think of somewhere that will not embarrass you.
The wrong answer is anywhere with a picture menu. The right answer usually has fewer than fifteen main courses and rabbit on every one of them.
What makes a visitor understand the food
Start them on bigilla and ġbejniet so they taste the island before they taste the kitchen. Put a fenkata in front of them — rabbit is the dish that explains Malta faster than any amount of describing. If they are brave, horse. If they are not, bragoli never lost anyone.
And let it take three hours. A visitor who eats a Maltese meal in fifty minutes has technically eaten but has not been shown anything.
You are not feeding them. You are explaining where you are from.
Previous post