After all, Malta may have its flaws. In Sliema, it is today rumoured that the garbage collection service is on strike. Otherwise, why wouldn’t they pick up the mounds of refuse bags that have been lying in the streets for days now? Are they on shutdown? We don’t know. The council never said anything. The garbage collection company did not issue any press releases to the media either. Meanwhile, we’re bang on in the middle of peak season, and tourists are trying to find their way to the beach through mounds of refuse. Luckily, the complex I’m in has an enclosed refuse compartment, so it does not affect me as much. I guess I’ll just ignore it, a la Maltaise.
We grumble, us Maltese, but we are also privileged to feel unaffected by a number of issues which could otherwise prove to be very irritating. But we don’t want to be confined to spending our days posting comments on The Times website, and because we know that this little island of ours has so much more to offer, most of us choose to spend time entertaining ourselves differently. It has been found for instance, that Maltese folk feature among the most frequent visitors of porn websites in the whole of Europe, no joke.
When we’re not watching porn, we read blogs while at work, eat, drink or sleep. If only life could be so simple.
In any case, pornography aside, the Maltese undoubtedly value food and beverage as a very important form of entertainment, and rightly so – we want to get the most out of it with as little effort as possible.
Since joining the EU, we’ve become better travelled and more exposed to our Mediterranean counterparts’ food and drink culture. Travelling to Italy begs the question of why we have to pay €1.50 for an espresso in Malta, when we pay €1.00 in central Rome. Better still, why does a seafood platter cost €10 in Sicily and €25 in Malta? Why don’t they ever use table wine to serve by the glass in Siena, and all we get at hotels here is Falcon or San Paolo at the ridiculous price of €3.00?
We are right in asking these questions, and it is preposterous that we never get suitably answered. The fact of the matter however, is that it is definitely more complicated than it seems at face value. I do not know the answers myself, but because I have asked myself the same questions both as a patron and a restaurateur, I may have my interpretations – albeit based on mere guess work.
I don’t like new world wines. I find the Californian, Australian or even South American way of dealing with the industry as extremely commercially-driven and lacking the necessary passion to respect the hundreds of years of tradition that translated into the quality we associate a good bottle of wine with. There are of course exceptions. There is a vast array of crap Sicilian wines on the Maltese market, and every now and then, we come across a surprisingly respectable bottle of wine from the new world. One of my favourite reds for instance, is the Kendall-Jackson Pinot Noir from the coastal regions of California. At a whopping €27, it’s not cheap, but it’s very respectable even for the price. “We get this for $20 back home,” said an American doctor who was eating at my place one night. “It’s very popular and Californians love it. It’s also very well advertised. I’m just guessing that KJ pays for local advertising from the extra it charges out of export.” I blamed it on distribution costs, but still, I could hear my own bubble burst. She opted for a local Isis from Meridiana, selling at €8 cheaper, loved it, ordered another and left a €10 tip. The closer we get to home, the better value for money any product is likely to become.
There are of course, many other factors as to why it’s not easy to get your money’s worth at an eatery in Malta. The tourism boom of the 1980s boosted demand to a level where as long as there was supply, quality did not matter. Building contractors became caterers overnight, as they converted any garage underlying a block of apartments they developed into a bar, restaurant or café. They flooded the market, but made mounds of cash. Opening a catering establishment at the time was a get-rich-quick guarantee; and skill, passion and quality were not an issue. Some made profits of 600% on food, and as long as there were no complaints, it worked. A friend whose family has been running a seafront café since the 1920s once told me that as a child, he would spend his summer days helping his father to receive more tips than the cash in the till. As much as many like to refer to the 1980s as the golden days, the decade signifies the exact opposite – it is what led us to where we are now – with a minority of young and passionate caterers not succeeding in getting a kick start into the industry by working for 1980s big-shots. God knows how many times young and energetic catering professionals now hear expressions on the lines of: “Int trid tghallem lill-missierek jahxi?” from their bosses when they try to introduce fundamental principles such as customer-orientation, fair pricing, localised sourcing, labour-intensive cuisine or innovation. Some may find ways and means of opening their own places without the necessary experience in employment, while others conform and get used to shortcuts and bad habits.
There is also the fact that our educational system is no longer in any way inclined to promote the basic tenets of manners among our children, and this invariably translates to rudeness while we are served. The profession is also stigmatised, as many Maltese parents do not want their children to “end up working as waiters.” Perhaps the worry stems from the fact that the service industry is paid peanuts in Malta. You pay peanuts, you get monkeys.
Qualified service staff is hard to find in Malta, and when you do find, you risk ending up in an argument with a City & Guilds qualified server on the pronunciation of ‘choc-lit’ over ‘chokk-leyyyt’. Some restaurant owners found a very healthy compromise in recruiting Sicilian or Eastern-European professionals, but then you get Maltese customers looking down on the fact that ‘you’re employing foreigners over Maltese’, or that ‘the waiter does not even speak Maltese.’
You can’t please one and all, which brings me to my last point: it takes two to tango. You cannot just lay blame on restaurant owners. Many caterers who take the commercial side to their establishment seriously (and they should), will react to demand, and if they are on a main street, they will not strive in offering quality (which results into higher costs) at the risk of being looked at as an experimental or fringe establishment. Many high street caterers will choose a very well varied menu whose ingredients are shelved in freezers over a shorter menu with fresh foodstuffs. They will keep their prawn cocktail on the menu because people ask for it. They will not change their menus seasonally because they risk losing regulars enamoured with a specific dish. They will not choose a Chianti over San Paolo to serve by the glass because nobody complains anyway. Change is also driven by punters. We’re getting there, but very slowly. Without wanting to seem like I’m blowing my trumpet, I chose the hard way in offering what I deem as good quality, excluding the rest – at the risk of losing customers because the pasta is ‘al dente’, or because the menu is short. But still, I stock new world wines against my will because people would never return if my wine list does not feature the full complement. You cannot be too finicky in this industry because you’ll end up being branded as a culinary snob, and it is perfectly understandable that the right balance needs to be sought to keep customers happy.
So why are restaurants in Malta so expensive? Restaurants are no longer money-spinning businesses, and with the costs involved one would be lucky if by the end of the year, a profit representing 20% of the turnover is made. It would actually mean that a restaurant is doing pretty well. But besides service inefficiency (which increases payroll costs), a higher VAT rate on food than our destination counterparts, and a very considerable spike in utility tariffs – there is also the fact that culturally, we are prone to bad habits in catering, and as a result, we have created a general expectation and demand for a product that is ultimately low in quality and high in price.
There is no magic wand solution to the issue, but perhaps it is high time for caterers to take the plunge and collectively accept that the industry requires dedication and hard work – which will invariably translate into better quality, increased efficiency and lower prices. A concerted effort for restaurateurs to apply common principles can only be brought about by a revolution, and this can only be instigated by discerning customers.
Incidentally, steak tartare costs nothing to prepare. If you don’t want it to kill you, you will have to have your own mincer or find a butcher who will clean his equipment from the remainders of pork mince while you’re watching. This is why it is more likely for you to find it served at restaurants.
Steak Tartare:
Serves Four
500g mince of rib-eye of beef, horsemeat or fresh lamb
2 fresh eggs, lightly beaten
3-4 teaspoons capers
3-4 teaspoons Dijon mustard
2 teaspoons red onion, finely chopped
3 dashes Tabasco
4-5 dashes Worchester sauce
Parsley
Blend the capers, mustard, onion and parsley with a hand processor. Add the Worchester sauce, Tabasco and eggs and stir. Add to the mince and mix well. With clean hands, shape the mix into steaks. Serve immediately. Do not leave the mince unrefrigerated for any length of time. Do not store the steaks or raw mince for any length of time before serving.
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