Malta - EUROPA, Gastronomy 2005

Technical Details:
Issue Date: 09 May 2005
Designer: Joseph P. Smith
Process: Offset
Colours: 4 colours
Size: 31.0 x 44.0mm
Values: 16c, 51c

This year’s Europa stamp issue, a two-stamp set which will go on sale on today from all Maltapost branch post offices, depicts gastronomy, the theme chosen by PostEurop for 2005. The two stamps, with face values of 16c and 51c, are the result of some brilliant photography by photographer Joseph P. Smith, and are offset printed by Printex Ltd.

The stamps, in vertical format, are 31.0mm base x 44.0mm in size, with a perforation of 14.0 x 13.9 (comb), and are available in sheets of 10.

Gastronomy, according to the Oxford Dictionary, is the art or science of good eating. Mediterranean cuisine, with its enormous selection and availability of the very best that the land can offer, ranks among the leaders when the subject of good, wholesome food is raised.

Prime examples of our cuisine are graphically displayed on these stamps. The 16c stamp shows stuffed sweet peppers, courgettes and aubergines, and the 51c stamp shows another firm favourite – that most characteristically Maltese dish, rabbit fried in wine and garlic. Both dishes are very traditionally Maltese, and were lovingly prepared for Joe Smith’s photography by Noel Debono of the Medina Restaurant.

In the Maltese Islands, as in other parts of the Mediterranean, vegetables are never regarded as a mere accompaniment to the main course, but as dishes in their own right. Mediterranean and middle eastern people go in for stuffing vegetables, baking them and using them in soups. We also fry them, stew them and put them into pies. Vegetables make a main course at supper time, served as a warm salad with an oil and lemon juice or vinegar dressing. There are several ways of cooking vegetables, according to whether they are young and tender or large and tending to be coarse.

Perhaps the most characteristically Maltese meat is the rabbit. The fenkata, or rabbit feast, has now become the national dish and is thus in danger of becoming cheapened as it is promoted on tourist menus. A fenkata today is best described as a kind of rabbit outing or celebration where a family or group of friends get together for a meal of spaghetti and rabbit. The eve of the feast of Mnarja on 29 June is one of the occasions for a rabbit feast of gigantic proportions, with hundreds of Maltese and visitors making their way to Buskett Gardens to partake of this traditional dish to the accompaniment of folk songs.

The Europa 2005 issue will be available from today as a first day cover, in mint or cancelled format, and as a souvenir folder or presentation pack.

Faroe Islands - EUROPA, Gastronomy 2005

Technical Details:
Issue Date: 18 April 2005
Value: 7,50 DKK & 10 DKK

All over the world the provision and preparation of food have always been an important part of national culture, with countless variations being shaped by the possibilities to hand.

About the Motif
All over the world the provision and preparation of food have always been an important part of national culture, with countless variations being shaped by the possibilities to hand.

Climate has been crucial in terms of the type of food it was possible to produce. Living in tropical countries and having to survive in the polar regions will always be different, of course.

The original food on the Faroes came for the most part from the animal population on the island, mainly sheep in the upland pastures, birds on the bird cliffs and fish in the sea. The climate is not the best for cultivating cereals, vegetables, etc., so they were not of great importance.

Potatoes did not become a regular ingredient in the daily diet until the late 19th century, although people had long been familiar with them. Instead they used to boil Faroese swedes (Brassica) for dinner, for example.

The seasons set their stamp on eating habits. Fish was more or less available all year round, but mostly in the spring, when it provided roe in addition to liver. The opportunity to eat other fresh food arrived at the same time as spring fishing (March – April). Cows usually calved in spring, so there was most milk in summer. Birding and egg collecting (nest plundering on the bird cliffs) were also part of the summer, while the chances of catching pilot whales are greatest in August, when people could also go out into the potato fields and pick new potatoes. In autumn the men went up into the mountains to bring the sheep in for slaughtering. Nearly every bit of a slaughtered sheep was put to good use. As well as the meat, people used the head, trotters, liver, lungs, heart, stomach and blood (the collective Faroese word for which is avroð).

Since ancient times the only way to keep most foodstuffs was to salt or dry them. Salt was in short supply for a long time, so drying was the commonest method for preserving food. There were two salting methods, pickling in brine and dry-curing, with barrels being used for both.

Meat, whale, fowl and fish were all dried. Once gutted, sheep were hung up to dry in the wind in a single piece. Before birds were hung up, they were split along the back and tied together in pairs. Fish too were hung up to dry in pairs, while whale meat was cut into loops before hanging.

The autumn weather had a major impact on whether what had been hung up to dry tasted right. The drying process itself can be divided into three stages: visnað (lightly dried), ræst (semi-dried/seasoned) and dried. These terms refer to flavour, appearance and smell. What we can call “lightly dried” is achieved in just a few days and is much faster for fish than for whale meat. The word visnað is not generally used about meat.

The change to ræst is slow, but if the air suddenly turns cold, whatever has been hung up to dry can jump this stage and never gets the real semi-dried/seasoned flavour. If, on the other hand, the air is too warm, the dried meat can become too ræst and so end up with a harsh or rank flavour. Meat is normally dried until Christmas.

Mutton, fish, fowl and whale meat are eaten at all three stages of the process (and fresh too, of course). Visnað and ræst have to be cooked. Dried meat is eaten as it is. For food to have the best possible flavour, it has to be treated correctly, of course. In particular you have to make sure that flies are kept away, especially in mild autumn weather, or there is a risk of the food being spoiled by maggots.

Mealtimes vary from country to country. In days gone by there were three main mealtimes on the Faroe Islands: morgunmatur (lunch) at around 9 – 10 am, døgurði(dinner) at around 2 – 3 pm and nátturði (supper) at 9 pm or later. Normally there were also two smaller mealtimes: ábit (breakfast), which people ate when they got up early in the morning, and millummáli (tea), which came between dinner and supper.

For lunch people used to eat drýlur (cylindrical, unleavened bread, originally baked in the embers of the fire). Later, rye bread made from rye and wheat flour became more common. An accompaniment would be served with the unleavened bread. These days it is sliced meats and the like, but back then it was most likely to be a piece of mutton.

Dinner usually consisted of boiled fish, whale meat and blubber or fowl. In the late 19thcentury it became common for people to eat potatoes for dinner. On Sundays and festivals those who could (i.e. farmers) would have ræst meat and súpan – soup, specifically meat soup (made from preserved meat with flour or grains, etc., added). Cooked fish was also considered to be a good Sunday meal.

Supper nearly always took the form of spoon food, i.e. milk products of various sorts in summer and soup in winter. When the cow had calved there would be ketilost, a cold dish of heat-thickened colostrum served with cinnamon and sugar. Drýlur and bread were not eaten with supper, but it was common to eat wind-dried fish before the soup. People generally drank water, milk, milk mixed with water, tea or coffee.

No one started the day’s work on an empty stomach. Breakfast was therefore a slice ofdrýlur and a drink of milk, a little soup or leftovers from the previous day’s supper.

For tea people drank milk, tea or coffee accompanied by a slice of bread or, occasionally, pancakes. White bread or cake has gradually become more common.

Food was generally boiled. Every household had at least two pots: one for oily or greasy food such as blubber, liver, etc., and one for everything else. There were three types of food bowl: a meat bowl, a fish bowl and a snyktrog (for greasy or oily food). As well as their pots, people also kept large ladles (sleiv), slotted spoons (soðspón) and various “sticks” for stirring porridge (greytarsneis) and whipping milk or cream (a milk beater ortyril) in their one-roomed hut, which served as kitchen, workshop, living room and bedroom.

Times have changed, with the result that we now eat a lot of food bought in shopping centres – most of it foreign. The Faroe islanders have acquired an international cuisine, with vegetables, fruit and spices being a normal part of everyday life. But old Faroese food is still eaten with great relish and is regarded as a real delicacy.